Great piece! I lived part time in Shanghai from 2000 to 2019. I never stopped having the same reaction each time I landed there--the energy level was so high it almost made my teeth chatter. The Mag-Lev into the city from Pudong airport was the first reminder, and an apt metaphor for the whole place. I often had dealings with first-timers to China, and your account of Clara's befuddlement perfectly captures how most of them felt. You could see it in their faces-slightly dazed astonishment.
the education system is a big part of what makes the US and China different, I think. As someone who mostly grew up in the public US system, but has many friends and family, there’s a gaping difference between the median US public school and the median Chinese one. In the US case there is virtually no competition and very little sense that education is important, and I hear this from many US-trained teachers who move to east asia that they’re surprised how it’s, just, “cool” to be smart.
i’m in no way advocating for the Chinese education system as a whole but I think it’s worth thinking about education as a fundamental pillar of democracy, since as you say politics in America have not been so great
it’s worth thinking about education as a fundamental pillar of democracy — well, as the case of China today or that of ancient Sparta shows, education can also be a very useful and powerful tool for dictatorship or autocracy instead of democracy.
Yasheng Huang’s statement is way too much an understatement in my view, something like saying the wolf is not designed to love the lamb.
As a matter of fact, the wolf is designed to eat the lamb, and the Chinese education system is designed to efficiently kill a democratic citizenry.
Actually, if a student in China today goes to school wearing a T shirt with 自由 （freedom/liberty）民主（democracy）法治（rule of law), or 起来，不愿做奴隶的人们（Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves, the first sentence of the Chinese national anthem lyrics) printed or handwritten on it, the student will be sent home immediately, or maybe for good.
Also I should add that students in China or their parents will tell you that education there is indeed very rigorous in ideological indoctrination and very weak in real teaching (because of resorting too much to rote memory).
That’s why we see so many Chinese choose to spend a fortune to send their kids to western countries for good education. Even President Xi Jinping chose to do so. Whether Xi spent a fortune out of his own pocket for that remains a state secret.
I encourage you to go somewhere relatively poor and rural on your next trip to China and report on what technology is doing out there! Would love to read your thoughts on that.
Brilliant piece, Jasmine. I've spent most of my career in Hong Kong, arriving just before Deng's transformative sweep through Southern China preceding the boom years (about the time your parents moved to the US!). This might be the best summary of the changes in the last 15 or so years I've yet read, and the way you articulate the human and cultural changes alongside the technical evolution really resonates with my own experience and observation. Well done.
A very enjoyable piece. One thing I would be interested in hearing more about is how hard it can be to be a visitor or transplant to China. When I lived there setting up many things as a foreigner was pretty hard from train tickets to WeChat so you have many amazing systems but it is hard to become part of the system.
Very nice piece. I appreciate the emphasis on slice-of-life details rather than trying to fit them into a grand theory. It would be interesting if you could work with someone to import some of the exciting items!
This may sound like an odd comparison but reading it made me think of a recording of Jack Kerouac reading a poem "October in the Railroad Earth" which has such an amazing energy of a world full of work but also possibility (and, for you, a portrait of San Francisco in days past): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8AsvprrYYw
"[Neal] Cassady was working on the Southern Pacific Railroad and in 1951, he persuaded Kerouac to join him in San Francisco, working as a baggage handler and eventually as a brakeman. The process of getting Kerouac to come west took many years, but Kerouac always had a fondness for the city and its surrounding natural landscapes. In a letter to fellow Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1948, Kerouac enviously describes Cassady’s life out west as a brakeman. “The Southern Pacific Railroad is the most wonderful railroad in the world incidentally...on a Sunday morning riding down through the sunny San Joaquin Valley…” It is not surprising that Cassady was eventually able to convince his friend to come to the Bay Area.
...
Kerouac worked in the yards and on the trains while living in a hotel near the station. (7) In a letter to Ginsberg in 1952, he describes his living situation in a “fine little room in Skid Row at $4 a week and I was arranging myself so well...that I was happy for the first time in years.”"
however
"Brakemen were often exposed to dangerous conditions and serious injury risk, something that befell Cassady when he broke his ankle trying to avert a train crash in the early 1950s. Kerouac was never seriously injured while working on the tracks, but the intensity of the labor and the demands from his employers led to frustration and anger. In another letter to Ginsberg in 1952, Kerouac wrote, “I hate people. I can’t stand people anymore. The phone just called me, gotta go to work again, I’m sick and tired of it—this is why it took me so long to answer you, the railroad.”
Thanks; yes, if nothing else listen to the poem. The sense of energy is clear (and let me know if you do).
Interestingly, Noah Smith wrote today, "But as you read it, you should wonder whether modern China is best modeled as 'America with different leaders', or 'America 75 years ago.'" so a poem based on Kerouac's experience in the early 50s would almost precisely match that time-shift.
An idea for your next trip to China. You can consider going to provinces like Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan. Looks like the places where you have travelled so far, like Guangdong, Zhejiang or Shanghai, are more developed/liberal places, but they are just a small part of China which are not very representative. Populous provinces like Henan, Sichuan or Shandong are more conservative, traditional and more representative. Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Shanghai are like California, Massachusetts and New York, while Henan, Shandong, Sichuan and Shaanxi are like Texas, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina.
hi, definitely hoping to do that next time! this time was tech-focused tier 1 cities on purpose; I have been to sichuan and yunnan in past trips, but I think I'll go to less developed areas next year
Excruciating (in an intellectually stimulating and refreshing way) to read for a "highly educated" Chinese in-the-making. I grew up in a liberal family that prepped me to become a member of the liberal global elite, and 7 years into my life of studying in the U.S., I don't think I understand either country enough, nor have enough reason to bet on either system. Life under "authoritarianism with the good parts" has been more attractive than I had allowed myself to admit. Escaping the liberal utopian dreams of my parents' generation is hard; building a new system of values (and, in the process, planning where I should be next) has been even harder. Thanks for the essay, if you ever need to hear from a desperate Chinese international studies major in her early 20s with extensive experience living on the U.S. East Coast, I might be able to speak a bit more for people in my situation.
Amazing article. I spent a great deal of time in China off and on from 2004-2009 but have only been back occasionally since then. Sounds like things have changed quite a bit! Hoping to get a chance to visit again soon.
How was the air quality there? It was pretty unbearable in the 2000s.
Well done. Best piece on modern China I have ever read. Thanks for taking us on a profound journey in a fascinating country.
ahh high praise, thank you so much!!
Fantastic! Matches 100% with my experienxe. I've been visiting remote parts of China for 30 years and I know nothing!
thank you, means a lot coming from you! my friends and I have been discussing that next time we should focus on just tier 3 cities and below...
Great piece! I lived part time in Shanghai from 2000 to 2019. I never stopped having the same reaction each time I landed there--the energy level was so high it almost made my teeth chatter. The Mag-Lev into the city from Pudong airport was the first reminder, and an apt metaphor for the whole place. I often had dealings with first-timers to China, and your account of Clara's befuddlement perfectly captures how most of them felt. You could see it in their faces-slightly dazed astonishment.
the education system is a big part of what makes the US and China different, I think. As someone who mostly grew up in the public US system, but has many friends and family, there’s a gaping difference between the median US public school and the median Chinese one. In the US case there is virtually no competition and very little sense that education is important, and I hear this from many US-trained teachers who move to east asia that they’re surprised how it’s, just, “cool” to be smart.
i’m in no way advocating for the Chinese education system as a whole but I think it’s worth thinking about education as a fundamental pillar of democracy, since as you say politics in America have not been so great
it’s worth thinking about education as a fundamental pillar of democracy — well, as the case of China today or that of ancient Sparta shows, education can also be a very useful and powerful tool for dictatorship or autocracy instead of democracy.
yes, this is a key point in the Yasheng Huang book. the Chinese education system is very rigorous but not designed to train a democratic citizenry
Yasheng Huang’s statement is way too much an understatement in my view, something like saying the wolf is not designed to love the lamb.
As a matter of fact, the wolf is designed to eat the lamb, and the Chinese education system is designed to efficiently kill a democratic citizenry.
Actually, if a student in China today goes to school wearing a T shirt with 自由 （freedom/liberty）民主（democracy）法治（rule of law), or 起来，不愿做奴隶的人们（Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves, the first sentence of the Chinese national anthem lyrics) printed or handwritten on it, the student will be sent home immediately, or maybe for good.
the understatement is on me, Huang would have phrased it closer to how you did
Also I should add that students in China or their parents will tell you that education there is indeed very rigorous in ideological indoctrination and very weak in real teaching (because of resorting too much to rote memory).
That’s why we see so many Chinese choose to spend a fortune to send their kids to western countries for good education. Even President Xi Jinping chose to do so. Whether Xi spent a fortune out of his own pocket for that remains a state secret.
"Turns out you can 007 your hobbies as well as your job."
this piece is so great!
I need to hobby harder
I love your dad’s fit
I encourage you to go somewhere relatively poor and rural on your next trip to China and report on what technology is doing out there! Would love to read your thoughts on that.
very keen to do this exact thing next year! obv Shenzhen / Shanghai is a very particular slice of China
Brilliant piece, Jasmine. I've spent most of my career in Hong Kong, arriving just before Deng's transformative sweep through Southern China preceding the boom years (about the time your parents moved to the US!). This might be the best summary of the changes in the last 15 or so years I've yet read, and the way you articulate the human and cultural changes alongside the technical evolution really resonates with my own experience and observation. Well done.
thank you, it's cool to hear that my 3 weeks of impressions still resonated with your decades there :)
A very enjoyable piece. One thing I would be interested in hearing more about is how hard it can be to be a visitor or transplant to China. When I lived there setting up many things as a foreigner was pretty hard from train tickets to WeChat so you have many amazing systems but it is hard to become part of the system.
"you have many amazing systems but it is hard to become part of the system" is a great way of putting it
China was a substack post
sooo true
Very nice piece. I appreciate the emphasis on slice-of-life details rather than trying to fit them into a grand theory. It would be interesting if you could work with someone to import some of the exciting items!
This may sound like an odd comparison but reading it made me think of a recording of Jack Kerouac reading a poem "October in the Railroad Earth" which has such an amazing energy of a world full of work but also possibility (and, for you, a portrait of San Francisco in days past): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8AsvprrYYw
Looking up more information I find this: https://www.foundsf.org/Kerouac%E2%80%99s_San_Francisco_Experience:_%E2%80%9COctober_in_the_Railroad_Earth%E2%80%9D
"[Neal] Cassady was working on the Southern Pacific Railroad and in 1951, he persuaded Kerouac to join him in San Francisco, working as a baggage handler and eventually as a brakeman. The process of getting Kerouac to come west took many years, but Kerouac always had a fondness for the city and its surrounding natural landscapes. In a letter to fellow Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1948, Kerouac enviously describes Cassady’s life out west as a brakeman. “The Southern Pacific Railroad is the most wonderful railroad in the world incidentally...on a Sunday morning riding down through the sunny San Joaquin Valley…” It is not surprising that Cassady was eventually able to convince his friend to come to the Bay Area.
...
Kerouac worked in the yards and on the trains while living in a hotel near the station. (7) In a letter to Ginsberg in 1952, he describes his living situation in a “fine little room in Skid Row at $4 a week and I was arranging myself so well...that I was happy for the first time in years.”"
however
"Brakemen were often exposed to dangerous conditions and serious injury risk, something that befell Cassady when he broke his ankle trying to avert a train crash in the early 1950s. Kerouac was never seriously injured while working on the tracks, but the intensity of the labor and the demands from his employers led to frustration and anger. In another letter to Ginsberg in 1952, Kerouac wrote, “I hate people. I can’t stand people anymore. The phone just called me, gotta go to work again, I’m sick and tired of it—this is why it took me so long to answer you, the railroad.”
oh yeah the China space is full of grand theories, doesn't need any from me
interesting! I'll check that out — I do want to learn more about the beats
Thanks; yes, if nothing else listen to the poem. The sense of energy is clear (and let me know if you do).
Interestingly, Noah Smith wrote today, "But as you read it, you should wonder whether modern China is best modeled as 'America with different leaders', or 'America 75 years ago.'" so a poem based on Kerouac's experience in the early 50s would almost precisely match that time-shift.
lovely read. so accurately captures the abundance & ambition of modern china
An idea for your next trip to China. You can consider going to provinces like Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan. Looks like the places where you have travelled so far, like Guangdong, Zhejiang or Shanghai, are more developed/liberal places, but they are just a small part of China which are not very representative. Populous provinces like Henan, Sichuan or Shandong are more conservative, traditional and more representative. Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Shanghai are like California, Massachusetts and New York, while Henan, Shandong, Sichuan and Shaanxi are like Texas, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina.
hi, definitely hoping to do that next time! this time was tech-focused tier 1 cities on purpose; I have been to sichuan and yunnan in past trips, but I think I'll go to less developed areas next year
Excruciating (in an intellectually stimulating and refreshing way) to read for a "highly educated" Chinese in-the-making. I grew up in a liberal family that prepped me to become a member of the liberal global elite, and 7 years into my life of studying in the U.S., I don't think I understand either country enough, nor have enough reason to bet on either system. Life under "authoritarianism with the good parts" has been more attractive than I had allowed myself to admit. Escaping the liberal utopian dreams of my parents' generation is hard; building a new system of values (and, in the process, planning where I should be next) has been even harder. Thanks for the essay, if you ever need to hear from a desperate Chinese international studies major in her early 20s with extensive experience living on the U.S. East Coast, I might be able to speak a bit more for people in my situation.
Amazing article. I spent a great deal of time in China off and on from 2004-2009 but have only been back occasionally since then. Sounds like things have changed quite a bit! Hoping to get a chance to visit again soon.
How was the air quality there? It was pretty unbearable in the 2000s.
Excellent work!