Below, starting with the sub-head, is my article on China published in the Albuquerque Tribune yestrday, Sept. 23.
Sure China’s an ocean away, but from any view we’re starting to look more and more alike
By Arthur Alpert
Having spent a month in China, I am now a distinguished sinologist. Not!
I did pay attention, however, so brace yourself for a piñata of observations.
(Ignore any big ideas that descend, please. It’s difficult throttling my inner pundit.)
We have all watched China’s ruling Communist Party carve out zones of freedom where capitalists wheel-and-deal, creating wealth and jobs. And with almost everything we Americans buy labeled "Made in China," they seem to be going great guns.
Inside China, that looks like understatement. From auto, bus or train, I saw endless construction - suburban "villages," high-rise apartments, plants, retail centers, new roads, old roads widened.
I saw costs, too. In and between Nanjing, Beijing and Shanghai, there was no sky, just a dirty gray haze, for a month. (Exception: one day a patch of blue in Shanghai, near the sea.)
I’ve read the filthy air kills 300,000 yearly.
Every Chinese I spoke with was proud of the progress, but some muttered about corruption in high places. I flashed back to our robber barons and the graft that greased the railroads. Question: will the grandchildren of China’s thieves atone with philanthropic foundations?
Deep inside Beijing’s Forbidden City, the sacred ground of emperors, concubines and eunuchs, we found a place called - drum roll! - Starbucks.
Thus, money trumps tradition.
A lousy shopper, I loitered at Nanjing’s Confucius Temple market, admiring the merchants’ work ethic and pondering the fates that foisted Communism on natural-born capitalists.
The profit system is eroding sameness, but slowly. At Nanjing TV, I met the top executives. Good thing they had business cards because every male employee – no matter where on the ladder - wore trousers and an open-necked shirt.
Still, the government’s TV anchors dress like prosperous brokers, the women sporting stylish short haircuts. And lots of Shanghai’s young people dye their black hair blonde or red. Think of Brittany and Justin as global educators.
Tipping, I hear, is on the way, but I didn’t run into any. No petty cheating, either. Armed with beaucoup yuans and three words in the language, I took taxis in Nanjing, Beijing and Shanghai. Not one cabby took advantage. Two even ventured a welcoming phrase in English. We’re not, I concluded, in the Big Apple.
Collecting my laundry in Nanjing from the dour lady who’d washed it, I ventured a "Thank you" in Chinese. She smiled broadly and gave me a thumbs-up. Turned out, the Chinese loved our efforts. We’re not in Paris, either.
Neither are we home. Consider the Puritan attitude toward education. Signs on the path to our campus cafeteria told the kids that learning required huge effort, dedication and "pain". They do study long hours; when I told my students about the brief American school day, they groaned.
My middle school boys, unfocused, liked computer games and football (our soccer). The girls, calmer, chose reading, writing poetry, calligraphy, musical instruments, drawing, singing and dancing.
Hold that information for a moment, OK? I’m chatting over coffee with a Chinese woman in the travel business. She is 31, single and, she confides, worried she’s missed her chance at family.
Let’s review. Kids groan at their long school day. Girls mature before boys. A young woman fears she’s missed the marital boat.
Darn! Did I come halfway around the globe to find out that people are people?
Email Alpert, a semi-retired newsman, at ArthurAlpert@swcp.com. His column runs the fourth Thursday of the month in Insight and Opinion.
Posted by Arthur Alpert at September 24, 2004 11:39 AM