China's complex history with its contradictory and conflicting stances and politics is well known. From the fact that they really seem to have a strong dislike for the Japanese because of the wars of invasion and brutalization without apologies, yet not apologizing for the millions of their own that were killed by Mao's leadership, down to criticisms of their human rights violations and environmental issues. Yet the brighter part of the picture is that there does seem to be a sincere desire to improve the living standards of its people and play it's part in the global scene. The reason being, just in the last week that I've been here, I've seen things that I've never even seen in wealthy first world countries like the States. All public places in residential buildings have sound activated light fixtures that turn on only if there are people around. I was in a mall today where I saw for the first time, energy conserving escalators that slowed when not used and speeds up just as people steps onto it. Plastic bags sold in the supermarkets are more often than not the thin type. Many of the restaurants use thin recycled cardboard boxes rather than styrofoam containers. All supermarkets charge extra for using their plastic bags. Many of the restaurants use plastic reusable chopsticks than the paper ones. Elevators in my residential building are reduced to half at off peak times of the day in order to conserve energy. Now, I can see how many people back in the States and perhaps elsewhere would groan about this being an inconvenient or 'cheap' style of living. But then doesn't that also mean that we're living our lavished lives more and more irresponsibly all for the sake of 'having everything we want at our fingertips'. How is it that America which constitutes only 4% of the world population contribute to 25% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions every year - the highest of any country in the world, and more than China, India and Japan combined. Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually - consuming more than 850 million trees. For every action, there is a consequence. What will it take for us to change our 'recklessness' ways and mindsets?
On the other hand, national broadcast of any foreign media is not allowed across China. There's widespread censorship of violent, sexual or political elements in movie theaters and gaming such as Xbox, PS2 and Gameboy are completely banned. I seem to be unable to reach major blogsites like Blogger.com, Xanga.com. Youtube.com as well, which is a pain because I think I was addicted to it in living in the States. Hopefully, this blog won't be blocked by the Chinese government one day. But if it does, then I guess it's Plan B...life finds a way. However, over lunch today, I learnt a couple very helpful things from Mrs. Ma's daughter, Sarah who's a local Beijinger. She shared with me about a whole slew of websites that will allow me to download international shows like Saturday Night Live, Ellen Degeneres Show, UNCENSORED movies and tons more from websites I've never heard of in my life. It was a great relief to know that I won't be completely sheltered from all forms of media from the western world. There seems to be a extremist protectionist governing style here despite a deep hunger and love for foreign media among the masses, especially the younger generation. From my discussions with my Chinese friends in the short time I've been here, it's become very apparent that Chinese fans stream live shows eagerly online and for example, knew immediately that Sean Penn's speech for winning the Oscar for MILK was completely censored from local broadcast, as concepts of freedom and homosexuality are topics not allowed to be discussed openly. 20 years ago, there was a law that enabled gays found convening together in public places to be jailed but today, it has laxed into something that is just not talked about. Though there is no religious reasons for opposing homosexuality here as in the States (as it's generally an atheist society), the younger generation generally see homosexuality as something to empathize about and feel obligated to 'help' by introducing gay friends to members of the other sex, whilst the older generation have a hard time accepting it. Ling Bai, a famous chinese actress who co-starred with Richard Gere in Red Corner (1997), a movie exposing high levels of conspiracy and corruption within the Chinese central government administration, was thereafter disallowed to have any of her movies viewed within China. However, despite the fact gaming is not officially allowed, gaming equipment can be easily purchased in hyper marts geared towards electronic goods here. A double standard? You bet. As much as I think that excess gaming has somehow desensitized the American society to violence and has started to become an unhealthy epidemic among our children, I can slowly understand why there is an internal conflict among the younger Chinese generation about their government. It's a love and hate relationship. They seem to be a very informed public audience aware of the widespread corruption and double standards practiced by the government and yet feel powerless to change it. Yet I believe they unwittingly ARE the catalysts of change in their country and have yet to realize their potential. As much as I want to criticize the Chinese government for these and many other reasons, it causes me to consider the recent Blagojevich corruption scandals splashed all over our newspapers recently, the ludicrousy of our recent Bush government bureaucracy which was allowed to perpetuate and prevalence of our nationwide child sexual molestation epidemic contrasted with the (supposedly) insufficient funds for enforcement vehicles. Are we really that different? Do we really have a right to point our fingers first?
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