Perspective

I was on the phone with my parents the other day and my mother brought up the topic of this blog. She told me vehemently to stop writing this blog. Since I never told her about writing this blog, I realized that she found out from one of my sisters. Just her tone of voice made me realize where this vehemence is coming from.

My parents were people who lived through the turmoil of the World War II and the Communist revolution. They experience the former on mainland China and the latter in Taiwan. These are people who left China precisely because of the turmoil that was going on. I would say that they were lucky (and so were me and my two sisters) to have left China at that time for Taiwan. Some of the most tumultuous times occurred after the rise of the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong. This played out on a stage that I am sure captivated not only the mainland Chinese but all of the overseas Chinese as well.

My parents are a product of that environment. I think for any ethnic Chinese living or not living on the mainland the most horrifying period must have been the Cultural Revolution. This is a period of time where rights were taken away and people faced persecution from their peers for saying or believing the wrong things.

I think it is from that perspective that my mother gave me that kind of reaction about my blog. Somehow, I think her perspective about China will never change no matter how great the changes are. In some ways, I find this to be true in China even to this day. Even though much has changed I still feel the distrust the citizens of China has for their government, especially among the middle aged and elderly. It is not always obvious, but every once in a while you hear or see something that makes you think.

Being in Taiwan for the first 6 years of my life then growing up in America, I also heard plenty of bad things about mainland China. Just before my first visit in China in 2002, I had trepidation about what I would say to people during the trip because all that I have heard from my parents. But during the trip, I found that things were quite different from what I perceived. Then I spend 6 weeks backpacking in China in 2005 and again no obvious evidence of this oppressive regime that I heard so much about. Now having lived here in China for over a year, again I don't notice anything in my everyday life. I know that the Chinese government will censor the internet and other modes of communication that they deemed to be bad for the "harmony" of the country. This is not always obvious in everyday life. I think that there is certainly a degree of control that the Chinese government will exert on the population, however it is not the same China as it was 30 years ago.

Grace is one of my co-workers here in China who told me of an interesting experience. Grace is a middle aged Shanghainese woman who had spent her entire life here in Shanghai. I would categorize her as a middle class person with a husband and a grown daughter who lives a comfortable life. She went to America - Los Angeles for the first time in her life a few years ago for training. She took the opportunity to take a few extra days to do some sightseeing and joined a city tour of Los Angeles. In the tour group she was the only person from mainland China and everyone else were Chinese-Americans who were probably around my mother's age (60's). These were probably first generation immigrants to America who became naturalized citizens. They noticed immediately that Grace was from mainland China and became friendly with her during that day. At the end of the day right before they said good-bye, a few people in the group told her that she already made it this far (meaning she somehow got herself out of China) and that she should just stay in America. They told her that they know people who can help her to settle in America. I think these people somehow saw Grace symbolizing relatives that they left behind in China and that she was still living in that horrible world that they had left. Grace was amused and politely turned down their offer. She had friends, family and a comfortable life waiting for her in Shanghai. This just show you that as you gain perspective on things surprising results will follow.

Despite my mother's warnings, I will continue to maintain this blog as I value the freedom of speech too much. I also know that I am operating under a different China so I would not expect to be arrested for writing on topics that I am writing about. However, what I will take from my mother's comments is that a degree of vigilance is always something one should maintain.