China

In The Gate of Heavenly Peace one of the 1989 student leaders explained that one of the motivations for the demonstrators was a desire for “Nike shoes.”  When I saw that I thought back to my first trip to Beijing in June 2006 and of rounding a corner of one of the ancient hutongs and seeing a man sitting outside his mom-and-pop store watching the NBA Finals on a portable color TV.  The most popular movies in China today are Avatar and Transformers 3 and Chinese are gaga over Lady Gaga.

Hu Jintao does not like any of this.

The President of China, who is stepping down this year, has made the limitation of Western cultural influence his New Year’s resolution.  He has done this with typical Chinese-leader bellicosity:

“We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration.” 

If China were a person, his/her biography could be titled “Pride and Prejudice.” There is such arrogance, and such paranoia of the Foreign. 

The issue of American cultural influence in other countries is a sensitive one here, however. I sympathized with French hostility to Euro-Disney or whatever it’s called but…there’s a but I have not been able to resolve to my satisfaction…of course I want, generally speaking, whatever it is the people of other countries want for themselves. French opera is inferior, in my opinion.  The French were very protective about keeping the French-ness of their opera, and so it developed very differently from others.  Cool, as we Americans would say; Vive la difference, as they might. I respect, in these examples, French resistance to the Foreign.  There are differences between the peoples of the world and I think the world is a more interesting place, if nothing else, with a distinctive French culture and a distinctive Chinese culture.

I own however that this sympathy with assertions of different-ness is also, in culture, due to a reverse of sympathy.  I do not like Disney and its worlds and lands; I have not seen Avatar or Transformers 3 (If there was a Transformers 1 and 2 I didn’t see them either.) and I wasn’t sure Lady Gaga was a lady until C.C.C. went to see her in concert (without me).  I am certain that the French were not culturally disadvantaged before Euro-Disney; I am certain Chinese were not culturally disadvantaged before Avatar; and my own prejudice is I am not certain America is culturally advantaged by Avatar.  And then the “but” gets flipped again. Avatar is what Americans want so they get it. In a free country, as America is, I, an American, can choose not to see Avatar. Why not the same for French or Chinese? Do I not want freedom to choose (and not choose) for French or Chinese?  The unsatisfying answer I give to that question is, in this instance, that is, in the freedom-to-choose-culture instance, I don’t care enough.  It’s an unsatisfying answer. That's my answer.

That’s the tough case for me.  Hu Jintao’s position is not the tough case.  There are no “international hostile forces” behind Avatar, Transformers 3, or Lady Gaga.  There is no “strategic plot [for] westernizing and dividing China.”  Hu Jintao is a western-coiffed, western-dressed, ignorant Chinese punk-ass, a worthy successor to the prideful and prejudiced Emperor Qianlong.  Hu Jintao is one Chinese who couldn’t help but be improved by Avatar, Transformers 3, or Lady Gaga. As for the rest of Chinese, in this instance, I don't care enough.