Torch Protest Misunderstanding: Why Chinese and Foreigners Don’t Get Each Other
In an AP article I found via ESPN.com I zeroed in on a quotation from a torch bearer name Fu Shenfeng seems to have unintentionally summed up the disconnect between Western and Chinese views on Olympic torch protests:
“Foreigners don’t understand China,” said torch bearer Fu Shenfeng before the relay started. “They still think we’re stuck in the past. They still think we’re poor. This is our chance to show them the real China.”
And herein lies the disconnect. The Western world does not see China as poor, or economics as the main issue in the debate. Yet inside China there are still heavy residual effects from the past.
In China there was a popular slogan that Mao Zedong used as a tool to encourage strong work ethic during the Great Leap Forward:
超英赶美
Literally it means “surpass England, overtake America.” He was referring to steel production, and it turned out to be a poor target area for Chinese economic growth. People melted pots and pans, and there was starvation as a result of misallotcated resources. The scars from failed experiments like this run deep, and the slogans still echo in the psyches of many.
China has long had a chip on its shoulder when it comes to the economy. The slogan was not “live long and prosper.” Instead, it specifically targeted countries as competitors by which to measure success. It was not only that China was a poor country, but also that the outside world saw it as such.
Many Chinese still seem their country through the same lens as they did a few decades ago. Or at least they see the world through the same paradigm. But the West doesn’t see China through the same lens as it did in the 1960s, 70s, or even 80s. The stories coming out of China tend to be focuses more on how people are becoming rich, rather than how the country is poor. In fact, the fear in the US isn’t that China is too poor, it’s that it owns American debt.
And perhaps the West misunderstands the importance of the emergence of wealth to many Chinese. For Chinese people in their 30s and 40s (and certainly anyone older than that), wealth is new, and potentially fleeting. While China is hardly universally rich, the West seems to have come to grips with the country’s emergence faster than its own populace has. Americans think of China as an emerging economic and military power. They hardly need the Olympics to come to that conclusion (after all, no one thinks of Greece as the world’s great modern economy).
It is almost as if Americans have already accepted Chinese wealth and is asking, “now what?” Meanwhile, many Chinese are still insecure with a wealth that is very recent. They are looking to their remarkable economic accomplishments and want more praise, but are disappointed to see that the endpoint that had always been the focus has now moved. No longer is a robust economy, good education and innovation enough. Now people focus on international soft power, the environment, human rights and freedom of speech.
This provides a non-sequitur for many in China. If the lives of the overwhelming majority could improve so dramatically without a focus on democracy, why should that be the overarching consideration now?
And so this partially explains how we’ve ended up here, with China looking for the world’s love, only to find that it can never earn the affection it so desires. Mr. Fu is right that most foreigners don’t understand China. However, it is not because they think the country is poor, but rather because they don’t understand the struggle that required for it to get rich.
Today China’s steel production is greater than England’s, decades after Mao gave up on that dream. Yet while China may have surpassed England, it shot past so quickly, the two people’s were never able to see eye-to-eye.
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cathy responds:
Posted: May 5th, 2008 at 11:43 pm →
The misunderstanding is part of the process of becoming more understanding, the US now has a great sense of fear and insecurity of their own as well, that this new generation will have a worse standard of living than their parents, which now seems an obvious fact. Many Chinese do feel insecure by their new gain rich, many saw their parents struggled, and their grandparents just barely surviving, China has a nouveau rich mentality that is why they are trying to build everything higher, and bigger, faster, just as a person who used to be poor, recently accumulated tons of money, that person will likely wear tons of expensive clothing and go buy a mansion. This is all part of the process. The US went through that in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, know how fast the NY construction workers were building the Empire State Building? There was a point when it was one floor a day! And remember the stock market crash? There’s no stopping to this kind of new rich mentality, no matter how the west try to criticize China, try to lay out all the international standards to China, the population in China as a whole, is going through the growing pain of becoming a developed nation, they don’t exactly see eye to eye with the west, I don’t think they have the confidence yet to feel comfortable and secure in their achievement. Even Hong Kong went through it in the 70’s and 80’s. People were flashy, the buildings were flashy. Now people in Hong Kong have grown past that. In time, China will become mentally more attuned to modern mindset, there’s no stopping to freedom of expression, the Olympics will only open that up more, and the internet, there are many frustrating Chinese who want that to change, what you see in recent news aren’t all the people’s point of view in China.
cathy responds:
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 12:49 am →
Speaking of freedom of the press, some of my posts on a previous topic was deleted, I don’t know if the CCP firewall deleted it if it’s by you Josh, whatever it was, so much for your own criticism of China freedom of speech when my expression was deleted on your site.
Larry responds:
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 6:47 am →
Do Chinese understand today’s China and it’s influence in the world ? Would that be about a million out of 1.3 billion ?
Josh responds:
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 9:40 am →
@Cathy,
I assume you are referring to when you posted a full Chinese article in the comment section. I removed it not for the content but because you posted a full article in the comment section. please feel free to re-post a link.
cathy responds:
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 11:31 am →
Too late, they don’t have it posted anymore, one has to search Sing tao Daily USA, exclusive interview with Dalai Lama. Anyway, you do censor, for whatever reason you like to explain yourself with, Dalai Lama is a sensitive name to mention in websites in China I guess, but I guess especially on your site. That piece of interview is more important than most of us rambling on the site, whoever gets to read it might change their perspective on what Tibet is asking for, I am not asking people to agree, but it doesn’t hurt to read it, because the piece published just before CCP announced to meet with Dalai Lama, the timing was wonderful, maybe you don’t read Chinese, but that one article was more important than us endlessly discussing with no end and some times I feel people who come on here debate just for the sake of it, just to prove they are right, and not willing to see where the other side is coming from.
Rhys responds:
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 3:16 pm →
I agree with your analysis….but only in part. In my opinion, you could barely get two people ( a laowai and a Chinese) who even agreed what they were arguing about.
For example, how about the Chinese gov lecturing foreigners recently on Chinese history, and how Tibat is a part of China. The fact is there is not a single gov in the world who doesn’t recognise Tibat as a part of China, and in western countries the “free tebet” supporters are basically a fringe group of hippies. Yet the way the Chinese media and some Chinese bloggers go on, you’d think there is some vast world wide conspiracy to split tebet away from China.
Likewise im sure some Americans think China is poor. But I’m equally sure it’s not mainstream opinion in the US. Just like I think the hyper-defensive (or aggressive) nationalistic rhetoric on so many blogs is not really an entirely accurate reflection of how a large percentage of Chinese really view the whole mess. (At least god i hope not) And I don’t necessarily think too many Chinese are totally insecure about their “wealth” (those that have it) Conspicuous consumption is alive and well in all capitalist socieities, i think, including the current day US, and so is an element of aggressive nationalism. I don’;t necessarily believe these things are more common in China.
Rhys responds:
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm →
A case in point was the incredibly hysterical french bashing that occurred at the start of that incredibly disgusting waste of human life that is the Iraq war. I was literally flabbergasted at the rhetoric used by some american politicians and also citizens, and remain incredibly surprised at the amount of french bashing that goes on in US pop/consumer culture today.
Mick responds:
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 9:50 pm →
Very good observation. I never fail to be surprised by how smart and perceptive the Chinese can be in some areas, and yet when it comes to dealing with foreign powers it’s like they’re stuck in an 1898 time warp. And it’s not a mainland thing. There are Facebook groups set up by overseas Chinese based on the premise that western governments [not just a few free Tibet protestors] want to sabotage the Olympics and separate Tibet from China.
stuart responds:
Posted: May 7th, 2008 at 8:31 pm →
The ‘ foreigners don’t understand China’ meme is the most obvious indicator of Chinese misconceptions (reinforced daily by a simply awful media) concerning the west’s perceived ignorance of all things China. It’s nothing more than a convenient label that has been used as an excuse for the petty tantrums of recent weeks.
Josh responds:
Posted: May 7th, 2008 at 9:45 pm →
Not swayed at all by the substance or specific examples I give I take it.
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: May 8th, 2008 at 6:19 am →
“Foreigners don’t understand China” is the new version of “foreigners can’t learn Chinese”.
“The fact is there is not a single gov in the world who doesn’t recognise Tibat as a part of China, and in western countries the “free tebet” supporters are basically a fringe group of hippies.”
China feels the need to “get the word out” regarding its version of China-Tibet relations because Beijing has finally realized that foreign governments were disingenuous when they signed those One China agreements. They only signed them to get business access for their companies.
And the people who believe Tibet is occupied territory are a much more diverse group than some hippies.
Bad China
Robot Monkeys :: The Old Guard at the Debutant Ball responds:
Posted: August 15th, 2008 at 3:28 pm →
[...] tour, and there’s protests around the world about human rights and Tibet, and the Chinese seem confused. Maybe they believed the crap that Western corporatists spout about how nothing is appropriate for [...]