China all the way to New York

I was in Paris a couple months ago, watching French news about protests to the Olympics happening in China. Even with only being able to piece together a word here and there, the brief video of a protester making his way into frame and being hurried off said it all. It sparked a discussion with my friend about China, a discussion going on elsewhere, it turned out, with renewed interest in China’s recent history, its status in the twenty-first century and what the country’s rapid growth means to the near future.

I remarked that the Beijing Olympics could easily be a turning point for the country. In the YouTube age, the influx of so many foreigners into the capital of a country known for controlling the media will undoubtedly change something. The international nature of the events and the well-publicized protests of the torch relay have forced Chinese expats look at their nation in a new way, seeing their homeland through critical eyes from abroad. (Which doesn’t sit well, of course–think of red-blooded Americans on vacation hearing a foreigner badmouth the U.S. of A. It’s a relatable emotion.)

The Tibet issue is complex, more complex than how it’s portrayed by American supporters for Tibetan independence. From what I’ve read, the Chinese see Tibet as a part of China, and those who speak of Tibetan independence are rabble-rousers, trying to create rifts between Chinese peoples. The analogy I’m about to make is deeply flawed, but may help explain what’s going on psychologically. In the South during segregation, especially in South Carolina, white southerners despised when the status quo was challenged. It was a source of pride in 1960s South Carolina that blacks and whites had lived peacefully, with no major protests, no violence and no blood shed. The Orangeburg massacre changed all that, and the opinion at the time was to blame the “rabble-rousers,” the black students who dared to challenge the social situation. The pride South Carolinians had about the race situation was damaged in the face of a obvious eruption of racial tension. That same sentiment and defensiveness can arguably be witnessed in Chinese who have been forced to confront the issue of Tibet and China’s human rights record.

Change usually happens slowly. Even when a revolution occurs seemingly overnight, it is really the result of slow social changes coming to a head in the face of those who are doing all they can to stop those changes. The fundamental Buddhist notion of impermanence may have some relevance here.

I clearly remember saying, as I lay in the hotel bed watching French television, that this year could see a turning point for China. Then the earthquake happened, an immense tragedy of staggering proportion in which thousands have died and even more have had their lives uprooted and changed forever. And what did China do, after half a year of ups and downs in preparation for the Olympics? The government opened the country up to foreign media in an unprecedented way, responded as quickly as it could to the quake victims and, as I type this, is still working for the well-being of its people, draining lakes formed by the earthquakes and evacuating its citizens from harm’s way.

Change usually happens slowly, but now I sit watching the news, wondering if this exact moment is that turning point I spoke of a couple months ago. «»