Naked Officials? (裸体做官，luo ti zuo guan)

A recent corruption case has immediately caught the attention of Chinese netizens.

Pang Jiayu, former vice chairman of the provincial political advisory body (the CPPCC of Shanxi province) , was sentenced a 12-year jail and his personal assets worth RMB 200,000.00 was confiscated. Pang's case was widely reported last September because of the saying that he was brought down by his own 11 mistresses (Ernai, 二奶 in Chinese). He was also labelled as 'Zipper Mayor' after the story was exposed.

What makes the case so hot among netizens in China is the fact that Pang's wife and son already immigrated to Canada in 2002 when he was still the party boss in Baoji, a city of Shanxi province, which means he probably had already transferred most of his illicit money to his wife before he was charged of bribery. Netizens have coined the phrase '裸体做官 luo ti zuo guan' (naked officials) to describe such a phenomenon that a corrupted official would arrange his/her family members to immigrate overseas secretly, as a means to mitigate the possible severe effects if he/she is found guilty later on.

Pang's case is not a singular one. In fact, some observers have pointed out that becoming-a-naked-official has evolved into a subculture in Chinese officialdom, and some even characterizes it as 'the more corrupted, the less remorseful officials are'.

Although there is a mechanism within the officialdom to record the personal and family members' assets, lacking transparency virtually creates a lot of loop holes to prevent such phenomenon.

The latest movement to tackle rampant corruption problems by the Chinese authority is to amend the Criminal Law. The report says the legislative body of China is currently reviewing the draft of an amendment, which would add clauses oriented to relatives and people who have 'intimate relations' with corrupted officials, if they abuse the officials' positions to accept bribes or otherwise profit illegally.

A positive step indeed, but allowing media to perform the checks and balances is also quite critical.

orderly, but soulless

Yesterday evening, when I was watching the well-coordinated movements of thousands of performers in the closing ceremony, I suddenly thought about some mise-en-scenes in the film the Lord of Ring, in which the intimidating force is represented in the similar manner. The only difference is that the later one is a simulacra created on the screen with the help of computers, while the former one is a real event happened in the Bird's Nest.

Today, quite exceptionally, the headline of the top story appeared nearly all newspapers in Beijing, and Internet news portals as well, has unanimously used IOC chief Roggae's word 'truely exceptional' (in Chinese it's translated as '无与伦比', which plays up a bit to the meaning 'best ever' from Roggae's words, like this story from the Australian indicates) to praise the Beijing Olympic Games. Although it's amusing to see the gap btw the Chinese expectation in the translation and what's been given in reality by Mr. Roggae's, I'm really sick of such self-intoxication in such a shoddy unanimity and order, so depressing and distasteful that when I heard Boris Johnson poking fun to his audience at the London House by saying it's the 1908 Games, I couldn't help laughing.

It makes me feel better, and I swear, it has nothing to do patriotism or nationalism. I'm just cheered up a bit by his sharp and humorous comment, like suddenly you are granted to breathe freely after having been confined in a tightly controlled space for a while. This somewhat eccentric London mayor just behaves like that lovely child in the story of Anderson's emperor's new cloth, by simply pointing out a matter of fact, while most of us are silent. Of course, the speech given by him as a whole is full of Londoner's pride, but it's not offensive to my ears.

What a relief! I know he thinks the aesthetic taste of the ceremony is quite outdated, even philistine.

There is another story from WP that has made my head even cooler. Probably it is the first insider's account on the weirdness of services he was provided.

'As sports spectacles go, I've never seen one more efficiently or soullessly executed than this one. I have no idea where they put the real people for 17 days, but I felt like Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show." Where's Ed Harris saying: "Truman is going to turn left on Main Street: Cue the smiling girl and the hearty hot dog vendor." '

Very personal indeed, but it gives me a sense of truth about how good it is.

Really a cool stuff!

Farewell, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games!

Thanks, Chen Jie, for this wonderful photo.

Chinese collectivist mentality? Too simple to say so...

When I first read Mr. Brooks' essay on the societies with individualist mentality and the ones with collectivists mentality several days ago, I sensed something wrong in it. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be over tonight. Since that essay has something to say about the opening ceremony, it would be interesting to review it from the final result of the Games.

The following presuppositions for Brook's argument are especially problematic.

1. Americans usually see individuals; Chinese and other Asians see contexts.
2. Americans are more likely to see categories. Asians are more likely to see relationships.

Brooks draws evidence from some scientific research for the above-mentioned presuppositions, but by presuming such a flawed generalization as the truth, Brooks himself falls into a collective mode of thinking, a typical problem of the external reflection where the content goes against the form.

Anti-thesis to such a fault statement is quite obvious when one looks into the Olympics medal table. China's version focuses on the number of gold medals, while America's more on collective overall figure of all medals. That will lead America into the No.1 sports country. It is indeed. China stands at the top of the gold medal list, largely because of its unique national sports system - a highly efficient champion making mechanism, if not an elite one. But strangely, most of the gold medals won by Chinese athletes are from individual competitions, collective wise, US performs much better in team-work games, such as basketball, volleyball, women's football, baseball, softball, relay competitions in swimming and running. Brooks' argument certainly can't explain such a phenomenon.

In addition to sports, business world also sees something contradictory. Anyone who attends American business school to get MBA degree would find that networking and team spirit is the central theme in their studies of successful multi-national companies. They are influential now in China as well, and I'm shuddered to find out how popular the American style corporate training programmes are in China, in which the team spirit is instilled by the slogan 'we are the one'! To say successful MNC secretly adopts the ideology of fascism and brainwash their employees in such a manner might go too far, but its impact on the mentality of anyone in the economic sphere across national borders and cultural boundaries can't be ignored. Does the great convergence happen in both countries as this interesting essay argues?

The paradox is that although the Chinese authority heavy-handedly maintains the public order, individuals' desire to reach their full potentials is not repressed in the economic sphere, which has made it very vibrant and energetic, but also brutal and primitive.

One of the following readers has keenly observed that Chinese are rather in conformist mentality, instead of collectivist one. I would add that this is more or less in the political sphere.

Here are some noteworthy readers' comments on Brooks essay:


'A society that is either too individualistic or too collective will not prevail. As a Chinese-born American, I have seen the downfall in both. The Chinese have learned to be more individualistic over the past few decades (and probably want to continue moving in that direction). Perhaps it is time for the U.S. to put a little more emphasis on the collective. (And then maybe we can actually get some meaningful health care reform.) '— Michelle, Princeton, NJ

'Let's not confuse "collectivist" with "conformist." Conformity may be a virtue in the East, whereas it may be a character defect in the West, (except that everyone's conforming in the West, too!)' — G, Tucson, AZ

'The tension between individualistic behavior and collectivist behavior is very fundamental to how the world thinks - it is not a simple East-West cultural binary. The very fundamentals of the Scientific method, are rooted in reductionist thinking that isolates subjects from their contexts in order to objectively study them.' — Alan, Houghton, MI

'If we replace the word 'collectivism,' which has a more negative connotation in the West, with a word like 'communitarism,' which emphasizes 'cooperation,' 'interdependence,' and 'civil society,' the importance of a balance between 'Harmony and the Dream' becomes clearer to Western ears.' — D.B. Borsody, New York

'Has David never considered that the left has always been collectivist and the right individualistic since the dawn of the industrial age or that the working class tends to be collectivists while the middle class is individualistic. Unionism, suffrage, abolition,and grass roots movements for the living wage, universal health, and so on are collectivist in aim and method. Read Raymond Williams for starters.' — patrick finn, buffalo, ny

'As I see it, collectivism and individualism, far from being mutually exclusive, are complementary and both necessary for a healthy society and culture. The idea of them being separate opposites may be, after all, due to that American way of perceiving things, as Mr. Brooks himself points out: one that fails to see the relationships but focuses, instead, on categories.'— Diogo, Portland

Some of comments have entered into the determinate reflection, like the last one. Good to see such a cool head!

The prize for each olympic gold medal

Chinese gold medalist will be rewarded by an unprecedented amount comparing to their peers in the previous Olympic Games.

Here is the list (per gold medal) base on this report:

China: USD300,000 on average (from the central and local governments, corporate sponsorship, possible bonus including apartments, government jobs, cars and instant admission to university etc);

US: USD25,000 (from the US Olympic Committee);

Russia: USD150,000 (promised by Putin);

Germany: 50 litres of beer/month (German do love beer!);

Belarus: a lifetime worth of sausages (vow!);

India: USD 1 million (plus a doubling of pension and a life time go-anywhere free first-class train pass);

Mongolia: telephone number 9999-9999;

North Korea: something like 'hard-working hero' award.

How about other countries? Any feedback is welcome.

The undertone of western nationalism

Yesterday, when I talked to a friend of mine on China's nationalism, I said that the strong sense of national pride, achieved by compromising or undermining individual citizen's rights can't be called patriotism. Some of my friends prefer the word 'patriotism' to avoid negative connotation of 'nationalism', which in my view is just self-cheating. Actually, such a strong sense of national pride held by the most of Chinese, which in general is disproportionate to the development of civil society in China, is a worrisome sign.

China's strong sense of national pride after the Olympics might play a very important role in re-instating the sense of western nationalism if the development of civil society in China fails to eliminate doubts from the outside world. The division of the Self and the Other at the national level has never been so prominent since the end of the cold war. Coincidentally, Russia now might be another important factor in shaping western nationalism, especially after its invasion of Georgia, as conservative Robert Kagan argues in his recent essay that 'nationalism, and the nation itself, far from being weakened by globalization, has returned with a vengeance'.

The tricky thing is such a western nationalism is always a latent one, hidden behind universal values with the aim to differentiate You and Me, like Kagan's democracy vs. autocracy, but when one looks into the argument one would find what's really important to him is actually power play.

I think any argument tinged with such a mentality of the national power play, in the name of defending democracy, is a kind of nationalism, because it hijacks the universal notion - democracy to serve the writer's national interests, presumably western. It is for this reason that I'm very suspicious about Kagan's divisive thinking, as it might fanfare confrontation instead of promoting peace.

I'm not so sure what Kristof's view is about Kagan's history-is-back (I myself agree that history is back, but not in a sense of Kagan's argument about democracy vs. autocracy), and I'm not very comfortable either about his way of argument in his latest essay on China's rise. I even think he might fall into the trap of western nationalism by saying 'now it will be our turn to scramble to compete with a rising Asia'.

Does he? Granted that China's success so far in its development lies largely in its flexibility to cope with pressures either from the outside or from the inside, but the standpoint of Kristof is quite ambiguous. In fact, one can sense a bit his conservative undertone by playing up the rise of China, which nevertheless underlies his strong identification with the US (patriotic feeling as he may argue) instead of liberal values per se.

Interestingly, there is another critique from Gulf News by Amir Taheri, which sheds some insightful light on the similar concern about China after the Olympics. Instead of portraying China as a major competitor, threatening to gain more from other nations' existing interests in a zero sum game, Taheri poses questions rather from internal problems that China is currently facing without the reference to his own country. In a very concise way, Taheri touches three urgent issues that largely would shape the future of China.

The first one is the political reform,

'The Chinese ruling elite is divided between reformists and supporters of the status quo ante. Portraits of the Great Helmsman may have disappeared from public view for the duration of the games. But a good chunk of the elite, still drunk on the heady wine of Maoism, is biding its time. The final purge, both in terms of policy and personnel, has not yet taken place.'

The second one is the concern about China's role in the international arena,

'the international system needs a positive input from China. A policy of nay-saying and prevarication cannot deal with dangers, such as nuclear proliferation spearheaded by North Korea and Iran, that could ultimately affect China’s own security.'

And the third one is how to assimilate so large amount of migrant workers in Chinese society into a stable social stratum,

'The 300 million or so poverty stricken seasonal workers roaming from one end of the country to another could emerge as a veritable human tsunami, destroying all that China has built since the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping a generation ago.'

The analysis is insightful, problems are better articulated, and the questions posed by the writer are sharper. Sorry, Mr. Kristof, it is such a vigorous thinking without too much concern of the self-interest sets up the standard. Instead of some shallow cliches with the tone of nationalism, be it eastern or western, such an insightful argument is in need now. Quality matters!

Legal problems of protest

Here is the story of a brave lawyer who are against all odds to pursue his ideal. Another story tells about two elderly women, who had some problems in settling down the compensation fee with the real estate developer for the demolition of their old houses, applied for the permission to protest in the specified zones by the local authority but only received ridiculous punishment. Sadly, it's impossible to look into the details of these two cases. So it's just for the reference here.

However, some Chinese legal experts do write up something on the protest issue. In his essay about citizen's rights to protest in China, Gao Yifei, a professor in Xiangtan University of Hunan province, elaborates the legal basis on the citizen's right to protest, particularly the historical context for the protest law passed in 1989. More importantly, he also points out that there are some flaws that need to be re-addressed in that law. For example, there is no clause in the current law to grant citizens the right to litigate the government to the People's Court if their applications are rejected by the government, which means under the current situation, if citizen's application is rejected by the government, he/she basically has no means to obtain further legal support. It's the dead end. Obviously, such a law is not sufficient to fully guarantee the citizen's right.

I must say it's a timely analysis which is very helpful to understand the issue of protest right. The problem is when lawmakers in China will write a bill to amend the current assembly and demonstration law.

Protest? You're Kidding.

I guess that foreign media's questioning about the quietness in all three protest zones in Beijing, which signifies the repressiveness of the authority, did have some effects. At least, the municipal PSB held a press conference, so we know that the number of applications for protests has totaled 77 since August 1.

Xinhua's report says issues like labour disputes, medicare disputes and welfare are involved in those applications, and they have been turned down 'because the problems those applicants contended for were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations'.

No more details, but a story from IHT provides a glimpse on how difficult it is for an applicant to get through the procedure. I've read the adventure of NYT's columnist Nicholas Kristof the day before, but the one appeared on IHT is quite special since the protagonist is not a local resident but from Heilongjiang, a northeastern province of China. Gao's story is heart wrenching; the problem however, is complex. Unless he obtains the support at the local level, either through lawyers or through local media, his problem is quite impossible to solve by simply protesting in Beijing. This is really the vicious circle in China that a socially deprived person couldn't find a proper channel legally to solve his/her problem, and neither can he release the tension through local media's interference by playing the check-and-balance game or through the support from the civil society. When such a channel at the local level is blocked, people like Gao would come to Beijing and seek help. Such a mentality has its origin in the feudal era of China when the society is strictly conformed to the hierarchical structure without the respect of individual's human rights. Applying for the demonstration might be his last straw.

How typical is the case of Gao ? Among those who have applied for the protests, are there any Beijing residents? Reading the recent Pew's report on the Chinese attitude toward future, I'm surprised to know Chinese people's near universal optimism toward their future. I can't help wondering how relevant the case of Gao has become to those optimistic Chinese.

Putting my imagination of Mr. Gao and Mr. Optimist together, the sharp contrast is obvious. But I'm puzzled by the question who is more representative to the current China. Are they both representative? But if Mr. Gao is from the weak stratum, and not belonging to the group of Mr. Optimist, why the authority is still fearful to grant him the right to protest. Since more than 80% of Chinese are in the group of Mr. Optimist, such a solid social foundation should make the authority more confident to handle the case of Mr. Gao.

This is a typical case that harmony goes to extreme where it would damage itself. Because it's so quiet, it makes people wonder something must be wrong. And in such a wondering, something has been anticipated. And in such an anticipation, something really would happen. It's all become self-reflexive. Mr. Gao's story definitely would be ignored in the official post-Olympics narrative because it is simply against the image of the BOG it tries to project. However, this small leftover being recorded here could be a reminder afterwards, for me or for others to recuperate a bit reality when the passion for the OG runs out of its steam.

Live Broadcasting Studio of CCTV1 for the BOG

While watching the first round of 110 hurdles on CCTV1, (unfortunately Liu Xiang gave up the match because of the sprained ankle), I notice that the background of anchorperson in the live broadcasting studio of CCTV1 is Tiananmen Gate!

Sorry, I hadn't noticed this as I hardly watched any live broadcasting programmes. Isn't this a blatant sign of ideology being re-inscribed into the Olympic Games, which is supposed to be neutral? The choice is so awful that it completely goes against the slogan 'New Beijing, New Olympics' presented by BOCOG. Well, probably CCTV is discreetly ultra-conservative.

If CCTV thinks that the Tiananmen Gate embodies the spirit of the Beijing Olympics Games, instead of the Bird's Nest, it's seriously problematic and offensive to everyone who loves the Games.

A test by Nicholas Kristof

Well, just wondering if there are any protestors in the three demonstration zones allocated by the local authority in Beijing for the Olympic Games, someone has already tested the application procedure! I read it here.

A rare account though, as it's quite impossible to have it in China. It's also funny to see the complementary video, in which the interior decoration of PSB tells itself on the cost (seems to me quite costly for these leather-like sofa). Can't imagine such a videoing would be allowed!

The Big Brother is really open this time. Isn't this the syndrome of the post-totalitarianism, in which certain things are allowed procedurally in the name of the rule of law, but the difficulties you are to encounter will just turn you down.

'Surrender!' That's how it goes in front of such a procedural barrier, as what Mr. Kristof did finally. Very nice try indeed.

On Zhang Yimou's Transformation

Stunning, spectacular, extravaganza, these are some words being poured out by the spectators of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. Aesthetically speaking, the ink painting part in the show is one of my favorites. When those ballet dancers in black left various ink traces on the paper through their rhythmic body movement, mimicking the free strokes of paint brush, I think it has really captured the soul of Chinese ink painting; that is seeking the lightness against the gravity of the mundane life. It reminds me of the scene in Zhang Yimou's film Hero, in which two swordsmen are fighting on the surface of a lake - simply by pointing the tip of sword to the surface of the water, both of them could stay in the air. The confluence of dancing and painting is so well choreographed that the whole process itself deserves to be a prominent artwork.

Ever since Zhang Yimou was appointed as the director of the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics Games, I had been wondering about his perception and creation. To me, he is such an extraordinary persona rich in artistic vision, yet heavily burdened with the self-styled historical sense to regain the reputation that China once enjoyed in the world. In fact, most directors that belong to the so-called fifth generation in China, including Chen Kaige, are all struggling for free personal artistic creation but unwittingly being constrained by their educational and cultural background on one hand, and heavy-handed censorship on certain subjects such as the Cultural Revolution on the other.

Among his peers, Zhang Yimou probably is the most prominent figure who has survived such a struggle and been successfully assimilated into the system by the authority. If there is any reason for the criticism of his later films, I think this is the major one. However, in my opinion, he has somehow managed to retain independence within the system.

From the Red Sorghum to the Curse of Golden Flower, and finally to the stunning show of the opening ceremony, the trajectory of Zhang Yimou's evolvement around the struggle for personal freedom while facing the oppressive reality is the most interesting subject in studying his works. To elaborate on this subject is certainly beyond the scope of this blog, so the following points are only sketchy.

The most striking part of the opening ceremony comes from the movement of the printing matrix composed by thousands of performers. The visuals change several times, from the Chinese character ‘和’ (peace and harmony) at the beginning, to the Great Wall, and then collapsing itself into a kind of relics, from where bunches of peach flowers emerge.
The reason this majestic scene caught my attention is that the Great Wall was constructed under the order of Qin Shihuangdi, the first emperor in the Chinese history who has unified China into one entity. Zhang Yimou seems quite fascinated by this emperor, that he has so far made two films about him. The most popular one of course is Hero, in which he re-inscribes the Master and the Slavery relations into the narrative, by positioning the Unnamed, one of the central characters by Jet Li who is supposed to assassin Shihuangdi, to accept that Shihuangdi is the Master of the world. In my view, such a fatalistic historical view probably reflects the darkest period of his life since his film to Live was banned in China.

His perception of inhuman historical necessity has been taken seriously later on by other critiques to his film the Curse of Golden Flowers, saying that it is a kind of manifestation of Fascism. The Curse has been selected in the mainland China as the most loathsome film in 2007, because so many Chinese audiences are offended by it. However, I take such a unanimous NO by the mass as the signification of the film, exactly because I think it has touched the hidden dark side of the collective psyche of China that which is secretly yearning for the power in the world as the Middle Kingdom per se, and the rigid hierarchical order so bloody oppressive in its long history of feudalism, by putting on the mask of benevolence promoted by Confucius. The greatness of Lu Xun lies exactly in his outspoken writings in attacking such a society as the one eating ordinary man.

I take the Curse as a kind of departure from his previous films since one of the rebellious figures in the film, the Empress, has such an unyielding will to rebel against the Emperor, the symbol of the autocratic power. Unlike his previous films, the end of the film is open and is subjected to various interpretations. It seems to me that the answer to the question left by that end has finally been given by Zhang Yimou, when those beautiful peach flowers emerge from the relics of the Great Wall in the opening ceremony.

Many observers have been swept off by the grandeur visual effect of the openning ceremony, but there is one small detail worth a close look, which is nonetheless very indicative to me. After those beautiful peach flowers emerge from the relics of the Great Wall, all performers hiding in the boxes suddenly appeared on the stage, waving to the audience cheerfully. On the screen, there is a close-shot to these unnamed performers. This shot is disruptive to the smoothness of the narrative, so I think it functions as a kind of recognition for those unnamed performers. I don't know whether this idea is from Zhang Yimou or not. If it is, I think it's highly plausible as he probably has recognized that the real history is made by the people, and the real master is the people. This is really the U-turn in his historical view comparing to the one appeared in Hero. In this light, the climatic scene of lighting the cauldron in the end by the legend gymnast Li Ning is truly inspiring.

August 08, 2008

First thing I did in the morning when I got up is to see the sky outside the window. No bright sunshine, no blue sky, it is grey and hazy as yesterday and the day before yesterday.

Today is a big day for China as the opening ceremony of the Games will be staged tonight at 8:00 pm. The so-called greatest event that China would host in the last one hundred years would be unveiled to the rest of the world. I can foresee the grandeur of the ceremony which is supposed to inspire, to awe, or even to shock spectators from all over the world. Anyway, which country has ever worked out such a big scale fireworks show as Beijing would do by using the whole stretch of the north-south axis of the city, to symbolize China’s returning to the world as a power?

Of course, no comments on the air pollution by such a great work, as we are supposed to lose ourselves in such a beautiful and fantastic illusion. And the mandate - enjoy! Because you must – is permeating everywhere in the public sphere, from banners saying ‘one world, one dream’ in streets to national flags in local residential areas, not to mention the hyper-joyful mood saturated in the media world.

Welcome to the grandest party that Chinese have ever had in its history. Excessiveness is everywhere, and pleasure abundant, no matter how superficial it is. We are in the era of overindulgence in the image projection and flexing muscles with national pride.

Will this unprecedented show eliminate the skeptics about the prospect of China? Certainly not. Amid this hypnotic man-made frenzy, today’s gloomy weather is the most powerful counter argument against the claim that the environment has been largely improved. The last straw to restrict the number of cars in streets didn’t deliver the miracle that most people have been hoped for.

If there is anything peculiar today, it must be weather. Disenchanting and sober, it is such a good reminder for the GREEN Olympic Games!