The ever-present past, the moon and The (Chinese) Man

With the release of yet another “epic Chinese period piece” in theaters this month I have to ask: Have you ever noticed that everything great about China is, well, old?  I’m not talking about the factories or the economy; I’m talking about the popular culture.  Ask the Chinese themselves about China’s greatness and you’ll most likely get something like I get from people I ask: “we should be one of the great countries of the world like we were.” Or “The greatest thing about China are its history of 6000 years.”  I have never had a single Chinese person answer me something that wasn’t political or historical in answer to this question in the 12 years that I’ve been here and been asking.Now, that’s not all bad.  I’m here in China because I think that China’s history is very interesting.  The Chinese past is fascinating to visit on vacation, but it’s, well, past.  I’m here for the now and the next.  When I’m on vacation I do want to see the past and I regularly visit places like The Great Wall, The Terra Cotta Warriors, temples, museums, etc.  But my children and I don’t live in China’s past other than these brief visits.  But in this view we seem to be a minority.For example, my in-laws (Chinese) watch Chinese soap operas every day—all set in dynasties centuries past.  Chinese movies in theaters today are mostly about, yes you guessed it, the past.  Indeed it seems that a “modern” Chinese movie is set in turn of the century Shanghai.  Turn of the 19th century, that is.In recent years China has built more million-plus-people cities from scratch than any other country in the world.  They’ve had growth that boggles the mind and economic theories for 30 years.  They’ve put a man into space, orbited the moon and are now racing—and yes, have a good chance of beating—the US back to the moon.  That’s incredible!  Their future is so bright, if not for the pollution, you’d have to wear shades!Where is the independent social culture that mirrors these great modern Chinese achievements?I’m saying this as a Chinese History buff too—I was a Chinese History major in College and I studied Chinese (and Thai) anthropology in grad school.  I married a Chinese.  I speak Chinese.  I read 20-30 books a year on China.  I have lived in China for 9 of the last 12 years.  But just I don’t get the obsession with the past.  Can history really be that popular to 1.3 billion other people?  What about the present?  The future?I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s in the US.  The US had just won the space race by going to the moon in ’69; the resultant cultural phenomenon was literally an overnight explosion of everything space in 60’s.  And that look-to-the-future space culture has lasted for more than the next 40 years in the West.  I grew up watching Buck Rodgers, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Pigs in Space, Star Wars, Alien, The Terminator and Inter-planet Janet.Don't get me wrong, I also love America’s history so I don’t see anything wrong with Chinese patriotism and love of the past.  George, Tom, Ben, Alex, Teddy, Lincoln, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC.  I love it.  We were, and I think, still are, great!  I’ve read 8 books on US history in the last two years.  I bought Ken Burns’ documentaries (plural).  “My” US history is special to me, because it’s a part of who I am and I really want to know more and I want my kids to know both their roots—both Chinese and American.So before you think I’m just another foreigner basing China and you glibly respond, “other countries do it too,” think about this: when was the last time you saw a top-ten movie about the American Revolution?  When was the last time a Prime Time or even Day Time TV show was made about James Town?  Columbus?  Philadelphia? 1776? (Since I wrote this John Adams has come out on HBO to great reviews—and it’s a surprise exception, to the rule, is it not?) When was the last time you watched anything about US history because of its entertainment value?  Outside of Shakespeare and Emily Bronte what plays/movies have you watched about Victorian England?  Even Disney’s current Shaolin Showdown cartoon is based in the future has tons of technology mixed in with martial arts and classical style Chinese artistry.  It’s certainly not old people reliving old stories in old dress.Now maybe the American economy is dying a quick death this year.  Indeed, optimism in the future of the US is down to record lows.  But Hollywood isn’t pumping out a list of Civil War and American Revolution movies this summer to raise our collective spirits.  Nor is the US govt funding special programs to remind us that “we once were great.”Which brings me to The Man, Chinese version.Can you honestly tell me that the Chinese kids of today, who, by the way, watch all the US movies on knock-off DVD, really would rather watch cartoons about the Tang dynasty, 18th century Shaolin monks, and heroic CCP soldiers?  Really?  Do you honestly believe that Chinese professionals, business people, teenagers and MWM—“Mainlanders With Money,” as Diligence Calls them calls them—really want to watch controlled and edited versions of the past glories/tragedies while other waking hours are spent checking stocks online, working for a house, a Benz, a Rolex, an iPod, etc.?Outside of Ang Lee (Taiwan), Jet Lee, Zhang Zhiyi, Chao Yangfat (Hong Kong) and Jacky Chan  (Hong Kong) how many Chinese are competitive in the international film industry?  Not many, so many of the Chinese films are in part State sponsored (or at least State allowed).  The recent banning of Tang Wei would support this.  Further, The Chinese Man limits the number of US films that are show in Chinese theaters to less than 10 a year to reduce competition.  When you control exposure and competition you have a captive audience and can show anything you want—including the same historical novels over and over again.Starting way back in 1995 I remember the Chinese press bemoaning the fact that China didn’t have it’s own domestic cartoons.  Yes, this was a national identity crisis for many university students reading the People’s Daily.  So The Man stepped into the manufactured crisis and promoted local artists.  Not all bad, certainly.  But the limit of foreign films and the promotions of local films and cartoons isn’t the best way to promote diversity or quality—but maybe that’s not the point, eh?But the manipulation of thousands of years of history for a current, short-term political goal is a big deal.  All of the Chinese history you see today is carefully edited and presented in a context that is not “dangerous” to The Man, current version.  Now certainly America and other countries manipulate history to some degree but free press, independent filmmakers and colleges and universities push back and indeed, more “history” comes from private sources than government sources in the West for sure.Maybe the goal is an actual experiment on the admonition that those who don’t remember the past are forced to relive it.  Could it be that The Man here is hoping that this time his dynasty will not end in disaster?  Certainly.  But what price is The Man paying in lost creativity and entrepreneurialism?I can’t believe that the promotion of Chinese history at the expense of the future isn’t going to be a problem, in the future.  I can’t believe that education that is based on memorizing how “great we used to be” isn’t somehow limiting future generations creative ability.  Like the child who’s always told he’s smarter than everyone else, he soon becomes scared of failure and trying new things.  Idolize the past at the expense of the future.I really just want my kids to see the Chinese version of the Muppets’ Pigs in Space—come on, that’s not too much to ask, is it?