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Published: December 5th 2008
ZhuJiang New Town
Construction is still underway in this new center of commercial and business activity.The collapse of world markets has been a wake up call for the Chinese leadership, one they thought they would never have to hear. The pre-crisis narrative had been that with their “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, the boom and bust cycles characteristic of capitalism had been tamed once and for all. The experience here during the Asian economic crisis of 1997 only reinforced this belief; China not only weathered that storm well, but also provided a backstop to the imploding economies of the region.
This notion has been quickly discarded as the factory closings and job losses mount, pictures of idle steel works are prominent in newspapers, and intimations of worse to come are in wide circulation. Instances of civil disruption, work stoppages, and other social unrest are increasing and the government is still evolving its reaction, sometimes compassionate and understanding, other times quickly repressing dissent.
The fear and anxiety this has generated among students here is evident; in many instances these students are the first of their family to attend university, an accomplishment achieved with great personal and familial sacrifice. To have finally achieved their long sought goal and find themselves facing a new, unexpected challenge to their
Migrant worker lodgings
Scattered throughout these large construction projects are these pre-fab dorms for migrant workers. They are cheap to rent, not much to look at, but close to the job site gainful employment creates serious, real world problems for them.
4th year students are feverishly embarked on seeking employment; the economic downturn confronts the 6 million graduating students with little confidence that they will obtain employment. To bolster their chances, students avail themselves of all opportunities to put themselves in front of corporate recruiters. There was a large job fair here last week for which students needed to apply in order to gain entry, with only the most qualified granted admittance. On many other days less formal recruiting events take place and the campus is thronged with students in their interview clothes. The men are attired in midnight blue suits, white shirts and ties and the overall effect is of that apparel that you purchase for a 14 year old, knowing that in a few months he will grow into them. In the meantime the excess material on the collective sartorial collection is enough to clothe Andorra.
The women get a little more leeway; the uniform is black suit, white blouse, and black shoes, but they allow themselves blouses with frills or flat silk, knee high boots (with 5’ heels and faux fur trimming) or flats, and a variety
Dinner for the migrant workers
The dorms do not have cooking facilities so the workers are dependent on these mobile food vendors, they are mobile because they are unlicensed and risk arrest and confiscation of their carts if apprehended of leg coverings from the sheer to the shiny. All in all, a cohort that is getting launched into a world far different then what was promised to them four years ago when they entered university.
In the meantime, the high level debates go on in financial and political capitals around the world. Beijing can justifiably point to its great achievements and the stark fact that they oversee the only major world economy that will see growth this year (and likely next.) The question for them is how to manage potential social unrest with a growth rate of 5%, when they have calculated that a rate closer to 9% as the absolute minimum needed. Their approach has been, and continues to be, to exercise great control over the economy through their tight and unchallenged control of all the financial levers; interest rates, bank lending practices, public expenditures, wage rates, taxes, land use (ALL the land is China is owned by the State), and social spending. While the private sector employs and produces a large part of the economy (60% of the value added activity, according to the OECD), they do so at the sufferance of the State and are
With 1.3 billion people...
Lots of manual work still goes on; many instances when you would see a piece of machinery in the West, here it is a man and his shovel fully aware that policies can change overnight with little opportunity to challenge or modify those changes. In just this past year new policies concerning rural health care, labor law, and land use were made that will dramatically alter the face of China over the next five years. Taken together, you do get the idea that the leadership knows where it is headed, has a plan to get there, and is not timid in the exercise of its power to get everyone else to comply. Or not.
“Socialism with Chinese characteristics” means that this centralized control will endure along with some increasing participation in the decisions by a broader base of citizenry. I am in one of my optimistic moods about the state of China, but this s subject to great lability, be cautioned.
November 27
Thanksgiving Day in the US, but just another work day here. To commemorate the occasion, Ellen, Eli and I head to one of the seven or eight vegetarian restaurants we have identified here and had a dim sum breakfast. None of us are great fans of dim sum, it being some really weird items (agar agar based jells for one) and some
Shopping on Saturday
These department stores are thronged on the weekend, one can barely move for the crowds fairly bland items (we have focused our culinary attention on Hunan and Sichuan for the most part.) In any event, this is a really nice restaurant (you know it Erica, you were there two years ago) with a low keyed Buddhist theme. That morning it was filled with tables of older women, an Aunt Lil there an Aunt Ethel there, you get the drift. They were eating, talking and were exuding “good time” as they lingered over their meal. You can sit in restaurant here for hours without comment, your tea will be constantly re-filled, and no movement to get you to move on until you ask for the bill.
Later that day Ellen and went to teach our class and had many students wish us a happy Thanksgiving; I made some efforts to explain the nuance of the day, actually my favorite holiday as it uniquely downplays commercialism in favor of family (okay, Black Friday has got its ugly nose under the tent, but that is not really T-Day). The Chinese have many holidays that celebrate family including Spring Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, Ghost Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Spirit Festival and Mid-Winter Festival, but equate Western
Lecture night
I have achieved no small renown for my "expertise" on the psychosocial problems for children with leukemia, this was a lecture to about 100 students who volunteer at the hospital where they are treated holidays with commercial activity. While the stores are sporting Christmas decorations similar commercial displays for Chinese holidays are not seen.
The next evening we continued the holiday, inviting a couple of ABCs (American Born Chinese) that we have met here for dinner. To really Bizzaro-world the night I made Indonesian curry with Indian sides, so much for a dead bird!
December 3
We hear many tales of despair and woe from our students, skeptical that there is any room for social work in particular or any significant social activity that is not dominated by the government. There is no meaningful response that we can make that might assuage these worries; we have experienced first hand the unwillingness of the authorities to allow much independent action in the social sphere. This at the same time that they announce plans to “socialize” services; by this they mean the opposite of what you might think they meant as in the local context it means turning the problem over to society and away from the government. There is a clear intention to remove government as the dominant provider and financer of these social services, but with a clear intention of muffling
The "laoshi" (professor) holds forth
They listen intently and have thoughtful questions during the discussion any alternative views of how or what to provide or challenging any authoritarian views on the world.
We have our students working on a project that requires they inquire with local social service providers about the nature of their service, eligibility, hours of services and the like. They report back to us that these “services” refuse to answer their questions, often have email addresses on their websites that are not active and in general treat their inquiries as intrusive.
In a lecture this week we were discussing how individuals can make a difference and we talked about the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and the ensuing movement for equal rights for homosexuals. In the course of that conversation we linked this effort to the broader civil rights movement that secured, eventually, equal rights for black Americans. I invoked the name of Rosa Parks, focusing on the power of the act of an individual and was delighted to see that fully 75% of the class knew who she was. Our hope was that they could gain some inspiration from the courage and self-mastery that characterized the civil rights movement, a victory secured with the blood of those killed by racist
My escorts
I was met at the metro and accompanied back by these earnest students. This school is located at a large complex with over 100,000 students in attendance. forces.
I then went on to talk about Dr. Jiang Yayong, a doctor at a military hospital in Beijing who spoke with Western media at the time of the SARS outbreak in 2003 and exposed the government’s handling and account of the associated problems. It was his act that finally convinced the government here that they needed to more competently address the public health hazard that they were creating by their practice of obfuscation and denial.
I did not go on to say that a year later, on the 15th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 Tienanmen killings he denounced the government’s cover-up of those events and demanded a full inquiry. For this act he was incarcerated for six weeks, finally released after some “re-education”. That this 73 year old physician, a Major General in the Liberation Army was so vulnerable, was a story I did not want to relate on a day where we were seeking to empower and inspire. I am sure that the students knew this anyway but it might be too sensitive for them to talk about in class
This in from the China Daily, December 3, 2008
“A 26-year old man
Sean, a jewel of a human being
Sean has done yeoman work translating for us in a variety of public settings, his formal English style is endearing. He is a sensitive, thoughtful young man who is going to make an important contribution to China, likely in more than one domain. It is people like him that give us confidence in the future of China was recently forced to solicit women for marriage after receiving an ultimatum from his parents. The man, surnamed Mo, from the Guangxi Huang Autonomous Region, told potential wives he really needed to marry within a year according to orders issued by his parents. If he didn’t tie the knot before turning 28, he would violate his family ancestors’ instructions.
Mo said that this infraction would see him denied the chance to offer sacrifices to ancestors during the Qing Ming festival and other family outings if he didn’t live up to family expectations.”
And with that, I will sign off for now; we have a little more than two weeks left here and I hope to get one more entry out before our departure.
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Rose
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" The Shirt"
Stuart, What a lucky find! It must be a sign for you to run again. It would be a great story for my students to write about the travels of the 1992 Friedman Campaign shirt to China!