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| Joel Ben Thomas |
In my last entry, I referenced an article written by Evan Osnos “5 Myths About China (That I’m sorry I Helped Spread).” The article encourages Americans to seek to define “the idea of China” by examining its people. According to Osnos, we should “retire the choice between the absolutes” and seek to diffuse the binaries that define US-China relations: a competition between East and West, the free market versus state-sponsored capitalism, an individualistic society against a collective one.
No doubt, I have learned a great deal about Chinese people from this study abroad experience.
No doubt, I have much more to learn.
Today, being the 25th anniversary of the student-lead protests at Tiananmen Square, there were a plethora of news articles reflecting on the event. One of the more striking ones, “Tiananmen, Forgotten” by Helen Gao, drew upon the contrasting differences between younger generations of Chinese people then and generations comprising their society today.
According to her, discussing liu si (June 4th) is still widely taboo.
According to her, discussing liu si (June 4th) is still widely taboo.
Gao’s attempts to piece together the facts through an assortment of underground documentaries, rumors, and conversations with her parents have resulted in an event that sounds too much like a mythical story, a figment of someone’s imagination.
Discussions with her friends about the incident not only reveal how successful some of China’s censorships programs are, but also reveal a trend among younger generations of Chinese people. Her conversations result in puzzled looks, and questions of why? and how?
Discussions with her friends about the incident not only reveal how successful some of China’s censorships programs are, but also reveal a trend among younger generations of Chinese people. Her conversations result in puzzled looks, and questions of why? and how?
It is evident that younger generations of Chinese people have a greater indifference towards politics than the ones before. A booming economy, expanding education and a number of cities reaping the benefits of urban modernization have created a populous of young people concerned with only one thing: continuing to move forward.
It should be noted that perhaps this move forward doesn’t include American notions of liberty.
It should be noted that perhaps this move forward doesn’t include American notions of liberty.
International and tech-savvy, younger Chinese people neglect widely-available software that would allow them to access social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. According to Gao, many Chinese associate rebelling against these “nuisances of daily life" as “unproductive.” She writes:
“Circumvention and compromise help us move forward, in a society where the price of falling behind is surely greater that the minor harms in our daily lives caused by state power.”
Unfortunately, disinterest has replaced ambition for both justifiable and cautious reasons. If and when modernization slows, what will replace this disinterest?
Joel Ben Thomas, of Cadiz, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. He is studying anthropology and political science.