Final Thoughts

It is hard to believe that almost 2 weeks has gone by. My first night in China feels like it was both so long ago and just a moment gone. I have done an incredible circuit of the most populous country on Earth – northwest, southwest, southeast, and northeast. I have experienced 4 distinct parts of an ancient and huge culture, been exposed to dozens more, met scores of people, and seen amazing things. I am trying to make sense of what I have seen – out it into some type of order, find a meaning.

To be sure, there are a lot of positives and things to learn. The history and culture I have seen and experienced are amazing. To think that I stood in and saw things that are up to 7,000 years old is incredible. And the Chinese history is so much more rich and diverse than I ever imagined – as only a 7,000 year old tradition of a people that spans a quarter of a continent can be. And I have met so many kind and generous people. Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who work hard each day to ensure that children will have a better life. Businesspeople and philanthropists working for a better society than can successfully meet its own challenges. Everyday citizens who just want to share what their life is like. I have made many new acquaintances and a few friends that I hope I will stay in touch with.

Something is happening in China. It has likely been building for a very long time. It feels like there is an awakening, a growing and pushing of boundaries, a rustling under the surface. The government keeps a tight control over many of the things of daily life – the cost of bread and oil, access to information (the internet, television), education. It probably does this both because it has to and because it keeps it in control – all systems and organizations work to keep themselves in existence, it is the rare one that puts itself out of existence.

He phrase “sleeping tiger” has been used to describe China and I get it now. There is a raw power in being able to harness 1.3 billion people and what they can do. They are a mighty engine to create cheap products, a massive market to sell to, and awesome and terrible war machine, and an incredible populace that could change any social ill. One part of me thinks my children should start learning Chinese – now (sorry Gabe and Zoe) because once this sleeping populace awakes, can there be any question they will lead the way into the next century?

The challenge, of course, is that they are not free to make up their minds, to explore any field of study or pursuit of expression. There is a tight control over license plates, access to college, and certain jobs. While the “American Way” is not perfect – by any stretch of the imagination – it does not require such a large use of resources just to keep the population in places. And it encourages creativity and new directions from any who want, also providing the rewards to those people in the same magnitude. The limits on people are, to a very large degree, imposed by themselves and both their ability and desire. The social contract in America is clear – you can go as far as like with the knowledge, perseverance, ingenuity, and willpower at your disposal. The government is there both to protect the physical well being of the populace and integrity of the boarders and interests of its people. (Excuse my oversimplification and incompleteness…) In China, neither side of that equation is true. There are limits to what most people are allowed to achieve, or even attempt, and the direction and will of the government are even murkier.

What is the social contract then? What is the role and purpose of government in people’s lives and what do people owe their government? Without a clear answer to this there is, as I have seen, a lack of direction (people with pointless jobs or jobs with no purpose), a mistrust of authority and systems (fear of hospitals), and a general malaise that can permeate all things.

The government is run by The Party. That inside group that makes all of the decisions. Several times I heard people talk of times when the TV went out. CNN has been allowed for a time now, but there are moments, where a story critical of the Chinese government or policies, is aired. And across China, CNN goes out. There is someone, literally, sitting there with their finger over a button that will block the signal. And parts of the internet are restricted (as I found out firsthand). These are just small examples of how The Party controls things. But it goes far deeper. There is a population control policy in place. Families in the city may have 1 child, in the country 2. Many people skirt or ignore this rule. But if you want to move up – if you want an important promotion, you’d better follow the rule. And if you get your promotion or job and then break the rule? Your job will be gone.

The Party is an organism that grows under, and through, everything around it. There are Party representatives in every industry, and in every town. No real work or advancement can get done without their, sometimes tacit, approval. While large and infiltrating every corner, they no longer take on the menacing quality of former generations. They seem to rule by suggestion and permission (given and withheld) and, make no doubt, set the direction and policy of an entire nation.

And that system has worked well in an agrarian based, class society of the 20th century. But the world has moved on and the ability to control information and access is far harder. Where are they leading the people to now? Can a single party with ultimate control continue to be a viable model? Can the party control a country this large with as many competing, and splintering, demands? Can it evolve and become a new form of communism?

Many times in my trip I told my companions I felt like there were many similarities with what I was seeing and the Israel I first visited in the 1980’s. It felt like a country with one foot in the old, and one foot in the new. There were pockets of modernity right up against grainy, old world buildings and smells. There was a mixing of cultures and history that expressed themselves in creative and bizarre ways. Hey were both jarring and creative. The architecture in some places shares some similarities, and I suppose this comes from a common communist-socialist background and a utilitarian need when dealing with large numbers of people moving quickly to cities. The stocky shape and indefinable character of buildings built out of need rather than esthetics. There is a melding of cultures that the two countries share as well, taking the shape of a variety of smells, foods, music, and a cacophony of different skin tones.

In the end, what stands with me most is that there is an immigration going on within China, It is an immigration from countryside to city. While normally this would be a migration, there is such a complete change in the social fabric, mores, and daily functioning between the two, they feel like completely different worlds. There is a generation chasm – not just a gap - that is being created in this country. It is a world of fathers and mothers that is agrarian and simple, growing up in caves and making your own food, and a world of the children which is cars, the internet and coffee shops. I do not know where it is leading to, but it was fascinating to take a step into it for a while. I know that it will stay with me for a long time and that, wherever it leads, it will have an impact on my life and all of yours.