Page 10 RAIN February/March 1981 Taishan cont. description pf its supposed medical properties. "No, no," he is corrected by one of the gardeners, "That one's just there for us to look at." rich, fast-moving, highly mechanized place, full of tractors, airplanes, highways and supermarkets. I begin to sense the same ambivalent inferiority complex,we keep encountering in our discussions with factory and commune people: a quiet pride in Chinese social and technological advances since the Revolution coupled with the strong image of America as the real wizarc:l of progress. ' At the Normal School We come from the country where there are supermarkets, and the super:qiarkets are very tall: This is one of the images of America we are encountering as we tu.tor an evening English class at the Taishan Normal School. I find ~ys~lf being placed in the "Taishan dilemma':-the one , which will confront members of our tour group over and over again: how can we, as appropriate technologists, transcend burstereotypes as Americans and.communicate our vision of a different The dozen or so students in my re'ading group are 18-20 years old but seem much younger. They are immensely hospitable and their eagerness•to practice their skills on a live American is overwhelming. The reading passages in their text are roughly equivalent to a sixth o! seventh grade level in the U.S., and are on such subjects as the American moon space program, small-scale American agriculture, and the life of Abraham Lincoln. Although the materjal is, for the most part, scrupulously factual, my students ask me more than once if what they ~re reading is _true. ' sort of ideal future-one which does not include skys~rapers and supermarkets among its symbols? I have brought along a supply of RAIN brochures which include a reduced-size version of one of Diane Schatz's marvelous "ecotopia" posters. I hand out the brochures to my students and they are instantly enchanted (as people always a:ce) with the details of the poster. I begin to answer their barrage of questions and to explain, in the simplest English I can muster, how the drawings of bicycle trucks, community gardens, solar food driers, cottage industries, and recycling projects represe:r:it someone's vision of an ideal American community of the future·. The more I try to explain, the more.tongue-tied I become, and it finally dawns on me that what I am saying makes no sense to my listeners at all. Much of what they are seeing in the poster they I am curious what else these young people know about the U.S., so I begin to ask themquestions. None of them has heard of President Carter. Two or three hav~heard the name "Reagan." Only New York and California are familiar state names. Although their fascination with the idea of America is obvious, they have only vagu~, somewhat distorted, but essentially accurate visions of a have seen every day of their lives. I am ·showing them a picture of Taishan. DD ------ ----- CHINA. - - ------- ------- ----- - - Beijing Review, weekly, $13.50/yr. from: .Guoji Shudian P.O. Box399 Beijing, People's Republic of China This English language journal of news and comment looks and reads like a Chinese government version of Time or Newsweek. It provides the Western reader with an excellent means of viewing world events through Chinese eyes and of keeping current on the rapid changes taking place in China under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. Issues in recent months have carried reports on Chinese policy toward small-scale private enter- . prise; on the Chinese perception of U.S. and Soviet influences in Latin America; on plans being formulated for a Chinese edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica; and on ambitious programs to develol China's vast hydropower potential. 0 special note: the 10/27/ 80issue carries a sort of "China 2000 Report" which predicts that in twenty years "TV sets, washingmachines, refrigerators and other durable goods will be quite com,- mon in Chinese homes, while the diet,will • contain substantially larger amounts of meat, eggs, ,sugar and milk." If you're fascinated.by China,.and can't find the time to master Mandarin, the.Beij~ ing Review is for you. -JF uwatch ·out for the Foreign Guests!": China Encounters the West, by Orville Schell, 1981, 178 pp., $8.95 from: Pantheon Books • 201 East 50th St. New York, NY10022 citing life in the West. He tells of his con~ersations with Ling Mulan, a college student in her late twenties, bitter over having been sent to Mongolia during the <;::ultural Revolution to "help the peasants" and now skeptical of the superiority of socialism to capitalism when "the West is so advanced while we are still so backward." He also describes his visit to Kunming-Street in Dairen, "a veritable·free-fire zone for private enterprise" where peasants "hawk produce, seafood, and During'our travels through China, much of dry goods, pocketing the proceeds as if what we saw was puzzling, unexpected, or Chairman Mao, the Great Leap Forward,•the downright jarring. The television commer- _ Cultural Revolution, and the Gang of Four cials and billboards, the vigorous_free enter- had never existed." prise, and the uncritii:al fa~cination with all Why such radical and sudden changes folthings Western particularly struck us. Fortu- lowing upon years of socialist zeal? Schell · , nately, a pre-publication copy of "Watch believes that a great deal of Chinese energy Out for the Foreign Guests!" accompanied was sapped in maintaining the pose of revous on the trip and helped immeasurably in lutic:mary purity, and that fol many people it . our efforts to understand what yve were see- is a relief "to finally surrender, and ~t least ing. for now, let the devil take the hindmost." He Orville Schell, a noted sinologist,.fluent sees value in China's new attitudes and its .in Chinese, is perhaps best known for his openness to the outside world, but he also , earlier book In the People's Republic, which sees considerable danger. The headlong is based on impressions gathered during a plunge into modernization, Western style, . 1975 China trip. In "Wafch Out f,or the For- reminds him of Mao's warnings that techeign Guests!" he chronicles his mote recent nology mu'st develop on home soil in order to China experiences and ~xplores the meaning take·proper root. It also leads him to reflect of the social ancl political ferment which has on the 1867 prophecy of Wo Ren, Chinese takert place since the fall of th~ Gang of Four. ' Imperial Grand Secretary: "after several He paints an unf9rgettable picture of the •years, Western learning will end in nothing Peace Cafe in Peking,,where bored Chinese less'than·driving themultitude of Chinese young people in bell-bottomed pants eat hot people into allegiance with the barbarians." dogs and ice cr~am and dream of a more ex- - JF
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