Chinese Pavilion, Shanghai World Expo

June 28, 2010

Dan Redford writes in The Huffington Post that at the Shanghai World Expo, the Chinese Pavilion is a 220 million dollar advertisement for the Chinese people and the world to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkyDsr3mMlM

Redford’s post is worth reading, but he misses a few points when he says, “China’s economic growth is happening exclusively in cities.”  That’s old news.

Evidently, he hasn’t heard that last year China’s ruling body launched a five-year plan to extend the electric grid into rural China and subsidize modern electric appliances for peasants, explore ways to modernize rural villages, build about 40,000 additional kilometers of railroads while crisscrossing the country with a grid of high-speed rail.

China was the most powerful nation on the planet between 206 BC and 1800 AD. The Han Dynasty was more powerful and more technologically advanced than the Roman Empire at its height.  Prior to British opium flooding China from India early in the 19th century, China had the largest economy in the world.

Starting with the first Opium War, that power was robbed by the West.  It wasn’t until Deng Xiaoping said, “Getting rich (and powerful) is glorious”, that the Chinese started to get back on their feet. He also said, “Some areas must get rich before others.”

China was a global power for more than two millennia.  America has only been one since the end of World War II in 1945. Although Redford doesn’t say so, it was obvious that the Chinese are sending a strong message—”We are back”.

To discover more about Shanghai visit:
Shanghai
Shanghai’s History & Culture
Eating Gourmet in Shanghai
Shanghai Huangpu River Tour
Shanghai Huxinting Teahouse

_________________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Middle Class Defined

June 1, 2010

I finished reading “China’s New Middle Class: Constants and Variables” by Tom Doctoroff in the Huffington Post, and I agreed with most of what he wrote.

Doctoroff said that in Confucian society the burden on men to be the providers is very absolute and very heavy…, as a man, you are responsible for the overall wellbeing of your clan/family.

I agreed when Doctoroff wrote that the Chinese middle class would never become Westernized. They are becoming modern, they are becoming internationalized, but they are not becoming Westernized.

Shopping in China

There is one underlying truth in Chinese society that says the only absolute evil is chaos and the only absolute good is stability and order and this is a prerequisite for progress on a national and individual level…

Every strand of Chinese thinking reinforces the supremacy of stability and order, and this is learned from a young age, which comes from Confucianism. Doctoroff wrote that in Japan, this conflict is not nearly as severe, but in China, this conflict defines the topography of the Chinese heart. The Chinese see the central government as there for them to advance and to make order from chaos. They would never trade in the Chinese system for a Western style democracy.

One thing that wasn’t mentioned by Doctoroff was the earning power of the clan/family and how that collective earning and savings allows families to buy into the Chinese middle-class lifestyle.  When the mother of a friend of my wife wanted a better Shanghai flat, both children—a son and a daughter—came up with the cash. Most Chinese work hard and avoid squandering money.

Learn more about China’s Middle Class Expanding

_____________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese middle class, Confucianism | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Power Corrupts

February 9, 2010

The sun never set on the British Empire until endless wars brought that empire to its knees. I’m sure that at one time, a British citizen could easily say with arrogance, “If Russia (or China, or Germany, or Italy, or France or Spain) doesn’t behave, we will spank them.” And Britain did spank these countries and others for centuries until the empire was bankrupt and burdened with debt—sound familiar?  

I read a piece in The Huffington Post recently and was reminded how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Then I remembered what an “old” friend said in an e-mail.  This friend is a conservative, born-again Christian. He claims to be guided by scripture. He believes that George W. Bush was the greatest if not one of the greatest American presidents. He also believes in nation building as GWB attempted in Iraq.

He makes part of his living as a handyman. He lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment and drives a very-used car that he keeps running by visiting junk yards for parts and doing the work himself. He also votes Republican and bashes evil liberals at every chance while listening to radio-talk shows like Dennis Prager and reading authors like Ann Coulter.

This friend wrote, “If China doesn’t behave, we will spank them.” He also wrote once that Communism was evil. My reply was that individuals like Mao or Stalin were corrupted by their power and did evil things, but not all communists were evil.

I always thought that ‘power corrupts’ only applied to people in powerful positions like corporate CEOs or elected officials.  I was wrong.

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, government, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse