Here's the bad news: the Chinese government has blocked my blog - closed it off to all potential readers here within the Middle Kingdom. It is hard to know exactly why; I certainly was not blustering about democracy and free speech. The good news is that I did not really have much of a Chinese readership to begin with.
Besides, I can't help but be a little proud to have my name etched in "The Great Firewall of China," the notorious filter that keeps all "inappropriate content" out of the country. Although much less famous than the Great Wall of China, it's much, much more effective - it's the reason BBC and Wikipedia are all but out of reach here and why Google searches like "Falun Gong" and "Tiananmen Square Massacre" will get an unsuspecting student swiftly booted from the web.
The Chinese word for reporter is jizhe which means, literally, "the one who remembers." To be sure, I am not the only one in China struggling to live up to the name.
Roy, a Beijing University masters student of sustainable development, used to have dreams of working as a journalist for a Chinese newspaper. "I gave up that idea because I was afraid I might be forced to write things I didn't want to. The media can be used to keep the people ignorant, just as it can be used to inform the people."
Frankie, another Beijing University student, has a similarly skeptical view of the Chinese news media: "The newspapers just don't say anything very interesting. They will report on things like economic growth and car accidents but not on anything political."
These two young men are extraordinarily well educated, far ahead of the curve, and their views should not be taken as the norm here. All the same, nobody gives the Chinese news much credence. It is hard to know exactly what "the ones who remember" are remembering: the facts or their job security?
Still, this country has come a very long way in the past 25 years. When my grandfather left China after his visit with a business group in 1980, he asked one of his fellow travelers, the former vice-chancellor of Oxford University, what he thought of China. After a moment of contemplation, Lord Bullock replied, "Well, Paul, if there's one thing I've concluded, it's that there is no sex in China."
This response, however absurd, was a reaction to the suppression of individual freedom that was policy under Maoism. Men and women dressed the same, and any expression of individuality was discouraged and punished. Lord Bullock's hypothesis, however, was untrue, as evidenced by the healthy population of 20-30 year-olds in China today, and has become less and less true over the years.
In 21st century China, the flaunting of one's wealth and individuality is just as celebrated as in the West. Expensive cars are cool, and high fashion is everywhere. The maxim goes, "In Shanghai [or Beijing, or other big cities], you can get whatever you want - if you have the money."
To be sure, there is sex in China.
China is, for all intents and purposes, a capitalistic country, one with little attachment to the Marxist ideals on which it was founded in 1949. Indeed, just a few weeks ago, after the annual Communist Party plenary session, President Hu Jintao announced the new priority of Chinese government is now "harmonious society." This, in some ways, is the perfection of President Deng Xiaoping's 1979 proclamation that "to get rich is glorious," and represents the shedding of some of the last shreds of communist ideology.
Ultimately, western democracy isn't perfect either, and there are, if you can believe it, things that China does better than we do. Take, for instance, the words of Andy Tian, an employee of Google China: "The U.S. is too democratic." He was talking about the cell phone industry. "The U.S. has practically a dozen major cell providers, and they're all competing, creating incompatible networks. China has two, they're both state-controlled, and they work."
If you're on Verizon, you know that Gantcher is a dead zone; if you've got T-Mobile, you've probably discovered the fourth floor of Lewis is great for receiving calls, and if you're with Cingular, you've no doubt thrown your phone away.
China, on the other hand, has 98% cell coverage, for everyone - by far the highest rate of any country in the world. Whether you are on a mountain in Tibet or lost in the Gobi desert, you will still be able to call your girlfriend in Shanghai. The United States is a joke by comparison.
I suppose I am not advocating a shift to state-controlled enterprise in the United States, but it is good to keep an open mind, even in the face of censorship.
Sam DuPont is a junior majoring in international relations. He is currently studying abroad in Beijing, China. He can be reached at Samuel.DuPont@tufts.edu.
