The Lectern: China rising redux

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The Lectern:

The Lectern: China rising redux

By Steve Kelman
Published on August 19, 2008 - 12:39 PM

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I have just arrived in Taiwan for a week — as some readers may remember, I am faculty chairman for a fantastic executive education program for about 40 up-and-coming Taiwanese civil servants, and I come to Taipei to teach them for a week in August. Then they come to Cambridge in September to be taught by an all-star cast of Kennedy School faculty. However, in this post I am writing, based on some experiences on my airplane trip over here, about mainland China, not Taiwan. (To be sure, a Chinese Facebook friend, having seen my "status update" about leaving for Taiwan, did write me back that it was good that I was going to be "in China.")

I traveled to Taiwan via Toronto, which gave me the opportunity to read the weekend Canadian newspapers. There was a fascinating article in Sunday's Globe and Mail called "Chinese-Canadian Diaspora Fostering New Bond with Homeland." The basic theme of the story was that Chinese Canadians have become much more pro-China thanks to the emotion around the Olympics in Beijing in particular and China's economic and political rise in general. The story talks about an anti-Chinese government activist who for years has spoken out against government policies while living in Canada. For a decade, whenever he spoke out, he had been "showered with praise" by other Chinese Canadians.

However, when he spoke in a similar way against the actions of the Chinese government in Tibet this spring, the praise turned to fervent criticisms that "his attacks on the Chinese system had become tantamount to slighting the Chinese people themselves." Indeed, in the spring, thousands of Chinese Canadians protested in front of parliament (with similar demonstrations in Toronto and Montreal) to support China's activities in Tibet. "When China becomes a super nation," one observer is quoted in the article as saying, "[Chinese Canadians] feel proud. They feel that their status in society is tied directly to how China is being thought of on the world stage."

The same issue of The Globe and Mail had another story titled "China Knocking the World Off Its Feet" about China's Olympic successes. It quoted a Chinese blogger as saying, "Look how strong our homeland is now. Look at how much progress has been made in 20 years by the country that was once called the sick man of Asia. I deeply feel the pride of being a Chinese." The article pointed out that China had in a sense made this the first Olympic team in the age of globalization by bringing in many coaches from outside China to train its athletes. (There was another news story recently showing that the Chinese people were far more optimistic about their future than the people of any other country surveyed.)

On my long flight from Toronto to Asia and a week earlier on my flight from Abu Dhabi to Washington, I watched recent entertainment movies from mainland China that were available among the many choices on the business-class TV screens. It is an interesting in itself that Chinese films were being shown. One was a romantic comedy called "Contract Lover," about a guy who hires a woman to make believe she is his girlfriend to bring home to his parents, hoping that her disrespectful, overly Westernized behavior will get his parents so angry that they will accept his real girlfriend, a quite Westernized investment banker. The other was a light drama, "Slam," about a team of three smaller high school kids (including one who is a Chinese American living in China, or what the Chinese call an ABC for American-born Chinese), who dub themselves the Hummingbirds and take on a bigger and more well-established team in a basketball contest.

Both movies struck me as bearing an amazing resemblance to mainstream Hollywood entertainment. You would never in a million years believe they came from the one-time kingdom of Chairman Mao. "Slam" included scenes of Chinese-language rappers!

This is a new world that Americans need to understand.

(By the way, there was also an interesting article on the front page of the Canadian daily The National Post called "Do We Care Enough To Win?," wondering whether Canada's dearth of Olympic medals reflected a culture that prides itself, compared with the United States, on de-emphasizing the importance of competition and "winner takes all."

Steve Kelman

View Comments

Dear professor, thank you very much for paying great attention to China, in particular the mainland China. I appreciate your article for that I get more information on Chinese who lived overseas, such as Chinese Canadians. Perhaps, I may understand their changing attitude towards the anti-Chinese government activist. As Chinese old saying goes, a dog would never leave home just because of home’s poverty, and a son would never say his mother of displeasing appearance is ugly. That is to say, wherever Chinese go, they will never say his motherland is ugly. Last month, I attended an international doctoral students conference in Russia. Some participants are from USA, Canada and Singapore. Among them, some have settled in these countries. When we meet each other, we would have a greatly pleasant talk, like we are in the same family. This is Chinese culture. We are Chinese, and we are like living in the same family, wherever he/she is from. As a Chinese, when he/she reads the bad news about China, he/she may feel sorry and worried. But he/she will never rebuke his/her motherland.

Posted by walterlee on August 21, 2008 - 10:27 AM

Of course, I know, in your passage, you stressed the activist was against Chinese government. At first, I have to admit that there is quite a lot of “reform work” to do for Chinese government, especially in the political system. However, we must hold the impartial and impersonal viewpoint that China has attained a great number of achievements in reform and development, including political system reform. As we may know, Rome was not built in a day. Comparing with USA’s 200-year development, China’s reform and development is so short that you could nearly omit the 20 years in USA history. As an ordinary Chinese student, I don’t like to defend Chinese government, and I just want to say please give China some time, some opportunity as well as some kind pressure, so as to push China’s reform and development. China is not a mysterious country, and China’s rising will not cause any terrible menace to the contemporary world order. I bet Chinese rising may be beneficial to the world, including USA. Dear friends, please take more time to understand China, just as Professor Kelman does, watching Chinese news, Chinese movies, even visiting China personally. In Chinese culture, the kind comers are all honored guests and must receive the most warm-hearted reception.

Posted by walterlee on August 21, 2008 - 10:28 AM

Hi Steve! It's amazing to read what you have wrote here, especially with updates of articles in Canada, they are very interesting and encouraging indeed! I wish I could get them in NZ... but hey, thank you very much! And also, your thoughts on movies made-in-China, I saw "Contract Lover" some time ago and I loved it. I even had the chance to meet the director in person at a lunch gathering. He himself is a person with great charisma:) It is hard to hide my feelings as to how happy I am concerning the positiveness of foreigner articles at the moment, yet they do seem to come from a neutral point of view. Let's look forward to a grand ceremony on the 24th, which will state the absolute excellence of Beijing Olympics 2008 and a semi-opening for London Olympics in 2012!

Posted by Jody L. Guan on August 21, 2008 - 05:59 PM

Sometimes, i think, when saying words against our government policies, our purpose is to make our country better. And a stronger country surely will strengthen our confidence in the future of our country. As for Olympic games, I am proud of our achievements. I think as professional athletes, since they decide to participate in the games, they should surely try their best to win. And when our athletes make it, they will surely make us proud of our country. Olympic game is also a great chance to motivate our people to participate in sports. Actually when our hero Liu Xiang won the gold medal in 110m hurdle in the last Olympic game, many of my friends and me become more interested in hurdle. So I think it is a good thing that every country's player try their best to win in the Olympics game.

Posted by Chengs Blog on August 21, 2008 - 10:48 PM

Hi, Steve, I finally got time to read your blog. I am sorry... Your article is awesome! I am impressed that as a foreigner, you understand China so well and deep! About the Olympics, you know how proud I am... Nowadays, China is a new world to be dicovered.

Posted by bingru on September 6, 2008 - 06:42 PM