contact me at:
justin (@) deepdrift dot com
GyozaQuest is a non profitable site,
The contrast, in Beijing...
Saturday, October 11, 2003
Stupid stuff about China. Beijing is such a contrast to the far West. Where in the countryside, I hesitated to spend 40 Yuan on a stuffed animal, here in Beijing, I easily spent 20 simply on imported lip balm.
It's interesting seeing how CCTV's English programming is in Beijing. Kind of strange. They have a program called "Learn Chinese" supposedly to teach foreigners how to speak English. Although it was somewhat informative, there was something about the tone that I found disturbing. They had an obviously American looking fellow, probably from Canada, and named him Da Shan (Big Mountain), dressed him up in pseudo-Chinese imperial garb. It reminded me of the Renoir painting of the blonde woman in the Japanese kimono. If I were Caucasian I would be offended. In fact simply being American made me think that it was kind of racist and d against Americans. They had Chinese people in dialogues about negotiating a business deal, but two American English students acting stupid, one claiming how he disregards his teacher by sleeping in class, and how the is going to get away with it.
The biggest thing on CCTV 9-culture is that Riverdance has made it to Beijing. Shee'z, black leather and a meterosexual looking lead dancer. Hmm... What's next, Popra, Peking opera-pop? Yup that's right Peking opera, complete with it's pentatonic scale, is now pop music, including the screeching... Driving drum beat, walking base line, and an Erhu. What else would you use to provide background music for the ever popular Asian soap opera.
Anyhow I still fail to understand the concept of Chinese opera. Perhaps it's like Chinese people listening to Shakesphere "in the words of a Singaporean friend, I don't understand, all they do is talk, nothing happens." Peking Opera has got to be more than people shrieking. Oh yeah, it's people shrieking in absurdly colorful costumes.
Anyhow anyone who doesn't believe that China is going to lead the future of the world has only to travel on the 7AM flight from Beijing to Shanghai. I've long believed that even today China is in many ways as complex, and even more modern, than even the United States.
I guess it's hard for a generation raised at the height American might, the generation that put a man on the moon, and beat back the communists. To think that America will not always be the superpower it is, and that it will last for generations more. How easily we forget. America has only been a superpower for less than a hundred years.
For me, someone who's earliest memories were of waiting in line for gasoline. Who strived to believe in the space shuttle, only to have it explode before my eyes. I wonder if we are in an era of decline. The turning point of Generation X and the boomers, was 1968. The year that they killed Bobby, they killed Martin. Our country was in an upheaval. My friends compared the things that happened then, to the events happening now.
China has finally stood up.