Tag Archives: The New York Times

“Only in China” surpasses “Only in America”

14 Feb

The New York Times ran an op-ed on Xi Jinping, China’s assumed heir apparent to the CCP chair and presidential throne, last Sunday. Though deeply cynical of China as a whole, the writer describes why many Chinese view Xi as a strong “advocate of ordinary people’s interests.” That is if, of course, you consider this somehow relatively ordinary:

When Mr. Xi was 9, his father, Xi Zhongxun, who had fought in the Communist revolution, was purged from the party by Mao. The father was detained and imprisoned and spent 16 years in a labor camp, plunging the family into poverty. During the Cultural Revolution, a 15-year-old Mr. Xi was banished to a poverty-stricken village in northern China where, for seven years, he labored with peasants, eating corn chaff bread and sleeping in a flea-infested bed.

From flea-infested to leader of a world superpower. Now, that, my friends, is an “Only in China” story.

Used to be, growing up, one would hear the phrase “Only in America” like it was going out of style. Turns out, it was.

“Only in America” has lost most of its moxie. I mean, what was the last great OiA headliner? Obama, right. “Black elected president! Only in America!” Like no one had ever heard of the African continent before.

Not to take away from Barack’s humble upbringings, but he certainly didn’t suffer through the hardships of Xi Jinping’s family. Which also isn’t to say that many families have not, considering most Chinese families did suffer a similar fate in those dark years.

I guess, what I am getting at here, is that the motherland of opportunity has relocated. If I were going to ask you where the next dirt-poor peasant would rise to the cream of the crop, would you bet on it happening in America or China? That’s the question.

My money is on China. I think it’s safe to say most would agree. Part of that, undoubtedly, is due to the fact that China is still in its Rockefeller Revolution. But is that the only reason?

I’d like to say that the road to riches is a a little less rocky in China at the moment, but that just isn’t the case either. Poor, rural Chinese face just as rough, if not a rougher road to success than their peers in the US. A farmer’s child in China is born with literally next to nothing.

Hmm, it’s a tightrope argument here. One could fall of on either side and really offend someone/a billion people. So, I guess I’ll leave the questions to you…

What is that makes China feel like more is possible there than in the US? Is it solely the economy? Can an argument be made for cultural differences? How much of it comes down to parents and sacrifice for their children? What about ambition, determination, laziness, and entitlement, where would you chart them in a comparison?

All I know is this: Google “Only in America” and you get 2,120,000,000 hits. Google “Only in China” and you get 2,190,000,000.

That’s 70,000,o00 more reasons to think “Only in China” might be only the beginning.

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Breaking News from CNN: Chinese Use Internet

30 Mar

Shocking. Just shocking. Thank you CNN for unraveling the mystery and revealing that Chinese people have computers! And not only that. They use the Internet! And not only that, they actually don’t seem to really give a shit about the firewall. Oh, the humanity!

So CNN has been on a week-long blitzkrieg of the Internet in China. It must have been disappointing as the week wore on and producers started realizing they didn’t have a story.

I assume CNN presumed there would be this big undercurrent of angry netizens who are in this protracted slugfest with easily-painted overlord censors. But as these reports hint at, the number of Chinese netizens continues to explode, e-commerce is thriving, and in many ways Chinese websites have surpassed US competitors.

Shocking Revelation #1: Most Chinese citizens are not looking to overthrow their government. Think of it this way. You’re a kid. You’ve wanted to go to Disney World your entire life. Grew up watching the cartoons, the movies. Had the shirt. Had the hat. One day, your parents finally take you. And the next thing you know, you’re inside the park, next in line for Space Mountain, and some guy comes up to you. Hey kid, Mickey Mouse is one bad dude, he says. How about you get out of line (pun intended), kick Mickey in the shin, and burn his house down?

Shocking Revelation #2: Ah, Earth to Matil, Chinese love their cellphones. A good portion of my Chinese friends only use their phones to go online. And they’re always on. Keep in mind, I’d be hiking through some tea fields in the middle of nowhere, and the old man walking the water buffalo next to me starts blowing up– “Ga ga oooh la la…” Boom. Pulls out the new iPhone before its even released in the States, and screams, “喂!” (=wei = hello)!

Shocking Revelation #3: CNN may be surprised how much information is actually available online. There’s a lot out there not containing the buzzwords in this redundant story: Empty Chair, sex, protest, jasmine, Tengbiao, Hillary, Huntsman.

This also reminds me of something a friend and former university instructor said during a poli-sci class. Now, like most things from my college days, I forget the specifics. But he was either telling us a) netizens are 99.9% useless morons, or b) the New York Times isn’t a great source for following politics. Either way, a bunch of students got all riled up over it. Apparently, they went home and sent him some ugly emails about dissing the net and the NYT. The next class, he pulled up the homepage, where it lists the “Most Viewed” and “Most E-mailed” stories of the week. Number one in both: Fat Kid Numa Numa Dance.

Shocking Revelation #4: Major foreign companies and many individual foreigners are clients of high-powered VPNs and have no issue surfing the Internet. None. Ever.

Shocking Revelation #5: There are a huge number of free VPNs that can be easily downloaded in any Chinese city. Eventually, particularly around political events, your free VPN might be discovered by censors and rendered ineffective. But if you have the extra 20 minutes, you can find a new one.

Shocking Revelation #6: While Chinese websites may have stolen a lot of the IPR to create look-alike Chinese versions of popular US sites, many of those are now outperforming the original. I actually miss some of the websites I had grown accustomed to using in China. Top of the list might be Qunar.com a travel site far better than Expedia or any crap hosted in the States. In fact…

Shocking Revelation #7: People can live without Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. The two sites that suck to have blocked are Gmail and Wikipedia. Besides those two, I never had a problem finding information on other sites. It’s funny that the land of democracy and free market competition is so stunned that more than one form of a company exists. Baidu, Renren, Douban, QQ, Weibo, Qunar. They’re legit.

Shocking Revelation #8: A lot of things blocked in the Chinese language are not blocked in English, and vice versa.

Shocking Revelation #9: Many sensitive web pages actually still load. It is only when you stay on them for a while that the next click may lead to a connection disruption.

Shocking Revelation #10: You can still download porn.

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CCP Will Not Fall

21 Feb

 

Police talk to a couple of men filming interviews in Chengdu's central Tianfu square while I was on vacation there last year.

Don’t hold your breath. Recent news of protests in China will not amount to revolutionary change as seen in the Middle East. But damn you, CCP, for perpetuating this interminable argumentative paradox.

 

It’s safe to say that most foreigners who have earned the expatriate title living in China have a love-hate relationship with the country. Obviously, most find enough weight on the pro side of the scale to remain. Still the vicissitudes of daily life provide ample sway.

While in China, friends and I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time blasting the inconsistent rationality of most things Chinese. Yet, as soon as I return home, the tables turn. I find myself unwittingly and yet seemingly forced to defend China, warts and all.

A perfect example of this behavioral paradox manifested itself this weekend. I was reading Michael Turton’s blog, a man I generally agree with and find quite insightful. He posted something to the effect of the Confucius Institute is a covert international spy network set up by the CCP. It was bold, and reaching; I saved the link.

China’s lack of an exportable (soft) culture is seen as a huge hole in its PR toolbox. There are plans aplenty to rectify this. For instance, the government has promised millions in funding to try to set up a 24-hour English news channel a la BBC or CNN. The idea being that it could spread the “China voice,” more effectively exposing the world to the country’s (read: the CCP’s) opinion on international matters. The Confucius Institute, essentially a mandarin language center, has been the party’s most successful attempt at garnering an allegedly non-political and respectable Chinese presence abroad.

It should come as no surprise that candidates hoping to work for the institute are thoroughly vetted by the supervising body. Foremost is the increasingly illogical yet persistent fear of a country offering a visa to a Chinese who might defect and never return home. But beyond that, I am sure the powers that be want those representing the country to be loyal and patriotic– as would any state-run enterprise abroad.

Stories of spy games and blacklisting seem to me unsubstantiated at best and not surprising to say the least. To assume government organizations abroad are not players in international policy is foolish. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist myself, but I think US history (most notably Central and South America) assures us that our own “national interests” have met these means over the years.

So right as I was about to post this rebuttal, the CCP went ahead and made itself look like an asshole again locking up alleged dissidents for fear of Middle East-inspired protests. I certainly don’t condone or support this effort, yet it also doesn’t surprise me.

Unlike the Northern African nations who are just now realizing they played their cards wrong, the CCP has China by the balls. The New York Times and others calling the crack down a show of “nervousness” is more than a stretch. Reports peg the number of arrests and lockdowns at around 90. Mind you that Chinese authorities could arrest the entire population of Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt combined and there would still be 1.2 billion people going about business as usual.

The amazing, albeit horrifying, aspect of these events is the individual willingness within the police state to crack down on dissidents. There must be at least a few intelligence officers who go home at night and scrub their hands until they bleed. But for whatever reason, I imagine that number to be practically infinitesimal. The fact that unknown streams of normal netizens log on as pro bono nationalist hackers is a quick reminder of how strong support for the party remains.

So come what may of these arrests, the CCP isn’t going to flinch. These North African regimes are falling because they have failed to provide basic societal needs– security and opportunity. While they have ignored festering tensions among the masses, the CCP has not. There is a brutal mastery in manipulation of public accord, a wave of the wand China knows well.

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Sex in China: Adultery Provisions

17 Feb

China’s top court is about to make a ruling on the legal rights of husbands, wives, and mistresses. The very fact that adultery has emerged publicly as a social issue highlights a huge contradiction in Chinese society, one most citizens try to ignore.

There are plenty of dark corners in China and Taiwan.

Chinese will be the first to tell you that they are a very conservative and traditional culture. This is a flat-out lie.

Now, I could devote my first novel to this topic, but let me be short: The Chinese are equally as perverted and promiscuous as the next clan.

Sex shops (成人用品) are everywhere, as are the red-hair salons. I’ve seen businessmen readjusting their ties as they walk out of a lunchtime “haircut” without the slightest out-of-the-ordinary on their face. I’ve been in Family Mart, one of the largest convenience stores in China and Taiwan, where a large dildo in various colors was available at checkout next to the gum and lighters.

Sex is an integral part of society and often a direct measure of male status.

The adultery endemic is laughed off when discussed among friends. But its implications stretch into an overwhelming majority of households.

I know men who rent apartments for 二奶 (lit. second lady or second milk, which is more disturbing; also called 小老婆, little wife). Sometimes their wives live in the same city, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the wives know, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes there are no children, or a family at home, or a family in both homes. As long as the man is winning that bread, the charade goes on.

Sex is business. Some of my closest friends closed countless deals in karaoke houses known for their female escorts. One of the largest in a former city was like a coliseum, with a stage in the center. Young women came out solo or in sets to sing, to dance, or just to saunter up and down the stage wearing a beauty-pageant sash or ribbon with a number on it. Back in the room, you ordered to your liking.

Now, mind you this doesn’t always mean prostitution. Most of the time, these girls’ primary job is to keep pouring drinks until someone embarrasses themselves. If you hold out the longest, you earn that deal.

I knew a young lady who once told me she would be ashamed to marry a man who didn’t have at least one mistress. She believed it would show she chose an undesirable or unsuccessful mate. She also told me that she would get married within six months of that conversation (though single at the time), and that Chinese had a deeper understanding of love than foreigners.

None of this really bothers me. The exploitation of it is fucked. But just as often, these young ladies are exploiting these 土包子 (derogatory term for the newly rich) as The New York Times article mentions. It’s a complicit agreement, as is the cover-up. “It’s our culture, you could never understand,” Chinese will tell you. It’s a common refrain when discussing the less rosy side of rapid development in the country.

It’s much the same in Taiwan. I know plenty of businessmen here who jet-set across the strait with fully functioning families on each side. I know PR guys can’t ink a client without sending a portfolio of showgirls for events. Not to mention “dirty KTVs” and enough ”love hotels” (fancy rooms-by-the-hour) to house half the population.

Traditional is as traditional does. They say the foreigners are the dirty pervs. Don’t let ‘em fool ya.

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