Saturday, February 18, 2006

What I know, generally speaking

On this tour, I visited Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai, but before I go into what transpired in each city, I’d like to just share with you what I learned/observed about China in general.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: All statements in this post – and in any other post on this blog – are the opinion of Katie Ford or merely recollections of conversations or excerpts from her well-worn travel journal. In no way are the contents of this post – nor any other post on this blog – to be taken as the truth or final word on anything. Katie Ford does not vouch for the complete accuracy of said posts and begs for forgiveness in advance if any inaccuracies are discovered. She particularly seeks the forgiveness of the Communist Party, as she would like to visit China again one day and would like to avoid any traveler snafus like, say, life imprisonment.

OK, so I was talking about China. China reminds me a lot of myself when I was a teenager: generally confused about identity, growing rapidly, full of promise and energy, unpredictable, and caught between a past that wasn’t perfect but at least familiar and a future full of unknowns.

To understand where China is headed, you have to know where it’s been. For 4,000 years, this country was the obedient child of a long steady stream of all-powerful dynasties with emperors who suffered terribly from delusions of grandeur. With the fall of the last dynasty in 1911 rose roughly three decades of other countries (i.e., Japan, Germany, Russia and a smidge of Britain) struggling to control parts of China. What territory they left alone was fought over by your common variety warlords, whose favorite pastimes included overthrowing governments, assassinating political leaders and long walks in the rain. By the 1930s, the two contenders were the Nationalist and Communist parties. And, as we all know, the Communists scored in the fourth quarter to win the game. In 1949, under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong, China became the People’s Republic of China. And then there was the Korean War and Chairman Mao’s “Great Leap Forward,” a socioeconomic campaign to position China as a world leader but actually ended up breaking the backs of millions of Chinese peasants who either starved or were literally worked to death.

For brevity’s sake, let’s fast forward a bit because I’m getting tired of all the fighting: Mao died in 1976. The People’s Republic went through a few more leaders, some Modernization movements, some Reform movements – and then, bada bing, bada boom: You’ve got your modern-day China. Good-bye oppressed, war-torn child of yesterday. Hello, General Motors, Gucci knock-offs and all-night karaoke bars.

It’s a jarring gear switch that has the entire country jockeying for pole position in an ever-increasing free market and open society. This is the China I visited – a land filled with reminders of the past and signs of the future. In Xi’an, I walked through the arches of an ancient bell tower only to gaze upon the “golden arches” on the other side. What’s out? Chairman Mao. What’s in? The Colonel.

I will say this: If you have any hankering to visit China and witness all its ancient history, book your plane ticket now. The landscape of this country is changing at lightning speed.

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