Thursday 10 November 2011

Censored!

Hi guys, my laptop semi-died which means I can only access censored internet in China now, which means I can't blog anymore. Blogspot is censored here - at the moment anyway, these things tend to change occasionally though. Sorry - I had so many great stories and photos to blog, but for now that's on the backburner. I'm getting Ben to post this message from NZ, by the way. When he comes to China in two weeks he has promised to fix the computer, and I could possibly do a blogging blitz. But for now, I'll take the opportunity to experience life as the average Chinese internet user does - without Facebook, but with email and foreign news sites, thank god..

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Not the people's square

I often ask myself in China 'where is the Communism?'. Contrary to what I expected you can't much see or feel it on the ground, especially in a city full of money like Shanghai. Even at the newspaper I'm writing features, not news, so haven't encountered censorship first-hand (yet?). The paper itself has run a couple of blatant pieces of propaganda while I've been here but you don't feel like you're reading a government mouthpiece, as there are frequent articles exposing corruption and crime in China. I know there is a lot, a lot of news that doesn't make it into the paper, but you don't miss what's not there.

I guess the issue is to see the influence of Communism, I'd have to compare modern China with a parallel universe non-Communist China, rather than trying to compare it to the West. Sure, Chinese people are different to New Zealanders and the city is run differently, but who can say how much of that is Communism and how much is just Chinese culture? Is the Cultural Revolution to blame for almost nobody reading books on the subway, or are young Chinese people just really keen on playing video games on their iPads? Or is the lack of readers due to the Chinese schooling system, which long pre-dates Communism, as this very good essay suggests? Or does it signify nothing at all? There is growing political dissent on Weibo, China's Twitter. The colleagues I've talked to about politics are fairly critical of government policies like the one-child rule, but support China's annexation of Xinjiang and Tibet, so it's all quite confusing really.

I was mulling this over when I happened to stroll smack into People's Square for the first time, and here it was, Communism so thick you could slice it. People's Square is supposedly the heart and centre of Shanghai - it's certainly central but is so at odds with the rest of the city as to not relate at all:
In a word, hideous. In another, scary.
Most of the grass was covered in white plastic, which didn't improve the scene
 Charmant.
"Welcome to Hell", possibly.
Urban planning centre - good work, guys.
The Shanghai Museum, which I hear is very good.
 It even has an exhibition from the Otago Museum.

However, the square was, as you can see, fairly deserted, so it's not like Chinese people were flocking. I'm really no closer to knowing the shape of Communism.

Just to compare, here's a regular inner-city park, Jing'an Park, on an average weekday morning:
Plenty of exercise classes, like this rubber band troupe
Tai chi
Tango and embroidery
Senior citizens getting buff.
And kite flying, board games, roller blading, all good clean fun. When space is tight, daily activities go public.