China is a country that brings out a lot of conflicting emotions. On the one hand I’m constantly inundated with fervent praises from people, which go on the lines of “China is on a completely different league” “what a spectacular country” “what pace of development” etc etc. On the other hand many outlets in the western media are critical of Chinese domestic and international policy. But even this criticism is usually mixed with a hint of adulation.
I have always been intrigued by China, their unique history allows them to still remain reluctant to any external influence. It creates a insulated environment in a country confronted with a extremely connected world. Ever since the internet revolution many things changed. In the span of the last 20 years there exists a single world where earlier there were many. The internet combined with other advancements connected people around the world in an inexplicable way. Suddenly a change in the stocks in the US could create ripples around the world, an American could know about and purchase Machilipatnam Kalamkari from a village in India, someone sitting in Ghana could know what’s happening in London on a day to day basis, countries opened up for foreign companies to invest etc etc. In a world so connected, China still remains diplomatically elusive and reluctant to engage.
Not only does China’s communist past dictate its present domestic and international policies but it creates a mindset amongst the Chinese which is difficult to explain. When critical information and opinions are easily accessible to the rest of world, but denied to the ordinary Chinese (firstly due to inaccessible language and secondly because of blocked websites) it creates a unique mindset of compliance and more importantly and astonishing,- contentment.
Opinion building and shaping in the mind does not happen over night or through one article. It is a gradual process of subtle cues and bits of information we gather over time through innumerable sources. For example, my opinion or idea about America is shaped by a number of books I’ve read as a child, starting from Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird and Ayn Rand to name a few. Even magazines, following American politics, newspaper articles, blogs, Instagram and memes. The subtle cues provided by a host of sources form my awareness of the place or thing in question. Each one of these have a place in my subconscious and result in me creating the larger picture of how I think and understand America today as a result of its history, socio-economic, racial and a hundred other aspect which I may have accidentally come across over the internet and generally in life. This process is completely blocked or rather controlled for the Chinese populace.
Firstly, because – worldwide, English is the language where most information is disseminated, hence English speaking populations and countries have a definite advantage in the access and understanding of information (also opening the discourse on privilege in knowledge access).
Secondly, because many western media houses and blogs are blocked, critical information is not easily available to the Chinese. The Chinese do have their own versions of some of these but that’s precisely the point- these versions aide in creation and sustenance of the insulated bubble.
Communist countries have a very characteristic way of shaping the social psyche of the population. They spend a lot on propaganda, creating and controlling the consciousness of the people. Certain aspects such as law, military, bureaucracy are emphasised and encouraged as a means of creating a common social psyche of the population. Other aspects like freedom of religion etc are discouraged and for good reason. Religion is a very powerful force of controlling people as is evident through the cult following of God men and women in many countries such as our own, communist countries discourage this as it could pose to be a threat to the authority of the State. Recently the Chinese government asked Chinese Christians to replace the image of Christ with a ‘nice’ photograph of Chinese Premier Xi Jingping-
Jesus won_t save you — President Xi Jinping will, Chinese Christians told – The Washington Post
Communist China is only a recent part of the long and rich history of the country. In fact in the earlier years of Chinese history religion had a huge influence. Often it was used by emperors to validate their rule, huge donations were made to monks to substantiate the claim of the Emperor’s divine origin.
Interesting fact- The Peoples Republic of China does not have an army. The Chinese army is technically the military wing of the communist party. Hence there is no separation of powers per say.
Attached below are the pictures of Longman Grottoes, located in Luoyang, the capital of many ancient Chinese dynasties. It lies at the confluence of two river and is considered very auspicious according to Feng Shui. The Grottoes or caves, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and house 100,000 statues of Buddha ranging from 1 inch to nearly 60 feet. The Grottoes have had several patrons, one of the largest Buddha statues is actually that of a woman- her name was Wu Zetian and here is her story.
Empress Wu was the sole officially recognised Empress Regnant (Chinese sovereign) for over two millennia. She is the only woman in Chinese history to be recognised as an empress in her own right and not as an Empress Regent (as mother of the king) or Consort (as wife of the king)
How she reached her position is a story worth writing home about. Wu was the concubine of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. After his death, she was sent to the official residence of the widows of the emperor. Wu by this time had started an affair with the emperor’s son (Wu’s stepson). The new emperor had a wife and concubine, empress Wang and consort Xiao. The empress had no children of her own and consort Xiao had sons. On a visit to the temple the empress noticed the emperor and Wu make eye contact, knowing the history of Wu and the emperor, empress Wang decided to call Wu to live in the palace in an attempt to divert the emperor’s attention from consort Xian. Little did she know about the sequence of events that would follow and create history.
After her arrival Wu became the most favoured and highest ranking consort of the emperor. Gradually she took over the governance and managed all of the emperor’s duties. Her only competition was the emperor’s official wife -empress Wang.
As a concubine Wu exercised power over the emperor and governance but the official position of empress was still held by the first wife of the emperor. Wu gave birth to a daughter, the empress visited Wu in her quarters as part of her duties to visit the new born. Soon after the baby was found dead. Wu accused the empress of murder. The empress was deposed even against the protests of the many officials and the public, who believed she was innocent. Most were of the opinion that Wu herself killed her daughter in an attempt to frame the empress. The only person to have benefitted the most from the death of the child was Wu.
After the empress was deposed, Wu became the most favoured consort of the king, even surpassing consort Xiao who Wu had deposed along with empress Wang. Both empress Wang and consort Xiao were killed on Wu’s orders the moment she felt the emperor was getting swayed by public opinion. For the rest of the emperor’s reign they lived in Luoyang, with the empress often complaining of the Wang and Xiao haunting her in her dreams.
Gradually Wu started interfering in governance to the extent of angering the emperor. The emperor’s health was failing and soon after his sudden death, Wu was made Empress Regent. She exiled all of the Emperor’s sons except for her own, who took over the throne. But Wu was not satisfied wielding the power in someone else’s name. At the slightest sign of her son disobeying her she had him exiled and took over officially as Empress and established the Zhou dynasty.
Since it was unheard of in Chinese custom and history to have a female emperor Wu looked into many aspects to legitimise her rule. She made large grants to monasteries and monks on orders that they write scriptures that say she is of divine origin. She granted herself divine status of Buddha on earth to validate her rule. Although the earlier part of her rule was characterised by police terror, it reduced over the years. Gradually she became known as an efficient administrator and attentive ruler.
She was over thrown by a coup organised by one of the crown princes she had exiled. She continued to hold the title of emperor till her death at the end of that year. In a society which is traditional, conservative and patriarchal the story of Wu stands out.
Not all of China is wide roads and huge buildings as is evident in some pictures above. China like every other place deals with problems of skewed development, they have the shiny, glass buildings of Shanghai, as well as modest cement houses in the outskirts of every city. But what I found strangely alarming was the amount of industrial townships and structures. They were everywhere, either already built or in the process of being built. The fact that China’s landscape is very sparse compared to other Southeast Asian countries, does provide the ground for construction of industries but considering the level of pollution and waste already produced in China, what should be of importance is actually environmentally conscious policy which moves away from large scale industrialisation.
The willpower of the Chinese, the discipline and compliance the government inspires from the people are commendable. It creates a devoted but non critical population, this maybe conducive to communist governance and industrialisation but does it pave the way for a holistic nation ? Since dissent is not allowed the conversation around it is still at a low level of discourse. This creates is a country with history, but no intellectual future. A country is more than the level of income the citizens enjoy, the idea of nation is more than ‘service’. The notion of statehood is nothing unless its contended, dissected, protested and alive in the form of discourse by people who problematise it, who protest and critically engage in policy making. In China all of the above is missing. The government provides for its people, but a nation is meant to be a lot more than that. The idea of a nation only comes alive and thrives through the discourse its populace engages in. Many other countries in Southeast Asia may not be developed but they are alive and growing.
TheRoamingLily 