Jul 15 2008
quick travel update and chinese nationalism
I just wanted to write a quick post as I’ve been traveling. We were in Beijing last week, and met with the blogger behind
A Modern Lei Feng and Stan Abrams of
China Hearsay. I also had the chance to have lunch with a pair of Chinese lawyers from
King & Wood, which is so large in Beijing that it needs floors in two office buildings here. I attach a photo of myself and Zhang Yongliang, corporate partner at King & Wood.
Nearly everyone concurred that the legal market in China has slowed to some degree–but for those dealing with foreign clients, their work has slowed considerably. Those dealing with Chinese clients, while slower, still are keeping themselves busy enough. Of course, it’s hard to say whether my sampling is fair considering that I talked with only a few people. Still, it’s something to keep in mind–especially with Kinney Recruiting and Above the Law saying that things are “booming” here in China. Many here on the ground say its not as booming as you would suspect.
One thing I note is the amount of nationalism I’ve seen here so far. None of it is blatantly anti-western. In fact, much of the nationalism is based around the Olympics. I’ve received a fair number of Olympics related souvenirs this past year while in America… and coming to China, I’ve only received more. I now have a 1 and a half feet tall stuffed Jingjing doll (which is cute, I must admit) among other new Olympics related souvenirs. Sometimes I wonder if the Chinese ever buy Olympics gear for themselves.
Another time, I observed nationalism in a dinner with some relatives. We were talking about the Olympics, and many of them noted that there weren’t many foreigners around in town. (Stan Abrams told us the hotel industry is taking a beating right now) And I thought to myself “visas”. What was their reasoning? They were “informed” that many Americans and westerners were boycotting the Olympics over the whole T***t issue. To which I thought, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” Sounds like no one here on the ground even knows that the government has tightened down the visa situation so much that much of summer tourism is griding to a slow halt. If I had a nickel for everytime I read or heard that someone couldn’t get themselves a visa in China, I wouldn’t need to be blogging right now. But that being said, no one here knows. And I think the default Chinese viewpoint is to take a nationalist approach: it must be some boycott or anti-western sentiment against China.
While the necessity of a siege mentality for Chinese is debatable, I see more and more of it happening… and even when the Olympics goes away, I still see the nationalist siege mentality staying a little longer. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t stay too long or things could get ugly.
[...] quick travel update and chinese nationalismWe were in Beijing last week, and met with the blogger behind A Modern Lei Feng and Stan Abrams of China Hearsay. I also had the chance to have lunch with a pair of Chinese lawyers from King & Wood, […] [...]
There surely is enough nationalistic sentiment here in China and surrounding the Olympic Games. But luckily I think there’s a higher level of independent thinking among ordinary Chinese than there was before. Like if you log onto some influential Chinese forums, there’s always a few clear-headed people with valid opinions, although they’ll be soon emerged by more name-calling netizens. it’s an interesting time, to see the clash of thoughts and ideologies in China. it’s certainly gonna take longer for the Chinese people to embrace independent thinking than for them to embrace KFC. but it’s gonna happen.
The other day I was walking on the street in Shanghai and some guy told me in English to “go home”. I aso recently tried defending the US on a Chinese chat site (in Chinese) and every time I posted something it was erased by the censors within minutes.
Garfield,
I hope that this is the case as well, but even if this does take root, I think it will take some time to embrace independent thinking. I also note that many of my friends who tend to be independent are still feeling the pull of nationalism, especially after the whole T***t and Olympic torch protests. It is a powerful undercurrent that cannot be underestimated.
Thanks for visiting!
Tom
Um…during the Olympics I had PLENTY of people tell me they were boycotting the Olympics because of Tibet and other strange reasons related to China. So I don’t think the nationalism was misplaced.
Also, those same people would then try to make me explain why China did “those things.” And after I told them I was Korean they would then go ask the next Asian-looking person.
@ Jay
Now you know how I feel as an Asian growing up in America. My family even got their house vandalized when we moved into a predominately-white neighborhood.
Sorry that you had to deal with that sort of thing growing up. I did as well, so if you think I don’t understand the Asian American thing, let me reassure you: I definitely do.
As for the anti-China sentiment, I found very few people boycotting the Olympics because of Tibet. I saw more Tibet demonstrations, but no one actually told me they were boycotting except for one European fellow that I knew. And it’s not like I only have 2 friends in the world, so on my end, I found very few of those cases. I shudder to ask where you are located, but in the Bay Area, I didn’t find this to be the norm by any means.
All my friends from China here in Europe are very proud to be a Chinese and they all speak only “wonders” of their land. But they can give their opinion about the “tibet probelm” even tough they disagree it.
Every land has a special Nationalism and I thinhk that the problem with china (if we can call it so) is that China is today more than emerging economy and every Chinese have to understand that because of their industrial development, many industries moved into china and as a consequence many foreing people.
Other thing is that regime, wich no one can understand. And the issue with the Tibet has other kind of reasons and at first we must be sure about it to give an opinion.