Alex Goes To China

This is a response to a blog by Dedlam on his blog ‘Dedlog’ written on 3 June 2009 titled Justifying the [Great Firewall of China] GFW but nothing else. Unfortunately I cannot twitter or facebook update about this blog, as I have been blocked, the Great Firewall of China strikes again. It has many interesting insights into China, censorship and authoritarianism from an Australian that has been living in there. It inspired me to put my two cents worth forward, in response to him.

I agree with the assertion that there is no such thing as ‘evil’… at least in the Hollywood sense of the word. However, I disagree with Dedlam’s familial metaphor of Chinese governance as justification of the Great Firewall of China. My view is coming from a democratic politic, which has many flaws, but nevertheless is a more reasonable position than justifying authoritarianism.

Civil disobedience and political critique in China are dealt with through censorship and violence to her own people [1]. This is not a Right of Governance, but an Abuse of Power. Self preservation by a regime is no justification for this abuse. The fact that many Chinese citizens are susceptible to demagogy and fallacious appeals to patriotism is further proof of a successful 60 year long campaign of misinformation and ‘re-education’.

We should be equally critical of capitalism’s perversion of democracy. Americans, for instance, are perhaps even more susceptible to demagogy than the Chinese (for example G.W. Bush’s irrational rhetoric after Sept. 11 and his subsequent reelection). It seems that power corrupts no matter what the political or economic system. This is why the checks and balances of a self critical democracy should be obtained and preserved peacefully whenever possible in order to diminish the opportunities for corruption.

China is capable of a free democracy. It will take time, but a political system that can withstand critique and disobedience is more likely to be creative, innovative and modern. I hope the people of China will create a democracy that suits its recent trend toward modernity. It seems that this shift will happen sooner rather than later. The old ways of Maoist Communism and 1978 style ’socialism with Chinese characteristics’ are fast fading. They will be replaced with a socialist democracy… with Chinese characteristics.

These predictions for the future are fraught; and may not come to pass, but I hope they do. Ironically they will probably not be achieved through revolution, but rather through education, as the old PRC realises there is more power in a free democratic people than the doctrines of Marx and Mao.

[1]: ie/ The Great Firewall of China, Tienanmen Massacre, etc.

We decided to go to Guilin after all. Nanjing was sending Jo and I both a little mental as we waited for a call from Jo’s friend. While we waited, heavy rain flooded our proposed next destination. Within a couple of days the rain subsided and the flood waters that engulfed the Guilin rivers were gone. A persistent Chinese man, that I had contacted about accommodation days before, promised that if we came, he would refund us if the trip was ruined by flooding. This gave us confidence that all was well and so we got a flight that day, and we are so glad we did.

Guilin is a dream; with 200 million year old rock formations surrounding the small city (pop. 700,000ish) its lakes, moats and rivers decorate a fantastic landscape. Picturesque rice patties that seem more like a gigantic earth art installation than functional agriculture encompass the city. The air is clean, the sky blue and it is a welcome relief after the smog and noise of Nanjing.

We were met at the apartment upon arrival by a local girl calling herself Wendy, who happens to have a degree in English and an Australian boyfriend. She invited us for drinks at the local expat trap, an Irish pub that is about as Irish as a Bulgarian sumo wrestler. We played drinking games until 1am until Jo and I returned to our apartment to sleep.

We are planning a 2 hour boat trip to Yangshuo next down the Li Jiang (Li River) in a bamboo boat. We have been promised that the flooding from days before will not affect us.

I have also added a map of our travels here and some recent pics (click on thumbs):

View Alex Goes To China in a google map

In 1937 Japan invaded China. In Nanjing over the period of 6 weeks an estimated 300,000 people were brutally murdered by the invading army. Thousands more were maimed, raped and had their lives turned upside down.

Today, Jo and I went to The Memorial for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders. This was an important thing for me to do politically. When I lived in Tokyo in 2005 the “Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi … shrugged off Beijing’s complaints about his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honours Class A war criminal[s]…”[1]. At this time there were also claims made by families of victims who experienced the war crimes for compensation, which were denied by Japanese courts. For me this expressed the blatant war crimes denial and historical revisionism rife in contemporary Japan. To be able to witness the other side of the story in Nanjing today gave me some sense of resolution, although I think this feeling will be better served with cultural and political development in Japan.

Having said that, there were some interesting historical revisionist notions put forward by the Chinese governments influence on the exhibition. For example the claim to Taiwan being a province of China was made strongly (ignoring the past 20 years of democratic autonomy). Also the implication that China defeated Japan during WWII; omitting the atomic bombings by the USA. I guess every culture has its own version of history, and somewhere in between is what really happened.

Perhaps one day China will have a memorial for the millions killed by Mao Zedong and the PRC, or the west officially remembering the hundreds of thousands killed by the USA and its allies (including Australia) in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past 7 years. Or we can imagine a world where Japan builds its own museum educating its people about the Nanjing Massacre.

Let me start this critical blog with a preface; Shanghai is an amazing city. Modern, eclectic and fascinating. The people, food and culture are all buzzing energy and humour. The Xiao Chi (particularly a savoury pancake made by street vendors whose name I do not yet know) is to die for and the sights and sounds are amazing. But that said there is still dark sides to the city which are not well hidden. Poverty, lack of basic hygiene and political oppression are rife in Shanghai. In the short 5 days Jo and I have been here we have already witnessed an obvious travesty of social freedom.

Jo and I went for a walk through the French Concession and saw a group of people watching a band with a woman singing a traditional folk song. Everyone was smiling and enjoying the hot, humid evening. This experience up to this point was very pleasant.

But then a stocky man in a white shirt walked through the crowd and went up to the amplifier and started turning the dials. This changed the pitch of the song, but failed to achieve his aim, I later realised, of silencing the music. The crowd started to get nervous, shifting on their heels and whispering to each other. Then two policemen dressed in riot gear (helmets with visors and body armour) pushed through, but stopped at the edge of the circle of people. The woman singing boldly finished her song with a lasting cadence which drew applause from the mildly defiant audience. Once the applause began the policemen stepped forward writing on a pad (I assume it was an infringement notice). The crowd then began to dissipate, yet some bunched around the policemen and protested politely. The man in the white shirt began unplugging things. I wanted to help in some way but failed to think of anything that would not make the situation worse. I was concerned that the scene would escalate and I wanted to get Jo (and myself) away from the scene. Regrettably, I didn’t have my phone on me or I would have photographed it surreptitiously to witness the event.

In some ways the most oppressed members of this situation were the policemen. My optimistic nature hopes that the policemen didn’t want to do what they did. When they waited for the song to finish I detected a sense of regret in their body language. But the fact remains, after Nuremberg – this is no defense. The freedoms of speech and expression simply do not exist in China, not even in modern Shanghai, and while there are still those willing to enforce the status quo the situation will not change.

Last Saturday night Jo and I caught a sleeper from Beijing to Shanghai. We shared a cabin with two Chinese men; an old, retired businessman and a salesman in his early 20s. The old man spoke very good English and told us about his work auditing factories in China for American companies.

When we arrived in Shanghai we were really tired. It was 7.30am and we couldn’t check-in to our hotel until 10am, so we hanged around a Chinese fast food joint and ate some MSG while we waited.

After we checked-in and got some rest, we had a look around. We are staying near Huaihai Rd, the French Concession and The Bund in the heart of Shanghai. These areas are very westernised but in quite different ways. The Bund is like the city from a Hollywood remake of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Jetsons. The French Concession is a bizarre version of Paris circa 1930 complete with Art Deco and Baroque architecture. And Huaihai is another one of those International shopping malls with every designer label you can think of plus a few local brands that have made enough money to afford the rent.

Some of the highlights of this area have been away from the tourist traps. We went to a pet shop down the road that had frogs, squirrels, chinchillas, crickets, turtles and much, much more. Also Jo and I went for a late night massage (fearful we would be offered a happy ending). Instead we got a traditional Chinese massage. My masseuse was small and young and yet her hands were so strong I am sure she could crush a skull with a casual clench of her fingers. My back still hurts, but in a good way. I can feel the tension from dragging luggage around and sleeping on strange beds melting as my back heals.

On Friday Jo and I are going to Fudan University to meet some artists, teachers and students at the Shangahai Institute of VIsial Art (SIVA). There is a 5 hour itinerary for the visit including lunch. I am looking forward to the opportunity to see how arts education functions at this university. Perhaps I will do part of my PhD there…

Overall I have to say I think I prefer Beijing to Shanghai. My Beijing experience was more grassroots and communal compared to my impressions of Shanghai. Shanghai has a more corporate, commercial feeling. The common comparison of Shanghai being like Sydney and Beijing more like Melbourne is probably accurate. These are only first impressions though, and judging them this early is a little premature.

Hot, wet and noisy; Shanghai from on high.

One of Jo and my reasons for going to China was to see which city we might live in, in the future. Another reason is to have a holiday; and by ‘holiday’ I mean ‘be a tourist’.

So far we have been to 798 Art Zone, Tienanmen Square, The Great Wall, Wangfujing Dajie and Nanluogo Xiango. We are thinking about going to Beijings underground city (a nuclear bomb shelter built by Mao in the 1970s to house 40% of Beijings population) and perhaps The Summer Palace. These things are important historical and cultural sites which are also quite entertaining. And yet having said that, the most interesting part of this trip so far has not been the monuments and tourist sites. Rather it has been observing the banal, ordinary lives of the people in Beijing.

The streets are not as busy as I would have expected. They are dirty, but not as much as I would have thought. My expectations are constantly being challenged. Generally the Chinese are warm and friendly without any hint of racism or xenophobia. If anything they are too accommodating to foreigners (perhaps because of the opportunities a comparatively wealthy westerner may represent in the new economy).

Traveling with Jo has also been a bit of a coup for me. Her Chinese is quite good and she knows her way around. For instance, we have not had any problems finding delicious, hygienic food. She is even teaching me Chinese with a patience I wish my secondary school teachers had possessed. And because of her skills we have been able to fit comfortably into a sort of way in China that is both challenging and pleasurable.

Overall my impressions of Beijing are such that I know I could live here. The challenge would be to find meaningful sources of income that develop my artistic, academic and technical vocation. But if I can manage that, then a longer term adventure in Beijing would be awesome.

The centre of Beijing; urban life in Dongcheng

I have moved my blog from http://alexgoestochina.wordpress.com to here because of ongoing connection problems caused by the fact that the PRC have deemed Wordpress.com to be counter-revolutionary during the 20 year anniversary of the Tienanmen Square Massacre.

Anyhoo, this is a nice work around thanks to my colleague Ed, who created this service for artists to have an affordable, easy to manage web space. You too can have one of these revolutionary sites by signing up here: artistspace.com.au

After that little hickup I can now post some images:

Flying to Beijing was a dream run. Cathay Pacific economy class served delicious meals on the new or refitted plane. Movies were plentiful on the headrests of the person in front and the stop over in Hong Kong gave Jo and I two hours to stretch and eat some noodles with beer at Ajisen Ramen.

Our hotel is in the CBD, the Beijing Perfect Inn. Thankfully it is on a really interesting street (Guloudong Dajie) that seems to specialise in PSPs and XBox 360s. There is also a little alley (Nanluogu Xiango) that runs off it packed with great restaurants, little bars and cafes and other interesting shops. And everything is very affordable.

I wanted to blog earlier than today but The Great Firewall wouldn’t let me. My counter measures didn’t work. But today, auto-magically, it’s back online so here we go. I might back up this blog on another site in case it happens again (thanks to Ed):

http://alexgoestochina.artistspace.com.au/

We went to Tienanmen Square yesterday. It was a little uninteresting visually, but it was quite a powerful reminder of the political situation in China. We also went to Wangfujing Dajie which is a shopping strip packed with international brands, department stores and the like. It too was a little disappointing. I think we prefer stuff that is more below the surface of China. We will be hunting for more of that in future. Having said that, it is interesting to contrast the history of Tienanmen with the present day reality of Wangfujing Dajie as an example of where China was and where it is going.

I will post some pics ASAP.

Human history is filled with horrors. Despots, dictators and socio-economic and political systems that are nothing but barbaric and atrocious. China particularly could make Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (a nasty little story) seem like a romantic comedy. Chinese empires have committed genocide, rape, torture and war for nearly 4000 years. The Cultural Revolution of Mao itself also has played its hand in a number of massacres which leave the number of dead in the tens of millions and the scars of its rule the continuing brain death of a nation.

Yet things are changing. I suspect that with the new international era of Chinese engagement, it will fair better (probably because I am a naive optimist). Also, I contextualise the above rant with the knowledge that Europe has a very similar history, as do many of the Great Civilisations of millennia past. Civilisation is not very civilised.

I hope humanity is not doomed to repeat the horrors of history, and I especially hope China will learn from its past and move forward.

“Chinese security personnel try to stop pictures being taken as they check the photographer’s documents in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.”

Source: telegraph.co.uk

20 years after the massacre