[Isabella Chen]

Hello all! A bit late to the discussion forum, but have been reading and thinking on our live discussion for the last few days.

 

First, a few news articles I read this week related to China:

• 2/23/2019 NY Times - China’s Entrepreneurs Are Wary of Its Future

• 2/27/2019 NY Times - China Shifts, Detroit’s Big Bet Goes Sour

  • Particularly relevant to our discussion this week on the auto industry in China.

• 2/28/2019 NY Times - Live From America’s Capital, a TV Station Run by China’s Communist Party

  • Many of the ideas discussed in “China’s New Revolution” reading we had are present in this article, especially in regards to CCP’s influence

• 2/24/2019 SCMP - China to 'optimise' spread of controversial Confucius Institute

  • The topic of Confucius Institutes is pretty interesting to me. While Confucius Institutes clearly serve as a form of soft power, I think that Confucius Institutes should be evaluated in the context of Chinese programs in the United States. With the China’s increasing influence as a global powerhouse, the United States needs to develop programs for Americans to learn Chinese and understand China. While scaling back Confucius Institute programs scales back its influence in the United States, it also scales back resources for American education on Chinese language and culture. Scaling back Confucius Institutes in the U.S. also means scaling back opportunities for U.S. students to study Chinese in China on Confucius Institute Scholarships (which require HSK scores; HSK tests are offered by Confucius Institutes but have been scaled back recently due to criticism of Confucius Institutes by politicians). There are few U.S. funded study in China programs for American students--those that exist are very competitive. I have a friend from Beijing who is a Chinese teacher to Chinese language learners in China.  A couple of years ago, she came to the U.S. to teach a two-year stint at a Confucius Institute. Because Confucius Institute teachers’ salaries are paid by the Chinese government (? or the Confucius Institute?), the existence of Confucius Institutes at universities seems to provide Chinese teachers to universities at little cost to universities. In addition to teaching at a university campus, she and her colleagues also partnered with local k-12 public school to host Chinese programming and assist Chinese teachers. Cultural exchange is also a two-way street. Living in the States helped break some of my friend’s preconceptions of Americans and Americans’ value systems. From my experience, Confucius Institutes offer opportunities for authentic cultural exchange.

 

“China’s New Revolution”

As Brett has mentioned, there is obvious bias in this article and its recommendations. After reading this article, I wondered how other economies and governments are responding to Xi Jinping’s vision for China and his political and economic maneuvers.

 

CCP

In the second video, Clay mentioned that every school, factory, and unit has a CCP committee. I personally did not realize how pervasive the CCP was in Chinese society. However, this information made me recall conversations I had with my Chinese teacher friend. Another one of our friends, also a Chinese teacher, is a CCP member, and they both mentioned that the CCP members at their school had to attend regular meetings. Also, my friend’s CCP member status seemed to be a factor in his leadership position at the school. However, in the same vein, it’s important to remember that Chinese people are not totally blind followers to the CCP agenda. When these friends visited me in Taiwan, both of them bought books about Chinese history that were censored in China. They were both aware of China’s censorship (as is everyone in China), and were curious to learn about other accounts other than the CCP’s.

 

Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption (and the public approval that came as a result of it) is also reflected in a recent Chinese television show called In the Name of the People 《人民的名义》 which was extremely popular in China.

 

In the vein of Junxun (军训), there is also reality television show that has celebrities undergo military boot camps (Takes a Real Man, 《真正男子汉》).

 

One of the phrases that I have come across when reading contemporary Chinese novels, is 有钱不如有权  (it’s better to have power/influence than to have money), especially in regards to urban settings capitals. This idea refers to the way the government and the CCP is structured, but also the prevalence of influences as a factor in everyday affairs.

 

When I taught George Orwell’s 1984 to my 11th grade IB class this year, I had shown them a video about China’s social credit system. When I reteach this next year, I’ll likely include more information about the CCP, such as its prevalence in society and its leadership structure. Having students compare and contrast the difference in the government systems and the ideologies are also possible assignment tasks. At the same time, I will also teach about other governments that are using mass surveillance to prevent students from the misconception that the Chinese government is the only organization in the world that uses mass surveillance .

 

[Isabella Chen]

It was wonderful meeting everyone tonight! 

 

If anyone's interested, there's a new Chinese Sci-Fi movie out at AMC theaters called The Wandering Earth that has made it to blockbuster status in China. I probably won't personally choose it for my film review because I'm not big on Sci-Fi, but it might be a film that others might be interested in! 

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