Maybe I’m biased because I named this blog Beyond China’s Single Story, but lately I’ve seen a huge number of media stories that argue against the idea that China can be explained with a simple, single story.
My friend Christina Larson addresses this issue in Foreign Policy:
The China Paradox
How should Americans understand a country that presents itself as simultaneously weak and strong?
Until recently, the Chinese paradox that most puzzled Western audiences was how to understand a country that is both communist and hyper-capitalist. But that is hardly the only, or even the most striking, paradox of the modern Middle Kingdom. China is fast on its way to becoming a global superpower, even as it grapples with such enormous domestic challenges as supplying enough energy to keep its cities lit, absorbing millions of rural migrants into cities each year, reining in choking pollution, creating a social safety net, and attempting to lift millions out of poverty. Although China holds $1 trillion in U.S. debt, its per capita GDP is still roughly one-tenth that of the United States. Beijing is subsidizing China’s fast-growing clean-tech export industry, even as the skies above the country’s largest cities remain a hazy gray. Such seeming contradictions are dazzlingly confusing to outsiders — and sometimes to China’s own leaders. [more]
Below is the photo that illustrates Christina’s post. Cute, pleading, developing, growing — just like one side of China!
from Getty Images, via Foreign Policy
The cute and pleading side of China is not the one that has dominated the headlines about Hu Jintao’s visit to the U.S.
My friend Anthony sent me this excellent Washington Post piece by John Pomfret (whose memoir about his years in China, Chinese Lessons, is one of my favorite books on China.)
Pomfret profiles…
Wanxiang International, an auto parts giant with worldwide revenue of $8 billion. Over the past decade, Wanxiang America has purchased or invested in more than 20 U.S. firms and now employs more Americans – 5,000 at last count – than any other Chinese company.
Pomfret counters the common rhetoric that the Chinese are stealing American jobs and technology, and suggests that Chinese investment could be part of the solution to America’s economic woes.
And here is a third piece that explicitly counters a stereotype about China. From CBS Evening News:
China’s Moms Don’t All Fit Terrible Tiger Cast
Nation of 1.3 Billion, One-Child Family Planning Policy Known as Much for Pressure to be Perfect as for Spoiling Children
Amy Chua’s book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” has been everywhere! Shanghaiist covers it better than I can. All I can say is that I am definitely not the product of a “tiger mother.” And my parents don’t think I would have responded well to Amy Chua’s parenting style. She’s selling lots of books, though. #6 on Amazon. I can imagine book groups everywhere looking beyond the single story of Chinese mothers (and the broader and more universal story of effective parenting in general).
I’m curious to hear what you think of the China stories that you’ve seen lately. Have you noticed an upswing in the number of stories that explicitly counter stereotypes of China?
I'm Leslie and I connect entrepreneurs in Chile, China, California, and beyond — especially through translation, training, and trade. More about me.
