From the Wall Street Journal, Want More Growth in China? Have Faith. The subject of the article is a Mr. Peter Zhao, a Communist Party member and adviser to the Chinese Central Committee. He sees the strength of the US economy growing out of a strong moral fiber.
Mr. Zhao began formulating his ideas during a 2002 trip to the U.S. “In the U.S., the spires of churches are more numerous than China’s banks and rice shops. On a street near Harvard Square,” Mr. Zhao recalls, “I once stood and looked about me, only to find that in three different directions there were three churches.” The trip seems to have made a personal as well as an intellectual impression. Shortly after returning home, Mr. Zhao became a Christian himself.
Mr. Zhao’s argument goes beyond the need for common values. He claims that Christianity produces greater wealth than other religions or no religion. His view is partly historical — the wealthiest societies are those that are traditionally Christian, either Catholic or Protestant. He says that Christianity provides three elements necessary for economic growth: motivation — those who work for God rather than for pleasure, money or status don’t tire of being productive; a moral framework that makes for less exploitation and less corruption; and a mandate to care for the poor and disenfranchised.
A few points:
1. I would guess that if you ask most Americans, they would not list “working for god” as one of their major motivations. I can however see how religion helps people to work, in a “light at the end of the tunnel” sort of way.
2. The Industrial Revolution was one of the most exploitative and corrupt periods in American history concerning workers in this highly religious country of ours.
3. I believe tax breaks also help motivate people to contribute to the poor and disenfranchised.
4. All that Mr. Zhao says implies that there can be no morals without religion.
I may be a little cynical in my responses, but while these arguments can be made (There Will Be Blood: Religion and Capitalism in America) I find the reasoning that Mr. Zhao provides is bogus. He also doesn’t stop to question if it is a positive thing…
Oh, and the Relationship to the Olympics, from the beginning of the article:
Are the Olympics good for democracy? Many South Koreans credit the 1988 Games with helping to bring about the country’s transition from the military dictatorships that followed the Korean War to its modern democratic government. It is not an unreasonable idea. As the citizens of an unfree country are exposed to millions of foreign visitors, unruly media and the tenets of liberty — or so the argument goes — they begin to imagine a different future for themselves. Alas, it seems from the media coverage that the Olympics in China have, if anything, led to more restrictions on citizens, not fewer. Perhaps it is only internal pressure, not external forces, that can lead China to undergo a similar transformation.
A few days ago I had the opportunity to go to a forum featuring James Kynge, author of China Shakes the World. I still have not read the book; it is on my increasingly long reading list, right behind William Gibson’s Spook Country. A few major points from the talk:
Drawing the Chinese into the international arena, and having them be participants in it, will make them more susceptible to international pressure
The West has been trying force China to be like them for 400 years, we should now try to watch and react.
Young Chinese people are huge materialist
The differences between Chinese generations are staggering, even between 5 years
China has now taken a long-term approach to Taiwan integration
The CCP is getting stronger. At the same time regional governments are getting stronger, which causes problems for the CCP when trying to enforce their laws, for example environmental protection laws.
The opening up of the media in China could actually increase support of the CCP. First it would make the political process more transparent. Second, by weeding out corruption at the local level where most of the more heinous corruption resides, it would decrease civil unrest.
While some of these points are not necessarily earth shattering, they come from a highly respected source (16 years in China, former Beijing Bureau Chief for the Financial Times). And unlike a lot of China experts, he seemed to both be in touch with what is going on in China, and actually care about the country.
Shameless self promotion time. Chinalyst is holding the 2007 China Blog Awards, so if you enjoy this blog in any small way feel free to visit the site and log a vote. Also, since I am a good significant other, please vote for Jenn’s total awesome blog.
Before coming to China and we would tell other Chinese people that we were coming to Nanjing, and there are a couple of responses that we would almost certainly get. One was that “Do you know about the Nanjing Massacre?” Yes, we do. And “Do you know that Nanjing is one off the four furnaces of China?” (The other three being Wuhan, Nanchang and Chongqing) I kind of ignored this warning before we came, since a quick look at the map shows that Nanjing is not really that far south. I remember getting a globe and spinning it around, keeping my finger at the same latitude, and Nanjing was somewhere around the Tallahassee, Florida level. This discovery made me worry a little more, but still thought that it was a bit of an exaggeration.
Before coming to China i spent time visiting my family in Upstate New York. That area during September is one of my favorite places, as Summer is cooling down and a bit of chill starts to get into the air. Then when we got here in September of last year, all I remember doing is sweating. And this was in late September, not even in the full throws of Summer heat. I think at this time of year we are starting to reach the same temperature of when we arrived in China. For the past three days it has been around 90 degrees and humid.
As mentioned before, I am from the Northeast of the United States, and am not used to this kind of heat. I own a fur hat for god sakes! Yesterday is was in the library helping Jenn to survey people and I swear it was about 10 degrees hotter in there then outside. Occasionally I would sneak into the air conditioned stacks, browse and try to cool down (NNU has a copy of Lee Iacocca’s autobiography for some reason).
Anyway, I will not try not to mention the heat again, as I don’t want to be one of “those guys” who endlessly complain about the weather. But a quick look on the bright side, today my favorite half-pekingese neighborhood dog, Huangguang, had his fur shaved down to help him cool down in the heat. He looks like a furry brown snowman. Hilarious.
Via Free Government Information, a video made by Eric Faden, Professor of English and Film Studies of Bucknell University, explains copyright using Disney characters. Very well done.
I have been slowly accumulating the necessary amount of presents needed to give to people when returning to the United States. So far I have… two. But I just purchased another one today, its a small journal notebook about a small bear and his animal friends. Although I am quite sure it is Japanese, it is a good present for someone. The front cover reads as follows:
Hanaru and FRIENDS are our truly and lovely friends who are like the heroes of a children’s story with an angel heart
The great part about this notebook is that on every page there is a different scene. Usually the left page and the right page are connected under the same theme. See for example:
We can see that this bear is totally ecstatic about his seven scoop ice cream cone. Frankly who wouldn’t be? On the right hand side opposite to this picture is this:
This sweet time is indeed excellent. I would like to point out here that his small chicken friends are eating with small chicken sized spoons. Also, both these pages contain delicious puns. The entire notebook culminates in story about the bear eating too many snacks and falling through a patch of ice. After being ridiculed by the chickens. he designs his own training regime including a hula-hoop, a sauna, and one of those old machines with the belt that is supposed to shake the fat off. He even puts up a motivation poster, “Frist (sic)… Run. Second… Swim. Third… Keep Fit.”
So one present down, a lot to go. If anyone has any suggestions for presents that are good please leave them in the comments section. If I can’t think of anything else everybody is getting a Kabu Bear notebook and a pair of chopsticks.
Walking down the street in any Chinese city you are bound to run into a large number of repair shops. Most of them don’t seem to fix anything, and are just full of odd shaped spare parts and wires. And even when they have a clearly labeled sign the owners are rarely seen fixing that specific thing. There is a store nearby my apartment that says it is a lamp repair shop, but old guys playing cards seems to be the main product. Bicycle shops are the exception to this rule, as there are generally bikes and scooters spilling out of the door onto the street, along with an assortment of tubes and grease.
The repair shop that is nearby my nightly beer store is one of those mysterious shops. This shop was different in the fact that while it had a television as most stores do (people work really long hours here) this one had a Nintendo hooked up to it. And not a newer system, I mean a Nintendo Entertainment System, the original. One day I saw a kid playing Dr. Mario on it. But recently this shop bought a new computer. I still have no idea what they do there, but now they do it with a PC.
It is not rare to see signs of progress in China. They are all around you. Old buildings being knocked down, fancy new high rises being erected. More and more fancy cars on the street. Really fat children. But it is rare to see such a clear change in that short of time. One day it’s Dr. Mario, the next day it’s Windows XP.
It is almost a given that Chinese people will assume that I am French. This has happened some many times that I by now expect the usual exchange of “Are you French?” and “No, I am American”. And I have asked a few people why they think I am French, and the usual response is that I am really white. So:
Are Americans generally though of by the rest of the world as not that white?
Are French people known as the whitest people?
I don’t know. Back in my Chinese beard days I would often get mistakenly thought of as German. I assume because at that time I was the spitting image of Karl Marx. Overall, I don’t think my appearance is a proper representation of the stereotypical American. Even when wearing an NFL hat.
After seeing the 26 Songs that are just as good as short stories on The Onion’s AV Club section last week i have been thinking about it ever since. Of course there is going to be some disagreement about these lists, but this one really seemed to drop the ball in a lot of ways, and completely overlooked some people that deserve to be on this kind of list. As one of the people mentioned in the comments for the article maybe that was done on purpose to fuel discussion. Possible, but still would reflect poorely on the list makers. So in a bit of a departure from the usual form, here is my list for top ten story songs of all time. The only limits are that an artist can only appear on the list once and it has to be a clearly narrative song, none of that poetic bullshit. And I will spare you any opinions I have on these songs since they speak for themselves. So here we go in no particular order:
1. Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat
2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Curse of Milhaven
3. Frank Zappa - Dynamo Hum
4. Tom Waits - Christmas Card from a Hooker
5. NAS - One Love
6. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
7. Handsome Family - Snow White Diner
8. The Highwaymen - Born and Raised in Black and White
9. The Replacements - Skyway
10. Johnny Cash - Folsam Prison Blues
Almost went with the onions list for the obligatory Johnny Cash song with “A Boy Named Sue” but I like “Folsam Prison Blues” better. These lists are hard to do though, and it was hard enough just to pick one song by Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and Frank Zappa. Feel free to make your own lists in the comments, or call me an idiot or both at the same time.
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. I still have not read the book; it is on my increasingly long reading list, right behind William Gibson’s 
