Understanding China

This week in China we have a week long vacation for the national day festival, a holiday to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic, and these national holidays are always a good time to reflect on where the people of China believe their country to be in relation to the rest of the world. Recently, due to the Olympics, there has been an unprecedented amount of interaction between China and the outside world, and I do not use that term "outside world" lightly, for I feel that despite the fact that China has become more open, and the fact that more foreigners than ever are coming to China, the vast majority of people that I meet from day to day in Shandong still tend to think of China as one world, and the rest of the world as something totally different.

There are two things that I find interesting and important to think about in all of the discussion over the development of China and the Olympics. One a basic thought that most Chinese people seem to hold about their relationship with the rest of the world, and the other is an aspect of Chinese nationalism that I find to be rather frightening.

Watching television in China in the post Olympic period has helped me to discover that the Olympics were a resounding success, and that the world now loves China with its whole heart. What I find most striking is not the censorship of the media here, that is something that you grow to adjust to, and if we are really honest with ourselves we know that media all around the world suffers from bias and different forms of censorship. What really strikes me is the position that has been taken by the government and many of the people of China in their relationship to the outside world, most specifically the "west," which China pays special attention to as it continues its quest to become the most influential nation in the world. What I hear repeated over and over again, from the television set to dinners with different "leaders" is the fact that the Olympics was an important event because it allowed the rest of the world to come to China and better understand the Chinese people.

Of course on some levels this statement is very true. The truth is that most Americans that I know do know very little about China and Chinese culture. I think that there are many Americans that agree that our education system tends to neglect learning about foreign countries and cultures. Many Americans cannot speak a foreign language, while in China and Europe children in elementary school will begin learning English or other foreign languages. Undoubtedly the Olympics did do a great deal to help foreign people understand the growing prominence of China globally, while also allowing them to understand that a majority of the citizens of the country, despite the censorship and human rights violations against certain groups that the government deems to be "terrorist groups," are generally pleased with the government and the direction that the country is going. I can't deny the ignorance of my own culture nor the benefits of other countries learning more about China, but what is disturbing is the tone that is taken by the Chinese in discussing this.

On a special TV show dedicated to the Olympics and their overwhelming success there was a series of interviews with college students from different Universities. It is always interesting to hear from college students, because they have all been raised into a different China than that of their parents. There is the term "'80 and after" used to describe when people were born. Because of the monumental changes the government went through in the post 80's period that generation has been separated into their own demographic, a group with few brothers and sisters due to the one child policy, that was born into a more open China, and a China of growing prosperity and hope. These college students had a general consensus, and that was that the Olympics were a huge success because it helped the foreigners better understand the Chinese, yet they also in general said, "We really know quite a bit about foreign countries, so many students have gone abroad to study in foreign countries, and we have foreign teachers, so the exposure to foreign countries wasn't that big a deal. But the important thing was for foreign countries to really better understand us."

This attitude is echoed in my classroom discussions, and discussions with random people that I meet on the street, and it is something that is dangerous, as the Chinese are taking the same type of one-sided stance to their relations with other countries that has made the United States so hated abroad. By saying that other countries don't understand them they are trying to skate out of responsibility for some of their own actions, especially in relation to some of their problems with domestic unrest. I feel no regret or remorse in saying that in general China does not understand the rest of the world, my experiences from my daily life resoundingly confirm that, and quite simply, if China did really have a good understanding of the rest of the world, it would not be so sorely misunderstood, as it claims to be.

First of all, the argument that having students study abroad allows a country to better understand foreign countries is ridiculous. It is an infinitesimal portion of the Chinese population that gets to go abroad to study, and even fewer who actually return to China to tell others of their experiences. By this argument the US would have a great understanding of the world, as the percentage of US students who go abroad to study and then return to the US would be greater than China's by a broad margin. Living sixth months in a foreign country does not give one a comprehensive understanding into the culture of that area, let alone does any of the understanding that is accomplished spread osmotically to the rest of the population.

I will have conversations with people all the time about western culture, bc when confronted with a foreigner no one knows what else to do but talk about what makes me different from them. This has been made embarrassingly apparent to me on numerous occasions when parents will hold their toddler close to me and say to them, "Look son, what makes him different from us? How is he different?" At times like these I honestly want to throw up all over the place, bc I already know that conversation won't be successful nor enjoyable. The amount of ignorance that I find in these conversations on subjects of importance is in general on par with the level of ignorance that Americans can exhibit about China. The sole difference is that a lot (too many) people know how to say "hello, how are you" in English in China, and people have a very very basic grasp of our holidays and eating styles.

Commonly I will overhear people who have never left Shandong province disagreeing with things I say about American culture. I find this more than a little maddening, especially when it comes from people who are 1-3 years older than me, but call me "little brother," and view me as young and irresponsible because I am not married and have no child. People in general don't understand anything about the diversity of American culture, or the reasons why people in America will argue on TV, go out to bars at night, or support the rights of homosexuals. What is generally understood here is a very cookie cutter mid-west Christian portrait of American culture that bakes cookies, plays football, and celebrates Christmas. Whenever you try to discuss any other aspects of life in the United States you are generally met with condescending smiles of people who view you as very "open minded," or over-complicated. "Open minded" is often used here in a derogatory sense, being "open-minded" is also seen as something of a cultural difference, for reasons I don't fully understand, but in general"open-minded" is a term for immoral. This is interesting since in the US you find that as the case as well sometimes, China is certainly not the only place to harbor misgivings for free thinking.

This one sided view of China's interaction with foreign countries is pretty arrogant, and has more than vague similarities to the way that the United States does business abroad also. I don't find this surprising, since governments around the world under different names often have very similar characteristics, but I do find it very disturbing, especially since it is being echoed by the youth of China.

With the national holiday also comes a livening of patriotic spirit, something that scares the s*&^ out of me no matter where I see it, but the patriotism in China has a particular facet to it that I find disturbing.

In general I think that the term patriotism is abused so that a small group of people can seek benefits and support from a large group of people. I believe that China is no exception in this manner, and this is problematic. But what is most frightening to me is the way that most Chinese relate their nationalism or patriotism, whichever you wish to call it, to their race or ethnicity. China, despite its claims, is not a very diverse country, least of all when you compare it to the melting pot of the US, so I try not to compare the two, least of all in the way that people talk to me as a foreigner. Yet even in not comparing the two, it is important to note some disturbing trends.

When watching a national party on CCTV 1, the largest network in China, I watched the performance of a song by Xie Ting Duo, called "Yellow Man," (Which also, not coincidentally, is the ringtone on my cell-piece) the lyrics of which extol the virtues of the Chinese while referring to physical characteristics that make them Chinese, and thus different from other races. There is also a popular song called "The Chinese Man," sung by Andy Lau (Andy Lau is HUGE) which is very similar in its content, talking about how yellow skin, black hair, and black eyes unites them, and then talking about the virtues of bravery, tenacity, and history that make the Chinese people great. Having pride in one's appearance is important, especially in a world where Hollywood and the fashion industry has made being white the ideal, but I also find it dangerous to be talking about the value of national character and tying it to physical appearance.

This is something that I have to deal with on a daily basis, being very white, with brown hair and blue eyes. There are more than a few people around here when viewing me appear to be viewing a zoo animal rather than another human being. This is often dismissed by other Chinese people as me misunderstanding the situation. Gotta love the way a majority can marginalize a minorities thoughts and feelings so swiftly and unsympathetically. More distressing, though, is going to dinner with University professors and students, some from Korea, some from China, and hear students and teachers alike say things like, "he (referring to the Korean teacher) is also from an Asian country, he is like us, but you, you are different," as they watch to see whether I can in fact use chopsticks, or slurp my noodles as I eat. This again adds to the feeling of being a monkey on display, a feeling that my relatively hairy body does nothing to ease. (side note, there is a popular Chinese joke which I have read numerous times on the Internet and heard whispered by people, though never directly said to me, that foreigners have not evolved properly, and that is the reason for our hairier bodies. This is obviously not the majority of peoples opinion, racist jokes are not unique to China, but the existence of these jokes is still telling)

Getting back to the Olympics, I that the Beijing games were successful in a way. It was a nice stepping stone in the furthering of relations between China and the international community, and I think that many people learned something new from the experience. But in watching the games for two weeks what I found most inspiring , despite all the glitz and glamour of the opening and closing ceremonies in the Birds nest, was the 8 minute short portion of the closing ceremonies that was done to introduce the London games in 2012. The choreography wasn't as beautiful, or as well done as the different routines that Zhang Yi Mou had directed, and the playing a Led Zepellin song sung by some new pop star was really cheesy. Yet you can see immediately that the emphasis that London ( one of the most diverse cities in the world)is putting on their games is the importance of diversity. They will try to demonstrate the benefits of a society with many races and many cultures all living together. I find that approach, a unifying approach, not a more condescending and juvenile approach of exhibiting what you makes you special or better than others, to be much more appealing and much more in line with what everyone likes to term the "Olympic Ideal." I can only hope that as China continues to open up and grow that the general populace can change their view of foreign countries as the "outside world," stop looking at everything that makes us different, or trying to criticize what other people don't understand. Hopefully China, as it continues its growth into a global power over the following few years, can live up to its rhetoric and be a more unifying presence in the global community, rather than just another nation after nothing more than improving its position in relations to those who surround it.