i was surprised that the chinese officials didn't beat us over the head with 'one world, one dream' baseball bats when we got off the plane. but replace the baseball bats with visual stimuli and you can sort of imagine what it was like.
同一个世界，同一个梦想 (one world, one dream)
my dads response: 'and you know what the one dream is? to get rich!'
how incredibly true. this olympics is china's coming out party to the world, to show everyone how capable china is of doing business. and under the unforgiving gun of the chinese government, how could have the beijing olympic opening ceremony (or the athletes representing china) have not been awesome? if anyone fucked up during the opening ceremony, there were guards ready to shoot him 2008 times, in honor of the olympics.
but with such an astounding opening ceremony to mark china's entry into becoming truly a world force, everyone is quick to criticize. and when i say everyone, i mostly mean the western powerhouse built upon political and economic freedom that calls itself the united states. things like 'ohmahgahd, china needs to free tibet and shit. china needs to allow personal liberty. china needs to stop poisoning children through milk' (but i still contend that its the poison that gives the milk is chalky yellow color and gritty taste!). it is no doubt that china has problems. only a mere twenty some years since the move from planned economy to market economy, but the progress so far has been astounding. but like life, like any nation, there are going to be problems. there is always a balance, a trade off--authoritarian government vs. quick economy reform, keeping the RMB cheap (which means keeping china labor cheap) vs. allowing more people find jobs (urbanization), etc. but lets all be mature and let america do what it does best: examine the rest of the world from its own self-righteous soap box, toppled so high on its own bullshit that i am impressed that america even knows where it is located on a world map.
but with such an astounding opening ceremony to mark china's entry into becoming truly a world force, everyone is quick to criticize. and when i say everyone, i mostly mean the western powerhouse built upon political and economic freedom that calls itself the united states. things like 'ohmahgahd, china needs to free tibet and shit. china needs to allow personal liberty. china needs to stop poisoning children through milk' (but i still contend that its the poison that gives the milk is chalky yellow color and gritty taste!). it is no doubt that china has problems. only a mere twenty some years since the move from planned economy to market economy, but the progress so far has been astounding. but like life, like any nation, there are going to be problems. there is always a balance, a trade off--authoritarian government vs. quick economy reform, keeping the RMB cheap (which means keeping china labor cheap) vs. allowing more people find jobs (urbanization), etc. but lets all be mature and let america do what it does best: examine the rest of the world from its own self-righteous soap box, toppled so high on its own bullshit that i am impressed that america even knows where it is located on a world map.
china has come a long way. but there are plenty of problems that plague the country. morally corrupt conduct, uncontrollable pollution, rapidly growing wealth gap between urbanites and peasants, the baby boom generation leaving the work force, and china's growing reserves. in many ways, china's economy and culture reflects a lot of early american economy. a period where there was a huge market for fake goods. brewing really light beer (places in the world that are more developed have darker beers, i.e. europe. places that are still developing have lighter beers, i.e. china, early america). too many to address in the scope of this entry.
on the plus side, the chinese now have this opportunity presented to them: to become incredibly wealthy. when the shanghai equity market began to show real returns over the past two years, so much hot money flowed into stocks that even the beggars on the side of the street were talking about P/E ratios and market caps, to the extent that it redefined the words 'bubble' and 'mania'. it is evident that everyone in china has that ambition to succeed, always thinking of new ways to make money. they now can see the results of a market economy that is fancy cars, nice condos, expensive clothes, and subsequently a higher demand in luxury goods, such as nicer stores, nicer clubs, etc. life now is in stark contrast to life during the planned economy (i'm sure all the chinese reading this have heard their parents talk about their poor lives). some frequent stories that my parents share with me include having 'salt water soup' as a usual meal with the very occasional boiled egg, sharing a pair of pants with siblings, and having a specific schedule for the caller and the receiver to use the village telephone.
the drive to get rich is so strong that it is not surprising the amount of cheaters (骗人, or 'swindlers') out there. and since the government is too busy worrying about getting itself rich that they cannot keep its eye on all 1.3 billion chinese people and their daily transactions. for instance, there were two men who bought and resold these plastic bags that are worn to help lose weight. they had a profit margin of 50%. naturally, they wanted to increase their margin, so they decide to make their own plastic bags. these bags were of incredibly shitty material. after some time, consumers eventually showed skin hives, rashes, and other negative reactions due to the shitty material. the law was then notified and tried to catch the two men, to no avail: the two guys fled the country with the money.
and that is just one example. the chinese are always thinking of selling new fake shit, of selling new machines that make fake shit, of selling fake machines that make fake shit, of teaching people how to make fake machines that make fake shit, etc. capitalism at its rawest.
and it will only be a matter of a few years to see how this new development takes hold. something the world hasn't seen yet, a force so massive, a power so unweildly, a bunch of asian dudes trying to fit on this piece of rock hurtling through space. now they have a purpose.
-andy
1 comment:
your imagery and metaphors leave me breathless. i like your writing a lot. america ought to be scared b/c china will be a force to be reckoned with, as they won't be able to just declare a war on this powerful of a country.
Post a Comment