2008 China Trip

This Blog has been moving to iLook China. As the posts are moved and revised, they will be deleted here until only two remain.

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Part 1

To understand China, we will start with modern China before we travel back in time.

Why am I doing this?  Simple. When the 2008-2009 school year started, our daughter returned home one day to tell us that her history teacher talked about China and said the people in China had to be very depressed to live under a totalitarian government like the Communists.

When our daughter attempted to disagree, the teacher and the entire class put her down, so she shut up.

My daughter was born in Chicago and grew up speaking English. Her mother, my wife, was born in Shanghai and survived Mao’s Cultural Revolution (which killed thirty million). My wife came to the United States in the 1980s when she was twenty-eight. Our daughter has been to China more than thirty times during her seventeen years, and she speaks fluent Mandarin and has been learning Spanish for the last four years.

I wanted to go and straighten that ignorant American teacher out with the truth, but my wife and daughter said not to stir the pot (very Chinese). I’ve been to China many times and have never seen the people depressed like I’ve seen here in the country of my birth. I was born in Southern California soon after World War II. My ancestors come from Ireland, England and Europe.

Other than Western media reports, when in China, you hear little about the government unless you listen to the official, government media. The people are too busy living life and enjoying it to be bothered by a government that is doing all it can to raise the standard of living for 1.3 billion Chinese. I see more depression and anger in America than I have seen in China.

There are seventy million communists in China and more than a billion people that love life and live it to the fullest without chasing one material thing after another with credit card debt.  

As an example, my wife has an American-born friend from her days at the Chicago Art Institute that broke into tears once because she couldn’t buy a two thousand dollar jacket. I’ve never seen or heard of that type of behavior in China. I’m sure it happens, but I haven’t witnessed it. Most Chinese live simple lives in simple, but crowded, surroundings. Over the years, I’ve discovered that family, friends and gaining an education are more important to most Chinese than buying material junk.

This link will take you to 2008 China Trip Part 2