I believe that the nation of China is capable of greatness, and that the peoples of Asia possess precious gifts and a primary place in coming geo-politics…but it will require a paradigm shift in the government’s perception of information as a threat, because we live in the age where information is power.
It is absolutely true that travel can be the greatest form of education. We sometimes need to touch, see and feel the people for ourselves, and not simply the interpretations of reality present in books. My family’s layover back to Japan gave us the opportunity to spend a couple days in Shanghai. There was so much anticipation for better understanding the narrative, vision and reality of the PRC. The first day we saw the ancient Yu Garden in downtown Shanghai, built by a nobleman for his parents so that they would have a restful place to spend their last years on this earth.
The stunning garden passed through many hands and many wars until today, where it is frequented by hundreds of guests, appreciated by Chinese and foreigner alike, enjoyed by all.
A plaque nearby sums up not only this communal space, but the heart of communism toward the people: “Now the Yu Garden belongs to all of us.”
After generations of the populace suffering under corrupt family dynasties, and then feeling the humiliation of colonization, the narrative goes that communism freed the people. This is the sweetened and glazed version of the story. We all know that Maoism has wreaked its own havoc on China. But, I can also acknowledge that the bitter fruit of Western colonization is still in their mouth. They cannot hear my plea that there might be a better way. What is in it for America? What is in it for my government if they become democratic? What happens if a “Western God” is introduced in the East? There is a fundamental suspicion and lack of trust of the West. This is present everywhere, as well as a strong assertion of national pride.
We walked to the Urban Planning and Development Museum, across the street from the People’s Square, where a new collaborative vision is being embraced. Is it possible to peel back the Bamboo Curtain? What would be the reward? A garden city. This is the pursuit of President Xi for Shanghai, as a model for all major cities in China. He has said that in a word, development is the priority. Indeed, this seems to have the potential to shape China positively on many levels.
The garden city is a biblical concept. In a biblical theology, all of humanity that is moving toward God is by necessity moving toward a garden city where the love, light and life force dwell and permeates everything. There is togetherness. The garden is a place of encounter with the divine in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. The city is a man-made ecosystem where humanity is meant to thrive. The two concepts together are in essence, fellowship with God and mankind, with the necessity to care for and co-exist with creation as a precious home.
The museum exhibits said that the ideal of the “garden city” was a western concept, but what made it’s application in China true to “the People’s” ideals was that the city was meant to be shared by all, enjoyed by all.
This societal class-less-ness is very important to you if your history is a long series of dominations by ruling families, and then perceived pillaging and injustice through trade and colonization. Maintaining class-less-ness, should be a key in all of the West’s dialogue with China. A re-adjustment in our understanding that the desired equality among their people, which conjures up mental images in our minds of brown and grey clothes, kibbutz housing, and food rations, should be re-translated as simply…a wider middle class. The development from poverty to the middle-class is the priority.
Shanghai doesn’t currently live up to the ideal of the garden city or the shiny sci-fi technologically cutting edge Tokyo-like Asian megacity. The exception would be the Maglev, and the Oriental pearl, yet even these advances produce the sentiment: “Made in China”.
Shanghai is a sort of Asian fantasy, not unlike Bombay. Come to the city, make your dreams come true! With all the glitz and gaudiness of trying to be something you are not, instead of simply being the amazing thing that you are. From far away, everything is stunning, but up close, it’s at best rough, at worst shoddy. But this is how ancient civilizations have always survived, with ebbs and flows and a “that will do” attitude, because the city never lasts eternally, or if it does, layer upon layer of mire, history, rubbish, sewage, artifacts, skeletons, pottery shards are part of the living urban organism.
In our limited observations during our short peek behind the Bamboo Curtain, there are systematic realities that are keeping true development and progress back from China. How are you going to innovate if critical thinking is discouraged? How can you offer a capitalistic-type leisurely lifestyle in a communist/socialist economy? How will you give incentives to the individual? How are you going to allow the youth to rise into global leadership if travel and movement is restricted, if English is not widely spoken, if there is a traditional hierarchy that is seemingly impossible to navigate? How are you going to keep abreast with new technology while stopping up the flow of information with your insurmountable firewall?