By Vassil Sotirov
Chief of International Department of Union of Bulgarian Journalists, Bulgaria
For the European, China still remains if not a mystery, at least an enigma, although today this huge in territory and population country is every day in the world news being among the world’s economic and technological leaders. There is hardly a home on the planet that does not have several Chinese-made appliances, garments and a variety of household and everyday items. Millions of tourists visiting the “Celestial Empire” spread knowledge of it along all parallels and meridians.
Obviously, however, what foreigners see with their own eyes and document in China is not enough to explain its remarkable progress by familiar measures and categories. The Chinese already have the self-confidence of being citizens of a great power, even a superpower. But they consider themselves to be different in spirit, culture and traditions from everyone else, a country with a different path and mission in the world, and they are in no hurry to capitalize on their success and progress on the international stage despite the provocations and challenges directed against them, especially by the United States.
I was a teenager when I first met the question of what China was really like when the so-called Cultural Revolution began there. It was a truly confusing manifestation, which, in a country the size of China and its 5000-year history, was becoming a national disaster. In fact, it was an attempt to impose a hasty and thorough change on Chinese society that was incompatible with its history and profound cultural and social traditions. This attempt was inspired by a modern leftist European doctrine, but no appropriate political approach has been found in the application of that in Asian conditions.
In China, fortunately, visionary leaders emerged who succeeded, with gradual and well-designed plan of political and economic reforms, to steer the country on the right path to progress – something that, unfortunately, did not happen in the Soviet Union. That is why I have the deepest respect, above all, for the personality of Deng Xiaoping, who was the chief architect of those reforms. They enabled the Chinese people to emerge from the quagmire of poverty and deprivation, to live more prosperously and to give the country its rightful and prominent place on the world stage.
China is undoubtedly seeking to modernize, to open up to the world. At the same time, the Chinese people and their leaders are well aware that they cannot follow this path without drawing on their centuries-old social and cultural traditions and specifics, let alone if they try to ignore and trample on them. Therefore, the main issue of any political leadership in the country has always been to find the right balance and continuity between those qualities that the Chinese people have acquired in their character over the centuries and the demands of the modern world and of rapid technological progress.
As a journalist, I have visited China twice over the past 20 years, and I am always amazed at how quickly young Chinese people embrace the spirit and demands of modernity, even faster than their Western peers. When I visit Chinese universities and scientific institutions, I see that no expense and effort is spared in creating a modern base for training and education on a top world level. I also see the great interest in knowledge and the pursuit of the highest scientific standards and achievements. It is no coincidence that at least ten Chinese universities feature in the top 100 of prestigious global rankings. I have personally met young Chinese people studying and specializing at prestigious universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford and Princeton. Unlike their peers from Eastern Europe or other developing countries who study in the West, almost all of them return to China after graduating with the ambition to pursue professional and scientific careers there, without being tempted by Western lifestyles. This is because they are driven by a desire to contribute to the prosperity of their homeland and its people.
The historical stereotypes of communication and behavior continue to play an important role in the readiness of Chinese people to quickly adopt new trends in public life and technological progress. One of these defining values of Chinese culture is collectivism, the sense of belonging to a specific social group. Their rich history has taught Chinese people to unite and work together to achieve certain community goals. This collectivist spirit has emerged as a result of certain political and social conditions. Even today, Chinese people are willing to prioritize collective goals over individual ones and think in terms of the community or collective perspective. The simplest example is the behavior of young people when choosing a spouse, when the interests of two families must be reconciled. This requires the two families to approve the choice of the young people, because otherwise the marriage will most likely fall apart.
The Chinese like to be together in the fun and entertainment too. Go to any large Chinese park you like and you will see young and old people playing sports in teams or dancing in large groups of randomly gathered people. I’ve observed entire street musical performances where people casually frolic after hours to the sounds of popular music being played live.
One favorite entertainment is calligraphy – artistically painting characters directly onto the tarmac with large brushes. It is practiced by people of different ages who demonstrate high aesthetic skills. This leads me to unhappy thoughts about how rare it is to meet a young person in Bulgaria with decent handwriting especially with the advent of the computer era. Handwriting has long been absent from our primary school curricula…
Everybody knows the famous Chinese politeness, which manifests itself in the effort to avoid direct refusal or disagreement. The disputing parties will always find a way to say it in a veiled way so as not to end up in a confrontation with the other party. This implies a search for compromise and a desire not to damage the other party’s image or ego in the dialogue in order to avoid open confrontation or rupture. In recent times, however, it has become apparent that such a traditional approach often cannot result in cooperation and successful deals. Well, the Chinese sometimes have to accept how the modern world works, even when it does not correspond to their nature. Sometimes breaking with traditions and habits is a must if you want to move ahead. And the Chinese seem increasingly flexible when a break with the past becomes inevitable. This is a guarantee that they can also fit skillfully into the new world.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.