From: liqiang@kramden.nyu.edu (Li)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,talk.politics.china
Subject: Re: China's Best Is Always the Elder and Past, Therefore No Hope.
Date: 2 Oct 92 20:53:13 GMT
Organization: New York University

xlli@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (xiao-lin li) writes:

>China's governing elite "strove to imitate and emulate
>the best, but the best was always the past."

>Does China have any hope? Looking at so many young people
>scorn their motherland and their aging leaders who would do
>anything to resist changes. We are certainly disappointed.

>The best that the country can do is to kill their young,
>supress their thought. One of the best example is the government's
>treatment of Zhang Yimo. Tiananmen Massacre is another one.

>Xiao Li

Hi, Xiao-lin, please allow me to make a few comments on your posting.

I think the conflict between the young and the elderly in China is a little
exaggerated by you here. I think in every country, a youth who starts
from scratch has to struggle really hard to be recognized. You see 
nothing is free in this world and there are so many youths (many smart
ones, I mean) waiting in the line. Zhang Yimo is one of the few who have
won the struggle - he is even being treated better by the CCP now.

Let's review a story that happened 1,700 yrs ago during the 3-Kingdom
era. The emperor of Wei, Cao Pi(Cao Cao's son) called in Sima,Yi and Cao,
Zhen before he was about to die and told them to look after his kid, Cao Rui,
who was about to succeed him because the kid was too "young". I think it
was exactly due to this incident that all the children's picture books on
San Guo (the 3-Kindoms) pictured Cao Rui, the succeeding emperor, as
a 7- or 8-yr-old. However, I found incidentally that this was not the case. 
"San Guo Zhi" did say that when Cao Rui died at 36 yrs of age, he had been
in power for 13 yrs. That's why the truth is when Cao Rui succeeded his
father, instead of being 7 or 8, he was TWENTY-THREE! (Ironically, most 
students who participated in the 6.4 event were of this age)

So what does this story tell us? I think it says in the traditional 
Chinese mentality, 20-yr-olds are not to be trusted. Not so many big names
in the Chinese history peaked their careers in their 20s (or even 30s). So
one has to be patient. 

This patience also applies to one's views about a culture. I, too, am 
often very disappointed by the current stage of China - economy, political
situation, etc but I would say I'm still reasonably optimistic about
China's future. The problem with China, I believe, is the loss of integrity
in the past 150 yrs - I mean, cultural, political, economic integrity.
However, China has lost integrity so many times before. Look at the periods
Nan Bei Chao (Dynasties of The North and South) and Wu Dai Shi Guo (Five
Dynasties and ten States). You think nobody was worried at all?

I think every culture has two sides: the elite and non-elite (I was 
discussing this with a friend thru e-mail some time ago). While China's elite
culture has been greatly damaged, China's non-elite culture is still doing
a terrific job! The Chinese fundamentally are at least as hardworking as 
any other nation in the world. I used to think negatively about the Chinatowns
around the world - it's too easy to think negatively about them. Now I think
I must respect them - they have done their job for our culture since 
without much education and guidance of the elite culture, they have 
shown their best. Look at the hardworking restaurant people (owners,
waiters/waitresses, chefs, etc) - don't they deserve a MUCH better life than at
least the Americans on welfare? How about the hardworking Cantonese, Fujianese,
etc back home in China? 

Without the highly competent non-elites, China would have nothing to show
to the rest of the world. Can you imagine how even more depressed we
would be if our people were lazy?

So the problem is really to rebuild our elite culture - that means, we
people (who, I guess, want to be elites) must do a good job that
can parallel the non-elites. I think the CSS is passing the period that
they are stunned by western prosperity (culturally and economically) - it's
time they stood their ground and started to show something of their own.
  
For instance, the economic reforms have been achieved by the older
generation and the non-elites. We cannot claim any pride from it - but
that's because it's not our time yet.

I hope you don't get bored.

- Li, Qiang