Probing the Chinese Paradox
TUNG, TIMOTHY
A TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK Probing the Chinese Paradox BY TIMOTHY TUNG PLAINCLOTHESMEN used tO be posted in front of Peking's Friendship Store, limited to foreign currency, to screen visitors with...
...Goodbye.' Even those in China who believe firmly in socialism have told me that after the Liberation three elements combined to ruin the country: Mao's brand of communism, traditional feudalism, and the bureaucratism borrowed from the Soviet Union...
...Thank you...
...Any Chinese-American venturing into China these days could tell you of similar discourtesies, but it takes a person of Mrs...
...The men suddenly turned, and with a smile bowed to usher them in...
...Even the top leadership has recognized this...
...It says: 'Respect Knowledge...
...Such behavior patterns are hardly the exception in most of the places I have visited...
...He had not been there before either...
...They are not present even when university presidents entertain distinguished visitors from abroad at dinners...
...During my latest, this spring, university audiences applauded my views even as, in one instance, an anonymous note passed on to me read: "Speaking the way you do, if you were one of our own professors, the leadership would call you in for a talk...
...The Chinese were again noisy...
...Respect Talents.'" We would see a great deal of these "double-respect" slogans everywhere we went...
...A new commission to restore the study of Confucianism has been established in Shandong Province...
...A provincial publishing house is preparing to issue a book of selections from Lawrence's works...
...Confucius is again revered...
...The younger men picked by Deng to occupy important posts are a new breed of Communist...
...During my initial visit, just two years after the fall of the Gang of Four, relatives and friends preferred to speak to me in parks and in the streets, rather than in my hotel room...
...Their manner was pleasant and easygoing, not the rigid stereotype I had imagined...
...A number of writers told me that today when they write they are still at times xinvouyuji (filled with a lingering fear...
...It was on my flight to Peking in the fall of 1984 that I was forewarned about the stepped up pace of change in China by my seatmate, a Boeing Aircraft Company representative who had made five trips within that year...
...The other high official I met at the same interview, Minister of PropagandaZhu Houze, attended Qinghua University, also one of the best in China...
...Please...
...This kind of treatment in my native land, where I had recently started making occasional visits, reminded me of the sign that I saw as a child on the gate to a park along Shanghai's waterfront in the old International Concession: "Chinese and dogs not allowed...
...Are they the hope of China...
...We agreed that only after seeing the shrine and its relics with our own eyes could we appreciate the greatness of Confucius and the importance of his influence on China's society...
...Then they turned to us again, stony-faced: "You may go in...
...Hu Qili is a graduate of Peking University...
...On the other hand, I find it intriguing that the phrase xinyou yuji itself has lately been the subject of discussions appearing in newspapers...
...People rarely smiled, their brows were perpetually knitted, and they moved as if they were, to use a Chinese expression, under the watchful eyes of a stepmother...
...Eight years later, he is the celebrated translator of George Orwell's 1984, which, though issued as "internal reading matter" (meaning readership is restricted to cadres above a certain level), has nevertheless become a best seller...
...The incident caused such a stir that the management of the Peking store was compelled to write a public apology reminiscent of the self-criticisms that were common in the heyday of the Cultural Revolution...
...A TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK Probing the Chinese Paradox BY TIMOTHY TUNG PLAINCLOTHESMEN used tO be posted in front of Peking's Friendship Store, limited to foreign currency, to screen visitors with Oriental faces...
...In every city along the ancient Grand Canal where we stopped, three American friends and I always found it exhilarating to roam around the local markets...
...I thought I was in Dallas, or Hong Kong, not in the China I had been traveling to...
...Where do you come from...
...I still remember the chill I felt the first night that I arrived in a Shanghai hotel...
...The publication of 1984 with official sanction, albeit "for internal reading only...
...posters...
...In educational institutions, Party secretaries (usually with a peasant but revolutionary background) who used to wield undisputed power over policy matters have become increasingly inconspicuous...
...Chennault's stature—a staunch anti-Communist, a conservative Republican in U.S...
...No," I replied...
...The posh hotel almost served as a sign of things to come...
...I gave it to him...
...Together with the influx of new businesses and tourists from abroad, bourgeois values have seeped back into China...
...All these projects would have been unthinkable just a few years ago...
...the policeman directing traffic...
...The last sentence was addressed to my niece, who had already begun backing away to go and hide behind the bus...
...My taxi driver, too, received a light reprimand after the Peking Evening News published a somewhat altered version of my account...
...Knowledge and talent are currently being emphasized as a matter of policy...
...He would no longer be a mere unreal symbol in our minds...
...But they are aware that, as the August 1 People's Daily editorial put it, cleaning up "the pernicious influence of feudalism" will be "a long-range, formidable task...
...Mao is gone and Deng Xiaoping is in power, but people are more cautious now...
...We were stopped at the door by two burly men...
...a self-proclaimed "literary" journal specializing in translations has introduced, almost exclusively, Sidney Sheldon, Ken Follet and the like...
...But the biggest surprise was the number of free markets out on the streets...
...In one city our car passed an imposing building with a big red banner hanging abovethegate...
...They are alert, urbane, knowledgeable, and college-educated— a far cry from the days of Mao's rule when cadres of peasant or working-class backgrounds were princes...
...In the past, particularly in 1978, everyone (including my Chinese acquaintances and relatives) was subdued...
...The subject was touched upon in an interview I had last November with Hu Qili, a member of the "third tier" (or youngest group) in the Politburo, and the man being groomed to succeed Hu Yaobang as the general secretary of the Communist Party...
...When I finished registering and turned in my passport, the desk clerk icily told my brother, who had met me at the train station, that it was "not necessary" for him to go to my room because it was late...
...Despite my many visits, I have not been able to sort out some of the contradictions: An explosion of publishing activity has caused a shortage of school books because so much paper was used to print popular martial arts fiction...
...At least in theory, "red" seems to have given way to "expert" as a criterion for official recognition...
...I myself have had a number of unpleasant encounters in stores and elsewhere...
...Anna Chan Chennault, widow of the wartime Flying Tiger general, complained to the People's Daily not long ago about the rudeness of salesclerks in the supposedly friendly establishments...
...Her letter was published, accompanied by a scalding editor's note...
...The government is apparently aware of the problem...
...The two of them closely examined it for what seemed an inordinately long time...
...politics—to make ripples...
...A recent issue of a journal introducing foreign literature printed an old account of controversies over D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, and the novel's skirmishes with British laws...
...With the replacement of Mao's romanticism by Deng Xiaoping's pragmatism, the reformers have made age-old, deep-rooted feudalism their next target...
...the release of Sylvester Stallone's film First Blood ignited a heated debate in the nation's topmost literary gazette, Wen-yi Bao, with one side contending that the film must have artistic and social value because it has attracted large audiences...
...A film based on a novel describing the sufferings and injustices during the Cultural Revolution is being made with an eye on the international market...
...I am sorry...
...I have made eight trips to the People's Republic since 1978, when I returned for the first time after a 31 -year residence in the United States...
...a couple of young college instructors refused to let a reporter publicize their research accomplishments, lest jealousy among their superiors hamper their advancement...
...one of them asked me in a stern voice...
...Another surprise was the disappearance of the "Long live...
...There is also concern among Chinese literati, however, that an author turned government official, by force of tradition, will assume an air of self-importance and become an arrogant mandarin, a la officials of feudal times...
...Today plainclothesmen are no longer in evidence at Friendship Stores...
...Chennault's letter...
...You people coming from abroad should learn how we do things in China...
...Western observers, he said, ought to realize that communism comes in different forms determined by local conditions and historical factors, and that they should "not compare the Chinese model with the Soviet or EastEuropean models...
...The United States...
...But China remains a paradox...
...Feudal ideas and deportment among Communist bureaucrats on many levels, more than communism itself, have been increasingly cited as the chief enemy of China's progress...
...my friends asked, then mockingly predicted: "Long Live the Chinese Communist Party...
...Etiquette and "civilized manners" are being emphasized, as shown by a ubiquitous slogan exhorting citizens to remember the following phrases in their daily contact with one another: "How are you...
...They point up a dilemma for this changing society: Where the old " iron rice bowl" system nurtured agen-eration of sullen, lazy workers with no personal drive, the new economic policy has created, at the other extreme, large numbers of free-wheeling enterprisers whose sudden fortune has made them into aggressive, greedy, insensitive, arrogant individuals...
...A few weeks ago Zhu Houze, speaking to a Peking audience, advocated "democratic pluralism...
...My incredulous reaction only elicited this outburst: "I'm at the wheel...
...Once inside, though, another type of peril may be encountered...
...Whatdoesitsay...
...He wanted to "chat with a buddy I hadn't seen for a long time," who happened to be Timothy Tung is an associate professor and the librarian of Chinese materials at the City College of New York...
...In the summer of 1982,1 took my 14-year-old niece there to buy her a bicycle...
...That was when I realized they were free—even if relatively speaking...
...Each time, he exclaimed, he sensed a new excitement...
...The rightist writer, a victim of relentless persecution throughout the Cultural Revolution, will undoubtedly bring fresh hope to artists and writers yearning for freedom of creation...
...My brother meekly complied and silently waved goodbye...
...These two men are in their early 50s and have many good years ahead of them...
...Passport," he said, holding out his hand...
...Late that night, as I checked into the new Great Wall Hotel, I had my first surprise...
...Both seemed well read, were anxious to learn about the outside world, and were not averse to throwing an English word or two into our conversation...
...He was sure that the 17-month absence since my previous visit would result in many surprises...
...Oneday last May I took a break from my stay at Shandong University in the city of Jinan to visit Qufu, Confucius' birthplace, and I happened upon the novelist Wang Meng...
...Crowds of people hawked goods, bargained, cajoled, argued, laughed, cursed, cried, quarreled, joked, shouted...
...A busload of foreign tourists arrived and streamed up the steps...
...There are other encouraging signs in the arts and letters...
...I stop and go as I please...
...Since assuming office, Wang Meng has sought to encourage freedom of expression by reviving Mao's 30-year-old slogan, "Let a hundred flowers bloom together and a hundred schools of thought contend...
...It was not by accident that the People's Daily printed Mrs...
...Hu Qili is remembered as the Chinese leader who received a standing ovation when he spoke about freedom of literary creation at the January 1985 meeting of the Chinese Writers Association...
...For me, the significance of the conversation was heightened by the fact that Wang Meng was about to be named minister of culture...
...Your relative waits outside...
...As for Soviet-style bureaucracy, especially since the introduction of Western efficiency China's leaders have come to recognize its clumsiness...
...Anyone with Oriental features, including Chinese, can freely enter...
...One can only judge from their words...
...Each one has been a revealing experience...
...Long Live Mao Zedong's Thought...
...Shortened to the "Double-hundred Principle," it has not opened a Pandora's box of virulent attacks on the system, certainly not the kind we heard about in 1956...
...On one occasion last November, a taxi driver left me sitting in the midst of busy traffic in front of the Tiananmen (the Heavenly Peace Gate) for a good 15 minutes...
...An editorial in the August 1 People's Daily, entitled "Cleaning Up the Pernicious Influence of Feudalism Is An Important Task," went so far as to blame the phenomenon within the Party for the Cultural Revolution...
...His explanation...
...certainly is a noteworthy event...
Vol. 69 • August 1986 • No. 11
