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Published: July 19th 2009
I must start this blog off again by apologizing for the gap in between updates. As I’ve said before, it’s really difficult to find time for them, but I’ve been writing stuff down, both weird and interesting, so I don’t forget to mention them in my subsequent update. So, needless to say, since it’s been a good two weeks since my last update, this one will be a really, really long one. Now where to begin?
More observations from China - note that all of these are based entirely on speculation and due to my lack of exposure to “real China” (seeing how people live, their actual living conditions, their salaries, seeing taxation and subsidizations from the government, etc.), they could be entirely wrong. However, those who know me know that I spend a lot of time in my head, thinking of stupid crap like this. Anyway, I’ve observed quite a few things that I feel need to be mentioned.
The first and foremost is the very nature of where I live. I’ve come to be pretty suspicious of how things are presented here. I’ve felt this from the very beginning - and I still do now - that everything I see is stuff that I’m “meant” to see, if that makes sense. I feel like there’s a very systematic approach to where the campus is, the living condition I’ve been placed in, etc. As a result, all of my observations could mean absolutely nothing, because they’re all based on what the government, perhaps, wants me to see. Therefore, all of my observations could be based on something that’s false to begin with. For example, around where we are, there are a lot of trash bins, but nobody ever uses them. The Chinese don’t about their environment, as I recently discovered this weekend, but that’s for the next blog. Those trash bins were probably all installed for the Olympics, so that foreigners can come in, see the trash bins (which include a can for recyclables) and think, “Oh, how great! The Chinese recycle” but as I observed in Shanghai, I really do feel as though there’s more money available for initial building instead of maintenance. If this is true, I highly doubt the Chinese government pays for recycling. It’s interesting too, because if you’re in a public square, or in a place with a lot of people, and you have a bottle of water (which you pretty much always will), sometimes an older person will approach you to see if you’ve finished your water. This person will always have a huge bag, full of empty of bottles. I have two ideas about this: either these people are unemployed, and trash companies pay them per bottle, which would explain the vigor with which they collect all these bottles, or they’re employed by the government to pick up trash. Both are completely feasible, because in the former example, as a result of the population problem, unemployment has become a huge issue. I’ve seen the bottle collectors compete for empty plastic bottles. In the latter example, with the government probably in charge of employment as a whole, they’re probably undertaking efforts to tackle unemployment and the litter problem at the same time by hiring those without real jobs, and paying them per bottle they collect. Both are completely feasible, but I’m leaning towards the latter, as it better fits the model of China I’m coming to understand better day by day.
In another example of appearances, I see tons of people going outside, participating in activities day in and day out, but usually in the evenings. In front of the nearby Beijing Convention Center there’s the public square that I’ve mentioned before, and I don’t know if their activities are propagated because their home lives suck and their best outlet is to go outside, or if it’s a cultural thing. As I mentioned in some other update, I can’t tell if these differences are a result of culture or government. In this example, I’m inclined to lean towards “both”, because culturally if they’re used to a life that isn’t atomized and social, they will naturally go to these activities every single night and day, but if the government takes steps to implement moral standards by purposefully lowering salaries like the Soviets did in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, it would also contribute to phenomena such as this. It would fit the idealistic, utopian model of Communism, but honestly, I do believe that the government here has the best interest of the people at heart, and here’s why - they’re utterly afraid of social unrest and revolt. When the riots broke out in Xinjiang, for example, the very first response the government took was blocking internet access to networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in order to “contain” the information from spreading. Any government that’s afraid of the truth from getting out to contain violence is afraid of its people. And honestly, that’s the way any government should operate in my honest opinion - afraid of its people. For now though, I’m not entirely convinced, but am becoming increasingly so, that the government has the best interest of the people at heart. Of course, earlier in Chinese history, this was not the case at all. Being a Conservative American, I inherently do not trust big government or any of its implications, including the type of CONTROL the Chinese government feels it can exude on its people, including the weather. Yes, they try to cause rain by shooting massive amounts of gunpowder into the sky. They even think they can control the weather, which not only makes me laugh (and would make Ian Malcolm laugh too), but also gives you an idea about the implications of this type of government. It believes it can control the population number (which it actually can, it’s mind boggling), subsidize commonly-bought consumer goods, such as food (there’s no tax, and everything you buy is rounded to the nearest tenth of a cent, but commonly just to the nearest dollar), and resolve problems by itself.
Speaking of government control, the economy comes to mind. I had a conversation with another CET student about the economy. His opinion was that China right now is capitalism at its finest. I vehemently disagree with this opinion. China has a substantial consumer economy, but this DOES NOT equate to capitalism. When the government owns every bus, every taxi, every market (even the ones that are “independent” or “private” of the government control still are not, by Western standards), this is not capitalism. I’ve noticed that EVERY single market sells the exact same items. Exactly the same stuff. I’m not just saying similar items, I mean literally the exact same stuff. You think these people on the side of the road are selling interesting trinkets, but in truth, they’re almost certainly supplied by government-owned institutions. To be honest, I’m not entirely convinced that the government is doing a bad job. China has substantially different problems relative to the rest of the world, and perhaps this kind of control is what is needed, but another part of me screams about human rights, the right to be represented, etc.
One example of the government-controlled economy and its implications is the health care system. Again, this is all based on observations, but it appears as though health care in China does not compare to that in the states. I’m actually surprised at the number of people I see with massive burns and skin discolorations, but I’m not convinced if this is a result of the health care system, or the result of a large number of factory jobs with sub-standard working conditions. Both are probably responsible. However, at the same time, it can’t be denied that I’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff on the subway, and other places. One time, I saw a guy, clearly with his wits, but also clearly desperate, whose entire bottom half of his body was made of metal. He shuffled his way on his rear up the train cars, begging for money. While I haven’t seen many sights entirely like this, situations like this are not uncommon. It’s a testament to both the state of the health-care system, and how developing economies create wealth gaps. It cannot be avoided. It utterly cannot. Someone please get John Edwards to understand that. You can help the poor and needy all you want, and we should, but there is no way to obliterate poverty from our society. Call me a fatalist if you so desire, but there will always be someone with more “wealth” than someone else.
Another example of the government-owned economy can be observed very easily - at big stores (which are just about every fifty feet in Beijing). There’s a really big market near campus called Ito Yokato. It’s a nice store that sells everything from knock-off Ripsticks to food. The thing about it that’s interesting is how utterly inefficient it is, though. You really get the impression that these stores are created specifically for the purpose of creating jobs. There’s no demand for any of these items other than the jobs they supply. Here’s the reason I say that - every little “area” of the store has at least three employees. In the food section, it’s a persons job to give you a shopping basket or cart when you arrive. Another person gathers the baskets from the cash registers. It’s one person’s entire job to monitor the candy section. It’s kind of funny actually, the person will just kind of watch you as you decide what you want to buy. They have three people selling flowers from the front of the store, when they could just as easily have one person doing all of these jobs by himself. As a result, there’s absolutely no utility for doing a good job because their jobs are so pointless and mundane that they all stand around, text-messaging on their cell-phones, completely bored out of their minds. And the government is paying for all of this. There’s a huge flaw in this. First and foremost, when the population gets to a number it likes under the one-child policy, the government will have less revenue by taxation. Once this happens, how will they subsidize everything? Will they continually increase taxes or let the markets start taking care of itself? When that happens, the government will be forced to relinquish control, which can go two different ways, and you guess what that means. It can be done peacefully, as was the case in post-Soviet Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, or it can be done violently and slowly or not at all, as was the case in Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. This is just one example of the inefficiencies of this economy, in my opinion. I really do feel that the longer the government keeps the economy under its control, the longer they postpone an increasingly large backlash.
Okay, now on to funnier stuff. Anecdotes are fun!
One day as we were walking back to campus from eating dinner, we were buying some ice cream, as is our nearly-everyday custom (I think I’m gaining weight ><). One my way out of the tiny sideroad store, I see an old woman, pestering Seth. This entire conversation occurred in Chinese, by the way. He was pestering Seth, with her hand on his shoulder, to make sure that he called his mother. He kind of shrugged her off and walked away, opposite the direction of campus, while at the same time, another part of the group split off and went back to campus. We all had different plans, so yeah. I went with the group that was going back to campus. The woman started shouting things at the group that was headed off in the opposite direction, and we just laughed, believing that she would just stay in the middle of the road. We were wrong.
A few moments later, I felt someone approach me from the left. It was the old lady. I was in the back of the group and she caught up with me and started talking. Again, this is all in Chinese, because I’m not allowed to speak any English here. She mentioned really openly that her body was awesome. Humoring her, but realizing that his woman wasn’t “all there”, I asked her, “Oh, do you frequently exercise?” and she replied, “Yeah, you could say that”. She then proceeded to put her arm around me, grabbing my opposite hip, saying, “I could be your teacher”. Immediately shrugging her off and starting to trot (the rest of the group was speeding up, but having difficulty doing so, as they were all cracking up) I said to her, “Yeah, um, I already have about five professors, and a bunch of girlfriends, so no, sorry” No use, she followed up BACK TO CAMPUS. I thought the guards would stop her, but she just kept following us. As weird as it was, I sensed no danger from her, and there’s no way she was a hooker… she was just too friggin’ old. Even if she were an old, old hooker, what was she doing hanging around a college campus? It seems like she’s make more business at, like, an old folks’ home or something. She followed us into the main building, at which time we told the Shifu that there was this crazy idiot lady in the building. The Shifu came out of his office and told her to leave. Right now. The lady looked at me square in the eyes and said, “Midnight. Another place. Be there” I told her I’d be there shortly and she just left. Nuts. Friggin’ nuts.
Oh, and by the way, my roommate and his former-girlfriend think I look like Tony Blair. I guess all us white-folk do look alike after all.
That’s another thing that interesting and screwy. My roommate recently graduated from college and had two jobs lined up, but eventually had to pick one, but this presented him with a really hard choice, and he lost sleep over it, eventually asking me what I thought about his situation. This is what he explained to me. He could either work at a bank or in Customs. If he worked at the bank, his salary would be insanely high and he’d assuredly be able to buy a nice house and have a very comfortable life. The problem is that he’s not very interested in working at a bank, and he’d probably be there for the rest of his life (it’s his career option, not a job assigned him by the government). The other choice was the customs bureau, where the salary is considerably lower, but apparently once you’ve worked there for quite a while, you get some sort of power. I didn’t understand what kind of power from our conversation, but I told him that I thought his interests were what was most important. His parents suggestion was to work in customs because of the power he’d get from it. He also proceeded to tell me that his girlfriend would almost assuredly leave him if he chose to work in Customs, due to the low salary. Completely dumbfounded by this point of view, I asked him about it again if that would really happen. He responded, “More than likely” and it’s not because of his girlfriend’s personality - it’s the way things are in Beijing. He believed it’s a weird custom, but that’s the reality of it. He seemed to respond warmly to my advice, that if the salary would get him by, that he should choose what his interests were. The salary is low, but definitely enough to get him by, plus he gets that political power later in life. The really sad reality of it is that his girlfriend actually left him as a result of this low salary. She didn’t agree with his job decision, so she broke up with him. I swear, the Chinese are really good at hiding their emotions, because he did not look sad at all until I asked him about it.
Two weekends ago, CET took us to Cuandixia, a really, really old market town about three hours out of Beijing, up in the mountains. The city used to be a supplier of meat and vegetables to the Forbidden City way back in the day during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was incredible to see a city as old as this one but I do have to admit that it was too touristy for my tastes, so as early as I could, I broke off from the group and started to climb the mountains. There was a path to the top of one of the nearby mountains. The mountains in China are incredible. They’re also really different than the ones I’ve seen in America. They appear much more abruptly. You could literally be driving and ALL OF SUDDEN be in the mountains. The land can be flat, flat, flat, flat, flat, and then BOOM, you’re up in the mountains. It’s crazy. The ones near Cuandixia also had what I call “spines” of rocks going up them. Really a beautiful site, and almost gets up to par with Mt. Baldy in Philmont. Close, but not quite. They would have surpassed Baldy if Cuandixia hadn’t annoyed me with its touristy attractions.
Well, this took longer than I thought it would. I’m not even half way done with the stuff I want to talk about, and with our trip to Yu Xian that I just got back from, I have loads more than I want to talk about. I’ll be sure to get up to the present this week though. I’m also going to try and get some post cards out too. We’ll see.
Thanks for reading! I’ll post more soon, I promise.
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CKS
non-member comment
I need stay longer to understand real China
A typical 'feigner's explanation of obersvation. too naive, my firend!