I learned 25 years ago and have relearned on this trip that perfect enlightenment with respect to Asia comes only in the understanding that you will never really understand. Actually, Churchill said it first and said it best in referring to Russia. It is “…a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. I’m now convinced, again, that his insight applies perfectly to China as well. I probably should have waited for a little soak time after the trip before opining as I’m now getting ready to do. Maybe my views would have mellowed a bit, but events have overcome me, and I can wait no longer. The trigger event was a trip out of Xian to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. Well, it actually wasn’t the drive, it was the length of the drive. No, it wasn’t really the length of the drive, it was the unfortunate fact that the periods of time between urinary episodes my body will tolerate does not synch well with the traffic induced long driving times in China. That’s a long way of saying that we had to stop along the way to find what the Chinese call “a washroom”. Henry, our guide, suggested, in something of a panic, that the only suitable place was a nearby orthopaedic hospital. That sounded fine to me. Anything, including an open air slit trench, would have been fine with me. After wandering through narrow hallways of the hospital which was populated by a maze of small rooms overflowing with evidently injured or sick people, we found ourselves in an outdoor courtyard and spied a small WC sign in the corner. I anxiously entered expecting what I had seen before; either a spanking clean facility or one that was once clean, but fell short of a class A standard through heavy use. This particular one was in a different class all together. It was horribly, horribly unimaginably filthy. I was greeted with a series of slit hole in the concrete style facilities, all in heavy use emitting unbearable aromas. Unhygienic doesn’t begin to describe the situation. Imagine the worst you’ve ever seen and multiply by ten or even one hundred. Having no choice, I awaited my turn while holding my breath, did my business, and fled post haste. The point of this ugly story is not that there are unclean restrooms in China, but that they have, and obviously tolerate filthy, unhygienic lavatories, germ and crud infested facilities IN HOSPITALS. I wanted to ask Harry or someone about this horrible contradiction, but I couldn’t quite find the words or the courage to confront a citizen of China about this insanity. Over the next couple of days I put this episode in the context of other inexplicable contradictions that I had observed: 1. China has nine years of publicly funded education. Grades 1-9. No kindergarten, no high school. Yes, you can pay for private school, but the state cops out on kids at age fourteen. Ok, I got it that even that is an improvement on where they were previously. But China is fourthin total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per annum, while they are 169th in public education expenditures as a % of GDP (1.9%). Not exactly an investment in the future. 2. China has committed eight billion dollars to tree planting. They have a national tree planting day wherein it is almost a punishable crime for a citizen or a company to not participate in this annual frenzy of tree planting. They plant them everywhere, and then dig some up and plant them somewhere else. I have a couple of theories about why they are doing this: 1) they are trying to make up for decades of deforrestation that they engaged in when they needed all the lumber 2) They are trying to dress up the otherwise pretty grim and dirty surroundings, (kind of like putting lipstick on a pig), or 3) they are trying to use the trees as a foil against the relentless pollution that they continue to spew into the atmosphere. They all have the ring of truth to me. 169th in public education, but first in tree planting. Go figure. 3. The whipsawing of public policy. They’ve gone from dynasties ruled by emperors without conscience to the absolute corruption of Chiang Kai Shek, to the insanity of Mao’s Great Leap Forward, to the further insanity of The Cultural Revolution, to Deng’s Open Door Policy, to the immorality of Tianamen Square, to limited private ownership with state control, to capitalism run amok with state control. And now Socialism with a Chinese Character. What next, the Three Stooges? 4. The one child policy with exceptions for farmers, those who live in Autonomous Regions (Tibet) or Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong), those who live in non-urban regions of the western lands, those who themselves are the product of one child families, or anyone who can figure out a way to get to Hong Kong or anywhere overseas to have a second, or third or nth kid. Oddly, the policy has worked, after a fashion, as it is expected that birth rates will have fallen to below replacement population levels by 2015, but no one knows, or maybe doesn’t care, about the social or other human costs of the policy. This desirable outcome is aided by the fact that China ranks 108th in life expectancy. 5. China is widely lauded as an economic miracle ranking after only the U.S., Japan, and Germany in total GDP; however they weigh in at 102nd in GDP per capita just after Albania and barely beating out that other economic powerhouse, El Salvador. 6. After having visited one of the urban hospitals, I can understand why they rank 103rd in infant mortality, but equally alarming is a growing disparity in gender of live births. There are now about ten percent more male live births than female. It’s an open secret that no one wants to talk about. 7. It’s said that they have more buildings of thirty floors or higher in Shanghai than in all of the United States, but their schools keep falling down due to poor construction. 8. Hong Kong is a part of China, but a Chinese citizen Has to get a visa (or special permission of some sort) to go there. In fact, a Chinese citizen cannot decide tomorrow that he wants to seek his fortune in Guangshou rather than down on the farm and move there. He must first seek government permission which is only given in “special” circumstances. 9. Mainland Chinese are now the most numerous visitors to Hong Kong and are buying million dollar apartments like hot cakes while the per capita income of their fellow citizens in 2009 was $3180. It makes one wonder who’s buying all the new apartments that are being built EVERYWHERE and cost an average of five hundred dollars a square foot. 10. The government talks a lot about their policy allowing the free practice of religion, but still requires that one be an atheist to be a member of the Communist Party and a participant in the political process, such as it is. 11. China is proud of their rapid progress into the mainstream of modern life, but still sells packages of marinated chicken feet at their international airports and grilled pig’s penises on a stick at snack stands two blocks down the street from the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing. Ok. I understand that there are lot of contradictions in every society. How else does one explain Sara Palin or the Tea Party in the US, but gimme a break. Filth in hospitals, trees over public education, sky scrapers in Shanghai, but schools that fall down in the country side. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest Gary’s Corollary to the Law of Rational Thought. If you can’t keep your toilets clean (at least in hospitals), you’re not gonna make it in the big time. Just wait and see.
