China Hope Live

Eating Bitterness: an intro to the unprecedented Chinese migrant worker phenomenon

Joel 大江 — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:48:44 +0000

If you’re unfamiliar with the urban migrant phenomenon in China — as in, the people who make the stuff you buy and their lives — then China’s Urban Immigrants: A Diet of Bitterness is a fine overview with lots of links for further reading.

“Chinese metropolises are now home to an estimated 200 million rural-to-urban migrants . . . who occupy a precarious place in the urban hierarchy: while urbanites appreciate their labor, they are less enthusiastic about the migrants’ presence in their cities.”

For more on this topic you can browse our Migrant Workers category, or if you like documentaries, see these reviews of two good documentaries on migrant workers:

Chairman Mao enshrined — literally

Joel 大江 — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:19:09 +0000

When one of my young, very privileged Party-family students passionately told me, “Chairman Mao is like a god to us!” I understood he meant it as a simile. And the god metaphor is common when discussing Mao and his Cultural Revolution personality cult. But as it turns out, in some incredible irony, some other Chinese mean it literally. I heard about this before, but this is the first time I’ve found pictures — Mao actually enshrined in a local temple: Mao Temple in China – Chairman Mao Becomes Local God.

For more about Mao and the Mao Era, you can browse these topics:

A deeper look into the dynamics of living with Chinese propaganda

Joel 大江 — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:17:43 +0000

Two insightful posts from Seeing Red in China, which is probably my current favourite China blog, about living in an aggressively and explicitly propagandized environment, and how Chinese try to deal with it. The propaganda still works, but in ways different than us foreigners probably tend to assume. Without further ado:

I tell [my daughter] that she must not be afraid to take a clear moral stand. “If you see someone is being bullied,” I said, “speak up for that person.” “Be the keeper of the good.” [But] Chinese parents would have to think twice, three times, or even lose sleep, if they are to instill these values in their children, because these qualities won’t serve them very well in the Chinese society.

We’ve written lots on propaganda, mostly the Chinese kind, including translations of the propaganda we’ve encounter in China. You can find it all in our Propaganda category.

Defining You (Pt. 2): Pick your poison

Joel 大江 — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:00:17 +0000

This might read better if you put on a tinfoil hat first. :)

The Self: Eastern and Western

The first Defining “You” post contrasted typical Western and East Asian understandings of the self as explained by psychologist Richard Nisbett in The Geography of Thought. To briefly recap, here are some excerpts:

…Westerners and Asians literally experience the world in very different ways. Westerners are the protagonists of their autobiographical novels; Asians are merely cast members in movies touching on their existence (87).

To the Westerner, it makes sense to speak of a person as having attributes that are independent of circumstances or particular personal relations. This self – this bounded, impermeable free agent – can move from group to group and setting to setting without significant alteration (50).

But for the Easterner (and for many other people to one degree or another), the person is connected, fluid, and conditional. As philosopher Donald Munro put it, East Asians understand themselves “in terms of their relation to the whole, such as the family, society, Tao Principle, or Pure Consciousness.” The person participates in a set of relationships that make it possible to act and purely independent behaviour is usually not possible or really even desirable (50-51).

…For early Confucians, there can be no me in isolation, to be considered abstractly: I am the totality of roles I live in relation to specific others… Taken collectively, they weave, for each of us, a unique pattern of personal identity, such that if some of my roles change, the others will of necessity change also, literally making me a different person (5).

I wonder, for example, how individualistic Western assumptions about self-validation and self-actualization sound to people not raised in an individualistic culture?

Prescribing You

Anyway, I recently came across a documentary making the sobering case that the identities of individualistic Westerners are highly externally defined — deliberately, and not with our benefit in mind. It doesn’t contradict Nisbett’s psychological sketch of Westerners because it’s speaking in a relevant but different sense of the terms. In fact, I think you can see Nisbett’s explanation of the individualistic Western self embedded in this question posed by writer/director Pria Viswalingam in his documentary Decadence – The Decline of the Western World:

We’re led to believe that money gives us choice, status, and, increasingly, an identity. But there’s something hollow about all this. Who’s meaning or identity is it? Am I really defined by where I live, what I wear, eat or drive? Or am I just another willing victim of our sophisticated market?

Decadence argues that, in the absence of a new renaissance, Western civilization is doomed to collapse due to its own internal cultural rot a la the ancient Roman Empire.

One major instance of this fatal rot is how our lives and identities are shaped by the market to the point that our identities have been psychologically colonized by imperialistic market forces. If I understand it right, we’re basically peons, programmed puppets manipulated in our actions, feelings and ideas, desiring and working to consume things because we’ve been bred and brainwashed to anxiously need them.

It’s not merely the idea that good advertising makes me desire a newer car or makes me feel like I need products I actually don’t; it’s the psychological state in which my identity, sense of meaning and purpose, emotions and anxiety, all revolve around and are determined by the dictates of marketing forces that benefit from our relentless consumption. The market tunes our subconscious, tells us who we want to be and then provides means via consumerism to pursue our choice of the available options. We’ve been bred to seek fulfillment through consumption — subconsciously, automatically, unthinkingly; it’s the default posture we take to most aspects of our existence, including our relationships and beliefs.

We’re offered a choice of identities to assume, all of which depend on an unending stream of consumption, but the available options are empty at their core; it’s not possible to be satisfied in them, and it’s in the market’s interest to keep us unsatisfied and anxious. And we’re distracted away from this fact by our noisy entertainment culture and the over-worked lifestyle required by our treadmill consumption. The result is hollowed-out people, superficial husks of humanity who behave as cogs in the market machine, whose lives and activities are ultimately determined by and dedicated to the economic benefit of corporations.

As Westerners, we think of all this almost entirely in hyper-individualistic terms; we’re seeking identity in stuff rather than in people and relationships. There’s a critique of our extreme individualistic understanding of self, such as this quote from ANU social analyst Richard Eckersle, that ties directly back to Nisbett’s sketch of the Western self:

The result of construing the self as kind of independent and separate from others — and the evidence suggests that men tend to do this more than women — does mean that we are more likely to feel isolated and lonely, even in company, in the bosom of the family you get this effect.

I see no reason why this picture of parasitic market forces that colonize our identities for profit doesn’t also just as corrosively apply to East Asian conceptions of self, though I expect the dynamics are different. Whether Chinese or Western, collective or individualistic, are we all just willing peons of a psychologically imperialistic market?

Anyway, I’m not articulating any of this as well as Viswalingham does in the Money segment, but I found most of the episodes on YouTube:

Episode One — Money (YouTube: 1, 2, 3)
Episode Two — Sex (couldn’t find a working copy online)
Episode Three — Democracy (YouTube: 1, 2, 3)
Episode Four — Education (YouTube: 1, 2, 3)
Episode Five — Family (YouTube: 1, 2, 3)
Episode Six — God (YouTube: 1, 2, 3)

The documentary is about more than consumerism, of course, and it’s interesting to note that it manages to explain the possibly fatal condition of Western civilization without reference to China or any other outside competition.

If this is as good as it gets in the West, well then, we’re destined to drown in this abundance of nothing, and become the final chapter in this ‘Good Book’ of our modern life.

These big-picture takes on our own culture are usually interesting, but even more so when you’re living overseas in a culture so very different from your own. I wonder if we’ll be seeing an increase of comparisons to ancient Rome in the coming years — both Decadence and The Hunger Games independently make significant use of the “Bread and Circuses” idea.

Here’s an interview with director Pria Viswalingam about the documentary:

Other stuff about identity:

Would you rather…? (Gutter Oil 2.0)

Joel 大江 — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:21:07 +0000

Gutter oil, aka 地沟油, is back in the news again (again), but this time with a twist. Instead of buying the waste oil out the back of restaurants at night or scooping it out of the manholes where restaurants discard their used oil, this time they’re making cooking oil from animal waste fat, rotten meat and viscera from slaughter houses. The China Daily reports that a recent crackdown netted 13 underground workshops, 3200 tonnes of oil, and over 100 suspects. Would you rather have the sewer version or the slaughterhouse version?

Over 100 arrested for making ‘gutter oil’

Previously in gutter oil news:

“Re-LIN-gion” Chinese internet meme

Joel 大江 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:30:45 +0000

I haven’t paid much attention to Jeremy Lin news (or Tebow, for that matter), so I have no idea if this is something Jeremy Lin actually said. But it was shared on Facebook by some Taiwanese friends, and it’s the first Christian-themed Jeremy Lin meme I’ve seen so far. Translation and mouseover pronunciation below. The image is in traditional characters but I’ve written it in simplified.

我无法改变人的心
我无法软化人的心
这是我无法做到的
我只专注在我的召唤和使命上
其它的事情都交给上帝
– 林书豪

I am unable to change a person’s heart.
I am unable to soften a person’s heart.
This is something I’m unable to accomplish.
I just focus solely on my calling and mission.
The other things are all handed over to God.
– Lín Shūháo

Jeremy Lin has been called the Taiwanese Tebow. I thought this NYT piece explained his appeal well: Lin’s Appeal: Faith, Pride and Points. And of course there are lots of other ways people make word plays from his name, both in English and Chinese. Here are a few: 林疯子.

Mainland students lining up for Western private schools

Joel 大江 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:35:58 +0000

I’ve witnessed the rise of Mainland students both at the private American university from which I graduated and in the ESL program of the private Canadian high school where I’m temporarily teaching. I also have a one-on-one private student in a public school’s ESL program. For some, it’s not their first private school in Canada; one student left the school an agency in China had pitched to her after the first semester because it was basically a big scam. Anyway, here’s an interesting report/first-person account of the rise of Mainlanders in private U.S. schools:

How China’s New Love Affair with U.S. Private Schools Is Changing Them Both

American high school diplomas are the new must-have for the upwardly mobile. Thousands of miles away, U.S. private schools are adjusting accordingly.

In six years, boarding schools like Deerfield and The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut reported a ten-fold increase in the number of Chinese applications.

It is also a lens into their complicated and often conflicting psychology: increasingly ambitious and outward-looking, at once sophisticated and perhaps a bit naive, they seem driven by a combination of faith in China’s future and distrust of its present; a belief that education abroad will translate into success at home. But, dazed by the new emerging opportunities and eager to follow the latest trend that promises them long-term security, both the parents and their children sometimes get something very different from what they’d hoped for.

The story quoted above does an infinitely better job than this one from last December.

And I couldn’t resist this photo of Prime Minister Stephen Harper schmoozing Chinese students (that’s not Dashan in the background, is it?):

More on teaching Mainlanders ESL in Canada:

A short intro to the Confucian “Mandate of Heaven” (天命)

Joel 大江 — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:00:09 +0000

More than once I’ve found Andrew Hong’s Chinese Culture category to be a good source for easy introductions to basic, relevant Confucianism. Here’s the latest:

Confucianism – and the mandate of heaven (part 1)

Confucianism has a strong focus on the leader as the chief means for bringing about peace and harmony. And one important dynamic that shapes the Confucian leaders’ understanding of their place in all things is the concept of the Mandate of Heaven (tianming, 天命). And this concept continues to influence how Chinese leaders understand their role today. . .

I assume Confucianists would find plenty to pick at in these brief introductions – heck, I don’t even agree with some of his theology and exegesis – but if you know next to nothing about Confucianism, this is a handy place to start.

Happy “Resurrection Festival” 2012!

Joel 大江 — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:00:48 +0000

It’s Easter weekend (复活节 in Chinese), and unlike the predictable annual mainstream media goofiness (like Jesus walking on ice floes or Shroud of Turin “discoveries” or “albatresbians”), here’s something from sinologist Dr. Brent Fulton that’s (a) informed, and (b) actually has a legitimate holiday tie-in. :)

Reason for Optimism in Policy Toward Chinese Christians

The Chinese Communist Party’s basic stance toward religion has not changed since it was spelled out in 1982 with Document Number 19. Commonly referred to as the “three designates” formula, this policy restricts religious activities to approved locations, requires that they be conducted by approved clergy, and limits their scope to the geographic sphere in which a given member of the clergy is permitted to practice. In theory, the policy limits the growth of the church by rendering itinerant evangelism illegal, severely restricting the number of leaders qualified to serve in churches, and effectively placing a cap on the number of churches that can operate in any given city or region.

Ever since Document 19 was released, activities neither specifically permitted nor specifically prohibited have existed in this gray area. Although Party policy has basically not changed for more than 25 years, and although the types of incidents mentioned at the outset of this article continue to occur, that gray area has expanded significantly. Without discounting either the reality of incidences of Christian persecution or their seriousness, it is remarkable how much Christian activity takes place on a daily basis that is technically not allowed yet goes unchecked.
[...]
Where, then, is the tipping point? Why are some (in reality, most) gray-area activities ignored, while others are attacked with a vengeance? There are a handful of triggers that, if present in a particular activity or situation, will greatly increase the likelihood of official intervention.

More from Dr. Fulton on the nature of the relationship between the Chinese gov’t and Chinese Christians can be found here:

Happy Easter, China #6: analysis, first-hand accounts, and an indirect official response [Updated]

Other related stuff:

哈利路亚！主复活了！
Christianity in China (topic)

Interview with Prof. Liu Peng on Religious Issues in China

Joel 大江 — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:43:27 +0000

Here’s a lengthy ten-part interview with Liu Peng from the Pu Shi Institute for Social Sciences, “an independent, nonprofit, non-governmental think tank” that exists to “promote freedom of belief within the framework of rule of law” and acts as “a ‘bridge’ between the government, the academic circles and religious groups.” Good for anyone with more than a passing interest in religious issues in China.

Render unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the Things that are God’s: Interview with Professor Liu Peng about Religious Issues in China

President Hu Jintao emphasized that we should enlist the participation of religious personnel and religious believers in the promotion of economic and social development. He explicitly affirmed the value of religion in Chinese society. . . It’s too simplistic to explain it away by saying that “cheaters bump into fools”. . . If you view religion as negative, then religion should be eradicated. If religion is not something negative, then it is another issue. Once we have established a correct understanding of religion, the next question centers on the measures that the state uses to manage religion.

More from Liu Peng and the Pu Shi Institute for Social Sciences can be found here:

The Chinese Communist Party among other, rival faiths.

More about how the Chinese government “enlists the participation of religious personnel and religious believers in the promotion of economic and social development” here:

Wishing you a glorious, harmonized, stabilized, socially managed, brazenly co-opted, painfully syncophantic, obligatorily WORSHIPFUL, kowtowing Chinese Communist Party Day