Also there is a Chinese boy who works at the little store on the first floor of our dorm. We have a little running joke that he is my Chinese nanpengyou (boyfriend). He of course speaks no English and is sometimes mean. I told him in Chinese yesterday that if he was not nice, I would find a Japanese boyfriend. Chinese and Japanese people have a long history of animosity so I hope I really drove home the being nice part lol. Our racist taxi driver also did not like Japanese people.
Culture
So I originally thought Culture Shock was something that happened when you initially visit a country, but it has not been that way for me. It's when you really begin to know a culture, you see the cultural differences. Sometimes I honestly don't to know what to do with myself. Here's a list of cultural differences and observations I've made:
1. I do not understand how other international people interact with each other. I have had several misunderstandings because I cannot read how people feel or think. It's very frustrating.
2. Americans are really loud, outspoken, and sometimes obnoxious compared to other international people. I have really learned a lot about American culture and people just from being away from it and being around other people.
3. American self-esteem is based on constant, instant gratification and validation. Complimenting each other on the regular is a part of our culture. One of my American friends told me that she did not feel pretty in China, but did in the United States and I understood how she was feeling. Americans compliment each other all the time and I am now realizing that my self-esteem was constantly being validated by other people. When I got to China, one of our European friends told me that I was one of the most confident people they'd ever met. American (and Western culture?) is all about individuality and being awesome. I do not see that kind of confidence and cockiness coming from other cultures. Chinese people are very humble and humility in Chinese culture is highly regarded. It's not just a reflection of what qualities are highly valued in Chinese society, but of how Chinese people interact with each other. Americans primarily prioritize beauty over intelligence, personality, and especially humility. Being intelligent or personable is nice, but it's more important to attractive in American culture. I used to go around praising myself, but this whole experience has really humbled me. In the United States, it's like you could always fall back on being attractive and utilize that to get whatever you want.If you are smart or interesting, that's nice , but it's very important to be attractive.I'm around a lot of really intelligent people who speak Chinese beautifully. It has really showed me how much I have to work on and reevaluate my self-esteem.
It's time to get political. So if you don't care about Chinese politics-you will probaly be bored.
BUT IF NOT!
CONTINUE!
I've recently realized how important this blog is to me and to the people that care about me. You must know-this is my heart and soul. My blog takes a long time to write and I really try to make it something not only worth reading, but also a candid reflection of Chinese culture and politics through my perspective. My opinions about Chinese society and politics are constantly being challenged and changed through my different experiences.
That being said I want to make a distinct correction of something that I wrote about earlier. I wrote that :
It's weird and interesting when you visit a place and it's so different than you remembered...or your preconceived notions about the culture are not exactly spot on. For example, I had these preconceived notions that freedom of speech was so scandalous and not to talk about uncomfortable subjects, but it seems a lot less severe in Beijing than I imagined. Like we talk about controversial subjects on campus in a university or just in public.
I said this during the second week of September. My statement is not completely wrong, but it is very misguided. First of all, I am a foreigner in China and the Chinese government cares a lot less about what I do or say than with Chinese citizens. My perception of this complex issue is only based on what I see and what I experience. There are a lot of things that as a foreigner I am not exposed to. My Chinese foreign policy class and my Chinese Contemporary Society class are both uncensored because not only are they taught in English, but they do not directly operate through the Chinese government or our University.In China, there are two very important lines; the official line and the red line. The official line is the typical official government rhetoric. Taiwan is a part of a China.The Chinese government is advocating human rights and democracy. The official line is the politically correct answer to any sort of controversial question.What do you think of the Chinese government? The Chinese government is good. Now onto the red line. Chinese people have more freedom of speech than they did 40 years and even 10 years ago. Chinese people can talk openly about more issues, but there is a line (the red line!) in which they have said too much or gone too far. This red line is undefinable and scholars,writers, and the general Chinese population does not necessarily know where this line is. Word by Word, they challenge where this red line is and what is okay or not okay to say.When the red line is crossed, there are ramifications like being fired or worse.The red line is different regionally. You can say things in Beijing that you would be crazy to say in Tibet or Xinjiang(Volatile Autonomous regions in China with minority ethnic conflict).Chinese International Relations graduate students sometimes visit my classes and partake in our discussions. One of the students made a remark that you can criticize corruption and society, but don't criticize the government.The Chinese government censors a lot of what the Chinese people are exposed to, but where there is a will- there's always a way. Blogger-which- I am on right on is not allowed in China. I am on a Virtual Private Network(VPN) which allows me to check my faceboook, wrote my blog, and visit various other websites that the Chinese government blocks. Many Chinese people have VPNs and they can access all that the world wide web has to offer. One of the Chinese students made a remark that she had friends in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia and that whenever something was going on in those places- she could not view those friends' renren (Chinese-style facebook).She did not even know that anything was going on in these regions, but she figured it out pretty quickly that something was happening that the Chinese government does want the people to know about. China also has this thing called Weibo where the Chinese government pays someone 15 mao (cents) to say something positive about the Chinese government online.
This brings me to another concept:Reality.
An important part of studying International Affairs is conceptualizing and realizing some form of truth. Through this opportunity, I strive to understand China culturally, politically, economically, and socially.I want to have some form of realistic perception of China. In many ways, I want truth. Truth and Reality, especially dealing with China!, are rarely obvious, simple, or transparent.I don't mean to throw around the words "truth" and "reality" because I understand they are both extremely relative-but i want to find my own (factually and experience based) truth. I've learned that what you see isn't always what you get. In fact, it rarely is. This whole experience has been really humbling on so many different ways. I've come to accept that many of my ideas, perceptions, and beliefs about China are skewed. I might have some form of academic background in Chinese culture and politics, but it is nothing compared to the mass amounts of information and experience that I don't know or have.
Speaking of the unknown.
In my Chinese foreign policy class and Contemporary Chinese culture class, we discuss how the Chinese political system operates. The Chinese government, unlike the American government, is not transparent and most of the inner-workings of the Chinese government are unknown. When we learn about the Chinese political system, it is mostly well-educated speculation. Anyways-here we go. In China, the Chinese Communist Party reigns supreme. Some facts about the CCP from none other than a Congressional Research Report:
The CCP has over 66 million members involved in over 3.5 million organizations.Membership in the CCP is open to any Chinese citizen over the age of 18 who is willing to accept and abide by the Party’s constitution and policies. An applicant for Party membership must fill in an application form and be introduced by two Party members. Every Party member, irrespective of position, must be organized into a branch, cell, or other specific unit of the Party to participate in the regular activities of the Party organization. While joining the Party was once a wholly ideological act, it is thought now that many young people join the Party to make the personal connections important for career advancement.
One of the Chinese students said that it was necessary for her future to join the party. She said something really interesting.She told me that Chinese people do not know how the Chinese political system works or how they can be involved in the political system.She just knows the ideology of the Chinese Communist party and it's importance in Chinese society.
Now onto my thoughts about Political Reform in China.
first of all.
86% of Chinese people are happy about the direction that their country is heading. Through China's economic prosperity, 400 million people have been lifted out of poverty. One of my Chinese professors made a very interesting comment that maybe the Chinese government has made one of the greatest human rights achievements in world history. To put this into relative terms, China's 30 year economic boom has lifted the whole population of the United States as well as an additional 100 million people out of poverty. It's an interesting perspective especially when the Chinese government is rarely associated with anything positive concerning human rights.
The Brookings institute did a study about China's middle class and found out that most of them did not want democracy. This is not surprising to me all. Something that has always stuck out to me from George Orwell's 1984 is that: the Upper Class want to keep their power. The Middle Class wants to be upper class and the lower class want everyone to be equal. The Middle class does not want everyone to be equal. They want stability and comfort.Chinese people over the last two decades have experienced stability that they have not seen before the Opium Wars in the 1840's. The last thing that Chinese people want is another Cultural Revolution or just a revolution in general.The Cultural Revolution occurred when the Chinese government condemned traditional culture and destroyed many temples, monastery, and traditional Chinese artifacts and persecuted, tortured, and killed many scholars and intellectuals. Universities shut down and many students violently rebelled and marched across the countryside to promote the Communist cause. This occurred for an entire decade(1966-1976) and was only ended by the death of Mao Zedong. The effects of the Culture Revolution still loom all throughout China. China's top government officials were born in thee 1940's and the 1950's.These leaders lived through all of China's political chaos over the last 60 something years since the PRC was founded in 1949. Political instability is the biggest nightmare of the Chinese government.
My theory is that political reform and change will occur in China when my generation of Chinese people come into power. Stability is a new concept in China and I think society will change as stability becomes more of a norm rather than a incentive for silence. Also, China's economic growth is not sustainable. Even if the Chinese economy continues to grow, it cannot maintain a 10% growth rate like it has for the last 30 years. It will eventually stagnate or plateau. They have an export-oriented economy and have several fundamental flaws in their economy ranging from high inflation, an aging workforce, crony capitalism which has allowed many state-run banks to make questionable loans, and an extreme dependence on their exports...among other things. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe I'm right- I think that in the next 20-30 years, the combination of China's changing society and economic stagnation will lead to more democratic reform.China will have a generation that did not grow up with Mao's revolution or the Tianan'men Square Massacre's legacy. China will instead have a generation that grew up with progress and stability. They will not want to continually safeguard security, but promote more liberalized ideals. By this point, the shimmer of stability will have worn off and the people will demand a more, transparent and non-censored government that the people can hold accountable.
But that's just what I think.
Only time will tell.
Sidebar Rant-People who think that China is going to take over the world are stupid. Really stupid.China's GDP is going to surpass America's economy. It is going to happen. They have four times as many people as the United States does. Their GDP per capita is extremely low and the Gini coefficient ( a study that measures Countries' distribution gap) measures with some Sub-Saharan African countries.It takes more than a high GDP to become a world power. China's hard power is strong, but their soft power is lagging. Soft power is how China exerts it power through diplomatic, cultural, and economic methods rather than through force or coercion. Soft power also entails how much of Chinese culture is spread throughout the world and how much the global population desires to be a part of Chinese society and political system. One of our readings talks about what being a world power ensues. Li Mingjiang in his China Debates Soft Power states that a "a world power should also be a world cultural centre, whose ideas,values, social life and beliefs are attractive to people's of other countries."In spite of all of our political, social, and economic problems, America is the dream for people across the globe. Also, their currency should be the international currency of business. That's the dollar fools. So everyone can maybe chill out on building their bomb shelter for when China takes over the world.
It's weird and interesting when you visit a place and it's so different than you remembered...or your preconceived notions about the culture are not exactly spot on. For example, I had these preconceived notions that freedom of speech was so scandalous and not to talk about uncomfortable subjects, but it seems a lot less severe in Beijing than I imagined. Like we talk about controversial subjects on campus in a university or just in public.
I said this during the second week of September. My statement is not completely wrong, but it is very misguided. First of all, I am a foreigner in China and the Chinese government cares a lot less about what I do or say than with Chinese citizens. My perception of this complex issue is only based on what I see and what I experience. There are a lot of things that as a foreigner I am not exposed to. My Chinese foreign policy class and my Chinese Contemporary Society class are both uncensored because not only are they taught in English, but they do not directly operate through the Chinese government or our University.In China, there are two very important lines; the official line and the red line. The official line is the typical official government rhetoric. Taiwan is a part of a China.The Chinese government is advocating human rights and democracy. The official line is the politically correct answer to any sort of controversial question.What do you think of the Chinese government? The Chinese government is good. Now onto the red line. Chinese people have more freedom of speech than they did 40 years and even 10 years ago. Chinese people can talk openly about more issues, but there is a line (the red line!) in which they have said too much or gone too far. This red line is undefinable and scholars,writers, and the general Chinese population does not necessarily know where this line is. Word by Word, they challenge where this red line is and what is okay or not okay to say.When the red line is crossed, there are ramifications like being fired or worse.The red line is different regionally. You can say things in Beijing that you would be crazy to say in Tibet or Xinjiang(Volatile Autonomous regions in China with minority ethnic conflict).Chinese International Relations graduate students sometimes visit my classes and partake in our discussions. One of the students made a remark that you can criticize corruption and society, but don't criticize the government.The Chinese government censors a lot of what the Chinese people are exposed to, but where there is a will- there's always a way. Blogger-which- I am on right on is not allowed in China. I am on a Virtual Private Network(VPN) which allows me to check my faceboook, wrote my blog, and visit various other websites that the Chinese government blocks. Many Chinese people have VPNs and they can access all that the world wide web has to offer. One of the Chinese students made a remark that she had friends in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia and that whenever something was going on in those places- she could not view those friends' renren (Chinese-style facebook).She did not even know that anything was going on in these regions, but she figured it out pretty quickly that something was happening that the Chinese government does want the people to know about. China also has this thing called Weibo where the Chinese government pays someone 15 mao (cents) to say something positive about the Chinese government online.
This brings me to another concept:Reality.
An important part of studying International Affairs is conceptualizing and realizing some form of truth. Through this opportunity, I strive to understand China culturally, politically, economically, and socially.I want to have some form of realistic perception of China. In many ways, I want truth. Truth and Reality, especially dealing with China!, are rarely obvious, simple, or transparent.I don't mean to throw around the words "truth" and "reality" because I understand they are both extremely relative-but i want to find my own (factually and experience based) truth. I've learned that what you see isn't always what you get. In fact, it rarely is. This whole experience has been really humbling on so many different ways. I've come to accept that many of my ideas, perceptions, and beliefs about China are skewed. I might have some form of academic background in Chinese culture and politics, but it is nothing compared to the mass amounts of information and experience that I don't know or have.
Speaking of the unknown.
In my Chinese foreign policy class and Contemporary Chinese culture class, we discuss how the Chinese political system operates. The Chinese government, unlike the American government, is not transparent and most of the inner-workings of the Chinese government are unknown. When we learn about the Chinese political system, it is mostly well-educated speculation. Anyways-here we go. In China, the Chinese Communist Party reigns supreme. Some facts about the CCP from none other than a Congressional Research Report:
The CCP has over 66 million members involved in over 3.5 million organizations.Membership in the CCP is open to any Chinese citizen over the age of 18 who is willing to accept and abide by the Party’s constitution and policies. An applicant for Party membership must fill in an application form and be introduced by two Party members. Every Party member, irrespective of position, must be organized into a branch, cell, or other specific unit of the Party to participate in the regular activities of the Party organization. While joining the Party was once a wholly ideological act, it is thought now that many young people join the Party to make the personal connections important for career advancement.
One of the Chinese students said that it was necessary for her future to join the party. She said something really interesting.She told me that Chinese people do not know how the Chinese political system works or how they can be involved in the political system.She just knows the ideology of the Chinese Communist party and it's importance in Chinese society.
Now onto my thoughts about Political Reform in China.
first of all.
86% of Chinese people are happy about the direction that their country is heading. Through China's economic prosperity, 400 million people have been lifted out of poverty. One of my Chinese professors made a very interesting comment that maybe the Chinese government has made one of the greatest human rights achievements in world history. To put this into relative terms, China's 30 year economic boom has lifted the whole population of the United States as well as an additional 100 million people out of poverty. It's an interesting perspective especially when the Chinese government is rarely associated with anything positive concerning human rights.
The Brookings institute did a study about China's middle class and found out that most of them did not want democracy. This is not surprising to me all. Something that has always stuck out to me from George Orwell's 1984 is that: the Upper Class want to keep their power. The Middle Class wants to be upper class and the lower class want everyone to be equal. The Middle class does not want everyone to be equal. They want stability and comfort.Chinese people over the last two decades have experienced stability that they have not seen before the Opium Wars in the 1840's. The last thing that Chinese people want is another Cultural Revolution or just a revolution in general.The Cultural Revolution occurred when the Chinese government condemned traditional culture and destroyed many temples, monastery, and traditional Chinese artifacts and persecuted, tortured, and killed many scholars and intellectuals. Universities shut down and many students violently rebelled and marched across the countryside to promote the Communist cause. This occurred for an entire decade(1966-1976) and was only ended by the death of Mao Zedong. The effects of the Culture Revolution still loom all throughout China. China's top government officials were born in thee 1940's and the 1950's.These leaders lived through all of China's political chaos over the last 60 something years since the PRC was founded in 1949. Political instability is the biggest nightmare of the Chinese government.
My theory is that political reform and change will occur in China when my generation of Chinese people come into power. Stability is a new concept in China and I think society will change as stability becomes more of a norm rather than a incentive for silence. Also, China's economic growth is not sustainable. Even if the Chinese economy continues to grow, it cannot maintain a 10% growth rate like it has for the last 30 years. It will eventually stagnate or plateau. They have an export-oriented economy and have several fundamental flaws in their economy ranging from high inflation, an aging workforce, crony capitalism which has allowed many state-run banks to make questionable loans, and an extreme dependence on their exports...among other things. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe I'm right- I think that in the next 20-30 years, the combination of China's changing society and economic stagnation will lead to more democratic reform.China will have a generation that did not grow up with Mao's revolution or the Tianan'men Square Massacre's legacy. China will instead have a generation that grew up with progress and stability. They will not want to continually safeguard security, but promote more liberalized ideals. By this point, the shimmer of stability will have worn off and the people will demand a more, transparent and non-censored government that the people can hold accountable.
But that's just what I think.
Only time will tell.
Sidebar Rant-People who think that China is going to take over the world are stupid. Really stupid.China's GDP is going to surpass America's economy. It is going to happen. They have four times as many people as the United States does. Their GDP per capita is extremely low and the Gini coefficient ( a study that measures Countries' distribution gap) measures with some Sub-Saharan African countries.It takes more than a high GDP to become a world power. China's hard power is strong, but their soft power is lagging. Soft power is how China exerts it power through diplomatic, cultural, and economic methods rather than through force or coercion. Soft power also entails how much of Chinese culture is spread throughout the world and how much the global population desires to be a part of Chinese society and political system. One of our readings talks about what being a world power ensues. Li Mingjiang in his China Debates Soft Power states that a "a world power should also be a world cultural centre, whose ideas,values, social life and beliefs are attractive to people's of other countries."In spite of all of our political, social, and economic problems, America is the dream for people across the globe. Also, their currency should be the international currency of business. That's the dollar fools. So everyone can maybe chill out on building their bomb shelter for when China takes over the world.
Kristen! I miss your face (there I go complimenting you)!
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to know how they get the number for 86% of Chinese people are happy with the direction the country is headed. Would people be afraid to say that they they were unhappy with the direction of the country because of the red line?
You also mentioned people don't really know how the political system works. One thing that makes the United States stand out is a citizens ability to be informed and involved in politics. We view voting as a right and a responsibility. When our government does something we do not agree with, at least we have some ability to change it (whether it be speaking in public, writing our representative, petitions, or voting).
Do you think a Chinese persons lack of understanding and involvement in politics affects their views on politics? For example they might think, if there is nothing they can do to change their government, does it matter if they agree with them or not?
I just think it is interesting to take a poll on something that people aren't free to talk about.
Last question:
people cannot say bad things about the government because of horrible consequences, but do they think that saying something bad about the government is wrong? Would they do it if they could?
I have talked to a lot of people about how they feel about the government. They have told me that they don't like the government, but they are happy about where their country is heading. The information is from a Western based survey which I'm naturally assuming is anonymous.People don't think that criticizing the government is bad in general, they just know it could have bad implications for them. The interesting thing about censorship is that it takes the Chinese government an hour or more to take things off the internet.Chinese people do say bad things about the government online through blogs and such. There is becoming a more open discourse on politics slowly but surely. China has a big corruption problem. For example, there was this politically connected man named Li Gang. He got in a car accident and did a hit and run. He got away with it until there was a big public outcry against corruption. He was imprisoned. Social progress takes time and there will be a time when stability won't be enough to silence people....(in my opinion at least).
ReplyDeleteStability is vital to Chinese people and Chinese people have become very disconnected and apathetic to politics to it because their happy with the way their country and their lives are heading. Urban Chinese are not worried about where their next meal is coming from , but instead how they are going to afford that sweet armchair from IKEA.