China Segment

Canadians share an identity that often has as much to do with our closest neighbor as with ourselves. Of course there are many things that bind us together and shape who we are: confederation, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, peacekeeping, the love and hate of former Prime Minister Trudeau, French, English and Aboriginal roots, socialism and the welfare state, and for many young people, The Tragically Hip and pot.

Many Canadians also define themselves as something un-American. We are brothers, or at least close cousins, but we are different. We’re something like the liberal left in the U.S., though we have our own version of Republicans - they call themselves Albertans. When we travel abroad, people greet us with smiles - Canadians are known as friendly people from a peaceful nation - while Americans have it much tougher when the venture into the outside world.

But there is another dimension to our position just north of the United States. Canadians get a chance to see the world through American eyes. We are constantly bombarded with American television, movies and advertising - which means not only sitcoms, dramas and commercials (which themselves reveal a lot about American popular culture), but also news. News reporters have a subtle way of conveying not just what’s happening, but also what is important to know, as well as their take on it. (Forget about FOX News, which injects opinion and bias at every turn.) We are literally soaked in Americana, since we are only 30 million, and they are 300 million (one reason that French Canadians, only about 5 million, are so protective of their language and culture). Canadians travel to the United States, we do business there, we look like Americans, and, despite the many jokes aboot ‘our’ accent (it varies depending on geography just like south of the 49th parallel), our Anglophones generally sound like Americans, and Canadians speak ‘American English’, though we usually spell using British English. Many ‘American’ celebrities and businesspeople are actually Canadians who went south in search of fame and fortune.

Damn it, I should have written this for my grade 12 social studies class.

Anyway, Canadians have a unique perspective on the world. It comes from being who we are, but also sharing an incredibly useful insight into the most powerful country on earth.

Which brings me to China and my prime motive for coming here. I wanted to get the same insight into the 21st century’s mover and shaker. To do so, I’m learning the language, living not in an ex-pat compound but in a fairly normal apartment (albeit in Shanghai, not your average Chinese city), and have more recently started to study their history (which I never did of America’s, but soaked up through endless exposure to America’s obsession with it). I’ve married a local girl (not because of my goal of understanding China, but for much better reasons… not money, but love) and been accepted into her family.

To find what Canadians experience of the U.S., I suppose Mongolia would have been the place to go. Though its politics were long dominated by Russia, those days are over and it is, overall, hugely influenced by China. India’s version would be Nepal. The people from these countries probably have their own immense insight into the emerging superpowers China and India, which, I suppose should be my next stop.

But living here, in the mix, is a cultural lesson I’ll never forget. There is still so much I don’t understand, but I’m starting to be better at guessing the motivations, leanings, wants and needs of Chinese people, and society. It is a project that will probably never fully culminate.

It is also a good feeling to be a part of a country that is so strong, so immense. For a Canadian, meek and small, though prideful, this is a different way to see the world. Perhaps those Canadians who live in New York or San Francisco share the same feeling. China is launching people into space, building skyscrapers, and sending shockwaves through the world for their demand for oil, iron ore and other resources. It’s polluting more than any country on earth ever has, but its demand for wind turbines and solar panels is also great. It is sending finance and foreign ministers abroad, seeking soft power, trade deals, and its place in the world. It is so old and has such cultural inertia behind it, yet it is transforming itself so quickly. It has the largest population on earth, the most mouths to feed, the most mobile phone subscribers, and nuclear weapons. For every world issue, China matters.

I am not Chinese, nor could I ever be mistaken for one, or accepted as one. I could spend the rest of my life here, father Chinese children, become perfectly fluent, but the locals would never treat me quite like one of their own (though my wife’s family is surprisingly warm and welcoming - they treat me as a special member of their family). A Canadian in the U.S. can blend in and almost go undercover, as it were. But I suppose that is another topic for another day. The point here is that even though I am an outsider, the longer I am here, the more I feel a part of the special things happening in China. I don’t have to agree with their system of government or condone the many awful things that have happened to certain people here. Canadians living in the U.S. don’t agree with the death penalty, evangelical (let’s just call them fundamentalist, shall we?) Christians having so much sway, or the detentions of those caught in the war on terror and interrogation methods of their investigators, just as many U.S. citizens don’t. So I can exist here and feel a part of things, even though I’m not happy about everything. In fact I complain so much that it’s sometimes hard on my wife. She, like most other Chinese, is proud of her country. Over time she’s become more accepting of the criticisms I have and is obviously not blind to what goes on, but can fight back when I’m being too crass or deducing or extrapolating conclusions that I don’t have enough knowledge or experience to claim. I suppose she is my check.

Again, there is something so cool about being in a place where everything is happening. It’s akin to being in the U.S. at during the roaring 20s, and at times it even seems like the heyday 50s are almost within sight. (As a Canadian I will always have the comparisons to Western countries, particularly the U.S., on the tip of my tongue. Many Americans living here might not feel the same way, since they come from their own superpower America-is-the-best-country-on-earth background, but I get the sense that most feel the same way.)

There is such immense potential for China. That’s where I start to stick my nose in - I’d like to be able to prod and poke local officials and the top leaders or at least offer my advice… ah, but alas, no one is listening! And even if I had some clout as some kind of consultant, sometimes as a foreigner my ideas would be dismissed because locals can’t believe I could possibly understand them or their culture. Still, sometimes Westerners - and the West is seen as a model with many successes to copy - are given great respect and insofar as their ideas and ways can be used to benefit people or companies in China, they’ll listen.

I’m stubborn, so I suppose I’ll keep ranting the criticisms and entreaties to myself. In the meantime, blogging is my outlet. This blog is my offer of some observations and insights to those who are interested in China. I can’t discuss every topic or detail I wish I could, else I wouldn’t be able to view it myself, but I’ll do the best I can within the limits of the Net Nannies, until a better day.

Feds

Bookmark It