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No, reality is both. The problem with China is that whatever you say about it is true and false at the same time. As Pascal said earlier: "La Chine obscurcit" (
by gbog 15y ago
No, reality is both. The problem with China is that whatever you say about it is true and false at the same time. As Pascal said earlier: "La Chine obscurcit" (China darkens).
The mafias and anarchist dystopia described by GP exists in China. In my nearly 9 years here I have received some reflections of this (random pick: I have spent a night near a children factory near Hong-Kong).
But saying that China, or even Wenzhou is an anarchist dystopia is wrong. It is similar to describing New-York with a picture from the Bronx during a "bad day".
On the opposite, saying that Wenzhou and other places are economic paradise where anyone can do whatever they want without the central government even being aware of this is false. These coastal regions have been set up as an experiment on economic opening by Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao have been in fact "chosen" by him, in order to continue in the same tracks. You can count on the current government to care about these places, and to be ready to do whatever is needed if it goes too far.
What is happening in China right now is impressive, and such a fast mutation is probably unseen in the world history at this scale.
It will have a great impact on the world. Will it be for the best or for the worst? I can't be sure, but what I know is that knowing better each other, increasing exchanges between West and East, is the best and only way we have to push a little, just a little bit, away from the worst case scenario.
- erikb 15y agoWhat you say is correct. I can't give an objective view, either. The truth is, that you can't understand China, if you don't go there for a long time (>6 months at least). For me it was really a schocking experience, because even though I saw such things in cinema before, deep in my sould I couldn't believe that this can really be the true daily life of people on this planet. If you life in a high quality, European country it is just not possible to imagine that human rights are not a natural thing to be, that police could be feared not for a speed ticket, but for putting you in jail without reason, for stealing from you, beating you, raping you and maybe even killing you. Or that quite normal people never went to any doctor, or that there house has neither electricity nor flowing water. Experiencing all that in a short time was really a shock for me and I am sure that overexagarate. I just can share my experience, how I experienced it.
- john_flintstone 15y agoChina todays always reminds me of Dickens's Tale of Two Cities: "IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."
- kaybe 15y agoJust to clarify: What do you mean by "children factory"? A factory having children as workers?
- gbog 15y agoYes. I saw them all as they went for dinner. Mostly boys, aged from 13 to 20. They didn't look harassed though, they didn't look like slaves, they looked like kids who had grown faster than others, who bought their own shoes with the money they made in the factory behind.