China: Peopling the images

China has opened up to the world and taken on a new and modern identity. Or has it simply replaced its old mask with a new one? Inevitably, one-to-one contacts with the wider world are taking longer to develop than mass communications. The 2008 Olympics will promote more street-level exchanges between ordinary people. But for a festive atmosphere, there is no need to wait that long.

If, twenty or perhaps even ten years ago, you asked any foreigner – certainly any Westerner – for images of China, the answers would have been predictable enough: restaurants, chopsticks lanterns, dragons, junks, an ancient “alphabet”, giant pandas, acupuncture, pagodas, bicycles, ping-pong, flat conical hats, bamboo curtains, prints and porcelain. Today, the response is likely to be quite different. The mere word “China” has come to conjure up a booming Eastern seaboard of gleaming steel-and-glass, cities and mega-cities growing upwards and outwards - redecorated or simply new, soaking up the earth’s resources and in return containering manufactured ware of all descriptions to every corner of the world. The rice-bowl metaphor stutters before a rising consumer society, where the “customer is God”, and demand is insatiable for air travel, cars, the “magic ears” of mobile phones and all that is new and “Western”.

The outside appearance of the giant country has been transformed almost overnight. Like a classical theatre performer, it has removed one mask and donned another – except that this is a face which ancient craftsmen could never have imagined. Is the new and colourful costume any truer to the society within? Does it tell a more comprehensive tale? Will it serve China well? Only time will answer these questions.

Garden cities

One thing is for sure: all mediatic images simplify, and are bound to be replaced. While helping to understand, they create new misunderstandings. None can take the place of personal contact and experience. In this respect, there is a long way to go. While few members of the world’s business community have not flown in and out of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong or Shenzhen, the number of foreign tourists visiting China each year is lower than the number who arrive in Turkey, which has only an eighteenth of the population and a twelfth of the land area. The Chinese themselves can now take part in organised tours in dozens of countries all over the globe, including Turkey and all the EU countries – indeed, they are encouraged to do so. But in practice the 30m international Chinese tourists – most of whom opt for private visits to Southeast Asia - pale into insignificance beside the 1.1bn Chinese who travel within the country.

Today, foreign visitors to China are cruising up rivers and lakes, touring nature reserves, relaxing in seaside resorts, climbing Mount Huangshuan and the other sacred mountains and penetrating the geological and cultural diversity of the north and West including the Potola Palace in Tibet. Nevertheless, the majority still confine their interests – and who can blame them? – to a handful of the most accessible cities and remarkable sites. Inevitably, the Great Wall, the terrra cotta warriors of Qin Shihuang, the Forbidden Palace and other palaces and gardens top the bill.

”Catch the lifestyle”

Eager to promote exchanges with China’s National Tourism Administration has introduced a series of tours based on themes like health and fitness, folk arts and cuisine. One tour on offer last year was called “Catch the Lifestyle – China”. The Administration declares that “Chinese tourism has entered a new, more mature phase.” and that “A wide variety of exchange with the people of other countries is gradually coloring China’s rich folk culture, and is a vital aspect of a new Era of Peace and Development”. However, given barriers of language and sheer numbers, the inter-penetration of lives at the non-executive level can only be a long-term goal.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be a major step. Costing US$36bn, they will provide the world with an ideal opportunity at China’s enthusiasm for national fitness and the most intricate teamwork on the one hand, and to ponder its “new” determination to develop individuals on the other. More importantly, they will bring the world’s people together with the Chinese in everyday activities like eating, queuing, getting about or listening to pop music in bars. A festive spirit is guaranteed.

New Year bookings

There is no need to wait another three years for entertainment and festivals to bring people together. At the level of “high” culture, China now has over 50 symphony orchestras performing a thousand times a year. The local theatre and opera tradition is an acquired if sweet taste, even when happily mingled with modern themes and techniques (A national culture over 1bn strong is not easily diluted). However, Chinese dancing provides feasts for any eye, and everybody can appreciate the extraordinary acrobatics.

At the popular level, traditional holidays are still celebrated with vigour. Next month, the Han Chinese will once again be buying gifts and delicacies, painting couplets on their doors, holding lion dances, hanging streamers and setting off fireworks as part of the Spring Festival, marking the onset of the Year of the Dog. Nine months later, on another of the many Chinese holidays, people will gather for excursions to the mountains, where they will admire Autumn chrysanthemums and adorn themselves with the fruit of the prickly ash, while imbibing the spirits which they have brought along. Never mind the images: this attitude to life is not so different from those of other nations.

(DIPLOMAT  -  December 2005  -  Ankara)