China Silk

Traveling in the city of Tianjin, it’s hard to trace the history of the city. The rapid modernization has changed the city’s appearance in a reversible way. While walking on Guodian street, one of the very few old streets in Tianjin, you could discover the past the city conceals. The great thing about preserving culture is to add depth to our seemingly meaningless world. In a world counts in second, it gives you a sense of timelessness.

Longxiang Silk

Westernized Building in China

Visitors to China are sometimes surprised by the architectural style. Many were designed completely in classical western style. And what’s even more surprising is the fact that some of them were newly built. From this, we can see that China, at least in certain aspects, is quietly transforming into a westernized country. To say ‘quietly’, I mean from media inside China and Western countries seldom cover this area of China’s development. State media in China still promotes political propagandas, though more pragmatic than the past. Foreign news agencies set their focus on the politics, economy and environmental issue. Both ignored what the people in China think. The people, as we know, is the best representation of the country. From the people, we could know if the vast majority formed by the individuals, has any kind of consciousness, and if so, what it is.

Despite media’s intensive coverage on China’s economy boom and political issues. The topic that is rarely mentioned is the westernization of China. On TV, we can see protestors on the street to protest against western countries like France, USA for their foreign policies. But protesters are always minorities who try to raise attention from the public. So what do the vast majority think in China? Do they have the rights to think? This is a complexed issue and can’t be simply address by any news article.

China is an old country with rich history and culture, yet it is a young country under the new world order. In this modern world, China ain’t quite sure how to position herself. On one side, the Chinese seem to be really fond of western culture, on the other hand, hope to revitalize Chinese culture. But the thinking of the east and west are so drastically different due to independent development in ancient times. The clash between the two cultures become inevitable, so the mixing. China has to enter the new era that is dominated by the West, culture within China must evole, to simply preserve the ancient culture is costly and can hardly succeed, to abandon is seems to be too hurtful to a nation take pride importantly. So how could China evolve? What are the things need to be preserved, and what western thinkings need to be implemented? It’s not easy to teckle these issues.

Most middle class Chinese are not so concerned about cultural and political issues, after centuries of harsh life under the feudal societies, the Western invasion, pain in the second World War, political zeal under Mao, it is in the DNA of the Chinese, that tell the people it’s time to forget all these ideology and just live a simple life.

The elites in the society have more exposure to the Western society and think beyond basic living. To them, the ambition to make China a great nation is firm. They are not the patriotic ones we see on the streets, their thinkings are logical, analytical. Their dream is not to help China to dominate the world, but to help China to become a strong nation. They also learned from history that by revolution, it may bring more damage than benefits to the society, so it might be wise not to challenge the ruling party, but to do what they can do, quietly, slowly, to make the change peacefully. The government knows that the country need to change, and some of these changes may clash with their political ideals, so it’s better to let the elites outside the Party to shape the future of China. The government do compromise on issues relate to modernization. How much will the government change, how far can the elites push? We shall wait and see.