Being the Outsider

Last week in a meeting we wanted to put the luxury market in China into a historical perspective. The history chart marked from having 30 years of communism, followed by 30 years of capitalism to a new area of most likely 30 years of consumerism which we are facing today. By putting the 3 different generations coming along those decades into the chart we have The Baby Boomers, Generation X and now Generation Y.

I had to protest. I simply couldn’t stand the idea we would name the Chinese period 1945 – 1975 Baby-Booming. Babies weren’t booming at all, babies were starving to death. While the West indeed was facing an era with increased food supplies, medical treatment and social stability; the Chinese were having one of their hardest moments in their nation’s history. Putting “30 years of Communism – The Baby Boomers” underneath a photo from Mao Zedong was simply too much for me.

And here we had a problem. I noticed immediately they actually had no idea what I was talking about yet did not try to prove me wrong. There was silence. Awkward silence. We decided not to put the generations into the deck and left the subject alone. That was it. Should I have kept my mouth? People at home will say “of course not, bring them the truth!” while expats here will understand already situations like these are not as easy to solve as they may look like.

When people travel to China they obviously know about the government policies and censorship but what lots of people estimate themselves wrong with is that they think they will be welcomed here with open arms by the local youth to bring them the ‘true history of their country’. It doesn’t work that way at all. They don’t want to hear it. The educated ones realize things perhaps didn’t happen exactly as they had been taught at school but all was necessary to lift up the country from where it is today. The Machiavellian way of doing things.

It brings you in a very delicate position. Because – even despite the fact what they know and don’t know or believe and don’t wish to believe – this is a culture that simply does not need a foreigner or outsider to tell them anything about their country. Whether this deals with current policies coming from Beijing or the nation’s history. And especially not when it comes down to questioning the heroism of the nation’s icon of progress, virtue and collective values. Yes, this is how it is here today. We still pay with his head on each bank note we pay with. And you have no idea how glorified he still is among the lower classes living on the countryside, while those are exactly the ones who had the hardest time during the starvation.

It’s hard to stand near the line here realizing few can be done. Last year I spoke to a student journalism. Asking her whether or not it was challenging to study journalism in a country you couldn’t speak fully your own mind on which she replied that she had no idea what I was talking about. Is it denial, blind ignorance or simply not knowing any better? It does make you feel you shouldn’t come in between, despite how important you believe these things are. And despite how much you would want to and always thought of yourself you would before coming here.