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October 9, 2000
A Visit to a Middle Class Chinese Home
The week's National Day holiday ends today and I go back to work. It's been a very pleasant respite full of traveling, visiting, exploring Changsha, and reading American novels. I finished the holidays by joining a friend in a visit to her families home. Kathy, my American friend, joined us.
The family consists of a father who edits a magazine; a mother who teaches in primary school; my friend who is a university teacher; and her younger sister who is a university student. They live in a year old government apartment complex of many four-story buildings containing 800 families.
On the outside, except for the landscaping still in progress, it would remind us of Pruitt-Igo, one of our governments failed attempts to furnish housing to the poor of our country. However, in China, which emphasizes obligations to community over individualism, I am sure the results will be very different. Also, the people are buying the apartments with mortgages.
The apartment is a beautiful and modern four-bedroom apartment. The furniture is all new, including a set of comfortable leather couches with two chairs, a large entertainment center, and a room filled with floor to ceiling bookcases filled with the father's and daughter's collection of books. Some are English translations of Chinese classics the family graciously offered to loan to us.
The woodworking in the apartment is astonishing in its skill and beauty. The doors have inlaid patterns which the daughter designed, the wood piece separating the dining room from the living room consists of cabinets and a counter top, all of wood and impeccably executed by a skilled craftsman following the design of the older daughter.
My friend is very skilled in English, and she graciously translated between her parents and Kathy and I. We spoke of education, the distribution of resources and the middle class, democracy, and personal histories.
The father laughed when he told us that his family had lived in a one, then two, then three, and now a four-bedroom apartment. He said that both his and his wife's family came from poor families, but that all the siblings were now settled in cities and living better lives. The people of the countryside are also not as poor. Once again, it was confirmed for me, that liberation had changed the people's lives for the better. The Chinese people often use the phrase, "since liberation." Their revolution is a living thing.
The mother asked about how we contend with children who are undisciplined in the classroom. She said that so many of the children are from one children families that they can be very difficult. She also said that she has one child being supported by factory workers through the Hope Project.
We found that they do not elect their government officials as we do, but that they rely on a process of bringing the wishes of the people to the leadership. It sounds like a grassroots organizing effort, with group meetings to discuss issues and problems. Kathy asked how someone who wanted to be Mayor of Changsha would go about it. They seemed surprised by the question. In essence, the answer was that a person would run for Mayor because the people would recognize that she would be a good mayor, not because the person wanted to be mayor. Clearly, this is a large cultural difference in thinking.
My friend said that when she became a university teacher, the administration spoke with her classmates and asked them if they thought she would do a good job. She said that without their support she would not have become a teacher.
The transportation and choked roads of Changsha were discussed in the context of China's future. My friend has a goal of owning a car in five years and private garages are a part of the complex. The Chinese government has a policy of striving to make cars accessible to the common people. A major road in Changsha has just been widened to 6 lanes from 2. They took off the front of many buildings and cut down miles of enormous trees that shaded the road and transformed carbon monoxide to oxygen. I told them that Los Angeles has 70% of their landmass dedicated to cars. We agreed that if China embarks on a car based economy it would be disastrous.
The evening, of course, was not all-serious discussions. We ate a delicious supper. We complimented the cooks, of course, and were told that it wasn't exactly "Chinese food," but that it had been varied for western tastes. We also sang Kareoke to some English classics like "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon."
We left late in the evening to bring a cab back to our rooms. The week's vacation ended with an extraordinary opportunity to visit with Chinese people in their home and compare and share our knowledge and life experience. Once again, my respect for the Chinese people and their culture has deepened.
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