Adam Mayer arrived in Chengdu and got to designing buildings right off the bat. We met shortly before Sascha interviewed Adam for this post, which cast him as a pioneering foreigner blazing the Chinese trail of urban development: American Architects Finds Freedom in Chengdu. Since then we’ve become friends and it’s always been a pleasure to muse about Chengdu’s future.

His unique position as a foreign architect in the city affords him a phenomenal platform to witness one of the largest building booms in human history. And since Chengdu has been among the fastest-growing cities in the world for years now, it’s a land of incredible opportunity for architects and urban developers from around the world.

A year after arriving in Chengdu, Adam’s work is beginning to materialize around Chengdu. I thought this would be a great time to ask him a few question about what he’s up to and where Chengdu is headed.

Interview with Adam Mayer

Chengdu Living: For those who don’t know you, who are you and where are you from? What are you doing in Chengdu?

Adam: I’m an architectural designer from California, USA. Currently I am a Senior Project Architect at the firm Cendes in our Chengdu office. I’ve been living in Chengdu for a year.

Chengdu Living: What led you to China or Chengdu?

Opportunity to work in the world’s largest market for new buildings is what initially led me to China. I landed in Chengdu because at the time I moved to China (about 2 years ago) there was a shift happening with development moving inland from the coastal regions. Chengdu has been a big beneficiary of the Central Government’s push westward and development activity doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Chengdu Living: What are you working on now?

Currently I am working on a few different things. One project is a proposal for a new 450,000 M² mixed-use project in north-central Chengdu. The project includes a 5-story shopping mall with three 120-meter residential towers and a 200-meter office tower. I am also designing a retail center just outside of Guangzhou and a residential complex in Tangshan, Hebei province.

Chengdu Living: How has working in the architecture field in this region differed from what you expected?

The Hailrun Complex in downtown Chengdu

It is not much different from what I anticipated. Project schedules are usually on an accelerated track, which takes some getting used to after working in the U.S. where contracts allot more time for architects to do thoughtful design work. In most cases, we don’t have the luxury of time with projects in China so design and production need to happen quickly.

This has to do partly with the fact that property developers have a time limit in which to build on land they have successfully bid on. The reason for the time limit is to discourage land speculation and promote urban development. Accelerated project schedules are not unique to the architecture industry but are rather a reflection of China’s overall rush to modernize and develop its cities.

Chengdu Living: What are the greatest challenges of working here? The greatest advantages?

The greatest challenges for a foreigner working in China are definitely the language and cultural barriers, though these are hurdles that can be overcome through spending some time in the country getting to know its customs and proactively studying Mandarin. The greatest advantage is simply the fact that China, as a huge developing country, offers a lot more opportunity for new buildings at this point in time than its developed world counterparts.

Chengdu Living: What advice would you give to Western architects working in China?

Be patient and know what the type of client you are working with. Not all clients are created equally, especially in China where everyone from factory owners to rural village chiefs are getting their hands into property development. In many cases these first-time developers don’t know what they are doing and rely on architects not only for design but to educate them about the development process as well. This can be a burden and time-consuming but it can also be a good opportunity provided you get lucky and the client has an open mind.

Established private Chinese development companies and overseas developers from places like the U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore usually have a better idea of what they want and put more emphasis on design quality and the finished product because they have a reputation to maintain. State-owned property developers are another thing altogether and can often be cumbersome to deal with because of their size and inefficient managerial culture.

Chengdu Living: What will Chengdu look like in 5 years? 10? 20? What’s the rate of change and what do you see for the future of China’s urban development?

Parts of Chengdu will look completely different in 5 years. Areas like the South Hi-Tech Zone and outlying areas outside the 3rd Ring Road will continue to urbanize and eventually merge with the city. In Chengdu’s Central Business District, DongDaJie (东大街) will be a canyon of commercial office towers stretching all the way from Chunxi Lu to the East 2nd Ring Road. The expanding subway system will help tie the city together. Further down the line, Chengdu will continue to evolve and add new buildings to the urban fabric.

Transportation in downtown Chengdu on a late summer evening

This is not to suggest that Chengdu will lose its inherent charm in its path towards modernization. Rather, Chengdu government leaders are aware of what makes the city a unique and attractive place not only with Chinese people but with foreigners (and more importantly, foreign investment) as well. They are trying to capitalize on this allure by promoting what is called a ‘Modern Garden City’. What this essentially means is that government planners are looking at ways to tie the city in with it surrounding natural environment by encouraging preservation of green belts in developing areas. Furthermore, non-profit organizations like the Chengdu Urban Rivers Association (CURA) are engaged in working to find solutions to cleaning up the city’s rivers by encouraging sustainable approaches to agriculture in outlying areas.

So in many aspects, Chengdu is a very progressive city in China when it comes to environmental and quality-of-life issues. I don’t think this is an accident as the city has a long tradition of being tied closely with its natural surroundings. The fertile soil of the Chengdu Plain along with the ancient Dujiangyan Irrigation System have shaped a culture over thousands of years that places high value on agriculture, influencing the strong culinary and leisure paradigm we still see today.

Chengdu Living: You’ve recently started authoring a blog called China Urban Development: what’s that about and what motivated you begin publishing it?

After doing some research about urban development in China I noticed that there is a dearth of accurate information about what is going on here. Of course, there is no lack of reporting about China’s development in the Western media- not a day goes by where publications like the New York Times or the Guardian don’t report something about China. Yet oftentimes the focus is just on how big or fast everything is rather than providing any real insight to what is going on here on the ground.

On the other side of awe-struck reporting is the ideological, agenda-based bashing of China by some pundits in the West. This really infuriates me because it does nothing to enhance understanding between China and the rest of the world and can actually be a detrimental influence on international relations.

So as an outsider working in a field that is directly related to urban development, I feel it is my responsibility to try and provide a more balanced picture of what’s happening this moment in China. I am by no means an apologist for the negative aspects of China’s development and I do acknowledge that there are tremendous challenges to overcome.

That being said, I am very bullish about China’s future and strongly believe that development is ultimately a positive thing for Chinese people and the world.

Do you have any comments on development in Chengdu or greater China? Leave them in the comments below. Then check out Adam’s excellent blog China Urban Development. 

The hukou system has become a major source of social tension in the last thirty years as rural residents have watched their urban cousins grow wealthy while they languished in poverty – major inequalities exist between rural households and urban households in terms of the benefits, subsidies, insurance and aid they receive from the state.

A migrant worker surveys new constructions

The program here in Chengdu is a one-of-a-kind experiment in China to see what effects the unshackling of the populace through elimination of one’s hukou as the basis for receiving government benefits could have on poverty alleviation and social stability.

If the last 30 years are any indication of what happens when Chinese are released from bondage, then the impact of these reforms could be singularly transformative.

The Basic Chinese Social Unit

For a Chinese family, their hukou defines not only where they are from, but what class they belong to, what opportunities are open to them and how far they might be able to climb in the future.

For rural migrants – the oil that has kept the Chinese economic engine greased – the hukou is like an iron collar and a great wall wrapped into one woeful burden. In order to do anything in China, you have to produce your hukou.

If you have a rural hukou, but you are trying to get married, have children, apply for insurance, get a job, or send your kids to school in the city, it could be much more difficult for you. You might have to pay higher fees, you might not have access to that service at all and you might have to make runs back to the location of your hukou to gain approval, documents or signatures that still might not help you get what you need.

Rural officials are often much poorer (and therefore more corrupt) than their urban counterparts, so the benefits (unemployment, stats-subsidized insurance, housing allowances) are usually inadequate for anyone living in the city if they even exist at all.

If you have heard the term “floating population” before and were not exactly sure what that meant, now you know:

Rural workers who left their hometown for work in the cities were technically non-persons, unable to go to school, sign contracts, rent a home, go to the hospital or any other basic service, because according to the hukou system as it was originally envisioned, a person lived, worked, played, was cared for and eventually died within spitting distance of where they registered their hukou.

The system is the quintessential tool of control in China and even though it has been de facto ignored as long as peasants kept sweeping streets or assembling keyboards, the inequality remained.

The whole nation is watching closely to see what happens over the next few years as Chengdu takes off the iron collar and breaks down the wall that kept farmers and urbanites separated for so long.

Why the Reforms?

When the Chengdu government announced their plans to unify the hukou system by 2012, they released a document, ”The Unification of all Greater Municipality Hukou (Chinese),” which is a detailed account of the problems they encountered with the system and the solutions they are planning to enact.

Basically, the government studies show that rural residents have little access to government aid while urban residents enjoyed much greater access and also much greater benefits. In order to meet the demands of the “Enrich the Countryside” campaign and further the goals of the “Unifying Urban and Rural” program as well as contribute to the creation of a “Harmonious Society,” the city had to do something about all those broke, hungry and increasingly angry farmers out there with their noses pressed against the glass of the rapidly growing urban areas.

Some of the inequalities the government hopes to straighten out include the differences between medical insurance, housing benefits, unemployment benefits and education.

In the past, a farmer had a plot of land of a certain size and that was that, no matter how many children he had or how many people were in his family. Under this system, a farmer’s son would grow up without land of his own and automatically enter the ranks of the un-(or under-) employed, but with no system in place to protect him or help him find work. According to the city’s plan, by the end of 2011, urban and rural unemployment benefits will be unified and a landless farmer will be considered unemployed, thereby giving him access to urban unemployment benefits.

These employment benefits also cover discharged soldiers. Soldiers who returned to their homes in the city could expect unemployment benefits and help finding a job, but soldiers returning to a rural home were met with the same lack of help that every other farmer suffered under until these recent reforms. Under the new rules, a discharged soldier receives help no matter where he is from, unless he has land – land under the Chinese system is the equivalent of a job.

There used to be three basic types of insurance that the state offered: insurance for urban residents, retirement insurance for rural residents and insurance for rural residents working in the city. The insurance offered to rural residents was not only small, but very simple: a farmer paid a few hundred yuan per year and when he retired could expect to see 50 yuan or so a month. Urban dwellers have much more sophisticated and useful insurance programs and now with the unification of the hukou, the migrant worker insurance has been scrapped and rural residents now have access to the same insurance that urban residents have.

Farmers also had no access to government subsidies that helped urban dwellers rent or buy homes, under the new system they can apply for these benefits with their ID card, instead of their old hukou.

Migrant workers arrive in Chengdu at the train station by the thousands carrying personal cargo

A Final Step Toward Total Urbanization

That the government would be abolishing the hukou system purely to correct inequality seems hard to swallow in today’s China. The move will also speed up urbanization, a major goal of the nation since 1979, and this is perhaps the most important consquence of hukou reform, from the government’s point of view.

If farmers flock to the cities en masse and alter their hukou status from rural to urban, that theoretically leaves the countryside open for development. Development of the countryside has been a very difficult thing to pull off, despite “Enriching the Countryside” and “Urban and Rural One Entity” campaigns, because China’s developers and local officials routinely collude to drive farmers off of their land with the least possible compensation. In order to speed up urbanization and remove the obstacle of angry farmers, local governments across China hope that eliminating the differences between rural and urban hukous will act as an attractive enough carrot to lure farmers away from their land.

But as officials in Chongqing have learned, Chinese farmers are “once bitten, twice shy”. Hukou reform in Chongqing has stalled as thousands of farmers have refused to alter their hukou status out of fear of losing their land for the smoke and mirror benefits of being a bona fide urbanite. Rural residents would rather hold on to their land and fight it out with developers (or simply plant food), than risk giving it all up, so the city has switched gears and focused on “turning” rural students into urbanites instead …

Even if the government’s plan works and farmers throw their rural hukou (and land) away and move to the city, the impact might be less than desirable. Online critics of the plan point out that under the new system, rural schools will stand empty as rural parents make a mad rush for urban schools. Another major concern of netizens who reacted to the story is the clause that allows “outsiders to apply for a Chengdu hukou,” a clause that has many worried that benefits will be stretched thin by an influx of non-Chengdunese.

Chengdu officials make a point of saying that under the new system, all distinctions between urban and rural hukou are abolished, which means urbanites can also move to the countryside and buy land, farm and in effect “trade classes”. Instead of inspiring urbanites to consider life on the farm, statements like these only fuel farmers’ concerns that the whole hukou reform thing is just another land grab.

A Long Time Coming

Hukou reform has been on the agenda for years.

Holding up a "Household Register" hukou booklet

In 2007, a China Daily article remarked that the hukou “has become neither scientific nor rational given the irresistible trend of migration” and just a few months ago, Professor Kam Wing Chan of the University of Washington wrote a post for the East Asia Forum that gathered a lot of the snippets about hukou reform from around the Chinese media, including a joint appeal for serious reform from several provinces.

And in this response to Chengdu’s pilot program, the authors argue that the hukou has actually contributed more to inequality, poverty and suffering than anything else, stating: “The best hukou system is no hukou system.” There is even an English-language blog, Hukou Reform, that tracks the progress China has made thus far in abolishing this arcane system of control.

Without the hukou, people will be able to move freely and shed their previous class distinction and assume another based on their own desires. In the West, we take this freedom for granted, but in China moving to another city has always been a huge deal because all of the basic social services that ensured a retirement in relative peace and quiet were based on one’s hukou. Mobility — legal mobility — does not only present many economic opportunties but also social issues as well:

As mentioned above, many city dwellers who have voiced their opinions online fear an even greater influx of farmers which means a greater strain on traffic, housing, government services, education etc. Will there be a measurable move out to the countryside? Will people pack up and move en masse to the city? Or will people basically stay as they are and just apply for the new benefits? Can farmers even afford to buy in to the urban insurance options? Will this only affect those farmers who have already left the land behind and can now officially become the urban resident they were  “pretending” to be since they came here years ago to work?

Although it is clear that the hukou system as a tool of social control is obsolete, the impact of “hukou re-unification” is much more difficult to discern. The problems lie not just in the system, but in China’s underdeveloped insurance industry, irrevocably corrupted lower levels of government and the deep class divisions that permeate the society.

Perhaps Chengdu’s pilot program is a step toward social reconciliation, itself the first step toward a measure of equality in any society.

This post was authored by Sascha, an American writer living in Shanghai who’s lived in Chengdu for 10 years.

The following is a first hand account of what went on behind the drab gray exterior of the USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai expo —  a tale of greed, indifference, corruption, rebellion and eventually justice — written by one of the Student Ambassadors who worked there.

The USA Pavilion was ruled by its coporate sponsors — sponsors who callously used eager Chinese volunteers, deceived and eventually politicized student interns and twisted an image of the US to fit their branding desires.

How did the pavilion morph from a nation’s showcase into a corporate advertising campaign?

The USA Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo conveyed an chilly office feel rather than a warm welcome from the West

Origins

It began in 1990, when the US Congress passed a law (U.S. Code Title 22 2452b) restricting the US State Department from providing public funds for World’s Fair Exhibition in an effort to curb the suspicious allocation of capital that had marred World’s Fairs of years past. Henceforth, funding for US participation in World’s Fairs has been limited to private sources only, which would assumedly be easier to track and control than mysterious government funding.

The US pavilion’s Commissioner General José Villarreal, a lawyer from San Antonio with ties to the Clinton family, spearheaded much of the fundraising efforts for this year’s pavilion. Over the course of what Villarreal describes as “particularly trying months,” he was able to reel in support from a cast of corporations and state governments, including Wal-Mart, Johnson and Johnson, and the State Department of Texas, among other sponsors.

In a personal conversation with José, he described that he did not control how money was spent at the Pavilion and was only responsible for initial fund-raising. This response came about when he was faced with questions from student ambassadors regarding how $61 million was spent on such a, to put it politely, “simple” pavilion. In terms of both architecture and content, the USAP was devoid of all  “bells and whistles” when compared to Saudi Arabia’s massive 4-D movie cinema complete with a moving walkway, Japan’s violin-playing robot, or Germany’s holistic presentation of German history and culture intertwined with technology

Ezra Klein of The Washington Post wrote,

“The inattention to aesthetics might work as a signal of power and wealth, like Bill Gates being rich enough to wear denim when he goes to meet the queen. But then you get to the three videos that make up America’s message to the world. Message? We’re bad at languages, in hock to corporations, and able to set up gardens when children shame us into doing so.”

Much information is available from mainstream news sources regarding the fundraising and diplomatic dilemmas surrounding the construction of the USAP. Among those, I recommend interested readers to take a look at Adam Minter’s independent blog Shanghai Scrap (May 3, 2010), which probes the questionable allocation of funds.

The cost sheet doesn't quite add up

As much as I wanted to refrain from picking apart the numbers, there is one figure I cannot let go without mention: the $575,000 price tag on the Commissioner General’s Office. Forsaking any hopes of anonymity, I used to work right next to his office and lounge, both of which are Spartan even by Chinese standards. I’ve stayed at $40 hotels in China (238 RMB) with nicer interior décor. Even if you bought new computers and office supplies, the cost of constructing the rooms would be less than $5,000.  So why does this assessment describe the Commissioner’s office at a price of over half a million dollars? The student guide program, which employed 140 people over a 6 month period, costs a mere $932,000.

When students and volunteers took a look at numbers like these and compared them with what they were actually experiencing in the pavilion, even the most patriotic among knew something was very, very wrong.

The Student Ambassadors

In April, a group of 75 student ambassadors (SAs) arrived in Shanghai to begin training for a three-and-a-half month internship at the USA pavilion.

Borrowing a page out of USAP sponsor Wal-Mart’s labor record, salaries for SAs and junior staff were set at very low levels. Prior to arriving in Shanghai, SAs were told that they would receive a stipend of around $18 a day, which was supposed to be sufficient based on the cost of living in the area.  Many junior staff made a salary of around 6,000 RMB a month (less than $1,000), and had to pay for their own housing.

In terms of work hours, SAs were expected to work around 40 hours a week, whereas staff members did not have actual limitations and often worked upwards of 50 or 60 hours a week without overtime pay.

During the first week of July, dubbed “National Week” in celebration of American Independence Day, members of the Entertainment staff and their SAs put in 10 to 12 hour days, and were pressured to try to out-work one another.

All staff were  supposed to have 2 days off within a 7 day cycle, yet during busy times staff were expected to come in for half days on their days off and answer work-related phone calls at all hours of the day. Thus, an environment of mutual exploitation came about, staff would “one-up” each other by working extended hours on their days off, joking about blatant breaches of labor codes rather than confronting their superiors.

Price-gouging within the World Expo site and in Shanghai more generally rendered both junior staff salaries and SA stipends insufficient. Lunch or dinner in the World Expo site would run between from 30 to 70 RMB ($4.5 to $10), and taxis from Pudong to Puxi (Shanghai city proper) ran from 35 to 70 RMB each way.  One would be hard-pressed to live on $18 a day unless one never ventured out of the Expo and took health risks by eating the cheapest food available. The cheapest food options were found at a convenience store chain named Family Mart, where one could purchase a microwaved set meal for 18RMB.  Such meals were packaged in several layers of plastic, which are known to emit dioxins and other toxic substances when microwaved.

These Tasty Toxic Treats were limited to fried chicken and greasy pork, so those who abstained from eating meat or wanted healthier food had to fork over larger amounts of cash at foreign chains such as Starbucks.  Starbucks in China sells salads, vegetarian or chicken sandwiches and soups. Senior staff distributed KFC vouchers to SAs in what they said was an attempt to defray the costs of eating at the Expo.  The SAs were well aware that Yum Brands was a sponsor, so while some saw it as a low-cost means of providing food, others viewed it as an attempt to enforce brand loyalty.

Divisions of Labor

The SAs were split into several areas of employment: Operations, Protocol, Communications, Finance, V.I.P. Suite and Entertainment.

Those who worked in Protocol or V.I.P. had the opportunity to witness celebrity and government visitors (i.e. a picture with Al Gore), while the Operations team were not only left in the dark as to the schedule of such appearances, but also locked into rotating work shifts out in the hot summer sun dealing with millions of visitors. Needless to say, “office vs. operations” tensions developed, and this led staff members to reconfigure the Operations’ schedule by offering longer breaks, shorter hours and team dinners to compensate for the other disparities.

Nowhere were these disparities clearer than in the V.I.P. Suite, an exclusive upstairs lounge named “1776 suite,” devoted solely to entertaining and hosting functions of top-level sponsors.  A membership card system was enacted for employees and friends of USAP sponsors.  Initial scheduling preference was given to “global sponsors,” companies that donated over $5 million.   The USAP expected high volume attendance in the 1776 suite, so it had a rotating schedule of 15 well-qualified SAs.

But attendance at the suite was incredibly low, and much of the SAs’ 8.5-hour shifts were spent waiting by the door for visitors like concierges, or competing with secretaries for access to the reception computers.  During the overlap between morning and afternoon shifts, it was common to have five or six SAs standing around in the upstairs and downstairs lobbies with absolutely nothing to do, merely waiting out the final hours of their shifts.   So while VIP SAs joked away the hours and played online games, the rest of the staff were outside dealing with the myriad problems that arise with crowds of over 30,000 visitors a day.

The Sorry Fate of the Chinese Volunteers

The inequality was even greater when it came to how the Chinese college students were treated. Chinese college students with strong English proficiency were told they would have summer internships at the USAP, which they believed would be a prestigious position.  What they were not told was that their “internship” would consist of doing janitorial work for Diploma, an outsourced janitorial company. Instead of working hand-in hand with Americans, they swept stairs, cleaned bathrooms and emptied rubbish bins.

These interns/janitors were paid poverty wages, some as low as 900RMB a month. Frightened about being fired, few spoke up about their working conditions, and those who did only did so with those they trusted. Many cross-national friendships were founded in the lavatory, where one would encounter a Chinese college student the same age cleaning toilets. Many SAs felt uncomfortable learning that that their Chinese counterparts had a monthly salary half of what an American SA would make in a week.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the proclaimed goal of the World Expo to strengthen global ties and promote international unity?  Does this disparity of income not mirror the same WTO policies that exacerbate such social stratification in the first place?

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

The first thing you see when you walk in the USA Pavilion

The hypocrisy finally got to the SAs, so one evening in late June, a group of six to eight women and men gathered together in an apartment to discuss how to put their grievances into action.

As interns and staff they were fed up with being lied to and swindled by USAP management, and refused to be pawns to its corporate sponsors.

They decided to draft a formal letter addressing their grievances and distribute it to all the SAs for approval.

When the group of brave individuals brought the drafted petition to the workplace and shared it with other SAs, it was met with extraordinary enthusiasm. Several other workers wanted to get involved in the movement and met for a subsequent meeting to draft a new letter to the USAP management.

What was most inspiring about their actions is that, for the most part, these SAs were the type of people who were not involved in labor agitation or social activism in the past. Some of them would probably have been the same folks who would have teased my peers in hunger strikes, speak-outs, and critical mass marches during my college years.  No, rather this time it hit home: SAs and junior staff united on common ground to make their voice heard.

The following is the original text of this petition:

“This letter is directed at the management of the U.S.A.P. and was written through a collective effort by the Student Ambassadors. As Student Ambassadors, we feel that there is a serious set of problems affecting our well-being, morale, and safety. These problems stem largely from misinformation, inadequate compensation, and a general inattention by U.S.A.P. management to meet some of our most basic needs. These problems are outlined below. We sincerely hope that you will hear our concerns.

First, from the beginning of the program, we have received almost no information about the nature of our jobs. Not only was the application vague, but also neither the pre-departure pack nor the weeklong training program gave us any description of our duties. There should have been a detailed explanation of what we would be doing as student ambassadors. It is unacceptable that an employer keeps its prospective employees in the dark about their responsibilities.

Second, there is the issue of pay. Many pavilions pay their staff western wages. On the other hand, we receive pay less than many of our subcontractors (IVG, Dance America). We firmly believe that we, as well as the second session ambassadors should receive fair pay and treatment. Furthermore, we are appalled at the wages and mistreatment of our Diploma staff. As an entity representing the United States we would hope that the U.S.A.P. would uphold the labor and wage standards enjoyed by citizens in our own country and not seek to exploit our host country’s “cheap” labor force.

Third, we were not told about the staff cafeteria until halfway through the session, and not given any credit to use there until recently. This is despite the fact that many of our subcontracted employees in security and most other Expo Pavilion employees were provided with a food stipend from the beginning of the Expo. We were not provided with a food stipend until July 1 and this forced us to pay exorbitant prices for food at the Expo. Furthermore, while there was a low-priced option (the Expo workers cafeteria), we could not eat there even if we paid with our own money because our cards could not be activated without USAP management signing off for them through the Expo Bureau. Until now, we have been spending a big part of our pay just for the overpriced food (largely fast food) at the Expo and we are not even provided with bottled water to keep hydrated during these dangerously hot summer months. In addition, we found out
ourselves about the staff cafeteria and it took more than a month to get credits put on our IDs. Information about benefits and services offered to expo employees should have been given to us from day one, not during the last month of our stay. We feel that we should be compensated for lost wages prior to being given a reasonable food stipend.

Finally, there is the issue of neglect for the general health and well-being of some of the Ambassadors. There has been a mold problem in many of the apartments where we live. This has created a serious health risk to the Student Ambassadors and other USAP employees living in the Expo Village. Although numerous complaints were made, nothing has been done to remedy the problem. In addition, we were all promised health insurance coverage for the duration of our service here. However, several of us have had serious illness (some thought to be caused by the mold in our apartments) and when we sought medical treatment had to pay thousands of RMB out of pocket since our insurance does not cover even the most basic medical care. This is an expense most of us simply cannot afford.

Our concerns are not outrageous, but speak to meeting our basic needs and clearing the air regarding the staff and operations of our pavilion. Without our hard work and dedication, how would this Pavilion operate? While many of us are highly qualified for our service and went through a competitive process to get hired, many of the U.S.A.P. employees and management do not treat us with adequate respect, though in many cases they, themselves, are not as qualified as many of us and were not hired through a similar process. It should also be said that we are in contact with the second session Ambassadors and they are aware of conditions here. We sincerely hope that you will hear our grievances and respond accordingly in order to ensure a successful second half of the Expo. Thus far the management has been unconcerned and unresponsive to our grievances, despite having told us numerous times that we are the best part
of our pavilion. How about treating us as such?”

The Results

The actual presentation of the signed petition was not overly dramatic, as the management had already been informed that the SAs were collecting signatures and support at the workplace. In response to the petition, the management advised the creation of a Student Ambassador Forum and subsequent Working Group, spearheaded by two female and four male SAs. Each student ambassador that took part in the forum was responsible for a specific area of concern, these included; Living conditions, Office culture, Food stipend, Job assignment, Sub-contractors and Health Insurance. The first meeting of the Student Ambassador Forum was on July 11 at this time the concerns were voiced from by the respected SAs.  An overview of the meeting was sent out by email to the SA listserv. This eventually became a thread of over 35+ responses from SAs, a democratic means of sharing information and opinions on the struggle.   On July 12, the six SAs representatives to the Working group met with USAP’s Human Resources director in an effort to reach consensus upon solutions to the proposed issues raised by the SAs Petition and working group.

After much deliberation and fiery rhetoric within SAs and between senior management, a compensation agreement was agreed upon.  Taking account for the fact that new SAs would start at 1,200RMB per week whereas we had to fight for a raise from 850RMB brought grounds for retroactive compensation.  Food stipends and medical costs were also calculated in the final 2,550RMB deal.

Could this lead to Justice?

Ultimately, this petition paved the way to reclaiming justice at the United States Pavilion. SAs and junior staff members learned an important lesson in organizing and tasted the flavor of corporate America. Some of the young women and men that took part in this initiative may never partake in political or labor agitation in the future, but I am certain that, for some, sparks of personal activism have been ignited, fanning the flames of the international movement for social justice.

Authors’ Addendum

Given the praise and notoriety this piece has brought I would like to provide a formal addendum.

First off, I am very grateful that so many SAs provided honest comments to this piece. The issue of certain individuals over-posting or waging personal battles is a byproduct of an open forum for comments. Charlie, the editor of Chengdu Living, decided against censoring comments, although at times I wish he would have trimmed some portions as discussions drifted far away from SAs, the element of this piece.

All who worked at USAP had a different experience and mixed feelings about living in Shanghai. Clearly there are conflicts of interest based on personal and political opinions: I do not have ill feelings towards any former SAs, although, given the nature of the comments perhaps other may not feel the same about me. I was fortunate to work alongside a team of very bright and well-rounded American college students and recent graduates.  After all, this was a competitive position and I’m very proud of my colleagues who are now in law school, medical school or pursuing entrepreneurial work in Asia.

The time period I worked at USAP was from April 15 to July 31^st, the first session—

We  were “guinea pigs” in the experiment of an outsourced national pavilion.  Given the scale of the work environment it’s expected to have hiccups along the way, no expo pavilion nor its management was flawless by any means. (Well China, Japan and Saudi Arabia really had their shit together, but again, these pavilions were managed and supervised by their respected governments.)

Echoing the fashion that the US fights its wars, USAP was outsourced to corporations. Just as the US military outsources laundry or logistics to Kellogg Brown and Root subsidiaries, USAP was outsourced to any corporation willing to pay $5 million to become a  “global sponsor” and put its logo on the pavilion. Thus it is expected that a corporate environment would prevail: Walmart sponsored the “rooftop garden”, Yum Brands sold KFC and Pizza Hut, Chevron taught visitors about its stellar environmental record, and so on.

Moving back to the issues of the SAs, the original title of this piece was “Shanghai World Expo 2010: USA Student Interns Defy Corporate Control”  the original version can be viewed here for those with interest.

The editors at ChengduLiving shortened the piece and amended the title to make the piece more blog friendly.  I believe that the title “Greed and Corruption” set an overbearing negative tone.  The point of this piece was to showcase that well-qualified, well-educated young Americans were upset by the means that their country was represented and the unprofessional way in which they were initially treated.  Had the first session SAs, not confronted authority and made their voices heard, then perhaps the 2^nd session SAs would not have had the rosy experience that Antoine described.

My personal experience was not entirely “doom and gloom”, I had the chance to introduce and interview Herbie Hancock and DeeDee Bridgewater. I grew up playing bass in jazz band and listening to DeeDee’s program on NPR, clearly this is an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life.  Additionally, I enjoyed working with Abigail Washburn’s band, I first met her in Chengdu during the release of the album “Afterquake” which featured songs sung by children living in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.  I spent countless hours running sound and working the stage for daily Dance America performances.  The Dance America crew was a lively bunch of characters and really helped USAP “save face” especially in the long lines and heat of June and July.

In conclusion, this piece was an alternative take, a behind the scenes view, based on ethnographic information.  The mainstream press did not cover this story, nor it is likely that they will pay attention to it now.  I should note that I have been contacted by a journalist from NPR, who may be interested in working on a short piece.

As a writer, and supporter of independent media, I believe that people need to take it upon themselves to share their stories and experiences that would otherwise “slip under the radar”. I did not want this to be the case for the story of SAs that organized against the corporate nature of USAP and fought for progressive change.  Surely there are still questions of how the $61 million was spent, and, given the voluminous comments on this piece, corruption, is on the tips of peoples’ tongues. However, I do not possess financial documents to make any formal statements on such matters, the management at USAP wasn’t exactly eager to share such information.  But I do hope that the former staff enjoy their 2-month pay bonuses, the junior staff truly deserve them, clearly there was a lot of money left over after all.

Thanks for reading.

The international stand-off between China and Japan over the Diaoyutai or Senkaku Islands was supposedly over once the Japanese returned the captain of the ship that had allegedly rammed two Japanese destroyers near the disputed island chain, but a series of protests in Tokyo and across China demonstrate the passion that consumes both nations whenever they are involved in a conflict. Following Japanese protests that took place yesterday morning, Chinese netizens organized three major protests, in Xi’an, Zhengzhou in Henan Province and Chengdu, that saw many thousands of people — 35,000 estimated in Chengdu — march through the center of town chanting anti-Japan slogans, waving Chinese flags, struggling with police and throwing stones and bottles. According to the New York Times, China is still blocking exports of rare earth materials to Japan, materials needed for electronics and after these protests, the conflict which had simmered down is set to explode again.

A flyer promoting the demonstration, including starting location, marching route and slogans

Over the course of an otherwise ordinary Saturday afternoon, tens of thousands of irate citizens gathered in downtown Chengdu to protest Japans claim to the Diaoyu islands. This is the small island chain between China and Japan that have been hotly contested since Japan seized a Chinese fishing vessel in the area just six weeks ago. But Chengdu’s anti-Japan protest didn’t seem to be only about this single issue; the ideological and nationalist rift that separates the two Asian giants runs tragically deep.

I didn’t have too much of an idea of what to expect since I didn’t attend the last rally directed towards China’s mortal rival: but this one was raw, gritty and highly emotional. Fortunately I caught some smiles and friendly faces in between finding myself amidst a sea of Chinese people and under the harsh gaze of hundreds of riot police. These are the photos which tell the story as I saw it.

Note – I recorded several video clips which are quite crazy. When they’re online, I’ll amend this post to include them as they add depth and detail to the story that the photos tell.

Looking down at the mouth of Chengdu's main shopping district: Chunxi Lu

Within moments of arriving at Chunxi Lu I see a large crowd and walk with them

Flags wave as the crowd grows in size

"Never forget the shame on your nation. Restore the Chinese name"

Signs litter the crowd as a megaphone blares and the crowd recites mantras

A protester writes "Japan" with strips of newspaper and lights it on fire. I recorded this on video.

"The bomb aimed at China tomorrow was supported by you"

Amidst the fevered crowd there were some friendly smiles

A sign details which Japanese brands a responsible Chinese citizen should avoid

Approaching Ito Yokado, the massive Japanese department store in Chunxi Lu

Police scuffle with demonstrators. I recorded video of a fight that occurred directly in front of me.

Hundreds of police cordoned off the area around Ito Yokado

Thousands target the Japanese department store

Hundreds of police offers stand in a line to manage the crowd

A young man shouts slogans at the crowd which repeats them in chorus

"Show love for China, boycott Japan"

Trash covers the area in front of Ito Yokado as people inside the store observe the crowds

A second-floor window was broken and a demonstrator emerged, clutching a Chinese flag

After affixing the flag, a "thumbs up" emerges and the crowd erupts with cheers

Police patrolled the area in vast numbers

Youtube Clips of the Demonstration

Note: if you’re in the mainland, these will require a VPN to view

Zhang Yushi, Sascha Matuszak and Reed Riggs contributed to this post.

What do you think of the protest in Chengdu? Will it achieve anything or is this a political spat that will go nowhere?

"Study Lu Xun's revolutionary spirit", 1978

The literary and online communities are calling this “Lu Xun’s Great Retreat” and there are already theories floating about trying to explain why this is happening now. The official line has been to claim that different generations require different textbooks to reflect different conditions. In an interview with the chief editor of the Jiangsu Education Publishing Company, the removal of some of Lu Xun’s works are attributed to their length and complexity.

The Chinese blogosphere points to a more sinister motive: the government is nervous about what young children might think about this society if they read Lu Xun’s social and political commentaries, look around and see that history is busy repeating itself.

Today’s Lu Xun

Yet, if this is really a move by the censors to remove certain troublesome aspects of Lu Xun’s literature, then this would not be the first (or presumably the last) time. In 2007, there were discussions concerning the removal of Miss Liu Hezhen, which was supposedly replaced with Jin Yong’s Kung Fu inspired short stories. In fact, the Chinese education system has a long history of re-arranging its curriculum based on the winds of change and Lu Xun is just one of the more prominent victims.

If one takes the time to read and analyze all of the works above and then place them within the context modern Chinese society, there probably is a valid reason why the Story of Lin Xiangru is being replaced with MLK’s Speech. That is beyond the scope of this essay, because when this began it was under the assumption that Lu Xun alone was being removed and after further research the truth, whatever that might be, has become blurred by the competing, confused cries of Chinese Netdom.

Lu Xun's hometown, called Shaoxing, in Zhejiang Province

No One Can Be Sure

A statue of Lun Xun and his wife in Guangdong Province

Something is happening within the Chinese education system. It might be political revisionism, which has many a precedent in China (and in the US school system for that matter) or it might be a modernization of the system through the introduction of foreign writers (which also has precedent in China) or it could be a sinister plot to protect the filthy rich bastards that speed around in unlicensed black sedans by leaving out any social commentary texts that might help children see them for they are: filthy rich bastards. Many a precedent for that last one.

Or nothing is happening at all, which is the case according to this article published in China’s Education Daily, which quotes yet another Jiangsu Education Publishing Company editor as saying that, NO, there were no changes made whatsoever to any of the textbooks in any grade.

This could be a classic case of news leaking and then the officials responding by obfuscating any and all references to the news or it could be a phenomenon known as “fake news,” in which the Chinese gossip mill fueled by a million bulletin board groups and 370 Million users takes a snippet of something and turns it into a mountain.

We don’t really know. But we’ll follow this story to its murky end and keep you, the reader, informed of what muck we step in. If any of you can shed light upon the subject or have an opinion or thought to share, we welcome your comments below.

For a continuation of this discussion, head over to ChinaTravel.net  …

There was never a question that my son (I call him Little Man) would have American citizenship. Sure, the good ole’ USA is taking its knocks around the world, but that’s nothing new. An American passport still allows you access to pretty much any country in the world and the American government has a good track record of taking care of its own. Seeing as my wife is Chinese, Little Man also has the option to become a Chinese citizen. We never really considered this as the option, but only within the context of possible dual citizenship, even though it’s illegal for a Chinese citizen to hold another passport.

Illegal, but like most things Chinese, not impossible.

For Americans born abroad, the process is simple: go to your nearest Consulate and fill out an Application for a Passport and show them your baby’s birth certificate. The Consulate will give you a Birth Abroad certificate and within a few days, hand out a spanking new US Passport, good for five years. After that, there are a few technicalities, but your passport is perfectly legal and the Americans will completely forget about you until you come to renew a passport or get tossed in jail in Kunming.

Exit Visa and Chinese Visa

Such an exit visa is required. Click for larger

Because your baby is born abroad, he must receive an exit visa from the Chinese PSB and then travel anywhere and return on a regular Chinese visa. Only passports issued inside the US can be empty upon arrival in another country. The exit visa is a very simple document, obtained with a birth certificate, the parents identification and 20 yuan (pictured at right). The main difference I noticed between the Chinese exit visa process and the American passport process is amount of paperwork involved. Both sides are pretty efficient, but the Chinese require a bit more. Lets take a look:

American Passport

1. Application Form
2. Birth Certificate/Report of Birth Abroad
3. Photos
4. $250

Chinese Exit Visa

1. My passport
2. Wife’s ID card
3. Wife’s hukou book
4. Birth certificate
5. My permit to live in China
6. Photos
7. 20 yuan
8. Application form
9. Baby’s Passport

We went to Hong Kong and got Little Man a six-month visa in 48 hours. No problems.

Is Dual-Citizenship plausible?

the Household Register "Hukou" book

To become a Chinese citizen, you must register a new hukou. This, again, requires a lot of paperwork and perhaps a few run-arounds, but in the end is not really a difficult thing to do. The paperwork needed includes: Baby’s Birth Certificate, Permission to Give Birth Certificate, Hukou Registration Book (this is obtained at the same office where you get the Permission to Give Birth Certificate), and both parents IDs. Take them to your local police office — not the yokel hut, but the closest real deal cop HQ — and wait a week or two for your brand new hukou book to show up.

Now, if the Chinese find out that you have an American passport, they will strip you of your Chinese hukou and possibly fine you. I personally know two Chinese born in Australia, with Australian passports, who have registered a hukou in their hometowns. Their parents are rich, gramps was in the government at some point, so it was no problem to get the hukou taken care of. We all know the name of the game: duplicity.

All I have to do is take the documents to the relevant authorities and omit the fact that he is already an American citizen. Now, the Chinese might be able to check against travel records and documents to make sure I am not up to any funny business, but 1) I don’t think the local hukou office will go that far and 2) my son has a Chinese name with which we would (if we decide to) register a hukou and an English name for his American passport, so, they couldn’t find him anyway. (Note: English names are to long for the entry software hospitals use here for birth certificates. Also, when you go to get your American passport, they are aware of this issue and allow you to write your baby’s name in the application form, so in effect, there are two different people, according to the paperwork.)

Unfortunately, I have friends in low places and my pockets got holes, so I have to consider the benefits and risks before I go and register the hukou. The benefits, basically, involve a bit of government insurance cash and a hedge bet that China will become a superpower with living standards on par with San Francisco and my descendants will want to take advantage of that dusty Chinese passport sneaky ole grampa got for them way back in 2010.

As for the benefits, the insurance is paltry by international standards, but helps here in China: The infant insurance costs 40 yuan per year and it covers hospital visits and most medical costs until the baby is 16 years old. Once in the system, there are several other government subsidized insurance policies that cost anywhere from 60 yuan to 120 yuan and cover anywhere from 15,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan in medical costs.

The risks are actually unclear, given China’s renowned bureaucratic flexibility, but they are sure to include a fine and most likely deportation for both me and my son. I might be able to cry my way out of it, but do you really stake the future of your family on a risk-benefit analysis that includes a few thousand yuan insurance and a shaky bet against a hefty fine and deportation? I think not.

Remains highly coveted

I don’t really think a Chinese passport will be more desirable than a US passport anytime soon, no matter what happens. But I have to admit, what matters to me most are not the risks or benefits, but the fact that my son has the right to Chinese citizenship. Just because the government refuses to recognize a globalized world and a globalizing China, my son has to choose between two parts that make up his whole? I think not.

What do you think? Should I get dual citizenship? Is it worth it? Is there a risk I am not aware of?

Although the exact details of the move by the China Film Group Company are unknown — as in when exactly and why — it makes sense that the censors would finally catch up to the Avatar-hype and shut it down.

Since the movie came out people have been standing in lines waiting to get a seat, going once, twice and thrice to see the movie, paying big money each time, and then discussing it with their friends. The overwhelming response has been awe and delight coupled with social and political commentary.

Chinese people see the movie as a reflection of what is going on all over China: the destruction of homes and buildings in order for real estate companies and local officials to cash in. The new rich take over the housing at ever increasing prices and destitute peasants are evicted and forgotten. Blogs and forums across the nation have been talking about this issue and the extraordinarily beautiful way Cameron’s 3D epic brings this message across.

Another factor is the domestic release of Confucius, starring Chow Yun-Fat — which happens to be this Friday.

Confucious has no fear of Avatar

Confucius is a legendary philosopher and for many people around the world, one of the first people they think of when they think of China. The movie has received little hype in the media and many people in the Chinese film industry worry that the film will flop if forced to compete with Avatar. Confucius’ ideals also jibe much better with the Chinese government’s goal of “rightly guiding the people’s opinion,” because one of his main ideas was to obey the authorities, from the Emperor all the way down to the “man of the house.” Confucius ideal gentleman was an upright, moral individual who served his state well and took care of his family the way a “classic, traditional” man should. This is the message the government wants to put out, not Avatar’s message of hope, rebellion, and courage in the face of profiteering greed and environmental devastation.

If China Film pulls Avatar from 2D theaters, that effectively removes the movie from China because there are few theaters in China presenting Avatar in it’s 3D format — in total, less than fifty. The “rumor” was first posted in blogs and chat rooms in Wuxi, after the Wuxi IMAX theater announced its plans to pull the movie, then exploded across China when Danwei.org picked it up and published the news in English.

With all of the hype already surrounding Avatar and the countless online threads dealing with the destruction of homes issue that has Chinese up in arms, it’s hard to imagine the move eliciting a positive reaction from netizens. One can only assume that the government is mobilizing the Five Cent Gang to hit the forums hard, pushing nationalism through idealization of one of China’s greatest thinkers, Confucius, to swing public opinion away from the plight of the blue-skinned Navi in Hollywood’s import.

Note: The Five Cent Gang article authored by David Bandurski for the Far East Economic Review is blocked in the mainland and you’ll need to a VPN to access it.

What do you think?

China responded quickly to Haiti’s earthquake, sending a team of 50 rescuers and sniffer dogs to Port au Prince on the 14th and announced the first shipments of more than 3 million yuan in aid to Haiti on the 16th.

In last Saturday’s China Daily, the devastation in Haiti was front page news and an editorial reiterates Shi Jia’s point:

The suffering of people anywhere in the world strikes a chord in the hearts of Chinese people. The death of four Chinese peacekeepers in Haiti has little to do with it. Chinese people feel a special sympathy for Haitians because just less than 20 months ago they were struggling to rise from the debris of one of the biggest quakes in human history.

Before & after: Haiti's National Palace

Comparisons with the quake in Chengdu that killed at least 80,000 people will find that, although the tragedy here in Sichuan was horrific and scarred the region forever, what is happening today in Haiti might prove to be even more devastating. Chengdu is a provincial capital and the quake didn’t actually damage Chengdu too much; by comparison, the quake in Haiti destroyed the capital, decapitated the government, and killed the top UN officials in Haiti at the time. In this NYT article, the frustration of aid workers from around the world is palpable:

There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount for a country like Haiti,” said Jarry Emmanuel, the air logistics officer for the agency’s Haiti effort. “But most of those flights are for the United States military.

He added: “Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync.

China didn’t require quite as much synchronization. There was very little looting or violence in Sichuan after the quake and the nation responded at once and as one to provide aid, clear roads, re-build bridges and establish a systematic relief program that kept frustration and death at bay. Haiti, by contrast, is a poor, corrupt country barely able to stand on its own two feet without the UN at its elbow. The State of Haiti’s problems were legion before this quake even hit — the country is known around the world as a violent, hot bed of AIDS and refugees with little or no economy. In terms of infrastructure, Haiti is on par with Somalia — tragically confirmed by bulldozers piling the bodies or earthquake victims into dump trucks.

Tragedy struck Sichuan on May 12, 2008

In comparison, northern Sichuan in 2008 was a backward, poverty stricken region with corrupt local officials cashing in on infrastructure funds meant to develop the area, but the State functioned. Roads worked, there were no violent gangs and people could go about their daily lives in a normal fashion. In China, the quake was pragmatically viewed by some as a chance to re-build the region from scratch with central government (and private) funds and a clear and unambiguous program of reconstruction supervised by authorities in Chengdu and Beijing. An earthquake in Haiti turns the entire country into chaos, whereas an earthquake in China is a showcase for a nation’s unity.

One thing to look for in the months ahead is how Haiti (and the world) responds to the glaring inadequacies of the Haitian infrastructure and government. Will Haiti be rebuilt stronger than before? Will the Haitian people unite under a banner of common suffering, or tear each other apart in order to survive?

China routinely pats itself on the back for the nation’s response to the May 2008 quake, but refuses to publicly address the issue of “tofu engineering” that was allegedly responsible for the collapse of hundreds of schools and the deaths of thousands of young children.

Haiti does have one thing on its side: there’s nothing to hide and the people have no illusions concerning the shortcomings of their state.

What do you think?

To read more about the Sichuan earthquake, check out: The Ace of Diamonds

After spending untold billions earning its 30% search market share, Google has had enough of duplicitous China and is preparing to pull out of the largest Internet market in the world.

The move comes after hackers tried to steal sensitive documents and source code from companies affiliated with Google and based primarily in the US. This isn’t the first time Chinese hackers have been implicated in vast espionage charges and definitely not the first time a foreign company has cried foul. It’s not uncommon to hear about foreign companies getting robbed blind by their partners, while at the same time the government is doing everything imaginable to support and encourage the growth of Chinese rivals.

In every industry, foreign companies are spied upon and obstructed, and there is nothing they can do about it but leave. The multi-nationals take it because the money is just too good: an assets manager for Morgan Stanley based out of Hong Kong told me his company bought real estate in China when it was around $120 per square meter. The price in most large cities is now at least $800 per square meter and here in Chengdu an apartment complex nearby is selling homes for $1,800 per square meter.

Flowers and a "Google is so courageous" note

These types of numbers can be found in pretty much any industry here, so most foreigners deal with the dubious authoritarian practices before surrendering the fastest growing market on earth.

With the Chinese Internet community estimated at 350 million people and growing, companies like Google, Yahoo, and Facebook drool at the thought of penetrating this market. Free speech and public discussion are secondary concerns, not only for companies like Google that quickly dispensed with free speech in order to be in China, but also for the Chinese who are supposedly only interested in keeping their people corralled. There are Chinese versions of Youtube (Youku.com), Facebook (Renrenwang.com) and Google (Baidu.com) plus a host of other sites that have active chat forums discussing everything from democracy to corrupt officials to the possibilities of war with the United States.

There are a lot of things going on here: geopolitical Cold Wars using Internet companies as fronts and hackers as foot soldiers; economic competition using censorship and biased laws to support local industries; and finally the separation of Chinese and Westerners to keep us antagonistic and distrustful through media coverage of the former two struggles to incite nationalist fervor. What Google ends up doing will be of great importance, either way. It will set a precedent for other companies and will most likely influence web surfing in China.

For those of us who live here, we use VPN’s to get around the firewall and we keep an eye on the news so we are aware of what is blocked and what isn’t.

What I’m wondering is: did Google plan this from the beginning?

Google is prepared to leave its Beijing office and exit China

Although it hasn’t captured a majority market share from search rival Baidu, Google has established a significant presence in China and is willing to give it all up in the name of it’s “Don’t be evil” mantra. Although widely criticized for entering the Chinese market under restrictions imposed by authorities, Google’s rationalization from the beginning was that having their search engine neutered (but available) to the Chinese market was preferable to staying out entirely.

Either we’re witnessing the closing stages of a bid to disrupt authoritarian control or Google’s patience has been too far strained. With Google’s incredible foresight and business acumen, it’s hard to believe the latter.

As it prepares for the high likelihood that it’s site will be blocked, the countdown to Google’s exit from China has begun.

Read about Google’s new approach to China on its blog and tell us what you think by leaving a comment

For the past several thousand years there has been a certain way of doing things that has kept the Chinese culture and society from disintegrating in the face of overwhelming changes — the family values trumpeted by the American Right and demonstrated throughout Asia. The ceremonies and customs that govern doing business, buying a home, getting married, or getting riotously drunk with a group of brothers have been in place for so long that no amount of Western business practices or modern sensibilities can shake them completely from their foundations. Foundations built upon the annals of Chinese literature, the undying spoken language and in the tales and legends of an ancient people. Together, these ceremonies and the patriotism they encouraged have brought China to the position they are in today.

Successful as they are, still these practices are in need of an update, because patriotism and culture have given birth to a nationalist ideology that, although powerful, is still a stunted form of what China’s original revolutionaries tried to build.

Sun Yat-Sen, 1866-1925

The revolution in thought, literature and politics that Sun Yat Sen initiated in 1919 was carried on by heralds such as Lu Xun and warlords like Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai Shek. Until very recently, the “update” that Sun dreamed of for his country involved destroying the old and returning China to a “clean slate.” Cleaning the slate meant demolishing customs in order to progress past the times when the Emperor was the “Father” of a vast nation of children. The events of 1919 and the years following were meant to cut Chinese off from their past so that they might be free to learn the ways of the West — in order to be as powerful as the West, like Magua in Cooper’s novel Last of the Mohicans. Yet, Magua’s character in the book is inferior to Uncas precisely because his desire for power twists him away from who he truly is and hinders that last step to maturity that makes Uncas an undying hero and Magua just his antagonistic foil.

In the January edition of Phoenix Weekly, Guo Tie Cheng discusses China’s maturity in a column entitled, “Making Patriotism an Ideology.” In this column, Guo argues that Chinese people have turned to nationalism to replace the foundations of the past, instead of turning within and creating an individual that is self-aware, confident, and mature enough to navigate through the modern world without resorting to “Us and Them” ideologies to reinforce or justify himself.

But writers like Guo are not as interested in China’s adventures abroad and the fears of the West. They are more concerned with creating the nation that they want to see, the kind of country that fosters and nurtures a certain type of person. Guo uses the analogy of a mother nursing her babe to describe the eventual break a person must make from their mother/country in order to fully mature. This maturity that Guo writes of requires a much deeper journey than that of 20th century China, which stripped itself of the “Emperor’s clothes” and threw off foreign domination. Guo’s is a philosophical search for meaning that should underpin the customs and patriotism that are natural to any ethnic group, not be subject to them. Guo is tired of hearing his fellow Chinese describe themselves as passive products of 5,000 years of history, he wants them to start making a new history.

Chinese netizen reactions to movies like Red Dawn 2010 and international issues like the Copenhagen climate talks support Guo’s belief that the real work to be done is here at home, not abroad. Some netizens are beginning to discard the vitriolic nationalist ideology that helped make the Chicomm Troll famous — in fact, one the funniest comments on the Red Dawn discussion forum on Douban.com parodies a still-common Chinese reaction to foreign criticism of China: “All (American) patriots give an outcry and boycott this directors work, which has outraged all (Americans)! Every (American) patriot who supports say Aye!” (rough translation)

A brief survey of Chinasmack‘s coverage of Akmal Shaikh’s execution shows that the Chicomm Troll still lives, but the trend is already moving away from the screeching nationalists we saw during the 2008 Olympics and toward the modern Chinese citizen able to distinguish between himself and his nation. The movements in modern Chinese society are exceptionally quick, yet still rooted within the ancient customs and traditions that hold the nation together — it is this paradox that is being struggled with right now throughout Chinese society.

So what is the role of the West now? Now that Chinese banks and construction firms feel they have learned all they have to learn from western institutions; now that America’s struggling economy only reinforces the belief that there is nothing more the West can offer China; now that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is powerless to stop a British drug smuggler from being executed in China: what now?

In essays like this one by author and China researcher Kerry Brown, the key is to help China along. This view is not founded upon an utopian view of brotherly love between nations, but on the very concrete truth that national interests across the West merge with China’s peaceful transition from the nationalistic ideologues (that helped China survive and grow in the last century) to the mature global citizens that can help the world survive and grow in the coming century. Instead of paternalism or antagonism, Brown encourages exchange.

Another sentiment can be found in David Goldmann’s essays for Asia Times as Spengler. Goldmann derides the lack of will amongst Americans to carry on the mantle of hegemon and, like his pseudonym, predicts dire consequences if the US sheds the “burden” of leadership. For Spengler, America must prevail across the world in its various struggles in order to maintain world peace and China is one of the players that America must deal with, by all means necessary.

Perhaps the true battle lies not in the fields of Pipelinistan or in the boardrooms of Wall Street and Hong Kong — but in the minds of the people seeking the right way to live. Just as Americans voted in an intelligent man of mixed heritage, so the Chinese are engaging in a soul-struggle over what it means to be Chinese. These two movements are compatible and represent a generational search for meaning in a globalized world that pokes fun at oppressive nationalism (a la the CCP) and renounces corrupt crusades (a la War on Terrorism). A conflict arises between these movements and the entrenched interests of a different generation, visible in the US Congress’s gridlocked partisanship in the face of veritable dissolution and the cries of Traitor! that meet any Chinese questioning of the State as is.

The outcome of China’s soul search will determine the timbre of the 21st century, for all of us.