The country where one of the four major civilizations began, where people started to write on oracle bones thousands years ago, where paper, gun powder, and fireworks were invented and used for the first time in the world is China. China has the longest history and the most abundant culture in the world. Approximately two centuries ago, however, when the western countries landed on China with advanced technology and science due to the Industrial Revolution, Chinese people realized that China was far behind those countries in terms of technology and science. Ever since, they have been trying to renovate and develop every aspect of China such as economy, science, medicine, military, and culture.
Recently, China has become one of the fastest developing countries in the world, and the Chinese government has been striving to accelerate its economic growth and science development by hosting the 2008 Olympic Games and 2010 Shanghai World Expo in order to catch up with the West; China is also trying to further their goal to become the most powerful country in the world, competing with America. As we witness the process of Chinese development towards a world power, the eyes outside China see certain issues and problems to be concerned and solved—the issue of human rights, the independent movement of major minority peoples, the negative consequences of urbanization, and so on.
At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the world was stunned by the magnificent and massive drum and print/opera performance and impressed by the wonderful and aesthetic scroll painting ceremony. Some might say it was possible only because “China” is a communist state and the most populated country. When every country launches such world events, however, they train mostly soldiers and students who are not voluntary and sometimes force people to prepare massive performances in order to impress the world. When I was in military, I also had to prepare for national performances. While I was practicing the performances every day, I had to sacrifice myself and go through hard times to perform well. And yet, when I actually was performing what I had practiced for a long time, this experience not only gave me great satisfaction and achievement, but also gave me the unity and the patriotism for my own country as the audience got impressed and felt united patriotism as well. As for Chinese performers and people, through the performances at the opening ceremony of the Olympics Games, they all felt the same unity as Chinese and patriotism even though they had to endure hardships and difficulties. This is why, of course, hosting international events themselves—Olympics and Expo—provide economic investment and scientific benefits to China from the outside. The Chinese government emphasized “harmony(和)”and unity(同一)—56 different peoples in different costumes symbolizing different cultures as one under the Chinese national flag, in order to not only tell the world that although China has social and political issues China is still united as one and a part of the world, but also implant the idea of unity into Chinese people so that they are proud of being Chinese.
Nonetheless, China has to overcome a pile of problems to truly harmonize between its own peoples within China, urban and rural, the rich and the poor, and industrialization and humanitarianism. As the mascot of the Shanghai World Expo, Haibao(海宝) manifests the meaning of “human-oriented” and harmonious relationship between nature and society, the direction of where China is heading Haibao originated not just from emphasizing the theme, “Better City, Better Life,” which drags China blindly into industrialization and urbanization without concerning itself with genuine harmony among the people and the world. Also, in order to be a new leader of the world, China should not follow unconditionally what other developing or advanced countries did to develop such as South Korea that is dominated by materialism and pariah capitalism losing its own “beautiful and fine customs cultures.” Again, I believe that the most powerful weapon to succeed in the world’s economy and society is innovating endlessly with one another by self-evaluating and accepting criticism, as well as and harmonizing with others based on its own uniqueness and still accepting heterogeneity.
I agree with your point about the seemingly forced participation spawning a sense of pride. Everyone has had that feeling of accomplishment when finally completing a task that they have been preparing for, be it a performance, competition, or even simply taking an exam. When all of the hard work finally pays off, the feeling of achievement is often overwhelming. Perhaps China did "conscript" students or military personnel into their roles, but the end result definitely created more of a national pride and patriotism.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the Expo might just be there, so people don't have to leave China and take a 'paid vacation' to those countires?
ReplyDeleteI think CCP only care about how western countries think of China. They want the best Expo ceremonies, however, they never teach people how to be a Chinese. Some people throw away trash and water bottles on ground and step on greenlands. The most thing needed to improve is supposed to the behavior of Chinese. With more and more worldwide activities held in China, CCP should teach people to bahave nice social etiquette in public.
ReplyDeleteI think the social etiquette that the comment above may be referring to deals with the gap between the cities and rural areas. I feel like this gap stems from people from the rural areas being exposed to the city life without being taught how to demonstrate "proper" etiquette. With many people from all over China coming to see the World Expo, it is inevitable that we see some Chinese people not follow social etiquette. Though, I do agree that some effort should be taken to address this issue instead solely focusing on materialistic gains in the cities.
ReplyDeleteHwanny, that is very interesting that you were in the military and had to practice performances so were able to relate to the soldiers in the performance. I thought it was odd to have soldiers who are trained to fight and protect were performers. But then I thought, only soldiers would have the discipline to be so precise, together, and in-sync like the performers in the opening ceremonies.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, I agree with your stance on the "Better City, Better Life" theme ignoring the effects of urbanization, both on the land and on its people. The theme itself implies that city life is better than rural life, completing disregarding the lifestyles of the latter. The website implied that it was inevitable for everyone to urbanize, which is a very scary thought. Is it really inevitable or is China going to force this to happen? What is going to happen to rural life for Chinese people in the near future?