March 14, 2002
We have much to teach one
another
By Margaret Johnson
St. Louis Community College, Forest Park
"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
Four Quarters, T. S. Eliot
My journey to China ended on December 24, 2000. I'd spent four and a half months living, traveling, and teaching in the People's Republic of China. This time taught me about a little about China's people and culture and an enormous amount about the United States and it's people and culture.
It is a rare individual who can accurately reflect upon a culture while immersed in it. The separation, cultural differences, and Chinese friends helped me begin to understand China, and just as importantly, by comparison, helped me better understand United States culture. My time away from China has allowed me time to reflect upon my experiences. This article is an attempt to share some of my insights and understandings.
China is a country bursting at the seams. It swarms with people who are in turns ambitious or lazy, highly educated or ignorant, friendly or hostile, optimistic or hopeless. It is a country filled with people who, just like Americans, vary in their diversity of feelings, ambitions, and expectations. The primary difference I experienced in the outlook of the two peoples is the American ideas of independence, constructive criticism, and human rights.
I found my Middle American initiative flew in the face of Chinese expectations. I worked in a large bureaucratic university and my experience was certainly influenced by this cumbersome and layered system. What I could not find in this University system is either a formal or informal way to deliver constructive criticism. Tthe idea of criticism being useful and desired did not seem to be a part of the culture.
This lack of critique seems to be connected to the idea of "losing face." I was constantly running up against this cultural idea, and found it difficult to improve the situation for my students or myself. I also found that Chinese students do not ask questions in class nor participate in class discussion. One explanation for this is the idea that if a student asks a question it implies that the teacher in someway failed. So, a major cultural difference I experienced is a conflict between the American idea to strive to improve things by constructive criticism and the Chinese idea of losing face, which prevents criticism.
I was very surprised by the lack of class-consciousness on the part of most Chinese. I expected solidarity between people of various classes due to the legacy of Communism. I found just the opposite. Working class people and peasants seemed to be invisible to most Chinese. It is the same phenomenon that occurs in the United States with homeless people. Most Americans will walk down a street where a homeless person is present and studiously avoid noticing them; most Chinese do the same thing. In both nations it is a desire to not get involved, but this behavior flies in the face of normal U. S. inclinations, while it seems to be ingrained in Chinese culture.
The most startling example of this was in Chengdu. A man who had been hit by a car was sitting, stunned, in the middle of a very busy and crowded intersection. Cabs, buses, and a few private cars where passing a few inches from his body. Pedestrians were walking around him. I was with an English-speaking guide and I said, "We have to help him. He is going to be run over again." The guide kept walking. I stopped and called to him. He came back, took my hand, and pulled me onto the sidewalk saying, "It is not the Chinese way."
The Chinese people were critical of the U. S. government policies. I am also very critical of many of our governments' policies. However, Chinese are not publicly critical of their governments' policies because they are afraid of retaliation. I found many Chinese very educated about the way our government works and its policies. I was surprised, in fact, by the depth of some of the knowledge. I also became aware that their information is very skewed toward the negative. They know about racism in the United States, but know nothing about the civil rights movement. They know about universal education in the U. S., but are unaware that U.S. citizens struggeled for the right to education using direct action and civil disobedience.
I tried, as often as possible, to talk about what drives U. S. culture. What is essential to any democratic form of government are active citizens who pays attention, get involved, and actively influence government policy. Non-governmental organizations are critical to the functioning of the United States. This is a foreign concept to the Chinese.
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks the concept of active citizenship is being challenged by the political right in this country. Active citizenship, which counters the aims of the President of the United States, is called unpatriotic by an administration bent on pursuing their own political goals, regardless of the views of the majority of United States citizens. An authoritarian regime can hide behind the mask of Democracy as easily as sit can behind the mask of Communism. This is a time that tests our democratic form of government.
The wave of nationalism in the United States, created by the terrorist attacks of September 11, reminds me of the wave of nationalism that swept China after the collision between the Chinese fighter jet and the United State Naval plane. Nationalism can be used by governments to prevent the people from thinking clearly about national and international issues.
A decade ago, many Chinese had a romantic vision of the United States. The use of the Statue of Liberty as a symbol during the Tiananmen Square protests is the most visible evidence of this. The United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade brought a shift in the national mood of China. This shift moved many Chinese toward increased cynicism toward the U. S. government. Much of the rhetoric about human rights and free trade began to ring hollow. I consider this shift to be a healthy one.
In China, communist ideology has collapsed. Economic reforms are sparking unemployment and corruption. Huge economic disparities are becoming obvious. Peasants and common laborers often use direct action and large demonstrations to display their frustration, disappointment, and fear of the future. I witnessed a large demonstration in a five star hotel in Changsha, Hunan. Approximately one hundred workers entered the hotel and blocked the entrances to the hotel and the elevators. They had not been paid when they completed renovation to the hotel. The work had been completed over a year ago. The contractor, who had been paid by the hotel, had taken the money for the salaries and fled to Australia. A knowledgeable friend of mine who works for Hunan province said demonstrations of that type, fueled by corruption, were common all over China.
The people and governments of China and the United are inextricably linked together by history and by the current times. China contains one-fourth this planets human population. The United States currently stands as the most powerful nation, both economically and militarily. These demanding times require that the people of China and the United States continue and deepen our relationships. We have much to teach one another.
"So the journey is over and I am back again where I started, richer by much experience and poorer by so many exploded convictions, many perished certainties. For convictions and certainties are too often the concomitants of ignorance. Those who like to feel they are always right and who attach a high importance to their own opinions should stay at home. When one is travelling, convictions are mislaid as easily as spectacles; but unlike spectacles, they are not easily
replaced."
Jesting Pilate, Aldous Huxley
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