Shanghai scandal: initial thoughts

This Monday, Chen Liangyu, the Chief of the Communist Party in Shanghai, was dismissed from the Party and duly removed from the Politburo for his alleged involvement in graft and misappropriations of State funds in Shanghai. He is the highest-ranking official to be removed from the Politburo and the Party in more than a decade. Moreover, one of this protégés, Sun Luyi, the deputy chief of the Shanghai Communist Party, has also been implicated in the ongoing investigation in the developing scandal in Shanghai.
This scandal is interesting for a myriad of reasons. The first of which is that, as the 17th Party Congress is scheduled for next year—at which Hu Jintao et. al. will presumably anoint the next generation of Chinese leaders—Hu, his protégés from the Communist Youth League, and the faction for Beijing are trying to outmaneuver the so-called “Shanghai Gang,” which was long under the leadership of the now-retired ex-President Jiang Zemin. Therefore, the attack against Chen and the Shanghai leaders was done to a) send a message to senior cadre regarding possible Party excommunication following illegal actions and graft b) undercut the influence of the Shnaghai faction before the 17th Party Congress and c) reassert the authority of President Hu and Premier Wen.
As I am not an expert on Chinese politics, my insights into the personal animosities and background of the current situation will not be trenchant, so I will not bother in making all of you read them. I do, however, want to point out a few things that I find to be of note.
1. Beijing has dispatched 100 investigators to Shanghai to look into the misappropriation of funds and granting of large service and building contracts. This is a very explicit attempt by the central state to reassert control in Shanghai, the financial capital of the Mainland that has enjoyed a relative amount of freedom since Jiang Zemin assumed the Presidency in the mid-1990s.
2. In the International Herald Tribune, there was a report stating that Jiang Zemin had approved of—or at the very least not objected to—President Hu’s move against his old protégés in Shanghai. The Tribune went on to cite several anonymous sources within the government to confirm and substantiate this report. Yet this is a one-party authoritarian state, so very little, if anything that comes from a government source—anonymous or not—can be taken at face value without considering the ways in which it might “help” the ruling faction within the Politburo. Let me explain. President Hu is in control of the Party, State and Military—he surely does not need to approval of Jiang to move against the Shanghai elites. The government sources pointing towards Jiang having given his approval must be thought of as a way to bolster the legitimacy of a move that Hu could have taken with or without the support of Jiang. Therefore, it is very possible that Jiang never gave his blessing to this move but, because such a blessing would help President Hu and his pose both legitmate the move against Chen and shore up their power before the 17th Party Congress next year, the official Party-line is that Jiang condoned the move. The real point I’m trying to make is that everything in an authoritarian state has to be read into, and if the western press is willing to look at these things from a Western heuristic, without a proper understanding of Chinese culture and the way in which an authoritarian state works, they run the risk of misunderstanding the moves being made here. My goal with the language, the home stay, and my continued reading on the China, then, is to try and understand what all of this means from a Chinese—and not an American—frame of reference.
Finally, tomorrow is National Day, which commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic. I plan to spend most of the day talking to people and walking around Tiananmen Square, which should be very interesting.

a home stay

It turns out that the vast majority of employment opportunities available to expats in Beijing are positions in which English is the primary—if not only—language of business and communication. While this was not something that I anticipated, I must admit that it makes a lot of sense. Surely any Chinese working in an office that recruits expats and has an international flavor must have at least a minimal level of fluency and functionality in English. Therefore, it would be a waste of time, energy and resources for many of the expats here who speak broken Chinese—much like I do—to use it in the office in lieu of English.
How, then, does this matter for me? For starters, it has helped to define what I want to do for the next several months. As the majority of expats jobs utilize English most of the time, it follows that, were I to get a “real” job in the near future, I’d severely limit my opportunity to improve my Chinese on a consistent basis. Therefore, I’ve decided to continue taking classes through January and to look into possible home stay opportunities. It’s not that I need to speak better Chinese, it’s that I want to. I’m in China, so I figure that I should try to branch out and learn about things that are not isolated to the fun, but small and insular, expat community.
Another advantage of the home stay is that it will give me an opportunity to really immerse myself in the culture, which is surprisingly difficult to do in a city like Beijing that has such a large and strong expat presence. In short, I guess you could say that I’ve decided to devote the time from now until the first of the year to the language and culture; after the Chinese New Year, I hope to transition into more substantive work-related undertakings.
Until January, I’m looking into volunteering with various organizations. My current list of criteria incluses: flexible hours, use of Chinese, and a good—think leftwing human rights/environmental/orphan—cause.

A Change of Course: Beijing Bicycle

Initially, my plan was to arrive in China and find a job in an environment in which both English and Chinese were spoken. Ostensibly, this seemed like a good idea—what better way to learn Chinese than in a completely immersed environment, right? After a few conversations with alums in Beijing I was convinced that, if I was to take a job in a Chinese-speaking environment right now and study Chinese on the side, I’d a) flounder at work b) barely improve my Chinese and c) become increasingly frustrated. Moreover, Beijingers manner of speaking is hard to understand, so even if I spoke better Chinese, it would still take me awhile to figure out what people were saying. Therefore, I’ve decided to do two-hours of one-on-one Chinese everyday at the Taipei Language Institute, a school suggested by people in Beijing and my teachers at Middlebury. I plan to study like this through the New Year, at which point I hope to have completed the equivalent of 2nd and 3rd year Chinese. During the interim, I plan to meet with alums and other expats in Beijing in order to figure out what I want to do with my Chinese and explore potential employment opportunities. I plan to edit/teach English on the side, but I won’t know how much time I’ll be able to devote to that until I’ve settled into a routine with my studying.
Yesterday, I bought a bike—a one speed Giant that resembles the one I had when I was 12. It’s a good bike—it handles well, has a basket and a lock on the back tire. Yesterday, I set off to ride across town to have lunch with a very good friend. I should start by saying that biking in Beijing is nothing like biking in the States. The most apt metaphor I’ve heard is that biking in Beijing is like playing a real life video game—people jumped in front of you, buses almost run into you, bikes going the wrong way engage with you in a game of chicken and no one pays attention to the traffic laws. Yet biking is a great way to see the city—as long as you don’t pay too much attention to the scenery—stay in shape and get around.
At any rate, after over an hour on my bike and several conversations in Chinese later, I arrived at Beijing Normal College. I could not, however, find my friend. After several phone calls and lots of biking in circles, I realized that she was at Beijing Normal University, which is not the same place as Beijing Normal College. It turns out that, because the city has so many schools, such a mistake is easy to make. But what was most interesting is that I could have corrected my mistake if I had known the Chinese name of the school, Bei Shi Da. Since I didn’t know that and kept asking for Beijing Normal Da Xue (college), I ended up at the wrong place. Inevitable, I never met up with my friend and then spent the next hour and a half returning to my current abode.
I plan to write more once I’ve started class and figured out how much time I can devote to other pursuits.

Initial Thoughts and Musings

I arrived in Beijing last Friday, September 8th. While I still don't have my wits about me -- a combination of my jet lag and the overwhelming size of this city -- I'd like to offer some initial thoughts, reactions and insights. First of all, Beijing is a massive, dynamic and exciting city. With a population hovering around 16 million and a land-mass of many, many acres, this city is way too big to see in a week or a month. For me, the scope of the city came to the fore as I walked around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which I would estimate at 3/4 mile x 3/4 mile square.
Beyond the sheer size of the city, I've had a chance to meet a few of the residents. As Tiananmen Square is a mecca for tourists, many of the Chinese in the area approach you in English. Before I arrived, a friend warned me that, generally speaking, people who approach you using English want to take advantage of you. This insight rang true. Of the two groups of Chinese who approached me in English -- one of whom was a guy with a perpetual speck of spittle in the corner of his lip wearing a cheap western suit and the other a group of 3 "university students" who appeared to be in their mid-20s -- who I spoke with (using Chinese) they both took me to see their "art" and "calligraphy." Their art was, generally speaking, a poor copy of a legitimate piece of art with a tacky silk banner. While I was pleased with an opportunity to practice my Chinese, I was appalled to see the number of tourists who were being this stuff from a new Chinese "friend."
I must admit, however, that so far the Chinese seem to be very nice, courteous, and very surprised that I speak Chinese. I've found that, if I respond to "hello" with "ni hao" most Chinese will switch into speaking Chinese. Thus far, I've mostly spoken with younger people -- a guy wearing three shades of white, brown comboy boots and large sunglasses and several groups of girls. The girls first suggested that I should find a Chinese girlfriend if I want to improve my spoken Chinese and then asked me to drink some tea. thus far, I haven't taken anyone up on their offer.
I must admit that I find the expat-guy-with-local-girl dynamic to be extremely interesting. It seems to me as if each party is getting what they want: the expat is able to improve his Chinese, while the local girl is, apparently, thought of as being cool if she has a foreign boyfriend. For a country that was closed off to the West until 1979 following the Cultural Revolution that was traditionally xenophibic, I've found the embrace of these types of couples to be interesting. I must, however, offer the caveat that I have yet to see such a couple -- but I also haven't had a chance to scope out the nightlife... Yet.
yesterday, September 9th, was the 30th anniversary of Chairman Mao's death. the passing of this day was interesting because nothing happened--no parades, no public displays of mourning and no news coverage. the reason for this seems to be that the country and the Communist Party are trying to come to terms with the legacy of a man who founded the People's Republic -- and was responsible for the deaths of upwards of 30 million of his countrymen. The only news I saw regarding Chairman Mao was on CNN, and this story was censored and stopped after about 10 seconds on the air. I found it kind of fitting that the first time I encountered censorship in china it was in regards to the country's past, which seems to change like the tides as the ruling style in this state continues to evolve and change.

My First Entry

Why am I blogging? Up to this point in my life, I’ve never had a written log chronicling my life, thoughts and experiences. Moreover, I never really caught on to the blog craze—this page will be the first one I check on a consistent basis. I guess that the seeds of this blog were sowed during the winter of my senior year at Yale. After kicking around a myriad of post-graduation possibilities, I decided to move to Beijing and look for a job. Let me explain.
After spending my junior year at the University of Sydney in Australia, during which I spent 2 months backpacking through Southeast Asia, I knew that I wanted to live overseas again. Furthermore, I firmly believe that, as a recent grad, this is the only time in my life where I have no obligations or responsibilities beyond making enough money to pay my rent.
During January, I began thinking about ways to get back overseas—graduate studies at Cambridge, NGO work in Africa or South America and doing something in China. As second semester continued, I became more intrigued with the prospects of moving to China. I’ve also found international relations to be fascinating and, as a political science major, I’d spent a lot of time studying governments and the different ways in which states are governed. Indeed, China is emerging as a key player on the international stage and the way in which Beijing has decided to open up an essentially closed economy is impressive—and unprecedented. The more I thought about China, the more I realized that, if I wanted to understand China and, furthermore, international affairs in the 21st Century, I’d need to have a firm grasp of Chinese culture, or Zhongguo wen hua. Yet from my year overseas, I knew that a culture is not something that you can grasp, intuit and understand without living in a country and getting to know its people and its language.
Therefore, I enrolled in a 9-week intensive first year Mandarin Chinese Program at Middlebury College immediately following graduation. I finished the program two weeks ago and, next Thursday, September 7th, I’m moving to Beijing.
Yet I still haven’t answered the question I began this entry with: Why am I blogging? As graduation approached, seniors began greeting each other not with “what’s up” or “how are you doing” but, rather, with “so, what are you doing next year?” More often than not, answers fell into one of three categories: I-banking/consulting, teaching or more school. When I told people my plan—starting to study Chinese, moving to China and then looking for a job—I was met with both incredulity and amazement. Once people realized that I was serious, they usually ended the conversation by saying something along the lines of “be sure to let me know how things turn out in China.” This blog, then, is my attempt to do just that.
Before I wrap up with initial entry I need to offer one quick caveat: this page is not going to be devoted to my personal exploits in Beijing. Rather, it is going to be my attempt to explain Chinese culture—from business etiquette to the language (which I currently speak poorly) to the impact that the 2008 Summer Olympics are having on Beijing and, finally, the way in which the government interacts with its citizens and companies. That said, you can think of this page as a series of “situation reports,” or my take on how China functions as a society.