Sunday, July 29, 2007

"I Have Not Told Half of What I Saw" - Marco Polo

The air was crisp, dry and clean. Stars shone visibly in the sky. Last night I brushed my teeth and gargled with water from the tap. Yes, I have returned. Nine weeks has come and gone, and with it I have completed my first voyage to the Orient.

Over two odd months in China, I had constantly tried to suppress the temptation to inspire jealousy in the hearts and minds of the Chinese by detailing the many wonders of a democratic government, swimmable rivers, and siblings. However, I was quickly reminded of deficits in the overall condition of society as my cab driver recounted stories of gang violence as we drove through Northeast DC on the way back from the airport.

The great advantage of traveling to China at this point is to observe a society dealing with many of the issues that the United States handled about a century ago, and thus to relive a certain kind of social history. China, with its agricultural population still well above 50%, is struggling to join the list of developed countries. There is of course a significant and growing rich-poor gap, and vast discontinuities between cities and the countryside; but was the United States doing any better sixty years after our country became a nation?

According to me, and that means very little, the great mistake in approaching China is to assume a linear connection with the past. We are told justly of China's four or five thousand years of civilization, and the great inventions that China has contributed, i.e. paper, gun powder, the compass and printing. The difficulty of interpreting this kind of statement, however, is with the word "China". China exists since 1949, and maybe not even. Before the trip, I had envisioned coming face to face with stewards of ancient traditions and cultures. Instead, I found that very few Chinese have any grasp of traditional Chinese history and culture.

The 20th century in China was so tumultuous, that every single Chinese adult I met had a dramatic life story of some sort involving dislocation, starvation, et. The result of this is that the modern generation hardly even connects with the generation immediately preceding it, much less with life a thousand years ago. One of our teachers said that in China, a mere three-year age gap is a generation gap. Compounding this phenomenon, the younger Chinese said the older Chinese are not even willing to discuss the history of their youthful decades.

It is impossible to predict what China will look like in the future. An economic stagnancy, simple to envision, could cause utter chaos. At the same time, the continuation of current conditions could find China competing with the US at every level. I will point out some factors, however, that make it problematic to compare China too closely with the United States:

Population. China has an enormous population with which to contend. They also have very little in the way of a "frontier" into which to expand. Most importantly, they have a one-child policy that has had dramatic effects on the social structure. Women are increasingly underrepresented in rural areas because of illegal pregnancy tests and frequent abortion of females. Because parents rely on only one child for support, adolescent emphasis becomes studying for the college entrance examination which means that the arts, unless they are money-making, receive little emphasis. Single children have less experience sharing with others and a single child essentially has six parents, as grandparents have little to do but dote on their only grandchild.

Government. China is ruled by a government that calls itself socialist but that has become almost entirely capitalist. The government has extremely little power in some circumstances, such as enforcing copyright protection and preventing corruption, and yet unlimited power in other circumstances. Very few people still believe in the idealism of CCP's founding ideology and the statue of Mao Zedong at ECNU meant little or nothing to the college students I spoke with. That is to say, there is not yet a widely-held mythology underpinning China in the way that the US might have believed in the idealism of Jefferson, Washington, manifest destiny, etc. If there is a prevailing belief, it is that well-paying jobs must be pursued.

Religion. A majority of people are not motivated by common religious beliefs. Even though there are certainly many, many religions represented in China, the population as a whole remains detached from a single, organized religious practice.

I hesitate to go further I have probably already gone too far in making generalizations that are applicable to a quarter of the world's population.

I will now make a few comments about the kinds of people I met in China, as three categories seemed to develop over the nine weeks. The first loose category of people are those whom another Westerner explained to me are very difficult to get to know. That is, it is very difficult to become good friends with many Chinese; it takes a long time to win their friendship. For the most part, this group of people was closed off to my access because of the extremely short duration of my trip.

Then there are those who are too friendly. This is because they want something from you. While maybe all human interactions are driven by self-serving ulterior motives, this group of people is primarily in search of money. To have white skin in China is to announce that you have more spendable money than everyone else. Street vendors who befriend you hope that you will then support their business. Talkative college students hope that you will help them practice their English which will allow them to find significantly better jobs. Others will ask you to write letters of recommendation or utilize you for making connections with the Western world. My roommate Ryan and I noticed this category of people about halfway through the trip. One of our most commonly spoken vocabularly phrases became the Chinese translation of "ulterior motive", something like 密密的目的。

Finally, there is a category of wonderful people who are genuinely interested in learning about Western culture and who are willing to become friends in a relatively short period of time. In this group of people are those who will go so far as to spend some of their own money to invite you out to dinner or offer gifts without the promise of recompense.

I am looking forward to my next trip to China. Traveling always helps us appreciate our own worlds more when we return, and also offers us the new perspective necessary for fixing the problems of our own worlds. The thing I already miss most from China is the food. In two days I have gained back any weight I lost from eating the relatively healthier Chinese dishes. My next trip to China will likely involve research for my history major thesis.

The blog has been a selfishly wonderful way to keep a journal and at the same time keep friends informed without having to resort to individual emails. Ryan and I will be starting a new blog next month geared for explaining Western culture to a college-aged Chinese audience. Whent that gets up and running I will post a link from this blogsite. My warm appreciation to anyone who has read this far and who has been kind enough to express interest in my trip.

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