Seeking the Soul of China: Happiness.

Today is an unofficial holiday in America. It does not memorialize a deceased notable nor an historic military victory. It commemorates fun and was created by the American people themselves.

The pursuit of happiness is right there in the American Declaration of Independence alongside life and liberty in the trinity of American desiderata. Happiness is part of America's soul.

It seems to me that happiness forms a larger part of America's soul than that of the rest of the west but it is part of the western soul generally too. "Ode to Joy," by a German, Beethoven, is the official anthem of the European Union.

It is my impression that happiness does not form as large a part of China's soul. My experience is limited and limited to the serious in China but I cannot recall a single instance of the kind of thing one can't avoid in the west: someone telling a joke, or relating a humorous anecdote, play (except the kids on the playground of the school where Teacher Bian was murdered, that is organized play), couples holding hands, friends involved in light-hearted repartee on the street, in restaurants or cafes. I can say that I never recall seeing anyone in Beijing "having fun."

The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics brought much joy to western viewers. My younger lawyer colleagues, knowing of my interest in China, excitedly asked, "Did you see? Did you see?" I hadn't, and didn't until October 2009 in a hotel room in Providence Rhode Island, and when I did I was creeped out.* The Opening Ceremony didn't look to me to be an authentic expression by Chinese of something essentially Chinese. To me it looked like something Chinese did for foreigners, to impress them, or to make them happy.

Was it authentic? No. Geremie R. Barme wrote in The China Quarterly** that the vast majority of the performers were P.L.A. soldiers, not common Chinese from all walks of life. They were the military arm of the state. They were also trained that it was their political duty to smile and wave while performing.

The subject of this post was brought to mind last Saturday evening as I was thinking about how to respond to XYZ' last email. She has written about a "spiritual situation," I am writing about "seeking the soul." Though similar, those two ideas are different as used by each of us and I can't just ask XYZ, "What is the soul of China?" That's an inane question unless two people are clearly thinking about the same thing, and she and I are not yet.

My girlfriend and I were on our way to dinner at a fancy restaurant but there was an hour's wait so we walked around looking for a substitute. We settled on an eatery categorized in American restaurant nomenclature as "casual dining." "Characteristics" came to mind as a less-flaky substitute for soul, and since I am American and was in America I was thinking of American characteristics and American characteristics were suggested by the visual imagery in the casual dining establishment: casual...obese...silly; this last by the omnipresence of televisions in the restaurant. They were, and are, everywhere in America, even at the gas pumps! Television, like Song Yaowu and China's blocking of this blog, annoys me beyond all reason. It "pushes my buttons" in the American patois. In more clinical psychological terms it is a "known stressor." I glanced about for a hammer.

When we were seated at our table I began thinking about American television more dispassionately. All of the reasons it pushes my buttons seem, to me, legitimate: it is silly, it is dumb, it is a narcotic, it bores worm holes in your brain. An American football game, the "Pro Bowl," which is the National Football League's all-star game, was showing on the tvs (tvs, plural) in the restaurant. And I thought forward to today's Super Bowl and mentally added "excess" to silly, dumb, narcotic, and wormhole-bored. Television, especially televised sports, especially the Super Bowl, is a guide marker to a part of the American soul. For Americans, television is fun, it makes them happy, and happiness is a big part of the American soul.

*Public Occurrences, October 18, 2009.

**China's Flat Earth. History and 8 August 2008, vol. 197, March 2009.

Seeking the Soul of China: China Didn't Explore.

The West contacted China; China did not contact the West.

"Manifest Destiny."

"Why climb Everest? Because it is there."

"The Conquistador mentality."

Those are all western concepts for better and for worse, the first American, the second English, the third Spanish. All are manifestations of the same part of the western soul.

The golden age of Chinese exploration ended in the first third of the fifteenth century and never extended farther than the Indian Ocean because, according to Wikipedia, Chinese,

"...were content trading with already existing tributary states nearby and abroad. To them, traveling far east into the Pacific Ocean represented entering a broad wasteland of water with uncertain benefits of trade."

The part of the western soul captured by the examples above can be fairly characterized as ambitious, curious, and violent. But not content.

The same part of the Chinese soul is not fairly characterized with the opposite of each of the three terms applied to the west. However I would argue that the souls are most near opposite on the component described here as "ambitious" as applied to the west and as "content" as applied to China by Wikipedia.

There is a confidence behind the west's ambition that it seems to me is not as prevalent in China's soul. And something else too is suggested by the Wikipedia entry. China was content not to explore the Pacific because of the "uncertain benefits of trade." That's confidence's twin opposite: fear.

A couple of weeks ago Nobel economics laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote in his column that the Obama administration had missed the only opportunity it would get to right the economy. The stimulus package had been too small to accomplish the task, wrote Krugman, and the president had spent his political capital on it and now had no more to spend on a needed supplement.

Last Friday the Commerce Department released its quarterly report on the economy. For the fourth quarter growth was at a yearly rate of 5.7%. That is very, very good news for Americans and credit should go to the president and his economic plan.