■"About 150 feared dead in China mine blast," by Edward Cody, Boston Globe, 22 October 2004, p. A13.
■"Chinese hurdler lands a smoking deal," by Becky Dubin Jenkins, USA Today, 22 October 2004, p. 1C.
To understand China is to understand that it is largely a concept that unites a host of member states, all with distinct histories, cultures, and even languages (there isn't even a Chinese language; instead there's Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.) So it's future will be as much about internal integration as "national" integration with the outside world.
To put it in more concrete terms: to understand China is to remember how these United States came together over time. Lotsa times when I see articles on China, I read about things that harken from our collective past, reminding yet again that to figure out what's going on in China in any development, you need to be able to gauge where that development tends to fall in our own past: like them finally putting a man in space (circa early 1960s for US).
Here are two great examples of this: the first article about dangerous mine conditions and a growing country hungry for energy so it's often lax on the safety rule sets for workers who accomplish that task. Where does that one land China in US history? The movie image in my mind is a sepia-toned 1920s tale by John Sayles about striking miners somewhere in West Virginia (he actually did make such a movie [though my recollection of details is likely off], one of his first).
Does it seem odd to read about such things from today's American perspective? Yes. It seems very out of date and old-fashioned, but that just reminds us where China is located on that particular issue.
Don't get me wrong, I don't put China always in our 1920s. For example, last year China won the biggest number of global Clio awards, or the prizes that go to top advertising campaigns, commercials, etc. That puts China in a very modern sensibility vis-à-vis Madison Avenue.
The second story is one from my childhood: can you imagine a sports hero pushing cigarettes? Hell yes. I remember watching cigarette commercials during ball games growing up. Go back to my older siblings' childhoods, and they'll tell you of commercial where "TV doctors" actually push the health value of smoking! So on smoking, you can locate China somewhere in the range of WWII-era America, where everyone smoked. What did that reality buy us? A huge cancer industry by the 1970s. Expect to see one burgeoning in China in coming years. In fact, look for some of the most interesting rethinking of oncology in China right now, because medical techs there are anticipating the huge social-care bill.
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