Wednesday, April 11, 2007
When is China?
China is, of course, a contradiction. Western commentators say that it will be the dominant (economic) force in a few decades' time; I think they are right, but I'm not sure that ordinary Chinese either believe that, or believe that it will do the common people any good.
Currently (and bear in mind that I only visited Beijing and a little outside), it feels very much like the mixture you'd expect in a vast, (formerly?) totalitarian and insular, largely rural-agricultural state rushing forward into today and tomorrow. Some modern stuff (but not much ultra-modern apart from some architecture), slums (a lot being demolished), pollution, the occasional horse, lots and lots of manual workers (cleaning streets, digging holes by hand etc), lots of fresh produce sold by individuals and one-person service points (knife sharpening, bike fixing etc), high mobile phone onwership, clear generational differences (although with strong family ties).
It feels like a cross between Britain at the start of the Industrial Revolution and the Britain of the 1950s.
Currently (and bear in mind that I only visited Beijing and a little outside), it feels very much like the mixture you'd expect in a vast, (formerly?) totalitarian and insular, largely rural-agricultural state rushing forward into today and tomorrow. Some modern stuff (but not much ultra-modern apart from some architecture), slums (a lot being demolished), pollution, the occasional horse, lots and lots of manual workers (cleaning streets, digging holes by hand etc), lots of fresh produce sold by individuals and one-person service points (knife sharpening, bike fixing etc), high mobile phone onwership, clear generational differences (although with strong family ties).
It feels like a cross between Britain at the start of the Industrial Revolution and the Britain of the 1950s.
# posted by David @ 11:55 am 
