The Chinese Enigma

China is as mysterious as I had imagined but in an entirely unexpected way. I got a hint of it in Dalian, our first port-of-call. Dalian is a modern city with strong hints of past Russian influence. The city is built around a series of open squares and parks. and like just about any other city in the world has its share of MacDonald's, KFC's and Starbuck's. Mao would be appalled.

  Great Hall of the People from Tianamin Square

So, I was confused. I knew in the back of my mind that China was no longer a land of rickshaws and bicycles but I didn't fundamentally understand its root level transformation. On the cruise I had befriended a U.S. professor of modern european history and he told me that he was in the first group of academics and business people who were invited to tour China in 1979 after Mao's death, and after the dust from the cultural revolution had settled. He said that the tallest building in Beijing had been the tower of heaven and there wasn't a single car on the streets only bicycles and rickshaws. The new Chinese leaders were steering a course to take China into the modern world using a hybrid of communism and capitalism. This wasn't really strange if you look at the history of China. The emperor owned all the land and as long as the emperor held the mandate of heaven common people pursued their lives both commercial and academic as they liked. The emperor looked at the big picture (at least the good emperors) and the common people looked after themselves until they came in conflict with the emperor. If the people prevailed the emperor lost his mandate if the emperor won there was upheaval but then things settled and life began again. This seemed like what was going on now. People rarely mentioned the government except to complain about the price of housing - they buy 70 year leases on condos/houses/flats but they don't own the land. If the building starts to fall apart the government helps them to relocate to a new lease and they tear down the old building. It was amazing how much of the tear-down/build-new was going on throughout the cities.

Secret Gate - Forbidden City

I met young people (early mid-20's) in both Beijing and Shanghai. They were just like young people I meet in the U.S. They loved the internet, texting friends and watching movies both on their computers and at theaters. They seemed to prefer reality shows over fiction - none had seen Lost, Heroes or even Alias but they loved their version of American Idol, Project Runway, and Master Chef. (Not being a fan of reality TV this was troubling to me.) While I could not access my blog from my computer in Beijing, they had no trouble, knowing how to circumvent the blocks that the government puts on the internet. Most had access to satellites to watch virtually any TV show being broadcast and most were big fans of the ESPN sports networks. (I was especially surprised at their love - and in-depth knowledge - of American football!) While their english was good, it was limited, for when I began to dig deeper and ask about contemporary Chinese fiction and whether there was a new crop of music composers coming up, they didn't know how to respond - Though when I mentioned music I was told "We all love Michael Jackson"

 Forbidden City panorama

One of my favorite movies is "The Last Emperor". So, touring the forbidden city was an awe inspiring experience. Even the crowds filling the gated plazas didn't take away from the experience. My guide even showed me the spot where the last emperor learned english from his tutor (played by Peter O'Toole in the movie). The forbidden city is both metaphor and reality for the separation of the emperor from the citizen. This worked both for and against the imperial families. Weak emperors lost touch with the people (preferring to spend all their time with their 3,000 concubines while letting power-mad eunuchs rule). The people and often the military would rise up when things got really bad and they would start over with a new emperor or even a new dynasty. But powerful emperors used the distance well to build a god-like mystery about their personas and they stayed at least one step ahead of the common peoples' desires.

This gets me back to the current government of the PRC. They are very successful at staying a few steps ahead of the peoples' desires. The young people I talked to are acutely aware of the increase in human rights since the Tianamen square debacle. They also know what happened, and in their own ways hold the government culpable. So what are the implications?

Night skyline of Shanghai

Shanghai and Beijing are mind-numbing and overwhelming cities. They are each like a hundred New Yorks, Las Vegases, and L.A.s rolled into mega-cities that stretch far into what was once countryside. The outskirts of Beijing now reach the northern mountains within sight of the great wall. I was stunned. 30 years ago the tallest building in Beijng was the Temple of Heaven - Shanghai was only a sleepy fishing village not much changed from how it was presented in the movie "the Sand Pebbles". L.A. is like a mid-sized town compared to them. And, the Chinese did it all in 30 years! The streets are filled with cars (not a one older than 7 years) producing some of the worse nightmare traffic jams lasting for hours. It is clear that these new drivers are an aggressive species that put our own terrifying Las Vegas drivers to shame. And, they  ignore any rational traffic law better than the Neopololitans in Italy.

But, there are a multitude of Chinas. Both my guides referenced the older generation who participated in the cultural revolution and how disenfranchised they they now feel. They also mentioned that there was another older generation that did not want to embrace the work ethic of the new Chinese who rise early, work hard, and party into the morning.

Just outside of Shanghai is the preserved a water town - sort of an asian Venice built on the canals of the Shanghai delta. This place had some of the feel of my mythical China but in reality it is a reconstruction of an ancient town for tourists - with Mykonos like alleys filled with vendors selling silk, toys, bamboo flutes, and all sorts of wonderful foods and candies.

Posters and and the Graphic arts are impressive all over China. You can't really see it here but the printing detail on the 8 foot high poster was dazzling - colors bright and saturated, skin tones pure and the typography clean and readable.

So, As I asked previously, What are the implications? Globalization, for better or worse is homogenizing the world. We are moving toward a common balancing of the scales. No matter where I travel, when I do the math, I am paying the same for a similar item - a good tennis shoe costs the same in San Francisco, Barcelona, Busan Korea, Shanghai and Hong Kong. (It was a little more expensive in Japan - but the financial system there is closed and it was hard to even find an ATM that would recognize my debit card -- 7-eleven and the Post office ATM machines). The average Chinese is interested in human rights, perhaps even more than many people I have met in the U.S. And, as this wave of young move up the ladders of control, China will change even more. Extrapolating this out means that common work will generate a common wage -- eventually. People are smart and the internet gives everyone access to information. It's not hard for a car factory worker in Busan Korea to compare what he makes to what a factory worker at a Volvo plant in Sweden makes. Marshall McLuhan predicted it correctly when he said that telephones become hyper extensions of your hearing sense, television your eyes, and now, the internet is an expansion and extension of your mind. The only thing that limits us is laziness and believe me, the Chinese and Koreans are not lazy.