BEIJING I have been told that in China there are three kinds of people, men, women and female Ph.D.s. I would also say that in China there are three groups of people, the elites, old hundred names (the common Chinese), and government officials.
Last weekend instead of writing a blog post, I chose to go to the city of Xi’an with three others. Xi’an is perhaps best known for the terra cotta warriors discovered by a farmer digging a well in 1976. Both in planning for the trip, but also after I returned, I was asked about mode of transportation, with the assumption that I would or did fly. Ashamed of my elite status, my reply is that I was part of old hundred namesand I did not have the money to be flying. Making more than 80% of Chinese, I probably could have flown if I wanted to, at least once or twice. Instead I rode on a hard sitter twelve hours overnight without sleeping. My Chinese companions that accompanied and I me have the luxury to travel more than just for the spring new year holiday or for work and family obligations. Travel is a luxury of additional perspectives not available to the common Chinese. I am able to see and hear things that may not make into the domestic or international media.
I was signed up to do a charity bike ride near the Great Wall for the second time the same weekend, likely with about 100+ people speaking English with various accents (Australian, American, Chinese, etc.). Doubtless I could of shared stories with others about Xi’an or other regions of China, at times not just talking about the scenic sites and the food, but also the social conditions. The charity bike ride, the improv theater performance, and other social gatherings, serve as a sort of oral wikipedia about what China is, as seen and heard through the travels of elites in China.
The travel and the stories serve as a check against the presentation that the government projects. There is no better-known traveler within China perhaps than Premier Wen Jiabao in his New Balance shoes. While I was in Shaanxi province, Wen or Grandpa Wen as he is referred to, was in neighboring Shanxi province advocating for poverty eradication and protection of farmer’s land. At times Wen reminds me of a cross between Eleanor Roosevelt and Tom Joad; wherever there is an earthquake Wen will be there; whenever old hundred namesis in the kitchen cooking food, Wen will be there; whenever someone is in the park doing Tai Chi or lacks water to irrigate crops, Wen will be there.
Wen and other government leaders are able to take the social experiences, and the physical outings, stage-manage them and create their own construction of what China is like in the media and censor those perspectives that conflict. One way this has been done in recent years is an annual televised web chat between Wen and his net friends. Yet as a Chinese friend of mine with a newly minted MA from England joked, Wen’s message could be summarized as follows, “there are problems and we’re working on it.”
Those gathered at the bike ride, might also dismiss what Wen said based on their own travel experiences, but also based on their information networks. To put it simply, I would define elites as those that can go home and post about their day on Twitter. Using foreign language skills and access to resources like VPNs elites are able to gain additional perspectives about China that do not make it into the 7pm news.
I get emails that new people are following me on twitter, and sometimes I’m too lazy to sneak around the firewall to read and send new posts, but there are also times when I am having conversations with the common Chinese. I have found myself in a position where I am telling a Chinese person about China, and they look at me like I am describing the moon when maybe I’m simply describing a city a few hours away by bus they have never visited. Granted, there are times when I am told 你不了解中国 (you don’t understand China), but there are also times of “yes, but …” or “really, I didn’t know…” and the beginnings of a dialogue
While government officials remain as pictures in the newspaper or on the television screen, elites discuss and debate China with old hundred name, in conversation.
The saying is that the third kind of Chinese, the female Ph.D.s, are unable to marry. In a similar way will the government lose out busy censoring and blocking digital social media, while elites and old hundred names are having conversations?
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