Now you have the basic idea of where we went, what we saw
etc. But there is another important element to a trip. What we thought
while we were seeing these new things and what issues were brought up.
I want to discuss a few things we talked about and thought about while
in China.
What is traveling??
We have been lucky enough to have been able to do quite a bit of traveling
in the last five years or so. Most of the traveling we have done has
been in foreign countries where we travel independently except for that
we depend on our guide book for almost everything (a slight irony).
These days there is a huge group of people who travel this way. It depends
on the region but in Asia almost every young foreigner you see carries
a copy of the Lonely Planet; a guide book series started by Tony Wheeler
after he traveled overland from Europe to Asia.
Recently with anti-globalization issues etc. there have also been questions
about the consequences of traveling "independently". "Independent"
travelers tend to stick together and they can even take over parts of
a city. In Bangkok Thailand is a perfect example. Kho San Road. A place
where only young traveler types feel comfortable. We even experienced
this in Xiahe the small town in the middle of China. Xiahe has been
written about positively in the LP guide over the last few years (and
there are also an unproportionate number of pictures). The guide says
there is no advertising in it but judging from the number of people
who have been affected by the write up I am not so sure. In Xiahe we
not only found a lot of travelers but we found a lot geared towards
them. Restaurants that don't serve local food, but which serve food
travelers like, Internet cafes, and souvenir shops to name a few.
I have been talking about what I know, independent traveling, but I
would guess that it is the same with all forms of travel. So what is
the answer?? Stay at home?? I don't think so. Here are some things I
have thought could be helpful to trailers really having a positive impact.
- Eat the local food.- food is part of the experience right??
- Meet as many local people as you can - you don't even really have
to try and do this most places. In China we were often befriended
by people who wanted to help us or wanted to talk to us
- Study some of the language before you go - we didn't do enough of
this before we headed to China and it showed.
- Know what kind of souvenirs you want before you go
Development
I guess most people think of China as a third world country and since
there isn't really a better way to divide the countries of the world
I guess you could say that is basically true. When we think of what
a third world country must be like we probably think that it must be
a place which could stand to move towards the modern way of living.
In reality, in China, it is not that clear. Some places in China are
already developed and as modern as could be. Those places contrast with
other regions where development is no where to be seen. I think in general
people want to enjoy some of the benefits that development could bring
them. More conveniences, not so much manual labor and things like that.
How is China developing one might ask?? I think they are doing it a
lot on their own terms. It seems the Chinese have a strong, slightly
nationalistic streak and they will do things in their own way and not
at the behest of foreign governments and companies. But there are signs
of foreign companies everywhere and the developed regions would have
give credit a lot of the "progress" to foreign investment.
Religion in China
In the United States there is a lot of talk of China's poor human rights
record and the main concern seems to center around religious freedom.
My opinion is that the Chinese government is at the moment not really
comprehending the importance of this freedom. The atmosphere seems to
be that sooner or later everyone is going to get on the same atheist
page. I don't see it happening. Most obviously there are parts of China
where Tibet Buddhism and Islam are strong. And it the cities especially
young people, according to Ting are interested in Christianity. It seems
that Christians have relative freedom in China but there are a few interesting
anomalies. Apparently you can buy a Bible in any big city book store
although I personally didn't look for one or find one. So it seems you
are free to investigate Christianity if you so desire. At the church
we went to in Shanghai there were lots of people (it was packed) and
an ex-pat that we talked to said that the content of the service is
freely chosen by the pastor and preached truthfully to the Bible. Our
friend Ting said that may be true but she found the content of the service
not applicable to real life and said it was kind of pie in the sky.
So things seem to be pretty open but there is one catch. In Beijing
and Shanghai there are a lot of foreigners and so there are foreign
churches. However Chinese nationals aren't allowed to enter those churches.
You need a foreign passport to enter. Maybe there is reason for this
but I can't think of one except for the idea that the government wants
to keep Chinese Christianity separate from Christianity as practiced
in the West.
Economic and political systems
Used to be, especially during the Cold War everyone was talking about
communism vs. capitalism and authoritarian government vs. democracy.
The talk seems to have died down on both sides. We had some interesting
talks with people about Communism. The people we talked to said that
China today isn't Communist; it is socialist and on the way to Communism.
When we pointed out that a lot of things didn't even seem Socialist,
but seemed capitalist the reply was that China is borrowing capitalism
as an economic system until the country is rich enough to support the
pure Communist vision. One businessman on a train agreed though that
it seems difficult to believe that once enough money is raised, almost
like a church fundraiser in a way, people will be content to move on
to Communism. It does seem that the impulse that capitalism works on,
greed, could be a little hard to turn on and off like a faucet.
Connected to this thought is the idea that economic freedom seems to
promote political freedom. Some people said that the state will be able
to keep themselves in power in spite of the freedom that people have
economically but I am not so sure. It seems to me that if you have freedom
in the economic sphere you are going to want it in the political sphere
too. It is going to be interesting to see how China changes and what
will happen economically and politically in the future.
History
A long history brings both good things and bad things. And China does
have a long history. Some of the good things are that the Chinese have
a deep and beautiful cultural history. I mentioned this in the bit about
the museum of history in Shanghai. There are beautiful treasures and
crafts that have been developed over thousands of years. China is known
around the world for its fine porcelain, silk, and jade. In English
we use the word "china" to describe our best set of dishes.
A long history has allowed the Chinese to create wonderful art.
Some of the bad consequences of a long history were quite visible as
well. A long history provides time for divisive conflicts. In the States
we have what we call a "melting pot" to describe how people
kind of forget their history and kind of get melted into one idea of
what it means to be American. That is definitely simplifying the situation
but since American history is so short this kind of "melting"
is theoretically possible. Not so in China. In China there are groups
of people and different races that have been around for a long time,
and not always on the best of terms.
Globalization
It's not been possible for any one who keeps up with current events
even a little bit to have not noticed that there is an anti-globalization
movement in the works. Across the world there are people who are not
satisfied with the way things are progressing, or developing you could
say, and who are taking a stand against it. No one is quite sure what
it means to be an anti-globalist but I guess the core beliefs stem from
a conviction that big companies and western governments are trying to
benefit themselves by exporting (or forcing) their ideas of (pick and
choose based on your opinion) government, consumerism, materialism,
environmental degradation, democracy, advertisism etc. on all countries
who are not yet "developed" countries.
I went looking for signs of globalization and they weren't hard to
find. The buildings in Shanghai are all(??) built by foreign architecture
teams. MacDonalds are springing up everywhere. People who are rich have
connections outside China.
I guess people would say globalization works to make countries independent
on each other following this basic plan. Rich countries will invest
money in poor countries in order to exploit cheap labor, and poor countries
will allow this to happen in the hope of becoming richer. China has
the biggest population in the world with a very low standard wage so
is there isn't a better country to find cheap labour. And that fact
is in plain evidence. When you drive through cities, and even some smaller
towns, you see areas that are marked in awkward English, "Pudong
Industrial Technological Free Economic Zone". These are areas where
the government has set up an industrial park or a shipping port where
it is easy for foreign clients to get things produced or get them shipped
back home. In eastern China all towns are surrounded by factories churning
out things that are meant to be consumed in another place. I looked
in expensive electronic stores in Shanghai to see if they sold the notebook
computer we just bought that was made in China, but it was nowhere to
be found.
One of the most interesting globalization things I realized is what
myth it is to believe that the name brands products, high priced and
high quality, are really better than anything else. It's all image!!
Chinese workers produce a product and stitch the logo on of the company
who will sell it in another country not based on the quality but based
on the image of that company in the consuming country. Any label could
be stitched on there and judging by the ridiculously low priced, top
name brand products peddled on the street this is what is happening.
When we asked people if they were worried about the fact that it seemed
that China was developing and loosing some if its uniqueness people
seemed ambivalent. It seems that the desire for an easier life that
is being promised, and to some people being delivered, outweighs the
concern of Chinese culture being overwhelmed by outside things. Also
some people said that you can't keep things the same. Things are changing
and you can't be too much of a stick in the mud. I guess that from a
realistic point of view some of these things are true. But I hope that
they will see, and we in the west will demonstrate, there is more to
life than convenience and that there are different ways to develop with
some having few undesirable consequences than others.
So these were some of the issues that came up on our trip and that we
talked about with others and with the two of us. I would say that the
chance to confront these issues in real life was a great opportunity.
But, sometimes being there just made the issues more confusing and difficult
to think about. But difficult issues require thinking and consultation
and overall we learned a lot.
Click here to go to Journal page where you
can find some of Sarah's reflections
Click here to go back to the China index page |
