…on my other blog. Not really, but if you’re interested in seeing what happens when you suggest Chinese people are racially insensitive and some popular Chinese bloggers find out about it, check out ChinaGeeks. I’d link directly to the post, but you can’t miss it anyway. It’s the one with over a hundred comments in the past day.

Making predictions about the oncoming year is second only to making crappy best-in-year lists when it comes to New Years blogging activities. With the economy the way it is, predictions about China’s 2009 are generally downbeat, and range from predicted economic dissatisfaction to complete overthrow of the government.

Or particular interest is this article, regarding Charter 08 (a topic that got this website blocked in China once already and may yet do so again). Daniel Drezner (a Tufts professor) discusses the document (and the official response to it) and then poses this question to readers:

Is 2009 the year that China’s government collapses? Or is it just another year in which there will be a crackdown of a mass uprising? Because those may be the only two options.

Personally, I tend to agree with this response. The age of “Mass Incidents” on the scale of Tiananmen 1989 is over, I think. Although protests occur every day in China, as the above blog points out, most of those protests are over local issues, and often they appeal to the national government for help.

Furthermore, the impact of Charter 08 within China, as far as I can tell, would be difficult to understate. I haven’t heard anyone talk about it; when I mentioned it to some friends they hadn’t heard of it, but brushed it off as the sort of thing that happens frequently and means essentially nothing. Mutant Palm’s blogger wrote “Charter ‘08 arguably has had a more significant impact on readers of the New York Review of Books than it has on China,” and I suspect he’s right.

In short, I don’t see the government being overthrown OR cracking down on a “mass incident” like Tiananmen. While it is an interesting year for anniversaries (the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen, the 30th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms, the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising, and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC), I think we’ll see a bunch of parades, and not much else. Here’s something I wrote for a paper at Brown about a year ago; interestingly I think it’s fairly apt here:

Although one can never rule out the possibility of a an uprising—after all, few predicted the students in 1989 would take such dramatic action—it seems likely that for the foreseeable future, China is in an age of bottom-up transformation, where social change is affected through the effective resolution of specific local or individual issues rather than by making broad appeals to implement policies uniformly across the vast nation. This shift in focus in undoubtedly part of Tiananmen’s legacy, and it remains to be seen whether the deaths of students and workers may have paved the way for a more effective mode of changing China. The current regime has made it clear that they consider popular nationalist collectivist approaches a threat to their own sovereignty and national stability. Whether the smaller local protest movements that occur in the thousands every year in China will succeed in affecting lasting change remains to be seen.

Well, it looks like the site is back up and running in the PRC–for now. The content that originally got me blocked (I think) is still up and I’m not taking it down (hooray for stubborn, pointless ethical stands!) so it might get blocked again. We’ll see. In the meanwhile, PARTY!

Well, it looks like my blog may be blocked in China for the long haul. I’m going to keep the offending article off the site for another week or two just to be sure, but nothing seems to be changing. For those of you who missed it and are interested in what (I think) would cause the Chinese government to block my website, if you were to google the word “charter” followed by the numbers zero and eight, you might well find the answer. Anyway, at least my blog is in good company; the New York Times website was recently blocked in China, too.

Additionally, I just got my first haircut in China. I had been dreading this and putting it off because I have seen other foreigners get brutalized by Chinese barbers–foreigners with better Chinese than mine–but I must have chosen the right place or something.

I just went to the place that’s on my street, I pass it every day when I walk to work. It’s a very small shop, and there was just one guy in there. He was cutting a couple other people’s hair so I sat in a chair for about 40 minutes watching some French movie (Gerard Depardieu was in it, because he is in all French movies–I believe it’s actually a law there) dubbed into Chinese. It was the second half, so I have no idea what the setup was, but apparently he’s very good at stealing cars?

Anyway, eventually it came to me, and after washing my hair for me (it’s standard practice in China for barbers to wash your hair before and after the haircut) he began to cut it. My instructions: “For god’s sake, don’t make it too short! Just shorten it a little bit.” He seemed cool with this, and throughout the process kept asking me if I wanted specific spots shorter. This ended up pretty well. It took a while, but it cost me 10 RMB (slightly over $1 US) and by all accounts actually looks good. My Chinese coworkers–who were all aware of my trepidation–have reviewed it well, and my friend Alice insists it makes me look younger. This is a good thing, I think.

Anyway, I do have an amazing story to tell, so check back in a few days when I’ve had time to do it justice by writing out something good. Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Just recently, a group of 300 prominent Chinese intellectuals released Charter 08, a call for sweeping democratic reform in China. This is a fascinating, historic document and rather than prattle on about it here I’ll just link those interested to some relevant stuff.

Read Charter 08 (Translated into English by Perry Link). It’s not very long, worth the read.

LA Times Report that Literary Critic and Charter 08 Signer Liu Xiaobo has been arrested.

Links to some background info from The China Beat.

Commentary from Chinese philosophy blog The Useless Tree (which is great, by the way).

Voice of America Story (Chinese) [appears to be blocked in China]

Original Chinese Text of Charter 08 [零八宪章]–includes the names of all three hundred who signed at the bottom.

No, it’s not the pollution, or the fact that there are so many people here. My least favorite thing about China is this lingering cultural perception that everything about China is, at some level, ultimately incomprehensible to everyone who isn’t Chinese.

This is manifested at every level, from the extremely superficial to the deeply personal. For example, China-watchers may recall the hubbub over Ang Lee’s recent film Lust, Caution, which some Chinese people claim is impossible for non-Chinese to understand. I haven’t seen the film and I’m sure it does have a lot of cultural references that make it difficult for foreigners to understand, but impossible? Really? (It should be noted that one of the two writers of Lust, Caution was a foreigner).

This phenomenon exists even in perceptions about the language. Chinese people are, by and large, deeply impressed that I can speak decent Chinese and generally shocked when I tell them that I don’t think Chinese is a difficult language to learn (at least, no more difficult than other languages). Yes, Chinese is written with characters, yes, it has tones, yes, it’s a very old language, but why does that mean it’s impossible to learn?

In those more public arenas, I’m not particularly bothered by it, to be honest. It’s fair that Chinese people expect foreigners to be ignorant about their culture; after all, the vast majority of foreigners are. What’s frustrating is when a difference of opinions with a friend who knows you aren’t ignorant still leads to what seems to be everyone’s fallback defense: “You’re a foreigner, so you don’t understand.”

Now, I’m not claiming that I know everything about China, or Chinese culture, because I don’t. But I do know a fair amount; more than the average Chinese people about some things. In my college classes, I’ve straightened out students who were confused about which ancient philosopher wrote what, and what Lu Xun’s original name was (Lu Xun is a pen name). Still, I’m pretty sure it will never be enough. If a difference of opinion runs deep enough, the eventual response I get is always “you just don’t understand.”

This phenomenon is, I think, one part of a larger issue for me: the clear delineation between “foreigner” and “Chinese person” based completely on ethnicity. Although I haven’t lived here half a year yet, among my coworkers there are people who have lived here for years, married Chinese women, had children. In America, those people would be considered American; in China, they will always be Foreign. And, by extension, it seems they will never really understand China.

Personally, I don’t think I understand China as well as Chinese people, not yet. But I believe there are foreigners who do, and there are plenty of aspects of Chinese culture I understand well enough that I should be able to discuss them without getting the old “you don’t understand” in return.

In the interest of clarity, the conversation I’m thinking of was regarding marriage/dating and a friend of mine who is being pressured by her parents to find someone. I’m of the opinion that she’s still young and can afford to wait until she runs into someone she likes. She thinks I don’t understand, but I do; I understand the extreme pressure she feels from her parents, I understand that different marriage customs mean people get married younger here, and that if she waits too long she might not be able to find anyone. I understand that she’s seeing her friends pair up and get married or move away and she feels a lot of pressure to change something. But I also understand her well enough to know that she isn’t one of those girls that can live happily as long as they have a tolerable husband and material comforts. That does work for some women, but it’s not going to work for her. She’s not mature enough for a real relationship either–she’s admitted that herself–and I don’t care what country you live in or what social pressures you face, those factors make it a bad idea to get married. That’s my opinion. Readers who understand Chinese culture better than I feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel I completely understand the social situation she’s talking about, I just feel that her own happiness is more important than conforming to social norms, even if it means making her parents angry. I KNOW that Chinese culture has different values regarding obeying your parents, it isn’t that I don’t understand, I just don’t agree.

So it hurts to hear even as close a friend as her brush of my arguments with “you don’t understand.”

That’s why I could never live here forever.

Finally finished translating this, with a bit of help from my good friend Alice. Still not sure why I can’t get Final Cut to export widescreen videos, but this will do for the moment. Enjoy!

(The church at the very beginning of the video is Harbin’s famous St. Sophia)

Anyone remember that Harbin student who was beaten to death a while ago? I reported on it a couple times.

Anyway, the verdict is in, and the police have arrested–drumroll, please–the club owner! Yes, that’s right, in allowing 6 off duty police officers to murder a drunken idiot outside of his bar, the owner of BOX was criminally negligent! The police officers, of course, have been released. (This is all just what I’ve heard from people, haven’t actually checked into it myself yet).

This is more or less what the former-police officer friend of mine predicted, if you recall.

The snowflake statue in the middle of Hongbo Square is a symbol of the city of Harbin. Google “Harbin” and pictures of it are bound to pop up; its central location assures that its something people pass by nearly every day. It’s one of those things that I always thought of when I thought about Harbin. Here’s a photo of the square:

So I was fairly surprised to learn today that a scant 40 years ago, it wasn’t there. What was there was a gigantic Russian-style church, even larger than Harbin’s famous (and still extant) St. Sophia. It looked like this:

So what happened to it? Anyone familiar with Chinese history can probably guess. It was completely destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. There isn’t a trace of it now. I would never have known about it if my school’s driver (who is old enough to have seen it with his own eyes) hadn’t told me. I have to say I was pretty shocked. Of course, I’ve always known this sort of thing happened during the Cultural Revolution, but to learn that one of the most iconic things in the city (the snowflake statue) is actually a sort of gravestone for a part of Harbin’s older culture, well…it stopped me for a moment. It’s easy to forget that this stuff you read about in history books actually happened, to real people and places.

Sometimes, the most powerful historical spots are the ones you don’t see…

Anyone from the West who has spent any time in China has doubtless run into this phenomenon, the idea that China and Chinese people are somehow fundamentally different from the rest of the world and therefore ultimately incomprehensible to Westerners no matter how long we stay here. It’s evident everywhere, from the fairly common belief that Chinese is just too complex a language for foreigners to learn (which is and will always be a bunch of crap), to reviews of Chinese language cinema (see Ang Lee’s recent offering, Lust, Caution, which many Chinese have claimed is impossible for foreigners to understand). It’s one of the reasons that foreigners in China will always be foreigners. I could live here, become a naturalized citizen, marry a Chinese woman, raise my kids speaking only Chinese, etc., but it wouldn’t really make a difference: anyone new I met would still assume I was a tourist.

Anyway, I’m beginning to feel that this “China is Different” phenomenon is one of the main reasons there’s so little understanding between East and West. Even with my Chinese friends, whenever a discussion gets serious enough, if they don’t agree with what I’m saying they fall back on the “you’re a foreigner and you don’t understand” argument. I suppose it’s possible I don’t in many cases, but is it really impossible for foreigners to understand China or Chinese people.

I submit that it is not. Yes, China has a long history and a rich culture that it would be difficult for foreigners to understand all of, but it’s not as though many Chinese understand all of it either. For example, when discussing ancient Chinese philosophy with my students, and even May Fourth fiction, I often find that I know much more detail than they do. Of course, they have a much broader general knowledge than I do, but is it really impossible for foreigners to acquire that? No.

No, it isn’t, and the fact that many Chinese assume it is seems to be a large factor in the lack of understanding between East and West. Too often, the Chinese position on a given issue is simply stated rather than explained or discussed. Sometimes, the assumption is that foreigners couldn’t understand and sometimes the assumption is that foreigners shouldn’t care what happens in China anyway, but either way, I believe it contributes to the tension that sometimes exists between the US and China.

Many Americans, for example, believe that Taiwan and Tibet should be independent. Most Chinese do not, but they will rarely if ever actually explain their rationale or enter into a discussion of the historical reasoning with foreigners. It’s part of the reason why the Free Tibet movement–which I have already argued is counter-productive–has remained around for so long; the Chinese aren’t interested in providing their side of the story. The answer foreigners get is always just: “You don’t understand.”

It can be infuriating.