East & West

I’m really bad at politics, I never understand much about what’s going on but it seems as though I do make up my mind pretty fast as to what I don’t like based on lacking intuition. It sometimes irritates people that I question more than I supply answers and therefore might come through as not acknowledging anything. Yet, folks who’ve conversed with me long enough know it’s usually leading somewhere, though they also know - as do I - that we’re both never sure where to. Asking questions and trying to understand people’s opinions, beliefs and views. That sounds like something that I would respect.

I’m really bad with history. I never remember or understand much about what really happened or when but it seems as though I do make up my mind pretty fast as to what I relate to based on lacking intuition. It sometimes irritates me that I have so many questions and so little to work with that is feels as though I actually know nothing. Yet, folks who’ve conversed with me long enough know it usually doesn’t stop me from trying to understand what history is and how different people view or shape it. Asking questions and trying to understand people’s idea of history and what it means to them. That sounds like something that I would respect.

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What’s happening in Asia? what the hell is happening with China? Globalization and capitalism against Communism? How does Taiwan and HongKong fit into that? what about Korea, Singapore and Japan?

These are questions that are way too big for any discussion, and I’ll be honest enough to admit that I have no clue how to start going about those, but I can start from simple things from a few small observations that I made, which do entitle some sort of view on what’s going on, based on very lacking irrelevant information. It’s all subjective, right? so I’ll be making a few shortcuts and make mental jumps just to make a point I don’t mind if no one will understand. Here comes a speech.

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Reading through the Chinese history of the last two hundred years I can’t help but feel that history has a funny way of repeating it self with a new twist. West has always, always (!), tried to influence what’s been going in the east, especially when it comes to China. Some say it tried to penetrate in order to exploit, but it’s sufficient to say that most of the west has an acceptance problem with what the east has to offer rather than using its money potential.
Can’t break through Qing dynasty’s import rule? mei wenti, flush them down with enough opium and they’ll fall down to your feet. They try to resist, then use force, bring them down and take over.
Can’t break through the communist import rule? mei wenti, flush them down with so much money and they’ll fall down to your feet. Give them World Trade Organization, embrace them with the 2008 Olympic games, hand them over the capitalist dream, and they’re bound to give in.

Some are claiming that it’s something to do with Communism, something about helping the suffering common folks and human rights. Is it now?

There are certain ‘truths’ that have been said so many times that people believe them without a doubt. Western standard capitalism is the only way for growth, western concept of a democracy is the right way to implement a system of government. It doesn’t really work for the Muslim countries? it’s still struggling in Asia? who cares? they’re wrong and the west is right. Culture and civilization have always been thought to originate from the west to the east, but never the other way around. The west has always looked down on the east and even occasional surprises have always resulted in the understanding that ‘they might be okay at… but the west is so much better because…”. You hear stuff about combining the best of both worlds? show me where, has the west really tried learning from the east, or has the west ever tried understanding the east?

And the weird thing is, god knows why, the east I’ve met so far believes that crap (pardon my French). The honor given to a poor English Literature dropout from an unknown university in some sh#thole at the US gets here, just for being white, is unbelievable. The whiteman gets so much respect in Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and at most times HongKong and Singapore (especially if he has the suit to match it) that it’s embarrassing. I could never get that. They sometimes seem to surrender their own culture so easily by accepting everything coming from the west without a doubt. True, the west is wealthier, but does that make it better or smarter?

Singapore is running a one-party democracy, Taiwan is still struggling with what kind of a democracy it is and whether it should re-join with China, HongKongians don’t seem to know or honestly care what they are. China, North Korea, Laos and Vietnam are communist, Thailand is the weirdest Monarchy and Phillipenes is just plain odd. There are South Korea and Japan of course, which I can’t wait to know more about yet can say with confidence that they have embraced important western social standards. But, point is that western concept of government takes a different meaning to people on this side of the world, as so might also the Middle East and Africa. True, there are people suffering, there is unequal distribution of wealth, but well before fearing the uprising “awesome” power of China and the Communists I would fear the western countries using this excuse to force cultural financial influences or even worse - using democracy excuses to invade suffering countries for financial gains (Iraq?).

Can someone please explain to me what the hell the British were doing in HongKong till 1997? It might not be the perfect decision to hand it back to China - the Singaporian solution sounding better in an ideal Chinaless world, but it would NEVER make sense to me that HongKong would be a British colony. No place for a western role there, or anywhere, and it doesn’t matter how prosperous the English have made HongKong. It just might not ever be the real HongKong anymore.

China is nothing like the former USSR, and if anything - it’s heading down a road where they’ll be more western than most western countries. It happened in Japan not too long ago, and China is just next in line. Not that Communism has embraced any of China’s history-culture or created one, but at least it was very clear about stating its goals so you’d know what to expect. Honestly, the reality of Ronald McDonald every 5 stores in HongKong is just as scary to me as the face of Mao hanging all over the streets of Beijin - even scarier in a way, because whereas most people know what the dangers of Mao are, they pay little respect to the dangers of good’ldRonald.

I’m not against globalization or capitalism, I’m just horrified by the lost cultures due to the western re-education of the masses. Globalization shouldn’t be stopped or blocked, it should just stop being so western-empire oriented, receive more global influences and blend with what ever market it is faced with. I truly believe that the future can not be in a one solution - one marketing plan - for the entire world but rather in seeing how big companies blend in to match what the local culture and communities are like. I would like to see the east stand up for what little culture differences it still has left and make the most out of it with true pride and the sense of unique wonderful history.

 
tags: Asia, capitalism, chinese_history, communism, globalization, hongkong, Korea, Singapore