MCLC: chasing the Chinese dream

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: chasing the Chinese dream
***********************************************************

Source: The Atlantic (12/13/12):
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/chasing-the-chines
e-dream/266236/

Chasing the 'Chinese Dream'
By Ellen Li

(Carlos Barria/Reuters) Since China unveiled the new Politburo Standing
Committee at the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,
the country's Web users have been paying close attention to the new elite
group of leaders who will set the country's agenda for the next decade.

A recent speech that Mr. Xi Jinping, China's new paramount leader,
delivered during a tour to a museum exhibition called the "Road to
Revival" has garnered wide online attention because of its mention of the
"Chinese Dream." In his speech, Xi defined the "Chinese Dream" as
"achieving the great revival of the Chinese nation." But what does this
"dream" mean to ordinary Chinese?

Defining the "Chinese Dream"

On Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging services, "Chinese Dream"
quickly became one of the hottest topics. But many users were critical of
Xi's choice of words. For example, @长话短说 <http://weibo.com/u/1716253387>
wrote: "'Chinese Dream' appears on television all the time, but I still
don't understand; what is the so-called 'Chinese Dream' really about? Is
it about making 1.3 billion Chinese people help one organization or one
person to fulfill this dream, or, is it about keeping 1.3 billion Chinese
daydreaming? [My] research result indicates that the latter is more
convincing: keeping 1.3 billion people in a dreamlike state while sending
all your children and relatives to the United States to pursue the
'American Dream!'"

Others are more optimistic. @TORO麦子 <http://weibo.com/208080346> wrote:
"Believe it or not, our society is changing. ...Our new Number One [Xi
Jinping] is travelling light with smaller entourages; a large number of
corrupt officers have been fired; all these facts may seem trivial for
people who believe firmly that our society is incorrigible. But I believe
change is happening. Soon people will know the power of the 'Chinese
Dream.'"

Many Web users chose to define their own versions of the Chinese Dream by
talking about their hopes and wishes for the next decade. Zhou Hongyi (@ 周鸿
祎 <http://weibo.com/zhouhongyi>), chairman of Chinese software company
Qihoo360, wrote a comment re-posted over 18,000 times, which read: "I hope
the next ten years will not be a time when people compete based on family
wealth and connections; one's 'background' will be mentioned less. I hope
everyone will be able to achieve his/her dream as long as they are
hardworking, smart, and dare to take risks. I hope people will have
opportunities to work at jobs that they truly love, rather than for the
love of money. I hope all these hopes are not daydreams, but achievable
Chinese Dreams."

Liu Shengjun (@刘胜军改革 <http://weibo.com/1889213710>), a columnist for
the 
Financial Times' Chinese portal and Caixin.com, offered more specifics in
his top ten resolutions for the upcoming ten years:

<<1. [People] won't have to buy reliable infant milk powder abroad. 2.
[People] will be able to purchase safe food in large super markets. 3.
White collar workers no longer have to live as "housing mortgage slaves."
4. Pollution will not worsen. 5. The wealth gap will not widen. 6. The
rich will no longer want to immigrate to foreign countries. 7. The number
of "naked officials" [officials who send family and money abroad and
prepare to make their own getaway] will decrease. 8. The stock market will
be a place for people to create wealth, not a black hole that drains
money. 9. Everyone will be able to get equal opportunity without relying
on family connections. 10. Remarkable progress will be made in restraining
the misuse of power.>>

It's Not All About the Money

Among all the hopes and wishes, one thing was missing: Money. Among the
posts analyzed by Tea Leaf Nation, mentions of economic growth could
scarcely be found. Instead, Web users focused on improving their quality
of life, emphasizing safe food, affordable housing, a better natural
environment, equal access to education, and social justice.

While China has created an economic miracle in the past three decades,
there is scant evidence that the Chinese people are, on average, any
happier, according to an analysis of survey data
<http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/09/1205672109.full.pdf> by
Richard A. Easterlin, a professor of economics at the University of
Southern California. If anything, they are less satisfied than in 1990,
despite a seventeen-fold increase in real per-capita GDP during that span.
Decreasing satisfaction is most evident in the least wealthy third of the
population. Satisfaction among Chinese in even the upper third has risen
only moderately. More Chinese are feeling less happy because of growing
income disparity, a deteriorating natural environment, and the
proliferation of other social problems.

Xi Jinping is right about one thing: China today needs its own dream, a
vision of the nation's future to inspire its people and distinguish China
on the world stage. But the meaning of the "Chinese Dream" may be
different for the country's officialdom than for her people. For the
Party, the foremost goal of this Chinese Dream is defined byformer
president Hu Jintao's parting report at the 18th Party Congress
<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012cpc/2012-11/18/content_15939493_3.h
tm>: "Continuing to release and develop productive forces." But for
individual Chinese, it more often means a better quality of life.

The key to achieving the Chinese Dream is to ease, if not completely
overcome, the friction between individual happiness and nationwide
economic growth, ensuring that the massive wealth China has created
actually makes its billion-plus creators happier.

Xi Jinping therefore is facing two challenges different from those of his
predecessor. He needs to ensure that the Communist Party continues to
rule--despite awakened citizen and netizen pressure for reform--and that
requires faster growth to keep the population satisfied with Party
control. But he also needs to manage all the downsides of that growth.

________________________________________
This post also appears at Tea Leaf Nation <http://tealeafnation.com/>, an
Atlantic partner site.