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Published: February 11th 2009
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Prior to the end of last semester, and in light of the global financial crisis, I did a lesson on economics with my senior students. They learned new words in English like “depression,” “recession,” and “industrialized” and then I snuck in some stuff on media bias. I read them two news articles about the economic crisis- one from The New York Times and one from the People’s Daily (the largest English language newspaper in China). I then had them guess where each one was from. The articles discussed China’s role in the financial crisis, but they also described China in two very different terms.
The New York Times article gave the impression that China was a “developed” and “industrialized” country, perhaps not at the same level, but at least on the same playing field as countries such as the United States. The Chinese article, however, portrayed China as a “developing” country, one that despite its minority status was still pulling double digit growth rates and who would not be overly affected by a recession in the United States and Europe.
Therefore, because I like to make my students think outside the box and, to be completely honest, I like
a bit of controversy in my classroom, I asked the students to tell me whether they thought China was developed or developing. Their answer was perhaps the quickest and loudest I got out of them all semester: “developing!!”
I had shown them pictures of Chinese factories and laboratories juxtaposed with small farms in Africa yet this was still their immediate response. I did what I always do in these kinds of situations- I played devil’s advocate. Then I divided the room in two and told them to write a news story either from the viewpoint of an American or from a Chinese journalist regarding the economic crisis. It was tough for them, but considering Chinese students are awful at thinking outside of the box they have been given, I thought it went fairly well.
Despite the student’s certainty that China was in fact a developing country, I at that point was leaning more towards describing China as a developed country. The city I lived in was certainly developed and could hardly be compared to countries like Cambodia or Honduras. While the standard of living was maybe not quite as high as it was in many places in the United States, for the most part, it was pretty close and my students were pretty spoiled. I never blatantly said it to them, but I was of the opinion that the whole “developing” label was really more of a leftover cold war propaganda technique than it was an accurate description of China’s economy.
However, on vacation I had the opportunity to see a much different side of China. We took many trains over the course of the month, particularly in China and Vietnam, and although some of them were overnight trips where we slept through the ride, some were day trips that gave us the chance to see China’s countryside up close.
It fascinated me how different the countryside was from the cities I had been in China. I usually hate this expression when it is used to describe a group of people, but looking out the window of the train I felt that I had stepped back in time. These small farms were still plowed using an ox, and people still carried their vegetables in baskets on their backs. Moreover, this was how the majority of the Chinese population still lived. I now knew where the label “developing” came from.
Yet I was not a convert. Because even next to these tiny farms that would barely produce enough to send goods to market after feeding the family, there were highways with imported cars and large semis filled with consumer goods passing by so-called “peasants” with their ox and plow. As is often the case when you see more of the world, you end of more confused rather than less…
I am still not sure over a month later what label I would give China, as it really deserves both. China has once again proven itself a paradox that is more than meets the eye. In the face of so much change in some places, and so little in others, China remains a country that will continue to eludicate and fascinate the world, much as it always has.
Jessica
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Still a developing country.
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We should not Measure a country just based on the economy. Education, Science and Tech also are very important standards. Now only a very small amout of Chinese received high-education, especially in rural area. Some foreigners think some Chinese are rude or donot obey the rules. Actually they do not realized that (and mostly they are kind people actually) because of the lack of education. As for the chinese farmers, they only have VERY small amout of farm(Because china has much lesser farming-land than US and China has many more people and farmers). And Chinese have to use the land that can be used to farm. These two reasons can account for the lack of mordern agricultural machinery in a lot of places. But the farmers in some area are very rich. Nearly every rural family has a 4/5/6-storey living building in the area of Yangtze River Delta. They are rich not due to farming.