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Published: October 14th 2009
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Chinese National Day Our students were giddy and down right rambunctious last week as our school, and the entire nation, prepared to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on October 1st. Our kids knew the facts (the PRC won the revolution and the losers limped over to Taiwan and started their own government there), knew the reason (Mao is very much a hero over here much to the chagrin of anyone who knows history and how many people he killed with his insanity), and also knew they were getting an unprecedented vacation from school - eight days off because this National Day coincided with another Chinese holiday, Autumn Festival.
Jennifer and I also got eight days off from teaching so along with watching the huge parade on television in the morning, we both agreed it was very impressive but quite dull, we talked about some of the things China is doing right. The parade and hoopla undoubtedly irritated many people whose ideology simply does not tolerate a communist country being so damn self-righteous and proud, but after living here since January we think it is valuable, as teachers, tourists, and Americans in China, to look at
Tanks and guns and guns and tanks...
Since when did the military start using pixilated camoflauge?? interesting... what has enabled China to change from a poverty-stricken country to the one of the world’s largest economies - in just one generation! Maybe the wild West could learn some things from big, bad China?
We used to think of China as only master copycats, a country of copyright pirates who have no big ideas of their own. But after some research and our own experiences here we are presenting a few big China ideas we believe have merit.
China's Big Ideas The Confucian theory of collective, holistic thinking. Largely influenced by the philosopher Confucius, all of China pursues a holistic strategy for modernizing the country and this lets Beijing define a clear pattern of priorities with the good of the people coming first. There is very little independent thought and selfishness here - the group always comes first. Easy reforms are followed up by more determined and difficult reforms instead of the quick, band-aid fixes so common in the West and much of the rest of the world today.
Fighting poverty as a national priority. Beijing has embraced the goal of eradicating poverty and believes this is the most fundamental of human rights. This one
China girls...
The women of the Chinese military were allowed for the first time to march in the parade. All of the military folks marching trained for over a YEAR to get the 168 steps in front of Prez Hu Jintao perfect. goal has resulted in lifting almost 400 million (50 million more then the entire population of the U.S.) out of abject poverty - all within one generation. This alone is unprecedented in human history. China has arguably a long way to go in the areas of human rights especially those advocated by the West, which focuses on civil and political rights, but the idea of eradicating poverty as a human right could have implications for the entire world.
Government is not necessarily evil. During the best of times in China, prosperity is associated with an enlightened, strong government. Contrast this with the West’s view of government as a necessary evil and we see China’s transformation being led by a powerful but nurturing state. As opposed to Russia’s Gorbachev who abandoned his country and then watched his empire crumble, Deng Xiaoping guided the old China from Mao’s Utopian insanity to promoting modernization and health. Today’s China, however flawed, is capable of molding national consensus on finance, military spending, renewable energies, and stimulating China’s economy against the same global downturn that is punishing the West right now.
Getting truth from the facts. The late Deng Xiaoping believed facts rather than
Iran is drooling...
What the world needs now, is love, sweet love...but when that doesn't work Nukes seem to be a credible answer. ideologies, regardless of being from the East or West, could lead China. Beijing saw that the Soviet Communist model did not work and the Western model of democracy did not work for a developing country when it came to modernizing; Democratization usually follows modernization rather than precedes it. So they decided in 1978 to explore their own path of development and adopt a pragmatic, trial-and-error approach to accomplish a massive modernization program. This approach is working.
Good government matters more than democracy. China rejects the typical black/white split of democracy vs. autocracy and believes the nature of the country has to be defined by its substance - good governing and what it can deliver to the people. China has many deficiencies but the Chinese state is guiding the world’s fastest growing economy, improved living standards for its people and today 76%!o(MISSING)f Chinese are optimistic about their future. They are the number one country out of 17 major countries polled.
Sure, there are serious challenges that need to be faced here in China, such as fighting corruption, the growing prosperity gap, finding harmony amongst over 55 different ethnic groups including Tibetan and the Muslim populations. But China will continue to evolve on the basis of the ideas I’ve mentioned above - instead of embracing Western liberal democracy. In their eyes, China’s ideas and beliefs are working; they make more common sense politically, financially, and culturally.
And as we watch the military and cultural parade and listen to every word politely translated into English from CCTV9, it is hard to argue with the powerful message of today’s China and the result of several millennia including over 20 dynasties, seven of which lasted longer than the entire history of the United States.
As teacher's who have to explain our own ideology and that of the West, it is increasingly difficult to do so without taking a more global perspective and eschewing the Western fallback that we are the best at everything, and always will be. We don't think like that anymore. It is more more important to collect our own truth from facts and for us to avoid misunderstanding this country, while also doing our part to enrich the world’s collective wisdom about us all: American, Chinese, Humans.
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