China - The center of the universe

I will try to summarize my observations this past week and make comparisons with US and India where relevant. Overall, China impresses.


Infrastructure

Beijing has got its basic infrastructure in place. There are toilets everywhere you go - reasonably clean for a city and very clean for a developing country. Unlike US, you don't need to search for a McDonald's; unlike India, you don't need to hold onto your bladder. It has an excellent public transport system that everyone actively uses. Tickets are issued automatically much like the West and people know how to use it! You don't end up sweating and smelling if you travel by the subway or by the bus. There's enough room left on the roads for people to cycle. Several of them do. Unlike in India, it isn't the urban poor or middleclass but quite a few people cycle. 3 million people ride taxis everyday in Beijing and taxis proudly claim that they take 90 million passengers every month. Nearly all of them gave me a printed receipt.

Architecture
There are countless big buildings which easily highlight the "developing status" of New Delhi or Mumbai. Beijing desperately wants to stand out. In order to do that it attracts architects from Holland or elsewhere to create their stamp and give Beijing its unique structure. The CCTV tower is one of the more recognizable structures in downtown and is jocularly referred to as "the pants" or the underwear or whatever - am sure the architect isn't happy about that. The buildings appear very solid and stable -- reminds you somewhat of DC.

Immigration desk
The immigration officers are extremely courteous and polite and do not behave the way their US counterparts do. While at the US desk, I get the feeling that am already making some mistake and I'm looked at in ways that I'm not supposed to be here. The Beijing immigration desk has an instant-feedback system, which I simply loved. As soon as the officer is almost done with you, it blinks asking you to give feedback -- extremely unsatisfactory, unsatisfactory, satisfactory, very satisfactory -- including smilies. I gave satisfactory both times - my entry and exit. I'm sure they were even smiling beneath their Swine Flu protection masks but I couldn't tell.

Hotels
There are no tips in China except at big, western-styled restaurants. My hotel (the Quandrangle hotel in Deshengmen -- #42 in Xinghua hutong) had excellent service but they wouldn't take tips! It was an amazing experience.

People
People are the same everywhere. I found myself feeling connected with nearly everyone I met. They are warm, friendly, balanced, trusting and forthcoming in their outlook. Family is a very important social element. Unlike the US where it's common to see people grabbing a bite on the move or on their own, in Beijing people always seemed to share their meal and eat in groups. India is getting to where US is. People in the hutongs, at shops always sat around the table and dipped into common bowls of food. It somehow seemed to bring everyone together and brought a sense of solidarity and stability in the social order.

Compared to their Indian counterparts, I found Beijingers surprisingly less conservative and more forthcoming. At the Temple of Heaven park, people including several elderly people were learning to dance Salsa. If I'd see something like that in a park here in Mumbai, there would be a larger group standing and hooting.

At Tiananmen square, I saw a well-dressed gentleman paying his respects to the monument. I can't recall seeing anyone do that at Indian or American monuments -- it would be odd. They would do so at temples in India but not at monuments that symbolize the country (e.g. the Ashoka pillar).

When someone says "homeland" -- I suspect it would stir deeper passions in China than in some other countries. There's perhaps a reason for this. Without a religious upbringing, there's nothing more unifying or a higher-level platform than "country" for China.

People are also quirky - I loved the way they obsess taking pictures. You can tell that this is a new passion -- perhaps 5-10 years old -- of clicking, clicking, clicking. But isn't this everywhere.

There's this energy that I observed amongst the people -- they want to get somewhere regardless of anything. They don't care what the world thinks...it's not their headache...they need to focus on getting China ahead and they are doing it with a pace and a sense of urgency that I haven't seen elsewhere.

Expats
Expats would easily feel more comfortable in Beijing than they would in Indian cities. This is in spite of the language. Beijing has created a reasonably comfortable environment that is commutable. I got oriented in a day. I felt I could get by on my own and anywhere in Beijing the next morning. I don't believe Mumbai offers that kind of comfort for foreigners. You can't simply hop on the train - it would confuse you...more over it's too crowded in Mumbai. The night life is more open. You get beer almost everywhere and it's not looked at like some activity reserved for dinners. You are thirsty, you can have beer and that would be okay. In that respect, it even differs from US.

Religion
It's very unique to China that it has no religion. After the cultural wipe out years, most young Chinese people have been brought up with no-religion. So I was confused to see people worshiping at the Lama temple. I was told that people do worship when they are in trouble. If you are member of the Communist Party, you definitely cannot follow any religion because communism by itself is a religion. As a citizen you can hold public demonstrations that are religious in nature - the law curtails you. You cannot build temples and of the like without sufficient permission from the party - you may not get it.

Lack of religion does not mean lack of values. People have their values. These are deeply embedded within their culture. Core among them is respect to elders, respect to authority. These values are more Confucian in nature. People also have rituals. G's wedding was an elaborate Chinese ceremony. No one clearly seemed to know the origin of these ceremonies whether it was shooting the arrows or the jumping the fire. If you think about these -- yes, there seems to be underlying reasons of respect, love, worship and so on. But people will not clearly know.

China left religion alone to get more modern. If you see China today and compare it to the China of yesterday, one would feel that it's more modern. However, I doubt very much if dropping religion has been the reason.

Internet and TV exposure
There's no Youtube in China (there's of course www.youku.com). Google is a modified version so are several other websites that form part of normal living in US or India. There was CNN, National Geographic and several traditional Chinese soap operas running on TV. The only amusing thing I recall seeing on TV were ads for bras that made things look bigger.

I found this type of interference and control a little difficult to digest. Someone explained to me that China considers that the websites have sensitive information and does not like its citizens to have access to it. Because TV is state controlled, people go to the Internet for entertainment (that tells something there).

People seemed to have a lot of freedom up till a certain threshold -- as long as it didn't interfere with what the state considers sensitive. For e.g. one can't imagine having a demonstration on Tiananmen square. One might easily do it just about anywhere in India. I feel comfortable getting up right now and mobilizing one if I wanted to. I feel the same in US. It's impossible without ending up in trouble in China.

Mao and the government
I asked several people this question: what is your opinion of Mao? The responses were amazingly consistent -- these were people from different backgrounds -- well educated management professionals, businessmen, middle-class, tour guides, shop keepers and so on...the response went like this after a little bit of hesitation:

"Oh, Chairman Mao...he is great man, his work is well appreciated but he's also human-being"

My follow-up question after a few minutes: does everyone feel the same?

"about 70%"

I wondered how could everyone quote the number 70%. They seemed to say it in response to how many people like him, how much did he do right etc. 70%. George later explained to me that that's the official number/ line on Mao.

It seemed to me that people have been wired this way through countless conversation within closed family walls, within schools etc. etc. He is "also human being."

**
Ask the desis what they think of Nehru or the Americans on Roosevelt...you might get a million answers.


Piracy and ethics
When I saw the soldiers on Tiananmen square, I felt they exhibited a sense of strength that made you want to respect authority. You feel that way everywhere -- you generally feel the citizens respect authority. The Michigan girl sitting next to me at G's wedding said, "It's in China's culture to respect elders - like their father. They consider in some ways the govt. to be an elder and they respect it."

If that's the case how come piracy is so rampant. Check out Meize M8 - a nice, open copy of the iPhone. I was taken to a "secret place" in Beijing. This was in an upscale apartment complex called Soho. In a building 8, on some high floor...it looked like a nice apartment. When we rang the bell, the door opened to a regular apartment. The lady bowed and took us inside. Then she opened another door which led us to a bag store -- that had all the designer labels one can imagine -- Prada, Gucci, Hermes...you name it. A Hermes bag that might cost $2,700 costs $120 in this store. It looks like the real thing and I do think I have a decently keen sense to tell the difference. It's very possible that the suppliers to this secret store work Mon-Fri for the label's factory and sat-sun for themselves. I saw in action how piracy theft occurs. Silk Market is full of examples but not at the same level of sophistication as the secret store.

On my flight back to Korea I was reading the latest Forbes Asia. It talked about the Goodbaby brand and how it struggles to sell on its own brand in spite of being the supplier for all the big US and European brands. But of course, I thought. How can China expect to sell the fakes and also be a brand leader. It would be impossible for China to have the cake and eat it too. I see this on the political issues -- for e.g. it's taking offense to the Japanese PM visiting the Japanese soldiers memorial and it's taking offense to French PM visiting with the Dalai Lama -- how divergent, how opposite.

I'm sure China realizes this. It's easy. If it was apparent for me as a visitor of 5 days, it should be dead-apparent for the country's leaders.

**

Final words
I learned more about China in the last 5 days on the ground than I did during my 6 week class in Michigan. Coming from a developing country and market like India, I recognize the challenges and constraints of developing economies and I must say I'm amazed and bowled over by China. How quickly they've scaled and how vast despite the many challenges. It's impressive by any standards. The environmental and other issues are being brought to light because of the intense scrutiny that China is in. No other country is under so much of scrutiny. The West has a lot to worry about as far as China is concerned and therefore everyone wants to point out what's wrong. All of a sudden, everyone wants China to take more responsibility because they've grown so much -- in other words, China is indeed considered by the world as a leader. That's in fact what China also wants....only if it can avoid costly responsibilities.

People in the country in general have respect towards their leaders and Mao because whatever it is that they did or are doing -- it seems to be working. Most people have a better life and better opportunity than their parents did. China is at its peak and it's growing at a pace that the world hasn't seen before.

Everyone there is bound to think China is the center of the universe because it is. If I were viewing it from a person born, brought up and living in China, I wouldn't know any other way. I wouldn't have that much exposure of the world (because the TV and Internet and other media are state controlled) or what the world thinks of China and therefore why would I care. Moreover, from the Australian PM who speaks fluent Mandarin to the US asking China to hang on to those US Treasury bonds, everyone seems to be courting China in one way or the other. Everything converges at China. Hey, it's bound to be the center of the universe.