IMPACT COMMUNICATION
AND INNOVATION
AND INNOVATION
It is no secret that Donald Trump’s discomfort with China is real—it has even become a meme. The news, however, is the analysis by Jean Fan for Palladium Mag on how “the American dream is alive in China”. Although it may sound like pop psychology, what the U.S. president seems to fear most actually borders on what the American archetype has always aspired to, as Fan argues.
The author begins her text by commenting on her preparation to face the chaos of Shanghai after landing at Pudong International Airport, but the worst never came: “The cities I visited that year—Shanghai, Wuhan, and Xiangyang—were unrecognizably clean. The cars were up to date. Even the people were quieter. (…) On past trips, I was impressed by the pace of China’s development. But each year, it became increasingly evident that, despite the country’s rapid modernization, China was still behind the United States—at least in quality of life. In 2018, that changed. Beyond not lagging behind the U.S., I felt the opposite might be true: China is reinforcing years of economic development with a quiet improvement in people’s lives. In a way, life in China is starting to feel better than living in the U.S. No longer characterized as a place that is polluted and visibly impoverished, the China of the late 2010s seems clean, modern, and cool.”
This is not always the perception we have in the West, or at least it is contested when we weigh how these infrastructure gains have had a side effect on the way people are governed. Fan is aware of this, especially since U.S. coverage of the country generally focuses on the dystopian aspect of this new China. Examples range from reports addressing the oppression of the Uyghurs, the banning of many religious groups, as well as the growing and aggressive influence on the social and political lives of Americans—as demonstrated by the cases of Blizzard and the NBA last week. “But in the last five years, this discourse, although often corrected, seems to have become increasingly disconnected from my personal experiences in China and the more fundamental issues at stake. In fact, they seem to fail to comment on the larger and more important context: how much better life has become for many Chinese people, China’s new self-confidence, and the American struggle for development, optimism, and sovereignty.”
“China is changing in a profound and visceral way, and it is changing rapidly, in a way that is almost incomprehensible without seeing it in person. In contrast to American stagnation, China’s culture, its self-concept, and its morale are being transformed at an accelerated pace—generally for the better.”
Fan notes that, in March, her relatives were surprised by how quickly their orders were delivered to their homes—Taobao, for example, offers same-day delivery for clothes purchased on the site, which is the world’s largest e-commerce platform. The same goes for food, which arrives up to 10 minutes after ordering via a mobile app. Not much different from what we already have in Brazil with iFood or Loggi? Perhaps. But there is another dimension that Fan mentions when talking about her grandfather: “[he] noted that the government had reduced or eliminated entrance fees for several national parks, and was also in the process of significantly reducing university tuition fees for students over the coming years. My father, on a trip between Hangzhou and Shanghai, said that the government was planning to test the end of the production and sale of non-electric cars in certain cities as early as the beginning of 2020, and was also considering when to institute a more widespread ban.”
Furthermore, people in China seemed to have a greater sense of pride in their country. Fan, however, as an American, felt like a foreigner in that situation, despite her family being Chinese and living in the country. The euphoria reminded her of how people felt in the 1960s in the United States, when the enthusiasm revolved around sending a man to space, or even how the U.S. was perceived before 9/11. “In my father’s car, I felt a bit of envy and then nostalgia for something I had only experienced briefly as a child,” writes the article’s author.
Fan also recalls that, in the 2000s and early 2010s, there was still a general perception in China that everyone should work hard to support the economy. Now, that sentiment has shifted to “start learning how to enjoy life and take pride in the results of everyone’s hard work.” In the span of just eight months between trips taken in 2017, the biggest change the author saw was in people’s behavior. By the beginning of 2018, people had almost completely stopped using cash to make payments, regardless of whether they were buying designer products or vegetables at a local market. Instead, everyone was using apps like WeChat Pay or Alipay on their phones almost exclusively.
The thousands of private bicycles that once clogged the streets have been replaced by colorful, app-rented bikes. People were less afraid of being robbed, and there was a growing sense of security. Why? Fan explains that one reason is that the government is even capable of finding a stolen cell phone, as its surveillance cameras track every movement of every person—for better or for worse.
“The changes aren't just material. I’ve found that the Chinese are also becoming more polite. During my last trip, I had the new experience of having to wait in line to use the restroom, and then needing to make a call; when I returned, the person behind me politely asked if I would like to return to my spot in front of them. This was surprising to me. To put this in context, the Chinese were long known for ‘chāduì (插队)’ or ‘line-cutting.’ Visiting China during its growth spurt meant I frequently experienced adults violently shoving me out of their way.”
In this sense, given the stagnation of American life today, it is difficult to understand what it is like to live in China now. With this new wave of material abundance, Fan believes that the Chinese feel a bit more relaxed— something also noted by futurist Camila Ghattas, who has lived in the country for 10 months. “There is a renewed sense of hope and even pride, as people feel more comfortable reclaiming their Chinese ancestry. They are also explicitly encouraged to do so: Xi Jinping has reinforced the ‘Chinese Dream (中国梦)’ as a way to ‘restore once-lost national greatness.’ In other words, the American dream of the 1960s still exists, but it is being lived in Wuhan now.”
One of the reasons China is experiencing its current success, according to Fan, is the idea that “the government will take care of it,” which is contrary to the American market-focused logic of innovation. “One of the most evident things in the typical Chinese mindset regarding the government, especially when compared to American expectations, is that the Chinese trust their government. A 2017 Ipsos survey of nearly 20,000 people stated that 87% of Chinese respondents believed the country was heading in the right direction, compared to 43% of respondents in the U.S. and an average of 40% across all other countries surveyed,” the author highlights.
And this seems feasible when Fan visits her family and friends living in China. Any problem that arises in the country is already on the government's agenda, or people expect it to be resolved soon. The only exception is that the Chinese are concerned about how the government executes its plans, especially when it involves trade-offs against the population's freedom. “There is a sense of uncertainty about how the government will react to Western values like freedom and democracy. For now, the decision has been to consciously move away from these values and maintain ideological sovereignty as China grows into a powerful market and becomes more interconnected with the rest of the world.”
“Remember China’s recent history: we are only 60 years removed from the Great Famine of 1959–61. Many great-grandparents still remember that time, and many older parents and grandparents lived much of their lives with barely enough to eat during the rationing period. The hardship the Chinese endured in the second half of the 20th century produced a great desire for stability and material wealth—even when it means losing freedom. This is a country that has a harsh memory of extreme poverty and is wary of potentially destabilizing political reforms.”
Thus, as our stories in the West focus on China’s success while simultaneously highlighting its authoritarian achievements, we see that this could be a quite threatening formula for everyone—after all, if we understand that the solution to a better life and a wealthier country is to follow a dystopian protocol, then we are condemned to the defense of authoritarianism. But Fan invites the reader to a more intelligible reflection on the country by commenting on this decision to give up freedom in light of the problem of hunger and the possibility of another century of colonization. Perhaps then we can understand that such a measure may be extreme, but it is still a form of self-protection. “If we become increasingly unable and unwilling to understand China, we may take a more adversarial stance than is advisable or necessary. We risk increasing hostilities. And that is already happening,” the author argues.
Indeed, there are hostilities between countries, issues like geopolitical positioning, or even the exercise of soft power as forms of sovereignty and expansion; however, more positive interactions with China are not impossible in Fan’s view. “We don’t need to be China’s best friends, but we need to coordinate enough so as not to lose or spoil major opportunities to work together on critical problems, such as climate change, the risk of artificial intelligence, and so on. In an ideal world, we could also have the opportunity to learn from one another.”
From an American perspective, Fan believes that China may provide a starting point for the country to re-examine its governance crisis, its failures, and possible solutions, even if they come from a non-liberal country. “China’s success challenges our implicit ideology and deep-seated certainties about governance. This needs to be studied—not just to bring about better coordination, but because in their achievements, we may find important truths that we need to revitalize the country.” And perhaps this also applies here, in Brazil.
This is one of the questions raised by the documentary series made by Ronaldo Lemos in partnership with the Futura channel. Expresso Futuro brings together different episodes in which the researcher reflects on this technological rise of China and what lessons we can learn and translate to the Brazilian context.
