Catching Up 2

Sang's village turned out to be a metaphor for all of China - a showcase for all the progress its people have made, but a stark testament to how far China still has to go before we can truly call it a developed nation. Sang proudly showed me the progress his village had made. The central road of the village of 3000 people now had pavement and streetlights, most of the buildings were "western" instead of traditional Chinese and many had more than one floor. For Sang, this was an indication of the great improvements Chinese people have had since the times of Chairman Mao.

Though Mao himself is still widely revered in China as a man who founded the modern Chinese state, most Chinese acknowledge that his later economic and cultural policies did a lot of harm to Chinese people. This does not diminish their respect for him, however. They are inclined to forgive him for his mistakes. This is compounded by the fact that the official Chinese government narrative about Mao does not allow a completely clear or accurate picture of his life. They don't tell outright lies about him, as many people in the older generations of China remember his policies all too clearly, but neither do they articulate them particularly well to educate the younger generations. As a result, people like Sang absorb a conflicting message to "think of him as a great man, despite all his mistakes".

Despite the improvements that Sang pointed out to me, this was my first true instance of culture shock.



Everything I had seen in China up until this point had been like a slightly dirtier, less beautiful, less efficient version of western cities, but still livable. I have not yet been to a first-tier Chinese city like Beijing or Shanghai, so I cannot comment on those, but for Zhengzhou, the city is certainly far from perfect, but definitely not horrible either. Not so for Sang's village.

I felt like I had left my sanity behind as I walked into the village of Gu Fo Si. If anyone has ever seen the computer game "Fallout 3" or watched any post-apocalyptic type movie, it is no exaggeration to say that this village is exactly like that, but without any nuclear radiation (at least I hope not). I actually wondered if the people who make these games and movies had come to this village for inspiration. Granted it was winter, so the lack of leaves on the trees exaggerated the effect a little bit, but even so, there was no grass anywhere, wild packs of dogs roam the streets, there is no garbage service for the city, so they dump smaller garbage wherever they want in the village, medium-sized bits are stuffed into holes they dig in the ground and larger things are dumped into a pit in the middle of the town. They have no toilets, just outhouses that are holes in the ground leading to a pipe that goes out to the open sewers/gutters in the street. In China, there is no property tax (except one that was recently instituted in Shanghai), so when people want a new house, they build it and leave their old house to rot. If they want to leave the village, they just leave and let the house rot. Thus, about one third of all the houses in the village are either complete ruins or decrepit, creaky and about to fall down.

One thing I noticed is that in some parts of the village, they still have some of the ancient, beautiful Chinese-style architecture from the time before "westernization" in their architecture became a fad. When I asked Sang's friend about why they would want to build a concrete military bunker instead of these beautiful houses, he replied that Chinese people saw the older architecture as an anachronism - a sign of the old, bad times where everyone was dirt poor. He said those houses were old and useless and people preferred the western style of house. I told him the so-called "western" houses in this village looked nothing like real western houses and that westerners would certainly appreciate the traditional Chinese architecture far more. We then had a long discussion about the merits of renovation, which is something he had not considered before. The lack of a property tax in China means that people don't sell their property, they just buy a new one and keep the old one (as there is no penalty for keeping it). Since there is no penalty for keeping older property, there is no incentive to maintain it or improve it. This incentive leads to two problems. First, all the ancient, beautiful architecture styles in China are quickly disappearing as they are torn down to make way for more modern buildings and, second, building a new house usually costs more than renovating an older one. However, the issue of a property tax is a non-starter for most Chinese. The people of this country are against taxation completely. The maxim in China is that everyone must take care of themselves. As much as Americans would like to believe the Chinese government is too big and too involved in Chinese life, they actually only interfere in political life and provide infrastructure to the common people. Economic policies are all designed to help big business. That is to say, Chinese social programs, while they do exist, are far less effective than American social safety nets. What I am trying to say is this: Americans will get what they ask for by lowering taxes completely - a life like the villages of China.

For example, at Sang's house, they have several guard dogs and a high wall with barbed wire across the top to protect against thieves since there is no police service for their village. They have no garbage service. Public spaces in the village are disgusting. Disagreements are settled with actual fights. I understand that people don't want to pay taxes so they can buy more consumer products for themselves, but look at what happens when there are no taxes...

Anyway, after sleeping in similar conditions to his apartment in Chang Ge, we woke up the next morning to the arrival of lots of family members anticipating the tradition for the groom to come early in the morning to pick up the bride from her home to take her to their new home together. It was an extremely interesting event, but I won't talk too much in detail about it since Sang has asked me to respect his family's privacy regarding the wedding. For a similar reason, I won't be showing any photos of the wedding or of his house. All I can really say is that traditional Chinese weddings involve a LOT of firecrackers.

The day after the wedding, Sang's friend left to go back to his hometown, and Sang and I went to the city of Xu Chang (of which Chang Ge is a satellite town) to see a beautiful temple devoted to Guan Gong (or Guan Yu, as he is often known). Guan Yu is another key figure in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", a close friend and general of Liu Bei, the monarch of the southern Shu kingdom. Guan Yu is revered throughout China for his honour and loyalty, as well as for his good fortune. Since it is widely believed that praying to Guan Yu can bring monetary fortune, he is also the patron "god" of the Chinese underworld, which is a little strange for me since, as a person, he is the total opposite of shady.

The temple we went to is called "a third-rate Chinese tourist attraction" according to the official government placard at its entrance. It turns out that a third-rate attraction is a good bet, since it means there are no crowds, the grounds are meticulously maintained and the price is cheap! This particular temple is a place where Cao Cao kept Guan Yu and two wives of Liu Bei prisoner for some time, and is famous for having the largest statue dedicated to Guan Yu (at 30 metres high). Since Guan Yu is one of my two favourite characters in the novel (along with Zhu Ge Liang, also of Shu), I was really happy with the visit.

Xu Chang is also a very clean city compared with Zhengzhou and though I didn't get to see much of it, I enjoyed my brief stay there. Sang explained to me that the mayor of Xu Chang is a former classmate of Chairman Hu Jin Tao, and thus Xu Chang enjoys cronyistic benefits. I believe him.