This image shows a typically messed up powerline in Vietnam. You see this everywhere and I think it can stand as a good metaphor for the way things can be quickly slapped together - the onslaught of progress, but with little thought into long term planning of things. A Chinese student once told me that she thought a difference between Japan and China is that Japan focuses on longterm planning and detail and is more aware of a need to create calm and peace with new development and the existing environment, whereas China was more focussed on short term gain and proving to the world that it is the quickest at doing everything. I think this make sense, and in that regard Vietnam seems motivated by the same fast-paced westernization as China.
Having about 10 days holiday in Vietnam, with a lot of time to read, think and relax, combined with the part-time nature of my work here in Suzhou has allowed me a lot of freetime to contemplate things - the world, Asia, culture, language, America, travel, spirituality, the environment. I was saying to Trace yesterday that it's almost like I have too much time on my hands, and by living in a foreign country have too much sensory input - too many new things to take in on a daily basis. Not just everyday things we see, but through TV, print and internet as well. Living in Australia I could choose to think about those issues on my own terms and when I liked (mostly), but here, I am constantly confronted with understanding culture, language, Asia, Australia, the West, environment etc etc. But it seems that I can't make sense of it all - there is too much to consider, and finding a middle ground - a positive and influential position to take on issues of importance doesn't come natural to me.
I'm being inspired by people like Al Gore with his commitment to environmental issues, Jimmy Pham, the man who established the Koto initiative in Hanoi (http://www.koto.com.au/), and politically inspired by reading more about international politics, like Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival". All of these people and many others were able to, and continue to do their bit in bringing about a better world. However, for me, I often feel really overwhelmed at the amount of work that needs to be done.
Seeing some of the levels of poverty in Vietnam and reading and learning about the horrendous amount of violence and suffering these people have faced over two or three hundred years, it can be difficult to see how humanity can ever reach a peaceful and more equitable type of society. In China too, I am becoming more frustrated at the situation of this country. There is a massive information vacuum that has existed in the country for well over 50 years, and although it may have reduced slightly, there are still new ways that the Government has developed to reduce access to information. We spent yesterday afternoon at a propaganda museum in Shanghai which had all these incredibly overt political posters from 1949-1979. Messages ranging from moving to the countryside to work hard, to making nuclear and biological weapons to kill the Colonial powers (mainly focussed on the US).
On one side I am buoyed by the positivity of publications, and stories about positive changes underway in China. Don't get me wrong things are getting better (for some people - people with access to things). The environment is a focus of the Government, but its an enourmous task to fix. The economy is booming and creating opportunities for many. Westernisation is leading to many improvements to people here. But the one sided postivitiy of CCTV9 (the English propaganda TV channel here) and the powerless media (controlled by the Government) ensures that people here believe that China is this amazing land of opportunity with endless freedom. From being an Amnesty International subscriber for many years, I know otherwise. As a westerner, I still have some access to information to foreign media that reports [THIS PART EDITED] due to the complete information vacuum, people here would not have the faintest idea this is occurring. I feel somewhat powerless, yet obviously do not really wish to cause problems with the Chinese Government, as I believe they are probably doing a better effort than can be expected given their history, the extreme population, and the needs to improve so many aspects of society all at once.
But, my current views extend beyond China and Asia too. I believe that environmental issues are becoming critical. Living here, you do start to think that for one, there are too many people in the world, and the enormous rate that the world population is increasing can't be sustained. It is an unfortunate policy, but I think that the 1 child policy in China was a necessary step to making a change to that. But the amount of emissions here, the pollution is depressing at times. And where I live is one of the better, more cleaner places in China. All the buildings, trees and paths are grimey, and leaving your clothes on the line for longer than a day means they'll need to be washed again. Blue skies are rare, cars and more factories will only worsen the situation here. But still there are positives - energy efficient light bulbs are the standard throughout China and Vietnam, and I noticed that Australia has now moved to ban the old style. We are trying to do our bit, by flushing the toilet less, contributing for airplane emissions and generally using lighting less.
Here's some other things I've been contemplating, in rough thematic groups:
frustrationWe've well and truly realised that in China we are outsiders. Also, that this will always be the case. In such a homogenous society (over 98% of people are Han) we will never be "chinese" in the way that Chinese can be considered Chinese-Australian in Australia, or similar in the US, Canada, UK etc... Staring will probably always be something we'll have to deal with here as it seems ingrained in Chinese culture. If someone anywhere raises their voice, very quickly a huge crowd will gather - not saying a word, just staring. Our cultural expectations with staring are very different. We didn't find this a problem at all in our recent trips to Japan or Vietnam. My frustration extends to the cultural vacuum that I mentioned earlier. This is also notable in internet speeds. I have broadband which is the standard in China. However, it is commonly known that on top of all the blocking of various Western sites (many innocuous), that the telecommunication resources established for access to local Chinese hosted websites is far, far superior thatn that to Western sites. The result is that accessing Chinese sites is hundreds and thousands of times faster than accessing Western sites. The thinking behind this is that if Chinese people, used to quick speeds accessing local sites, ever try to access Western sites, they will get frustrated and leave before the page opens. After doing some reasearch on broadband download speeds, I've found that the slow end of the scale are speeds of 300-400kbps and the fast end gets up to 800-900kbps. There are now ISPs offerring speeds of between 3 and 9 mbps as well. Can you imagine then, how frustrating it is for me to access Western sites as speeds of 0.6 to 6kbps. That's the speed for my downloading things (music, video etc). This also impacts on the speed of opening pages, which can take 10 seconds +, even minutes... This is pre 56k modem days here - I'm downloading a file now at 0.6 kbps - it's been downloading for 15 hours and has another 13 to go according to this... Of course, I imagine there is nothing I can do about this, because this is part of the government's subtle plan to redirect people here away from Western sites.
crazynessCrazyness. China is crazy - good crazy and bad crazy all wrapped up together. Construction goes on all the time, whilst people go about their daily lives. Road works, demolishing of buildings etc, occur with very little protection of safety and you have to walk through and around constructions sites often. In places where this occurs, there is often no footpaths, so you walk on the road and risk your life. Liability is not a concept understood here. I'm particularly thinking of the area around our train station - the aforemention 'war zone'... people, cars, bikes, pre-historic car things going all over the place while bulldozers and machinery demolish and build things at the same time... Then there's the fireworks and firecrackers... COMPLETELY INCREDIBLE... You probably won't believe me when I tell you that we've had close to 72 hours of constant fireworks and firecrackers - for the end of the Chinese New Year. People die and get seriously injured, but that doesn't seem to matter at all - China has enough people to lose a few.... I'm talking non-stop noise - you can't sleep, if you have a headache you're stuffed... if you have a baby (I can only imagine) - usually there is just one dude setting them off - no one watching, no one cares, because it happens every single day of the year. Only at Spring Festival, we seem to get them non-stop. It was kind of cool landing at Shanhai airport and seeing fireworks going off simultaneously at about 6-7 different places in the city, but hearing them all day, and all night is another thing.
cultureSo much to say about culture which has been dominating my thinking. I wonder if anyone has even bothered to read this far? I've said it many times, but there is also a vacuum of music in China. The music is terrible. I think that someone like Britney Spears would come and also say the music is terrible. Does that make it clear enough? How about, Kenny G is invincible in my eyes compared to the noises which parade as music here. Japan and China in music terms are worlds away. Completely different worlds. China is swamped by the influence of appalling Taiwanese and Korean pop music. There is a prevalence of light entertainment shows like Idol etc.... Acting is also pathetic - mostly period dramas, bad quality - overdubbed voices (Monkey style), bad action - think 1920s/30s melodramas - unnecessary facial expressions - absolutely no subtletly or naturalism at all.... As mentioned earlier, China really is a monoculture and I find it hard to see how it could ever be a Western multicultural society with real diversity in things like religion and developed sub-cultures. The lag in progressive art scenes - notably music is a huge barrier to becoming multicultural.
travel and AmericaRecently reading Lionel Shriver's amazing novel "We Need to Talk About Kevin" has hugely impacted my thinking on many things including the point of travel. The novel's lead character, a travel writer reaches a conclusion that in all places in the world people eat, sleep and work and was dismayed to find out that they have trees in Spain too. The point is that the world is very much the same. Culture is different, but people do all the same things in the same places. It's like my thought that travel is basically going to places and then trying to find places to eat and go to the toilet, mixed in with a lot of walking around. Doestn't sound that good does it? She contemplates the US a lot in the book too and I love this quote - that said something along the lines of: like or not like it, "everyone has a relationship with America". It's so true - you don't have to have a relationship with any African country or even European countries (unless it's your home country). But in this world, today, having a relationship with America is unavoidable.
I gotta take a break.
Vietnamese love their bikes. Here in Suzhou all the bikes are electric, they run on rechargable batteries. In Vietnam, the bikes are all noisy petrol bikes and are a form of transport for the whole family - I saw as many as 5 people on some bikes...
