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Published: January 5th 2015
Chinese FlagUpon coming to China, the idea of living in a Communist country had a mysterious ring to it. I had this impression of a world structured by order and rigid obedience, where I would step off the airplane into 1984, forced to censor my thoughts and feelings, terrified that I was being spied on by everyone around me. While there are indeed some semblances of those ideas, it is much more subtle than what I had expected.
Today’s China has evolved from the typical Communist ideologies that shaped the world during the Cold War, to a point where – I would argue – China is much less Communist than it is Capitalist. While the Communist Party still dictates China and there is a definite reluctance to challenge the status quo, like so many aspects of Chinese culture, there seems to be a misrepresentation of what they are and what they claim to be.
In order to get to the bottom of my curiosity, and despite being cautioned to avoid discussing politics, my desire to understand nagged at me as I attempted to navigate what was being practiced versus what was being preached. I
Marx
Giant stone bust of Marx in the centre of campus. decided I would reign in my students and see what I could learn from them. The conversation began like this:
“Good morning class… today we are going to discuss political philosophy and challenge some of the ideologies of Western democracy while contrasting it with Communism in China…”
“Sir?” one student quietly whispered, “You do know that China is not a Communist country, right?”
And thus my uncertainty deepened.
“What do you mean?” I asked confused.
“Like I said, China is not Communist, it is Socialist”.
“I see”, I said scratching my head. “So how do you explain the fact that your country is run by a one-party system called the
Communist Party of China?” I asked somewhat sarcastically.
“Um, well Communism is the goal of China, but in order to achieve it, we must first go through a period of Socialism.”
“Hmm… so in other words, your politics is dictated by Communism and your economy driven by a Socialism fueled by consumerism?”
“Yes”.
“And you do not see any conflicts of interest with the Marxist principles?”
“What do you mean by ‘Marxist principles’”?
“What do you mean what
School of Marxism
One of the main buildings on campus. do
I mean?” I asked a little frustrated. “I mean you must have studied Marxism, right? Hell, look across the courtyard… that building is called the School of Marxism. You have a gigantic stone bust of Marx sitting in the middle of campus. And that flag flying outside our window, you know the Chinese flag? You do realize it symbolizes Communism, right?”
“Well, actually we do not really know or study the Marxist principles.”
It was at this point that I felt my head was about to explode as I again tried to understand the typical thinking of the Chinese.
“So let me get this straight”, I asked clearly confused, “China is run by Communists as a Social state that does not follow the guiding principles of Marxism? At least tell me that you have some understanding of the
Communist Manifesto?”
“Actually”, another student replied slightly embarrassed, “we have never seen the
Communist Manifesto.”
Where am I! Did I just step into the twilight zone? There must be cameras ready to capture me ripping my hair out in utter confusion… Is this some strange reality show? After promising to send each of the students a copy of the
Communist Manifesto (which I did), I decided to drop the subject since I began to understand that while China has entered into a new era of economic growth, they continue to follow the mantras of those they inherently do not understand. And then I wondered how different we are.
Too often we walk blindly, prepared to accept anything and not willing (or unsure how) to reflect and question the life that we often take for granted. While I initially felt critical towards my students for their naïve submissiveness, I realized that in North America we are not much different. We march to the beat of the commercialized drums, buying on queue, purchasing on credit, sacrificing time, money, people and the environment to ensure that the 1%!o(MISSING)f the world’s wealthy and powerful are protected.
But why do we do this? What is it that compels us to compete with the masses in order to find something that has been so brilliantly structured that we fail to question our motives? In most Western cultures we base our lives around variations of the “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” ideologies, yet we act in such ways that suggests – like the Chinese culture – that we naively accept things as they are simply because we have come to believe that it is correct.
Like China, we are facing an identity crisis of our own, the common theme being that this crisis is driven by the
need to succeed. But does this
need to succeed mean? And how are we defining success when Western countries are facing skyrocketing personal and national debts, when critical thinking is on the decline and the effectiveness of allopathic healthcare is falling? How do we define success when time is no longer something we can afford on friends and family, and meaningful conversations are confined to a series or tweets and IMs? And what good is success if it means spending our lives earning just enough to sustain ourselves when our minds and bodies are no longer able to enjoy?
These, however, are rhetorical thoughts, for of course one cannot traverse life without hard work and a commitment to ensure a better tomorrow, but what we can do is be aware of ourselves in relation to the whole. As I look at the Chinese, I see a flock of sheep, who like us, are following a trend, chasing a dream, wandering blindly to towards the edge of the unavoidable cliffs that in time will swallow us all.
But
unlike the Chinese, we have the freedom to determine the choices that we make, despite the idea that Big Brother may be watching… And even if He is, if nothing else, we have the responsibility to ourselves and to others, to redefine who we are and who we want to be!
In the end, that choice is ours… so who do we want to be?
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I want to be content...
and that shouldn't take much in material wealth.