Historical Background
Part 4 of 4
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| Note the merging of cultures at this Mosque in Xi'an. The blend of Chinese architecture and Arabic writing (above the crosspiece) exemplifies the confluence of many cultures via the Silk Roads during the Golden Age of the Tang Dynasty. This openness ended with the Ming Dynasty which turned inward and eschewed foreign influence, an attitude which would prevail until the Harry Potter generation. |
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| The largest KFC in the world (by volume served). It is in Beijing adjacent to Tiananmen Square. |
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| Dairy Queen and Starbucks, Shanghai. |
The final development to mold the Harry Potter generation was Deng's response to the population crisis caused by Mao's policies. Deng considered China's overpopulation a roadblock to economic progress and broadened the One-Child Policy to keep numbers in check. This policy, which is not as absolute as it sounds, offers incentives and penalties to encourage an ideal birth rate of one child per family. Reviled in the rural areas, the policy is taken seriously in the burgeoning cities where the problems of population density are more acutely felt.[1] Thus, in the areas most given to China's new consumerist obsessions, the average child has no siblings and stands as the sole recipient of two parents' material generosity (and theoretically, half of four grandparents' generosity.) "When I was young we ate rice and had nothing," one father remarked. "Now my son has his own room, a computer, a cell phone and an I-pod."[2]
As these parvenu consumers move into their careers they lose nothing of their taste of the good life. In the last three years, the incomes of urban Chinese in their 20s grew by far more than that of any other age group.[3] Wearing Nikes and sipping Starbucks, they are well aware of the gulf between their lifestyle and that of their parents. "We have so much bigger a desire for everything than [our parents]", said a Chinese girl in her 20s. "And the more we eat, the more we taste and see, the more we want." [4]
What surprises most westerners about this generation is that despite their indulgence in global culture they seem to be uninterested in politics, specifically democracy. "On their wish list," writes one cultural observer, "a Nintendo Wii comes way before democracy."[5] Well aware of the chaos and collapse of order after the dissolution of communist rule in the Soviet Union, most Chinese would rather tolerate the corruption of the Chinese Communist Party than risk losing the gains of the past two decades.[6] Ironically, the material benefits of a market economy sustain, in part, the rule of a party founded upon Marxist ideology.
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| Despite a market economy, the Communist Party still rules in China. Most young people--indifferent to Marxist ideology--believe the Party's existence nevertheless ensures stability, a lesson well taken from the fall of the Soviet Union. |
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| The Jiaxiu Tower in Guiyang is the picture of contemporary China--the old co-existing with the new. This tower, now engulfed by a urban development, was used to train scholars for the Confucian civil service examinations since the Ming Dynasty. |
Notes:
[1] John Bryan Starr, Understanding China: A Guide to China's Economy,
History, and Political Culture. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
(2001), p.
[2] From a conversation I had with a man in Beijing, father of a teenage
son.
[3] "China's Me Generation", Simon Elegant. Time, August
6, 2007, p.26.
[4] Cited in ibid.
[5] Ibid, p. 25
[6] Starr, Understanding China, pp. 59-60.