Though I remained more than 10 thousand kilometers away from my country for four months, I never felt China was far when I was in the United States. It was just too common for China-related news to capture the front page at newspaper stands in the morning, or for people saying hello to me to follow up by saying, “Guess what I just read/watched/heard about China?”
It seemed talking about China was chic. And yet, to be frank, more often than not I felt uncomfortable with people’s perceptions and the media coverage of China. I worried that misunderstanding and mistrust were creating unnecessary tensions between China and the United States.
Early in my World Press Institute fellowship I was in Ely, Minn., where the local newspaper, The Ely Echo, organized a forum for local residents to exchange ideas with the WPI fellows. Although my WPI classmate, Anne Jambora from the Philippines, warned me the night before that China would be a hot issue at the forum, I didn’t have a clear idea just how interested the local residents would be in my country.
It turned out their interest was huge. I nearly felt bombarded at the forum. Here’s a recap:
“I don’t shop at Walmart,” declared one person attending the forum. “American workers are losing jobs (to their Chinese counterparts.) Everything here is made in China. What do you think of this?”
“Do you people in China all have the same salary or do you have different levels of wealth?” asked the mayor of Ely.
“China’s fast-growing economy is posing an environmental threat to the rest of the world. China is buying large amounts of wood from other countries including Canada and the U.S. I would like to know what you think about this?” was another question.
Regarding American workers losing jobs, I didn’t think China, among other developing countries, should be blamed for its advantage in low labor costs. It was, in fact, American investors who went to China, set up factories, exploited the Chinese workers and made a fortune. Then they exported their cheap products to the United States, where American consumers benefited from the low prices. This was a win-win situation.
While some people I met complained about American workers losing jobs, I had to say, Well, this is not only about America. As long as people in other parts of the world have to survive, the world can’t be perfect for all Americans. Furthermore, if Americans value individualism and competition, why are some people angry about global competition?
Some people seemed afraid that China was going to challenge the power of the United States and take over the world. Later on during my WPI fellowship, when I took the train from Chicago to San Francisco, a dining car employee half-jokingly told me that soon the train company he worked for would be Chinese owned.
This reminded me of the much debated China National Offshore Oil Company’s (CNOOC) bid to buy California-based Unocal. Was China really strong enough, to the extent that it was being discussed and resisted? Of course I felt proud of my country if that was the case. But China had far too long a way to go.
Let me tell you a story. Not long ago, a journalist in China visited a village in a rural area. He got there in the morning, but for the whole morning the only person who hosted him was the father of the family. While they were talking, the journalist asked the farmer, “Where are your wife and children?” The answer was odd. “They are still in bed,” said the farmer, in embarrassment. The journalist was quite confused and asked why they were in bed since it was already noon. The farmer, standing in the shabby cottage, said, “There’s only one pair of pants in our family. Now I’m wearing it, so they have to stay in bed.”
I rarely saw any women in the United States not wearing some form of jewelry or ornaments. Can you imagine that in some places in China, young girls don’t even have a pair of pants of their own? I was told Americans sometimes simply throw away dirty clothes because it was not a big deal. They could always buy new ones.
Coming from China, knowing clearly how my country was, I found it unfair that there seemed to be an ill-painted picture of China in the United States. Too often, China was depicted as either a cheap-labor country that was stealing jobs or a powerful country that was threatening the United States.
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The words “Made in China” can be found on products sold in stores throughout the United States, even at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.
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Talking about threatening, here’s something else interesting. I went to the grand Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which was said to be the world’s best museum. It indeed is a great museum and I found a section about armor especially interesting. The armor on display came from numerous countries: Germany, Italy, France, Turkey … and China.
What impressed me most was how the different armor related to the different countries. The German armor was made of white steel, solid and thick. It looked as practical and reliable as other German products I was familiar with. The Italian armor, made of the same metal as the armor from Germany, was solid and reliable, too, and yet had some decorations. When it came to the French armor, the decorations, a lot of delicate carving and shaping, were mounted at the top, adding artwork to the armor’s protective function. The Turkish armor was made in dark brown metal, probably iron, and embodied strength.
I was astonished when I saw the Chinese armor. It was made in the Qing Dynasty. The fine armor, used in battle, was made of glossy silk, decorated with gold and jade! No wonder China was so easily invaded by eight countries in the early 19th century. Thus I found an answer in the armor that coincided with my own feelings about my country: The Chinese, by nature, are not aggressive.
Over the course of thousands of years China was engrossed in its own civilization and culture, oblivious to what was going on in the rest of the world until the door was pounded open by artillery. Even in its heyday in the Tang Dynasty, China didn’t take over or force its own way on other nations.
“Middle Kingdom” is the literal translation of China in Chinese. It coincides with one of the basic Confucius theories: To stay in the middle, be impartial, not to be aggressive or go to extremes.
Toward the end of my stay in the United States, Chengyu Fu, chairman of CNOOC, was quoted on CNN’s website saying he “felt he was treated unfairly by U.S. politicians.” He disclosed that the Communist Party had nothing to do with his decision to bid for Unocal or, later, to back off. Chen said he thought the Unocal deal was the right thing to do because the deal could have benefited his shareholders and also “fit the U.S. ideal of unimpeded investment across national borders.” But instead, China was accused of trying to corner the international oil market. “I was naïve,” he said.
His company donated a total of $200,000 to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. That unpublicized charity, he said, reflected a China that people don’t know.
“China has changed,” he said. “Even the Communist Party has changed. But the world does not know it.”
Notebook
By Tang Ju, WPI ’05