Yea, but what's China really like?

I get variations of this question almost every day from clients, potential clients, friends, family, and even some strangers on planes and in airports. Usually the questions are something like: “When we come over to see the factory can I also see the real China?” “Can I see how real Chinese people live?” It’s like there is the China in the West (economic power, growing political power, HR issues, kungfu, chopsticks) and then there “another” China, the “real” one over here. I’m not sure what people expect and so I always just tell people they can see whatever they want--because that's what they're going to see anyway, right?Without getting too academic the answers to everyone’s question is all the same. “Yes, you can see the “real” China. Yes, I’ll show you how real Chinese live.” There is certainly more than one China and you will see which ever one you believe to be the “real” one.But the real question should be: What do you want the “real” China to be?” And that answer is NOT so simple. The China Daily, official English newspaper in China, recently asked people what they thought China would look line in 2050. My question, again, is “Which China?”In the true anthropological sense there are probably 5 billion different versions of the “real” China—one for every single individual perception on the planet. No way to deny or analyze each one. But there are a couple of generalities that can be made. They are all somebody’s reality—usually millions of somebodies.You can come on a package tour and get a postcard version. You can come teach English in a village for a year or more and have a very different version of China. You can live on the East Coast or in a factory in a SEZ or just come to trade shows on an annual basis—each will give you a “different” China. Usually all radically different.So here are a few.TOURIST CHINA. This is what most foreigners, including business folk here for a few weeks a year, will see. This China includes: Xi’an, Yunnan, The Bund (Shanghai), Hong Kong, The Great Wall, Tiananmen, some business offices any maybe a factory or two, etc. Most of these people will go back home with the opinion that “China’s not nearly as bad as I see in the news.” Additional opinions will include: “Yea, some of it was dirty but, wow! I couldn’t believe Shanghai/the Great Wall/that adorable little village/etc.”This is the China that China wants you to see. It’s very real and for millions of Chinese and for millions tourist every year it is their reality too. In 2008 you will be able to add the Olympics to the list of real.Tourist China is actively promoted by the Chinese government not to just win the hearts (and dollars) of tourists but to promote their benevolent paternity of minority groups—Window’s on the World, CCP Minority Delegates dressed in ethnic costumes on the front rows of the annual congress sessions, lax college entrance and on-campus behavior rules also support this version. China knows that few foreigners know much about China beyond Kungpao Chicken and the Great Wall and they actively exploit this ignorance. (By the way, you can’t see the Great Wall from space. Whatever “space” means.)A sub-version of Tourist China is the “I-hate-China” China that too many Westerners “see” after coming here and forgetting that this is still a third world (and very foreign) country. This includes run ins with bureaucracy, filthy toilets, traffic from hell, shoddy products, more face than Western morality, etc. This is usually a rest stop that people visit while traveling to “another” China. I’ve been here and it’s not a pretty site. Yet sometimes I still go back, usually just for a day or two. Anyway, that’s another blog for another day.EAST COAST CITIES CHINA. The second most common international version of “China” is the one that most business people see and less than 100 million Chinese people actually live (about 15% of the Chinese population). This is where the expats live, where all the MNC’s have the offices, where growth is in the double digits for almost three decades, where the “new money” Chinese live, where overseas Chinese come home to, where investment (both domestic and foreign) is the highest, where foreign fast food franchises, films, Euro-fashions and automobiles are just as common as bicycles and chopsticks. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Beijing and to a lesser extent Tianjin, Qingdao, Nanjing, Ningbo, Xianmen and Guangzhou.Business people see the money in Shanghai. They see the factories and the nice restaurants run by the Hong Kongese and Taiwanese in Shenzhen. They see an immaculate factory complete with dinners and Karaoke, a trade show either in Shanghai or Guangzhou, a lot of 5 star hotels, Starbucks, chauffeurs, etc. The expat families and rich Chinese (less than ½% of Chinese) live in gated villa communities, shop in the import stores and have their children go to international schools. Chinese in these cities are, on balance, more educated and make more money than similar individuals in other areas. There are lines of Chinese at Pizza Huts across the country every Saturday and Sunday.A subset of East Coast City China is the millions of migrant labors, maids, taxi drivers and others that are part of the Special Economic Zones but certainly don’t have special incomes. There are an estimated 300 million (equal to the population of the US) migrant works that move from one construction project to the next. In essence they become poor tourists of the wealth and economic growth in their own country.FACTORY CHINA. Once the dream of many rural Chinese, the factory life is much less glamorous today than it was even 5 years ago. This China is typically much younger than any other version of China—most factory workers are 16 to 30 years old. Most factory workers are migrants from other rural areas of China. Most don’t speak the local dialect and most will move from factory to factory at a pretty steady clip of one or two factories a year. Hours are long, overtime often mandatory, conditions typically poorly regulated. Some factories are great, many are not though. Over crowed dorms, low levels of job security and a constant line of new applicants outside the front gates.Yet despite the drawbacks of factory life it is often a much better (financial) option than rural China. Even in poorer factories, wages are higher and work easier than farm labor. Most factory workers send money to relatives back home. This is the China for roughly 300 million Chinese.Chinese from East Coast Cities China rarely get involved in Factory China any closer than driving past factories on the freeway. Many have relatives who live/work in factories though. Foreigners see this China on each business trip, as they’ll tell you "I've seen what it's really like." But many see only offices, factory floors, private cars, high class restaurants and the outside of dormitories; and all this for only a few hours per trip.RURAL CHINA. This is the China that most expats see driving by on the freeway or stop to take pictures of on their trip through Guilin/Yunnan/Sichuan. This is the China of Pearl Buck and the romanticized ideal of many foreigners--the "real China." This is the China that most every Chinese is related to—-parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, in-laws, classmates and friends. There are 800 million Chinese still living on less than $400 a year. This is, if we were going by sheer numbers, the “realest” version of China. Regardless of where they live now, most Chinese people 20 years old or older came from this China.There are other versions of China as well. Political China (more than 10 million bureaucrats in China) Dissident China, Minority China (close to 10 million ethnic minorities in China), ABC China (American Born Chinese), Official Statistical China, Insecure China, The Republic of China and Taiwan-as-part-of-China China (over 22 million people in Taiwan).Interestingly, I’ve never ever been asked by a Chinese person “What’s America really like?” The questions from the Chinese are all from an assumption that they already know what it’s really like (capitalist warmongering hell) but just want to confirm. Common questions are: “I’ve read the many people are killed by guns in America, is this true?” or “I’ve heard that the American government only works for companies with lots of money, is this true?” or “I watched such and such movie and want to know if this really happens in America?” Why does America think they are the world’s policeman? Will the US support Taiwan in a war? Etc., etc., etc… I guess I need to ask which America they are talking about.