The best thing about blogs is comments.
One of my recent post, “How to hate the government and love the people,” really generated a lot of buzz. (To my chagrin, that probably had more to do with the controversial photo captions than my article.)
Pipsquek pointed out that the greatest impediment to separating politics and people in one’s mind is stereotypes:
The real issue is that every country is associated with a stereotype, a perception in media. Sometimes it’s a flattering one, other times, discomforting. But the perception often prompts a snap judgment of who we are.
Joel commented that China seems to not separate politics and people—for example, taking leader’s comments to be representative of people’s view:
Distinguishing people from government is an American specialty – we do it naturally. But for Mainlanders, the ‘face’ of the people is inextricably connected to the face of the government. That’s why people freak out (and mis-translate/paraphrase pundits like Cafferty) when foreigners publicly criticize Chinese government policy – they are more likely to feel it as a national/cultural/racial offense, with little important distinction between the three when face is involved.
I agree and disagree. On one had I think Joel is right that in a country like China where more than 90 percent of your population belongs to one ethnic group, it’s hard to separate the nation from the ethnicity (which coincidently is why they’ll never give me a Chinese green card).
However, I really, really, really don’t think that Americans just make this politics-people split “naturally” as Joel says. Yes, on home soil, Americans know that what happens in Washington D.C. doesn’t necessarily represent the American people’s points of view. But do we extend the same courtesy overseas?
I don’t think so. I think we maybe subconsciously sometimes lump China with Chairman Mao and even Stalin for that matter. I’m not asserting that Americans don’t like Chinese people—that’s not the case. There are many Chinese people who are Americans. I just mean that it’s very easy for us (including “I”), when seeing a huge red flag or hearing people addressed as comrade or seeing a security guard, to think—bad guy. Enemy. Commie.
In reality, Chinese people like their red flag because red was a lucky color in China long before the communist revolution, the word “comrade” today most often refers to members of the Chinese gay community, and the security detail you see everywhere are merely part-time teenage door hops.
Another of Joel’s comments is interesting, and I want to agree with it at one level, but I’m not sure:
[Chinese] people freak out (and mis-translate/paraphrase pundits like Cafferty) when foreigners publicly criticize Chinese government policy – they are more likely to feel it as a national/cultural/racial offense.
You see, whenever someone make a speech and says anything critical about China, the Foreign Ministry has three token responses:
• It is not right to meddle in other countries internal affairs
• We urge ______ to abide by the three joint communiqués
• (and finally, my favorite) You have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people
Number three really means is that, “You’ve embarrassed the central government, but we’re not going to attack you because the economy is great. But we’re really, really pissed.”
What I’m saying is that the Chinese government often tries to package its response as representative of the Chinese people. I’m just not sure if that’s reality or propaganda. In fact, Chinese people often criticize their leaders, but no one likes to get criticism from abroad, including Americans.
What do you think?
By the way, check out Joel’s blog, www.chinahopelive.net, for more cultural insights and some great photography.
3 Comments
Very well stated as always and I must say your timing is right on. In case you didn’t hear our president, George you know, didn’t exactly help the issue for human understanding just before the opening ceremonies. He could have at least waited until he got back to say his few choice words and certainly I think could have been more diplomatic.
I’m in total agreement with you. You’ve taken a contemporary and hands-on approach to examining the issues, which I like. I feel you’re assimilated to the urban Chinese life and in touch with everyday people.
“No one likes to get criticism from abroad, including Americans.” – Indeed. But sometimes it’s easier for the cool (trend setters), rich (economic leaders) countries to shrug off such criticism, while strong reaction tends to come from the less privileged. Let’s face it, countries are like humans, and countries are made up by humans. Humans have complex.
I don’t think we can give a blanket “this is Mainlanders’ relationship with their gov” statement, because the relationship changes depending on context.
For example, among themselves or when talking about domestic issues, I’ve found plenty of neighbours and locals here who are more than willing to criticize and complain about their rulers (both past and present administrations). In these conversations there is a strong distinction between the rulers and the ruled.
But that’s when people are thinking domestically. When you throw foreigners into the mix, the very old (60s+) and the young 20s to early-30s) seem to have very strong reactions. (Middle aged folks in their 40’s-50’s are the biggest complainers in my very limited experience, but they lost their schooling to the Cultural Revolution). Our school’s teachers are mostly in their 20s and 30s, and they sincerely and strongly feel personally offended by any outside critique of the gov – the content of such critique is irrelevant to them. I know because they unload in class at us sometimes (and there is no explaining it any other way to them!) In fact, on Friday my teacher spent on hour criticizing my Regular Zhou interviews (in a local expat magazine) and the Tianjin LaoBaoXing Olympics video interviews (she didn’t like the impression that it might give to Tianjin’s expats and considered it my obvious duty to spin a positive image of China).
I don’t mean to suggest that Mainlanders react differently because they’re a different species or something like that. But I do want to emphasize that China’s historical and cultural experience (and the leaders’ manipulation) result in Mainlanders reacting very poorly to outside criticism. Some major ingredients that I can see:
- “face” culture
- hierarchical culture
- lack of individualism & nationalized individual identity
- historical international humiliation (Opium Wars)
- public manipulation by the powerful
Together, these things make it difficult for Mainlanders to response heathily to outside criticism.
Orville Schell recently covered the historical humiliation angle in two different essays: China’s Agony of Defeat (Newsweek), and
China: Humiliation & the Olympics
Some of my own thoughts on it are here:
Why Mainlanders are taking it personally, racially, and facially – the short answer