Because some of you have asked for additional blogs on China, I'm writing this final blog on a significant day -- June 4, 2009 -- the 20th anniversary of the Chinese government's assault on student protesters in Tiananmen Square.

You have probably read or heard about the Chinese government's clampdown on information regarding this anniversary and on the events 20 years ago that left hundreds of students dead or injured as a result of the military's actions to clear the square.  Despite China's censorship, some news about the anniversary in China has slipped out, at least to the western press -- former student protesters or military men speaking out, an artist and former military man mounting a photographic memorial (see New York Times, June 4).

Most noteworthy of all is the recent publication of "Prisoner of the State: the Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang."  Zhao was Premier of China from 1980 to 1987 and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1987 to 1989.  In his journal he criticizes the Chinese government's decision to impose martial law in May, 1989, and its failure to resolve the students' protests peacefully. (Apparently, Zhao also makes interesting remarks about the process of economic reform in China.)  Zhao was purged by party hardliners in 1989 and forced into political obscurity.

Zhao's journal, published in both Chinese and English, is not available in mainland China, but visitors to Hong Kong easily purchased it and brought it back to Shanghai.  Zhao's book will inevitably make the rounds of the Chinese political elite since information today, anywhere in the world, although officially censored can never be completely suppressed.  Today's irrepressible diffusion of information makes me believe China will inevitably evolve into a more open country politically with an improving record on human rights.

Will China ever become a democracy?  I'm no expert, but I find that hard to imagine.  I wonder, as I did when traveling around China, whether democracy, as we know it, is a model that could ever work in a country of 1.3 billion citizens.  If India is an example of a huge country that does have western-style democracy, I wonder if Indian political processes -- despite peaceful elections -- have produced a country committed to equal rights, transparency, and social welfare.  When comparing India to China, I suspect there are far more hungry, illiterate, despairing Indians today (600 million rural poor) than there are Chinese.

So while I do not applaud the Chinese government's control over its people, I expect the economic and information revolutions in China will soon produce a middle class that pushes for further democratic processes.  China may never have a western democracy, but the one-party state I visited was far more open and free than I could have imagined.

Every visito r to China should escape its gargantuan cities at some point and visit the countryside. From Beijing I flew withJim to Guizhou province in southwestern China, an area where many of China's minorities -- the Hmong, Bouyi, Dong and Geija -- live.(While the Chinese call the Hmong people Miao, the Hmong prefer their non-Chinese name.) We went to Guizhou for  several reasons -- interest in the minorities, a recommendation from a Chinese friend now living in the US who was born there, and a desire to spend some time in nature.

The Chinese consider Guizhou province a remote, underpopulated area. It has 39 million people, about the same as California, but the average annual income is $1270, the lowest in all of China. The area consists of deep green, steep, cone-like hills and rushing rivers. Kaili, the city where we stayed, was remarkable for its lack of traffic and crowds, at least in comparison to Shanghai and Beijing. The region is known as the rainy mountains, but we were blessed with sunshine which made touring around small villages delightful.

We had a wonderful Hmong guide, named Lee, who was a good English speaker and a man proud of his traditions. We were driven around by a reliable driver in a comfortable sedan. Some of the highlights included a beautiful, traditional Hmong town, Xijiang, where we spent time at a health clinic partly funded by our friends at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

We also took in a museum full of breathtaking old embroidered and batik Hmong costumes, the most exquisite costumes I've ever seen. We stopped at the home and workshop of a traditional silversmith who made delicate silver ornaments in the traditional style. Yes, I am coming home with some Hmong decorative clothing and jewelry to wear to California gatherings!

The most remarkable place we saw was a town, Zhenyuan, that has been a mountain trading center for 2000 years. Located on what is known as the Southern Silk Road, the town spans a river which was a transmission point for salt and silk coming west from Canton and local tea that went further west to Tibet and India. The old town of Zhenyuan consists of tall narrow buildings crowned and decorated with sculpture carved in the shape of dragons. Pedestrian bridges over the river are adorned with pagodas. From my hotel room balcony, I could drink in a magical sight, illuminated by colored lights in the evening.

To add to the pleasure of the Chinese countryside was the food, the only local cuisine in China that I really liked. We ate Szechuan type dishes at every meal -- spicy and full of tasty, unfamiliar vegetables. Dinners were accompanied by delicious and mildly intoxicating rice wines.

If Guizhou is China's poorest region, I would never have known it. Many village homes had satellite dishes (costing about $25 each) and most people have mobile phones which cost very little to buy and use. The homes we saw were poor (very small with  earth floors) but people were welcoming and seemed content.

Best of all, there seemed to be a widespread effort to preserve and promote minority culture -- not just for the sake of toruism but to keep the region's traditions alive.

China Quiz

To help you get an idea about life in China today, I thought I'd give you a short quiz.

Which of the following are signs that China is still a Communist country?

1) trains leave precisely on schedule
2) internet connections are slow because of censors
3) people never walk on the grass
4) all of the above

Answer is 4. The trains, at least the new ones we rode between Shanghai and Hangzhou, Suszhou and Beijing, were exactly on the minute, departing and arriving. They were also very clean and the staff gave out bottles of water to passengers in their seats. Very impressive.
It was disconcerting to wait for internet conections because your web site had to clear the censors. Every time I called up an article with Obama in the title, there was a short delay. I don't know how the censors or their machines can be so efficient but they definitely do their job!
With Chinese cities made up of huge masses of concrete, it is appealing to see manicured parks with lots of roses and peonies. One feels tempted to stretch out on the grass and have a nap, but I never ever saw anyone walking on the grass.

Which of the following are signs that in China you are in a capitalist country?

1) every second man on the street in Shanghai is selling fake designer watches
2) all Chinese tourists seem to have digital cameras
3) the world economy sold a TRILLION dollars worth of knock-offs last year, mostly made in China
4) you can buy real designer items everywhere in fancy shops
5) all of the above

Answer is 5. The watch hustlers are annoying but not yet obnoxious -- they will be someday.
When I visited China thirty years ago, there were no Chinese tourists. Today every tourist site is crammed with Chinese tourists,including grandma and babies, all discovering their country and buying up cheap souvenirs.
China is a world of knockoffs with fancy neighborhoods filled with luxury stores. I came away with the impression that China will out-capitalize the U.S. in only a few years -- certainly within my lifetime.

Which of the following are signs that in China you are still in a developing country?

1) food is inexpensive
2) beer is inexpensive
3) public transportation costs very little
4) personal services cost next to nothing
5) all of the above

Again the answer is 5. Most of my meals, excpet a few in fancy restarants, cost less than $10. A neighborhood shop offers a delicious noodle soup for lunch for $1.50. Tsingtao, a fine Chinese beer introduced into China long ago by Germany, goes for about $2 for a very large bottle.
The public bus costs 8 cents. Taxis cost about $1.50 for most rides. A ride of 45-60 minutes to Beijing airport costs about $12 including the toll. And NO tipping.
A massage by an expert masseuse, Dr. Chen, cost about $12 - $13 dollars. Mr. Chen says all his foreign customers come back for a second massage because his service cost 6 times as much at home. I had two fantastic, vigorous massages.

As a last observation, the Chinese people we have encountered have all been pleasant (of course, people in the tourist business usually are).
I do have a few negatives to remark on. Plumbing is not modern in many places and street smells can be most unpleasant. Chinese men still spit on the street. Much signage is only in Chinese, including in Beijing's impressive art museum.

Overall, however, the experience of finding my own way through China -- with my husband's help who speaks a few Chinese words in the right tones and reads maps very well -- has been rewarding. Still, at my next stop, in southwestern China where I will be in the countryside with little foreign tourism, it will be lovely to have a personal guide and driver!


 

Given that there are a half billion Chinese women, this presentation is extremely superficial. Nonetheless, I have learned a few fascinating things worth sharing.

Rural Women

Many rural women remain deprived and often abused. When China imposed its one-child policy in 1979, rural women were far more affected than urban women because rural families depend on sons to work the land and provide for the elderly. Often rural families that had daughters resorted to infanticide with the result that there is now a great shortage of marriageable women.

It is estimated that over 20 million men today will be unable to find wives. As a result, trafficking in women has exploded to permit male peasants to buy kidnapped girls for wives. In addition, rural women suffer far more than urban women from domestic violence.

Urban Women

Urban Chinese women face problems similar to those of women in the West. (Much that follows is based on conversations I had with well-educated women guides.) One guide said that pay discrimination is a major problem, so much so that working women who receive low salaries for the same work done by men, would rather be housewives and put their full-time energy into raising their child.

I was told child care exists but women don't want to use it. Instead, the common child care solution is grandmothers. One guide told me that when she has a child, her parents will move from their home in northern China to come live with her and her child. Even though the guide's boyfriend's mother lives in Shanghai, the guide would never ask her future mother-in-law to do child care because the woman has already raised three children and three grandchildren. Moreover, the woman does not speak mandarin and the guide does not want her child to be raised speaking a dialect.

How do employers feel about women workers having children, I asked. (Maternity benefits in China -- a four month paid leave -- are great compared to the US which has no national policy providing government-paid leave.) One guide told me that companies don't like having pregnant workers and typically givem then arduous physical labor to induce them to quit. Reportedly, foreign companies are worse about this than Chinese companies. In a related way, foreign companies don't like to hire Communist Party members because the cadres tend to report on corporate practices to the party.

Evolving One-Child Policy

I was surprised to find that China has created some exceptions to its one child policy. It doesn't apply to minorities, for example. Then, the progressive local government in Shanghai has passed a new rule allowing parents who are both only children to have a second child, although the couple must pay a high fee.

I wondered what would happen if a couple outside Shanghai went a head and had a second child despite the policy. I was told there would be a fine of over 6000 US dollars, no support for the child's education and no medical benefits, and loss of a government job held by either of the parents. Whew! Clearly, Shanghai is far ahead of the curve.

Postscript

One gender story truly impressed me. I saw a video of a young army colonel who had a sex change operation and became one of China's best known modern dancers. The sex change was take in stride given the dancer's extraordinary talent. Since women remain so inferior to men in China, I was stunned that a change to the female sex was accepted in this case. Perhaps, a sign of change coming.