Diary Of Someone In Transition – China (Pt 5)

The Three Gorges Lake In Hubei

I am wrapping up my trip in China and have so far visited many friends in both Wuhan and Jingmen (places where I taught previously).

I have to extend my stay in Jingmen for one more day as there were friends that I could not visit if I stayed there just for two days. Though it took me four hours of plane ride and another three hours of  train journey to come here,  it was worth it.

The province is  slow paced and sedentary whereby people walk leisurely. When I was there, people always commented that I was often rushing off here and there. They have taught me to slow down and smell the roses. People here drank tea for three hours and played cards for another four.  The province has taught me how people in Singapore has never truly enjoy life. They all led an enviable balanced lifestyle where city folks like me can never ever achieve with the kind of pace our work places demand. I may need to come here more often like an annual pilgrimage to find back my soul here!

Today is incidentally also Children’s Day and it is a no-school day for all the kids in China. China also recently celebrated the Dumpling Festival from last Thursday to Saturday. They went back to work on Sunday. Parents of course will take off day today to celebrate Children’s Day with their school going children.

The one-child family policy here has somewhat muted the celebration as parents will bring their precious child out for a good meal or to the zoo. I saw many chuldren with single parent reiterating the weak social cohesion here as many marriages break up due to modern living stresses.

The divorce rate could be as high as 20% here ie. 1 in 5 marriages break up and could even be higher in modern cities such as Guangchow or Shanghai.

Many women work in China nowadays and due to many factors chief of which is the woman now could be independent financially, many  will not cling on a marriage because of economic reasons if they are not happy. They rather give up a marriage and invest in their child. Many remain unmarried after that.

On another note, a particular TV programme featured today moved me immensely.

It was a programme featuring the orphans of the Sichuan earthquake last year. There was a live variety show and many of the orphans were brought to sit in the front rows in the open air show in Sichuan.

As these young orphans  were featured and “celebrated” over in the show, it brought flashback to the trip that I took way back last year in Sichuan one month after it’s occurrence. That trip sort of emotionally engaged me to this beautiful country despite it’s limitations.

China needs to continue to open up it’s economy to the outside world and not stay protectionist.  Much of their economy involving goods and services remain protected. For example, I can never find clothings of foreign brands in free display in shopping malls. Their local brands such as Sanfui continue to dominate the Chinese attire economy.  The close up nature of it’s economy will not endear them well to foreigners who are still figuring how to do business with the Chinese people here.

Singaporeans will continue to be  ahead of many other countries if they want to do business here. Similar ethnicity and more importantly our strong command of the Chinese language have allow us to be strong candidates for foreign companies to hire us to run their businesses here. The Singapore brand name is also well received here as many here read rave reports in their state controlled papers about our economic progress.

On the other hand, the Chinese people also could  improve on it’s social graces. I still see people spitting all over the places and even in eating places! Queueing up to buy things is still a struggle for any foreigner as people try to jump queue without batting an eye. The traffic rules could also be better as cars ignore basic traffic rules  and near accident seems to be an every day occurrence. I could never cross busy roads here without resorting to jay walking which will inevitably earn me a fine back home!

Another Scenic View of Three Gorges

Though the press has already being liberated, more could be done to open up a free flow of information. Youtube is still blocked unless you have an illegal international surfing interent service.  The country actually has nothing to fear as it has move too much ahead recently and is a major economic giant. Nobody will ignore China if they do not want to be left out of it’s influence.

China will continue to hold a part of my heart  as I journey home tomorrow. There are also tentative  plans to do something here with some local friends and discussions are still preliminary.  There is also this book project featuring China which I am keen to explore further with a friend.  It will feature some nice places for Singaporeans to explore for retirement purposes.  To write the book, I may need to return to China to visit these places soon.

As China is a progressive country and still developing, people in transition should seriously take a look at how they can start something here.  The least they can do is to come down and take a look at how the country has continue to astound many. I believe that China will rule the world in terms of it’s economic might for the next ten years or more. Anyone astute enough will want to stay connected with this big giant.

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