Read and then blog at this course blog thread below Chapters 1-7 of Rob Gifford's book CHINA ROAD: A JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE OF A RISING POWER. Remember to begin keying in on Gifford's themes re: China.
BLOG GUIDELINES
1. In your blog post, list and describe FIVE of Gifford's observations about China in these chapters of the book that you find important, intriguing, confusing, or useful, using 2-3 sentences to describe each observation. Feel free to use quotes from his book, but keep your selected quotes to a sentence or shorter, and be sure to cite a page number. How do Gifford's observations compare with Hessler's? Similarities? Differences? What do you notice?
2. In the same blog post, raise one SPECIFIC question about China that these chapters of Gifford's book raises for you. Be sure your question starts with the following words: "My question about China is..."
Mojo a go go,
Dr. W
Observation 1: pg 5. I like that in the first chapter the author is kind of comical talking about weight loss. He seems to be really relatable. It also mentions the Beijing Marathon 26.2 miles which is a lot like the Boston Marathon. It’s interesting that two completely different countries and cultures have this same kind of tradition.
ReplyDeleteObservation 2: pg 7. “New York City makes a good comparison. Beijing is Washington D.C, a capital city, too obsessed with politics to be at the forefront of commerce. Shanghai is Manhattan, although in many ways it is Manhattan in about 1910- a boomtown with immigrants flooding in. there are roughly 13 million people in Shanghai. As in New York a hundred years ago, many of these people have just arrived from somewhere else.” I really like this comparison to New York. It makes china seem not as different as I would expect it to be. I just picture Beijing as Times Square.
Observation 3: pg 17. “Chinese courts have a conviction rate of more than 99 percent.” I find this statistic to be extremely high and it makes me wonder how many innocent people were convicted of a crime they didn’t commit.
Observation 4: pg 48. “You can understand why many Chinese put up with the Communist Party. There is a mountain of problems in modern China, many of them caused by the Communist Party itself. But after all the humiliation, it is clear that the Party for all its faults had gained China a lot more respect in the world.” I think this is an interesting perspective as to why people “put up with the community party.”
Observation 5: pg 65. “Economists say we should not refer to what is going on in China as “Capitalism” and that a more appropriate term for it is “Leninist corporatism.” It is not a true market economy, they say, but still very much guided and managed by the Communist Party.”
My Question about china is addressed in Observation 3.
#1: On page 15, Gifford makes a very interesting comparison between the United States and China. He discusses the consumer boom, and the fact that many citizens do not reap the benefits in any way. He makes the observation that, “If in the United States you need money to get power, in China you need power to get money.”
ReplyDelete#2: On page 21, Gifford discusses his visit to an old Jewish ghetto. I was never aware of its existence before this reading. The fact that over twenty thousand Jewish Europeans migrated to Shanghai in the 1930’s, because it was the only place in the entire world that would grant them entry without a visa, was amazing to me.
#3: Beginning on page 41, Gifford addresses the variation between American’s perception of history, and the Chinese perception. He credits this difference to the fact that “history hang heavy over China.” It is thought that China reached its highest point too early, with the four big inventions they were once the most dominant society, but seemed to “sink under the weight of their own success.”
#4: Gifford comments on China’s immense size on page 64. He uses Texas as an illustration of how large the country is, he comments that you can be traveling in China and find your way into a city double the size of Houston having never heard of it. In China there are forty-nine cities with over one million inhabitants, in comparison with the US in which there are nine cities with populations topping a million
#5: On page 73 Gifford makes yet another surprising comparison between China and another country, India. I had never really thought about one in relation to the other, and it was interesting to have their differences so clearly illustrated. According to Gifford, taking into account the probability of unreliable statistics, China’s life expectancy and literacy rates are higher, and in India a family is twice is likely to lose a child before the age of five.
My question about China is: Although the status of women of China has seen improvement in past decades, what can be done to further promote equality?
OBSERVATION ONE: Page 11, Rob Gifford says, “ even though we poisoned them with opium, stole their land, carved up their country, patronized, humiliated, and half enslaved them, old hundred names, the ordinary Chinese people are astonishingly courteous and accommodating to foreigners.” This fact just made me think about the Chinese culture in a different light.
ReplyDeleteOBSERVATION TWO: Page 18, It is interesting how they talk about the “freedom of choice” in China. They say that the “freedom of choice” is improving everyday. The thing that stuck out to me is how Gifford stated, once you allow people to choose their pizza toppings, sooner or after they are going to want to choose their political leaders. This shows that China is going to the direction of letting the citizens decide for themselves.
OBSERVATION THREE: Page 42, Gifford speaks of the amount of people that came to China during a period of time. At first China thought this meant they were superior to have thousands of people in their culture, but it ultimately lead them to backwardness and humiliation because China couldn’t keep up with its own success. This fact stuck out to me because I never “really” knew the impact the barbarians had on China.
OBSERVATION FOUR: Page 71, Gifford states how China is developing very fast. They are making changes and trying to rise above everything. Is this a good thing?
OBSERVATION FIVE: Page 73, Gifford keeps making comparisons between China and other countries. On this page it was comparing India and China, but earlier in the book it was New York City. Gifford does a great job at creating visuals for the reader. By Gifford comparing different countries to each other it clearly identifies and makes the reader realize the different statistics, literacy rates, life expectancy etc. in other countries versus China.
QUESTION is in observation number four !
1. right off the batt i thought it was interesting that he is staying at Shanghais first foreign hotel. The Astor House. established in 1846, has seen many different events and has a very historical past. I also thought it was interesting that Ulysses S. Grant Stayed there in 1870's.
ReplyDelete2. ON page 17, there is a sentence that says that china since the 1970's has lifted 400 million people out of poverty. This is a very large number, they have taken more people out of poverty then the population of the United States, which i think is amazing.
3. At the beginning of chapter 4 on page 41, Rob talks about inventions that China came up with long before the west even knew about them, such as gunpowder and paper. What i did not know is that they are many more that were invented long before any westerners as well, such as the chain suspension bridge, sternpost rudder and even canal locks. I find this extra ordinary that the chinese were so much more technologically advanced then we were, and we don't really hear much about it in school, well until much higher levels of education.
4. On page 54 i thought it was interesting about what Wang was doing and how he explains the end of each dynasty and how they people of China will know it is coming. He explains a few different ways of the signs of revolution, such as what Wang is doing, a useless but brave acts, as well as angry peasents. We can see this in the communist revolution with Mao.
5. A very interesting quote on page 68 is, "Technology is the new religion of China." I thought this was crazy that in such a short period of time, China has become one the the most technologically advanced countries in the world through out their cities and different places in the country.
My question about China is how long until there is a regime change in China?
1) I found the history of the opium wars and the treaty of Nanjing to be very interesting. The after effects of this treaty are even more interesting, with the loss of Shanghai to the British and the opening of ports to foreign powers. Pg. 13 "I say to him. "We are not very proud of all that, you know".
ReplyDelete2) I like the part on page 16 about the civil unrest's. "There are more than two hundred incidents of rural unrest every day, many of them the result of the economic inequalities".
3) Panda Hugger and Dragon slayers..... could it get any better. If I was chinese, I think I would be a Dragon Slayer.
4) Rural Reform, with the removal of the agricultural tax and free schooling for children of farmers, to me sounds like a great way to bring about economic prosperity .
5) On page 74 I like the Chinese attitude towards the press. Most topics are considered free to talk and write about, such as economic and social matters, but when it gets a lil hairy the government snuffs it out.
1. One quote that I found to be very interesting was in the introduction, when Gifford was speaking with one of his cab drivers. “’In the past, everyone was poor,’ says Liu, ‘but everyone was honest. Now, everyone is more free, but there is luan, there is chaos. Money had made everyone go bad.’” I wonder if that is the opinion of many Chinese people, and if so, do they think that the people of rich countries are “bad?”
ReplyDelete2. I noticed in many parts of the chapters, an air of comparison was present in how people talked about the U.S. and China. For example, Washington D.C. was compared with Beijing, and Manhattan with Shanghai. Additionally, a taxi driver in Shanghai stated that there were 300 miles of elevated expressway, then asked how many miles were in New York City, almost as if miles of highway was somehow indicative of a level of superiority.
3. I found it very interesting that although the Chinese are able to forgive the British for the numerous offenses against them, they still have trouble forgiving the Japanese for the Nanjing Massacre. I wonder if that has to do with proximity or with how long ago the wrongs were committed.
4. I though that the exploration of morality in China was very interesting. Some of the Chinese citizens mentioned in the book believed that China had lost it’s morality, especially in the last generation. I wonder if this is for a lack of a central religious system or based more on the rapid financial growth of China in recent years.
5. I know that the point of outsourcing is to lower production costs, but reading that the average software engineers in China earn 20-30 times less than their American counterparts really disturbed me. Outsourcing does give exceptional opportunity for the financial growth of a developing country, but it doesn’t seem fair that we take advantage of their misfortune.
My question is: Is Chinese history a pattern that should be expected in the rise and decline of a country, and if so, is America headed on the same route?
#1: On page 17, Gifford writes that there is a huge dichotomy on the perception of China – panda huggers and dragon slayers. Gifford explains that his perception of China changes constantly, citing different things the country has done as evidence. Oddly enough, I feel more or less the same. China’s direction is closely guided by a handful of people, and we can only guess as to what is going on in their minds.
ReplyDelete#2: On page 20, Gifford discusses the younger generations of people in China facing the “isolation of individualism”. To me, this social phenomenon can be balanced out. My thoughts are that China’s younger generations have no need to completely embrace individualism. Learning years and years of culture and history can modify such a behavior. Gifford quotes that “existentially”, being Chinese in the modern age “is far more problematic”. I don’t see it as a problem.
#3: Gifford writes on page 25 his meeting with two young members of the CCP. These members are described to be non-ideological, individualistic, patriotic and enjoying the “fruits of prosperity”. If the younger generations of party members are truly so, it will be interesting to see, assuming the party will remain, how the CCP transforms. Will these young members be able to climb up the political ladder? Or, as I’m sure some will assume, that this is just a ruse or façade.
#4: I like how Gifford describes history in China on page 41, “History hangs heavy over China. Like a vapor that used to be sweet but has somehow imperceptibly turned bad, it seeps into every corner and silently makes its way into the mind of every Chinese person”. Interesting, but also confusing at the same time. To me, Chinese history is fairly simple – it’s just a record of events, and from that we can extract lessons. I am perplexed as to why people wouldn’t know “what to do” with history. You simply should do with it as you will.
#5: I disagree heavily with the historians Gifford describes on page 42. These historians believe that China “peaked too early”, falling under the “weight of its own success”. To me, this is a very shortsighted conclusion. To say that something peaks “too early” implies that if a country or entity peaked at a proper time, that it wouldn’t fall under its own “success”. China’s collapse in its later history serves only to reinforce one thing: Nothing lasts forever, and eras are cyclical.
Question: Is the CCP secretly embracing more liberal ideas internally, but simply not admitting it because they want to preserve “face”?
1.)I thought the concepts of panda huggers and dragon slayers was really interesting. I had never heard of people being defined as that.
ReplyDelete2.) In Chapter 3 Gifford describes how if things are illegal, they are referred to as something else. His specific example is gambling and how instead of betting on a horse, you 'guess.' The same thing goes for the government system China has. I'm sure that happens in the U.S. to some degree, but more or less it's illegal no matter what you do.
3.) Gifford mentions the 1421 theory, and how China circumnavigated the globe before the Europeans, but he did it in a neutral way. I read 1421 and loved the book and it really got me thinking that maybe what I was taught was wrong, which wouldn't be the first time. Gifford gives credit to Zheng He, the admiral of the Chinese fleet, instead of the emperor who supported it which I thought was weird.
4.) I was really shocked by all the statistics Gifford provided, like 16 of the world's most polluted cities are in China, and the rivers are contaminated. But no matter the difficulties China is has, they are constantly expanding their economy, now having the 4th largest economy in the world. I thought a country so focused on national pride would be concerned with the welfare of their citizens.
5.) The idea of karaoke bars being prostitution fronts was really interesting. I never thought of singing as a sexual act, but to be put in that environment makes you wonder.
Question: What is China doing about the chronic water shortage and the contaminated rivers?
1. I find it truly amazing how some people live on a day to day basis and what they do to provide an income for their family, like Liu Qiang (intro xv-xvi) who travels 3,000+ miles from Xinjiang to Shanghai all through the year back and forth just to transport melons. He earns 18,000 yuans ($2,200) but only ends up with 3,000 yuans ($380) because of tolls, costs and fines to the police.
ReplyDelete2. Pg. 3 China has the fastest train called the maglev, it cost $1.2 billion to build and is the first commercially run train of its kind in the world. I did a little research on this train and it can travel up to 311 mph, which is awesome.
3. Pg 4. The Astor House Hotel in Shanghai seems to be a place with a lot of history. Urban myth has it that you could order opium from room service (19th century). Ulysses S. Grant also stayed there on his world tour as did Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, and Albert Einstein. Interesting….
4. Pg 17. I find it slightly terrifying that Beijing still runs a system of labor camps. Every year tens of thousands of people are sentenced. For example a Chinese lady was sentenced to a year in a labor camp for retweeting. That’s absurd. Here is the link to the article if you want to find out more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/18/chinese-woman-sent-labor-camp-retweeting/
5. I didn’t realize all the inventions China had shared with the world, they invented the sternpost rudder, the iron-chain suspension bridge, deep drilling techniques, canal locks, the kite, the crossbow…just to name a few. (pg 42)
My question about China is how did they help over 400 million out of poverty since 1978? How did they do it?? That’s more than the entire population of South America! …”the Chinese government is doing the most extraordinary thing the planet has ever witnessed” (Page 17).
1. On page 6, Gifford describes his first night out in Shanghai. The way he described the city that evening is nothing like Hessler's experience in Beijing. Gifford mentioned one of the many fancy restaurant in the city to eat at, right by the waterfront and his hotel. He also mentioned there was an Armani store, this surprised me that there is more than 'jiade' products in China. Shanghai seems more up-to-date and wealthier than the rest of China. Furthermore, he compares Shanghai to Manhattan and Beijing to our political influenced capital, Washington D.C.
ReplyDelete2. On page 17, Gifford tries to explain his view of China in today's world. Through all the divisions and problems of China, he says, "One day i think that China is going to take over the world, and that the Chinese government is doing he most extraordinary thing that the planet has ever witnessed." The phrase China is going to take over the world is thrown around throughout the whole world, yet China is full of surprises and is changing everyday.
3. On page 26, Gifford mentions his experience at a Hooters in Shanghai. Out of all the American restaurant chains, it was surprising to see that Hooters is in China. In fact, the Hooters isn't occupied by only desperate, single men and there are actually families dining there. Plus, I did not think that the government would be supportive of the revealing dress code of a Hooters waitress and the restaurants theme altogether. Is there a Hooters in Beijing?
4. On page 32 and 33, Gifford describes the wealthier people of China. The most common way of determining if someone is wealthy or not is by if the travel often and/or own a Jeep. Gifford accompanied an advertising executive, a software programmer, and other Jeep owners who are members of the Shanghai Off Roader Jeep club. These wealthy men make around $6,000 a month, which is 60 times the average salary in Shanghai! I would like to take my Jeep Grand Cherokee on the 5 day drive along Route 312 all the way to the Gobi desert.
5. On page 49, Gifford says, "Now China is becoming a Great Power. Economically, diplomatically, internationally, it is on the verge of greatness. And yet, it still tends to think and speak like a victim." This seems directly related to Hessler's opinion of the Chinese. After all of China's been through over the past centuries, China and it's people consistently underestimate themselves and never seemed to recover after every tragedy that's occurred. Gifford compares it the a Boston Red Sox after finally winning a World Series. In other words, it's hard to accept being a winner after consistently losing.
My questions is why aren't we going to Shanghai?!
The first thing I found interesting was the passage on page 8 where Gifford talks about the tourists photographing Shanghai with westerners, "trying to recreate the past as they snap photos of old colonial buildings," and the Chinese doing the opposite by photographing the modern buildings
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I found interesting was a line on page 15 that said, "After the killing of the students in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the Communist Party leaders made an unwritten unspoken deal with the people of China: stay out of politics and you can do whatever you want." I thought this was a weird way to think about what's going on in China because it still seems that the government is still very much controlling of the every day lives of the people.
I thought it was interesting on Page 34 where they were able to get away with illegal gambling in public by just calling it something else. It seems to me that a lot of things in china work this way, like having capitalism in a communist system by calling it Chinese-style socialism
I also thought it was interesting on page 45 where Gifford said that China was shocked when the Japanese conquered Beijing because, "[they] saw Japanese culture as derivative from, and therefore inferior to Chinese culture." It's interesting to me because a major part of nationalism is feeling that other countries are not as good as yours, but at the same time it's also seems silly to underestimate a culture solely because it is based off your own.
I thought the opinion the protester expressed on page 54, that as compared to the west "Chinese people do not have a moral standard withing them", was interesting. It seems hard to believe that with their greater emphasis on family values and hard work, that they would have no sense of right or wrong.
I was wondering how the "Rural Reforms" that were the goal in 2006 have panned out in recent years, has the number of rural protests decreased?
p. 15: In the United States you need money to get power; in China you need power to get money. China’s prosperity is generally only accessible to the corrupt. In reality the country is not as prosperous as it looks. There are numerous social problems like unemployment, and crime, and a huge gap between the haves and the have nots, that is barely disguised by the appearance of affluence.
ReplyDeletep. 17: Gifford notices that there is a divide between those who think China is doing great and will not be a threat to anyone in the future, and those who say China is a threat to everyone and needs to be contained. How they regard China depends, in part, on their own characters and prejudices. Regardless on individual opinion about China, Gifford believes that because the Chinese citizens have had more choice than they’ve had in the past, they won’t long be content to have no choice in their political leaders.
p. 34 : In relating the story about placing a guess instead of a bet on a horse, which would be illegal, Gifford realizes that China is willing to allow some things happen openly as long as they are called the right thing. He extends this to the political and economic system. He points out that in parts of China, capitalism is being practiced openly, which seems to be okay as long it is being called socialism.
p. 42: In giving a quick overview of China’s early history, Gifford reminds us that although China was once a prominent power in the world, they were eventually semi-colonized and everything that they thought of as symbolic of their superior culture became a symbol of backwardness and humiliation. This explains the determination the Chinese people feel about returning their country to a position of strength and power today.
p. 58: Chinese peasants have been betrayed by the Communist party. They were supposed to be liberated by the experiment, but have found themselves at the bottom again. Because China is urbanizing so quickly, there is need for more land. Framers rent land on a long term basis, but officially al land belongs to the state. Some local officials are taking the land by force from the farmers and selling it to developers. Party officials came to power promising to give land to the peasants, but now they are taking it form them for their own personal gain. They are offered money for land but at far below market values.
Question: In light of the fact that Chinese citizens have more choice than in the past, I wonder how long the communist party can hang on before people push for more of a voice.
Right away, on page 13 I found two interesting observations; the first is that Shanghai was the ‘bastard child of China’ because of the western influence. There people indulged and it showed all the dirty glitz, and glamour of any western city. The second thing I found interesting was the snip it of conversation Gifford has with the watchman. “Sorry about all that stuff with the opium, and the whole colonization “thing…We’re not very proud of all that, you know’ Gifford said to the man. “Mei shi” the man laughs “Don’t worry. That’s history. You can’t change history.” I feel that this thought comes out of the confusions beliefs held by many Chinese.
ReplyDeleteThe third thing that I found very interesting was on page 17; “For every fact that is true about China, the opposite is almost always true as well, somewhere in the country.” China is a very large country, with a very large population. I feel that westerners usually make sweeping generalizations about not only China but about Asia as a whole. These generalizations are rooted in as much truth as thinking all Americans or Westerners are the same. Those of us who are American would tell you that America is a very diverse country; those of us who are Chinese would tell you that China is a very diverse country.
The fourth thing was Gifford’s comparison of politics to pizza. He says “It’s not happening tomorrow, but I think that once you allow people to choose their pizza toppings, sooner or later they are going to want to choose their political leaders (18).” I feel that when many westerners thing of Chinese politics they don’t fully understand or consider the mandate of heaven, and how that would affect how people view their leaders.
The final thing I found interesting was on page 64. Gifford states, that the United States has 9 cities that have over a million inhabitants; in China there are 49. I find these numbers to be mind blowing. Coming from a small area, with low populations it is hard for me to really imagine what it must be like to live in such a densely populated area.
My question about China is… what is daily life like in one of the many 49 cities that is not well known by the west?
Fine CHINA ROAD musings, colleagues.
ReplyDeleteMissing: Cooley, Harken, Pinkham, Pollack, Taberman, and Blythe.
A go go - let's explore these in class!
W
How do you keep getting my name wrong Rob!
ReplyDelete1. Towards the beginning of the book Gifford is explaining how he finds an old British Consulate building and upon inquiry he has to use his ethic background to gain admittance. He explains how “even though we poisoned them with opium, stole their land, carved up their country, patronized, humiliated, and half-enslaved them, Old Hundred Names, the ordinary Chinese people, are astonishingly courteous and accommodating to foreigners, yes, even to the British” (11). I wonder where this generosity comes from; as I’m assuming that most people who live in China must have an education about the atrocities that were done by foreigners.
2. While commenting on the emerging middle class, Gifford makes the connection that some of these factory workers from the more rural areas in China “have no health insurance and if they become really sick, all they can do is go home and die” (16). I find this very intriguing, that there is no care for essentially what is the backbone of a country on the rise. Obviously it is because of economic reasons, though being that China is a “Peoples Republic”, and communist, you would think there would be some form of help for the poor.
3. When Gifford discovers an “American Owl Restaurant” he explains the occurrence as “somehow, the whole thing has been transformed into a rather wholesome family dining experience” (27). I’m sure this is the same cultural lens that someone from China might see the amount of Chinese food restaurants in America that would have the same environment; especially if there was something that us as Americans didn’t know about Chinese Buffets, but just wanted to experience the flavor and environment we assumed as Chinese.
4. I found it rather profound when Gifford explained that while traveling into the more industrial parts of China that “to a postmodern foreigner, traveling westward along this road is a journey back in time, to an industrial past that his own country has largely left behind” (32). It is difficult to put yourself in the mindset that America went through the same sort of process that China is grappling with now, just over the past couple centuries.
5. Gifford’s description of Hefei sounded so hopeful and full of progress. The fact that the government has invested the equivalent of over two billion American dollars seems to be an enormous deal in my mind. I think this site will be very important in years to come, as it is getting money poured into it and has become a hub for the scientifically adept of the region, whom Gifford explains are just as skilled as their American counterparts though make a third of the income.
Q. My question about china is if they have any sort of health care plan in the works so that there aren’t countless petty deaths in the poverty stricken regions of the country?
1. My first observation from the first section of the book comes from page 31. In the last paragraph Gifford tells of Tintin weaving in and out of traffic, as if trying to lose the cars behind him who he was supposed to be leading. Reading this brought me right back to riding in the taxis from the train station to our hotel in Beijing. Though it would have made sense to drive over to the hotel in an orderly convoy, as soon as we loaded into the cars the drivers took off in a mad dash. It almost seemed as if our drivers were racing each other to the hotel, in hopes of getting a good tip for getting there first. Finally when the driver of the car that I was in put his signal on to turn away from the group, for what could have either been a short cut or a joyride around Beijing for all I knew, I almost had a panic attack and yelled for him to keep following the other taxis in front of us.
ReplyDelete2. My next observation is from page 33, where Gifford is talking about the various regions of China that are dominated by ethnic minorities, like the Uigars or the Tibetans. One particular quote from this page by Little Liu really reminded me of some of our cultural interpretations while in China. “There are lots of interesting ethnic groups who are part of country but not like us, the Uigar Muslims, the Tibetans. They’re very wild, you know.” This quote brought me right back to some of our conversations and first impressions in China about our amazement at the lack of ethnic diversity there, and how we were the only minorities we saw while we were touring. Gifford is explaining in this section that though to a foreigner’s eye it may not seem that there is much diversity in China, the country is so vast and diversely populated that even two people who look similar may have very different beliefs and practices, and most likely do!
3. The third observation that I found interesting and reminiscent is from page 36, where Gifford talks about the musical selection in the karaoke machine at a karaoke bar that he visits. He mentions many American and English speaking musical artists and groups that are displayed in the machine, and reading this really reminded me of the two nights that we went to Club Coco Banana, and the music we heard. I was surprised to find that almost every song that I heard in the club those nights was music that I could hear on the radio here in the States. It was in a way intriguing to me that they would appreciate our music this far away, and so greatly enjoy music that many people there probably didn’t understand one word of. Yet despite not understanding the words or their meanings, many Chinese people my age who saw us there would chant the lyrics into our ears, as if showing off that they knew the song and could sing it without understanding the language. Those two nights were quite an experience that I will never forget.
4. Another observation that I found to be interesting is from pages 46 and 47 where Gifford talks about visiting The Nanjing Massacre Memorial and Museum. He tells of the stories of rape and torture performed by the Japanese during the massive scale invasion of the 1930s. He explains that the events that occurred during this time still leave raw wounds and sore feelings between the Chinese and Japanese, which reminded me of one particular point in our trip. On one of the last days of our tour, in Beijing, we came back from the Great Wall to find that there had been a disastrous earthquake in Japan that day. As we walked into the hotel, televisions behind the hotel concierges were displaying breaking news on the situation in Japan, this was the first we had heard of it because we had been on the wild wall all day long. I began to notice that the Chinese employees and guests paid no attention to the televisions and didn’t seem to really care about it. When we asked the two men behind the desk what happened, the simply shrugged and said, It’s Japan, they’ll get over it.” After reading this section of the book these compassionless feelings are easier for me to understand, given the long history of bad emotions between the countries.
ReplyDelete5. My final observation is from page 57, at the bottom where Gifford discusses the trials and tribulations of the peasant farmers of China. He states that poor rural farmers make up the vast majority of the population, numbering at around 750 million. He then explains how they were the ones who sought to benefit from the Communist experiment in China, and that it has only left them at the bottom of the barrel. This gave me a powerful memory of looking out the bus windows as we drove through what seemed to be endless miles of desolate farmland, polluted from the litter tossed out car windows on the highway, and contaminated from the Irrigation Rivers that were fed by contaminated water sources. Small shacks and tombstone graveyards were all that hinted of human inhabitance, and I could only imagine the struggle for existence that must be experienced by these people.
My question from this section is if Communism was supposed to work out so well, and distribute wealth to these poor farmers, what happened? Did China adopt too much of a consumerist attitude from the West, and forget about the objectives that they set out with for Communism?