Chinese Nationalism

After spending 2 nights in westernized Hong Kong, I have come to the conclusion that I am a socialist.  Spending 8 months in Mainland China can have that effect on someone.  Maybe it was all the visits I made to Tiananmen Square, or all the time I spent talking to cab drivers about the wealth gap.  Whatever the causes are, the result is still the same: I feel more at home in Mainland China than I do in Hong Kong.  While I am used to seeing local life, Hong Kong seemed entirely commercialized.  Also, it felt as if the only thing any one cared about was shopping or stock quotes. I have grown to appreciate the more crude aspects of local life in Mainland.  The fact that everything was so clean and perfect in Hong Kong only turned me off.  I am not used to people waiting patiently in line and understanding English wherever I go.  Ironically, going to Hong Kong only made me appreciate Mainland China.

Ever since the international community began criticizing China’s handling of the protests in Tibet, Chinese nationalism has been steadily on the rise.  Naturally, most Chinese only became more patriotic after seeing the Olympic torch protested all over the world.  They were especially upset with France because they had considered it a very close ally.  Paris recently declared the Dali Lama an honorary citizen, and French President Sarkozy has decided to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. The situation has escalated to the point that the government is doing whatever it can to control the anti-foreign sentiment.  For example, many Chinese have boycotted the French supermarket chain Carrefour.  Moreover,  this past week an American student was attacked in a town in the Hunan province.  A mob assumed he was French and started punching his head.  The student then ran to the nearest cab, but it was surrounded by the mob while people chanted “Kill the Frenchman!”  Police intervention saved his life, and he left China shortly after. 

These type of anti-foreign movements seem to occur periodically in Chinese history.  In 2005, nationalist Chinese students took part in passionate Anti-Japanese protests, while many Chinese were angry with America after the 1999 accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.  Going even farther back, the Boxer rebellion was a much more intense anti-foreign movement in the early 20th century. 

Most Chinese that I have spoken to seem somewhat rational about the whole situation, but almost all plan on boycotting Carrefour.  To help cool things down, my university has demanded that no students take part in any protests. 

I will be traveling to a small mountain town in Fujian tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see how local people treat us.   I’ll post pictures when I get back next week.