The Chinese Have Come to Africa....Again!

The Chinese have come to Africa, and they are here to do some serious business! Of course they are a little too comfortable making deals with cruel regimes like those in Sudan and Zimbabwe in order to get access to oil and precious minerals. They are even building a state of the art hospital for our beloved president (and insane dictator) of Zimbabwe, Mr. Mugabe! I certainly made clear to my wife that this attitude of financial gain at all cost with no moral regard is not exactly something the Chinese can be proud of - to say the least.

Chinese railway workers flirt with a local Angolan woman during a lunch break.

To my suprise, Carolyn agreed with me, but she pointed out it's only half of the story. It's the half we Westerners tend to focus on. She told me that the Chinese were in Africa before, brought in by the British to work in the mines of South Africa around 1903. These Chinese were recruited from the poorest areas in China and we forced to work under the harshest of conditions. A high percentage of them lost their lives in the mines. The main reason was the British unrelenting search for cheap labour, i.e. for financial gain. In other words, who are we to judge whether China is doing right or wrong in Africa? Perhaps the Africans are better positioned to make that judgment.

Chinese miners in South Africa, first decade of the 20th century

Carolyn's second point was that many Africans, although wary of China, are starting to think of China as a role model. Just like many Africans, the Chinese have seen their country destroyed by colonial-style invasions. Many Africans sympathize with the Chinese pushing back and standing up for themselves. One example is the Chinese determination to retrieve art pieces from Western museums. "Abdullah the Butcher" recorded himself on video to make this interesting case:

Regardless of whether you believe Chinese investments on the African continent are a good or a bad thing, perhaps the fact that it does provide Africa with an alternative to the Western aid model may already be a benefit for the continent. And it may force us, the West, to review our own policies as well.

Go Drink Tea!

There is one thing about China more rich than its language, its history, its anthropology, and its cinema combined: It's tea. And it's the simplicity of tea that makes it such complex thing to understand for a Western person like me. But I'm gonna give it a go anyway.

A monk once asked Chinese Zen Master Zhaozhou, "What is Buddha?" Zhaozhou answered, "Go drink tea!" The monk then asked, "What is Dharma?" Zhaozhou answered, "Go drink tea!" The monk persisted, "What is Sangha?" Zhaozhou again said, "Go drink tea!"

When reading this quote, my instinct tells me that Zen Master Zhaozhou is being a bit obstructionist here. This monk is struggling with profound questions and he really needs guidance from his master in order to move forward in his spiritual development, but clearly his questions are not taken seriously. Master Zhaozhou is patronizing this poor monk, letting him know how superior he is.

So that's what I explained to Carolyn, but she told me that Master Zhaozhou is actually gave this monk a very valuable lesson. She believes the monk should follow the master's advice and drink - not clean the house - not worry about the laundry - not drink wine - not thinking about what the master Zhaozhou really means - no. He should go to the kitchen, prepare tea, and drink it. That's it!

Now, understanding this is understanding tea itself, and understanding tea is like having a peak into the Chinese soul. The power of tea can be found in its simplicity, in its lack of pronounced flavors, in the way the leaves unfold in the water, and in the color of the liquid. Let's end with a tea video that has a similar message:

Pretty Woman and Chinese-Language Cinema

Obviously the best place to start analyzing Chinese cinema is with the kissing scene from the movie "Pretty Woman", starring Julia Roberts and China-critic Richard Gere...

Clearly this was a key moment in this love story about a ruthless business man and a prostitute. The piano and violin music of course elevates the whole scene to an even higher level. It's clear what's happening here, and that's the way I like it.

Of course, love is a popular theme in Chinese-language cinema as well. Unfortunately, however, things are not always as straightforward as in Hollywood. Love stories are a little bit more painful here. There is more restraint, more is left unexpressed, not much actually happens and quite frankly I find them confusing. Farewell My Concubine (Kaige Chen, 1993) is such an example, although here the love is between two men. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it.

Then I met Carolyn and she took me to "In the Mood for Love" (Kar Wai Wong, 2000). The first thing I wanted to know was the length of the movie. Well, I didn't expect it but this film made a deep impression, particularly the following scene showing the loneliness of the two main characters:

Then it suddenly dawned on me that there can be so much beauty in things that are left "unshown", so to speak. The lack of kissing, sex, or fighting scenes is the strength of this film. We as an audience draw our own conclusions - still with music but no piano, only strings...

Anthropology: There is more than one Chinese

I told my wife Carolyn the other day: “The Chinese, they are all the same”. Well, apart from the “physical” answer I got from her, she also told me to get my facts straight. So I did, and after a bit of research I found out that my statement wasn’t the most accurate one - to say the least…

In fact, the country recognizes 55 distinct ethnics groups. These include the Han, the Zhuang, the Manchu, the Hui, the Yi, the Buyi, and many others. But trying to understand the backgrounds and differences between these groups is perhaps a little too ambitious a task, so let’s keep things simple. We’re going to divide the country in two: The North and the South.

There is actually is a genetic basis for a distinction between the Northern and the Southern Chinese. Check out this page for more info, or if you REALLY want to know the facts, go here.

So now that we’ve got ourselves covered by science, let’s go to the fun part: Stereotypes!

So what are the stereotypical differences between a Northern and a Southern Chinese person? Here’s what I found out:

Northerners

      - bigger and taller in size

- longer face

- lighter, fairer skin color- smaller eyes with single eyelids

- eat more noodles, dumplings and wheat-based foods rather than rice-based food

- northern cuisine generally does not have spicy food

- speak Mandarin with a northern accent

- more boisterous and open in personality, with more direct "thunderbolt" displays of emotions

    

 

A Northern Chinese family

Southerners

- generally smaller and shorter in size

- rounder face

- darker, tanner skin color

- larger eyes with higher frequency of double eyelids

- eat more rice and spicy food

- Southerners speak a Chinese dialect that is older than Mandarin, that was spoken by Dynasties before Ming.

- tend to be more industrious and entrepreneurial

- more reserved displays of emotions

 

A Southern Chinese family

It's the Southerners that us Westerners are most familiar with because they are the ones opening restaurants and other businesses abroad. Hopefully I don't need to point out that these are stereotypes and stereotypes are never true. Still, of course, it’s interesting to know. Next time: Chinese cinema.

Some interesting links:

Portraits of Southerners

Photos from every province in China

The History of China (and a little bit of urology)

So I have have to admit I'm a little bit stuck with learning Mandarin. My wife Carolyn tells me that watching a couple of videos on YouTube is clear evidence of lack of commitment. She recommends I spend two years in Beijing doing a full-immersion language program. I didn't agree and told her that the real reason for me experiencing a "Mandarin-block" is the fact that one can only truly understand the language - and it's many subtleties - in the context China's long and rich history. So what we're going to do this week is delve into China's past. Chinese History Lesson 1:


Let's keep it simple and start at the end: The Qing dynasty was the last ruling dynasty of China, which covered the period between 1644 and 1911. According to chinaknowledge.de, this age of the Qing dynasty is characterized by "a period of prosperity, of decay, of stagnation, of revolution, of lazyness and of challenges that came upon a population that seemed to sleep a beauty's sleep of Confucian social ethics in a paradise where a wise ruler governed over a satified and happy population, and on the other side a society that was bound by rules of a backward social thinking."

The end of the Qing dynasty marked the end of Imperial China, and the beginning of the Republic of China. Instead of writing a long essay about the transition from "Ancient China" to "Modern China", I decided to show you a single picture. It's a photograph (by Henri Cartier-Bresson) of a eunuch of the Imperial court of the Qing dynasty:

The photo was taken in 1948, decades after the the Qing dynasty ended, and less than one year before Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic. This is a photo of a man caught between two worlds, a lost soul. And in the eyes of many, eunuchs were not even considered men at all! To find out why - and to learn a little bit about eunuchs in general - we need help from the science of urology. Have a quick look at page 139 (section "results and conclusions") of the following document. Don't worry, it's not too much text!

With this bit of urological information in mind I have another look at the above photograph and find it incredibly moving: One man who symbolizes China's struggle to become a modern nation - something that's still very relevant today.

Here We Go: Chinese Lesson 1

When I took French in high school I actually managed to forget words at a rate faster than my ability to learn new words. As result, I graduated with zero French vocabulary. Being (made) aware of this talent doesn't exactly give me the confidence I need to learn a new language - let alone Mandarin and it's 6500 characters. Still, if I want to grasp the essence of Chinese soul, I have no choice but to master the language. So here we go! Chinese Lesson 1:

Very well, that should cover the basics. Now, most ordinary people would stop here. But I want to go further - dig deeper. If I really want to understand the Chinese and their culture, then I have to look at the world from a Chinese perspective. So how do the Chinese do it? How do they learn English? Well, let's have a look at the following video:

This video clearly demonstrates intimate knowledge of Western media and culture, brilliantly disguised as a language course. They know our strengths, our weaknesses, our values, and they seem very capable at turning this to their advantage. Very revealing indeed, and food for thought for the next part of my journey...

What I Know About China

My wife is of Chinese origin. I'm from Holland. We've been together for almost thirteen years. She says that I don't understand her and I should invest more time in learning about her culture. Well, she doesn't actually say it - she implies it. Or rather, she implies that I should feel guilty for not trying hard enough to understand her background. Of course she doesn't imply directly that I should be feeling guilty about this. No. She does it by expressing mild frustration about something completely unrelated. Then of course it's up to me to connect the dots and figure out what I should be doing to make things right. That's part of the punishment.  


Clearly my wife is wrong: I already know so much about Chinese culture! I know the Great Wall is very long and can be seen from outer space. I know the giant panda lives there in the wild. I know China is enjoying spectacular economic growth. I know they manipulate their currency. They make poisonous toys. They eat their food with chopsticks. They organized the Olympics. They invented gunpowder. I remember there was an earthquake. Trouble with Tibet. Censorship of the internet. I could go on and on. What else is there to know?


According to my wife this knowledge doesn't do anything to help me understand Chinese culture. It's based on information served by western-biased mainstream media. There is so much more that you won't find in the news or travel brochures. There is a beautifully rich and poetic language, an astonishing history that goes back thousands of years. There is a tradition of Chinese medicine, philosophy, cuisine, family life, simple life. There are so many stories to be found and told. Ordinary stories and peculiar ones.


That's when I decided to start a journey of discovery. A journey to find out more about the Chinese soul. This blog is report of that journey. I call it: China Ordinary and Peculiar. I hope you will enjoy this trip as much as I do!