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To understand today's China, listen to Hong Huang

by marco
Wed Jun 25th, 2008 at 07:38:04 PM EST

There's a messenger from province to province who writes it up in beautiful calligraphy, chops it and goes to the village and puts it on the wall and all the people come and read it. And whatever it says, the people have a habit of taking it as the truth. Nobody ever questions what the emperor said.
So given that as a tradition, the state media apparatus has a great responsibility in what they say. Because it is so easy for them to hype up something and that's why the gag rule is because, you know, they're kept on such a short leash because people actually -- unlike in the United States -- believe what they read in newspapers in China. And that's frightening.
<...>
We know how to make money in that way but we don't really know how to generate a modern value system so the world will accept us, and that's the problem. And this is the crossroad where we're at right now. We're very practical, we know how to make money, we don't know how to communicate our values to the rest of the world. In fact, we don't even know what our values are. And that's the problem because you need free thinkers. You need people, philosophers to think about these subjects and to be able to publish it and to be able to talk about it. You need a free press that can discuss these subjects. You need to look into our national history, our psyche, the darkest hours, to find what we have to avoid as a people. You know, the way that the Germans have searched their soul, the way that we're pleading and asking the Japanese to do, we have to do the same.
Online News Hour: Magazine Editor Hung Huang (aired May 30, 2008)

I was going to title this "China's Oprah Winfrey on Nationalism", for that is one of the eponyms she is commonly referred to as. But the extraordinary Hong Huang deserves to be considered on her own merits, and not in relation to someone else.

She is no heroic human rights activist or political leader or artist. She is basically a very successful fashion media entrepreneur turned mogul turned blogger/Internet celebrity. But I say "extraordinary", because of all the commentators I have heard on China -- both in the media and in person -- she strikes me as far and away the most insightful, candid and articulate.

I do not agree with everything she says. In particular, she sometimes makes overstated generalizations. But overall, what she says resonates very well with my own impressions of China, and if you are not able to come to the country itself, she would serve as a very good "virtual guide" to it.

This no doubt comes in part from two exceptional and related aspects of her background:

her mother was once Mao's English teacher and father was China's foreign minister.
she was educated in the U.S. from 12 years old, first at a private school in Manhattan and then at Vassar

Her cultural and linguistic fluency in American as well as Chinese makes her specially equipped to understand and, more importantly, to sympathize with both social contexts and value systems.

In addition to this, she comes across as utterly sincere and honest about how she looks at things, telling it the way it is, if doing so with just enough respect and sensitivity that someone of her professional and cultural standing as well as political pedigree (and guanxi: connections) would need to get away with.

I first learned of Hong Huang on Tom Ashbrook's On Point radio show when it was broadcasting from Shanghai last April for a week. The whole series was excellent, but his interview with Hong Huang was a revelation. If you want to understand contemporary Chinese society, attitudes, thinking, a great way to start is by listening to that interview: City Life With Hong Huang

Another important interview about her views on politics is the following with MSNBC, which misleadingly labels her "Chinese blogger" (she is that, but she is also much more than that). While the contents are similar to those in the Online News Hour interview I excerpted above, in this video she speaks directly to the point of China's nationalism and its shocked and uncomprehending reaction to the Olympic torch protests in April:

Hung Huang on Chinese Identity, Values and Nationalism
From a cultural perspective, Chinese got a shock in this current value system, because our current value system is very focused on financial success, having a lot of money, being powerful, you know, very very basic, practical type of values. And I think it's a shocker that this is not the only thing that earns you respect in the world. There are lots of other things, you know. And I think, what I learned personally is the fact that we are a net cultural importer. Our cultural deficit to the world is so great that nobody really knows what China is like. You know, and I think that's the hope of the Chinese Olympics, that they hope a lot of people come, a lot see this almost like, you've decked out your house, hoping the guests will come and say, "Oh God, what a beautiful house you have! What lovely food! Wonderful!" And instead, they're paint-spraying your walls and hurling stones, and you're like, "What did I --?" You know, giving you molotov cocktails in your courtyard, things like that. So I think we're caught completely off guard by this kind of reaction, and seriously I don't think we understand why Tibet is so popular. I think that's a real problem for Chinese to comprehend: How a 70-year old guy with sandals and wrapped cloth around him can actually be that powerful. They don't understand that. But this is unfortunately a lesson we have to learn. It is the power and charisma of a certain idea that transcends certain things like money and so on and so forth.
I think there is a disconnect between what the Chinese think the Westerners think of them, and what the Westerners think of them, or us. I think previous to this, Chinese thought the Westerners thought of them a lot better than they saw this time. And they were honestly shocked at the overwhelming type of anti-China media reports, and literally I think they were hurt. But on the other hand, I think since they haven't processed that yet -- I mean, this is a growing nation in every single which way, and I think so far the Western world has focused on its growing economy, sort of its growing changes, but no one has really focused on the growing psyche of the Chinese. ...

Then there is her blog/TV show itself, in which she does English language interviews with Chinese and international guests:

洪晃找乐 - Hong Huang Zhao Le ("Hong Huang looking for fun")

She tries to keep the style and tone of the interviews very friendly and casual, and yet addresses topics that are pre-occupying the Chinese and which shed light on the country's fast-paced, even turbulent, social and cultural evolution.

(To see the videos from her TV show, just scroll down to the video screens [which may be black rectangles] and click on them.)

And here is a web interview with Hong Huang at her home by one of her former employees doing his own show now; it's a bit amateurishly produced, but in it she discusses her experiences with and views on Internet publishing and publishing in China in general (and how "irresponsible", inefficient and [reading between the lines] corrupt it is]:

Lastly, here is a light piece on her on the website of China's official state television (CCTV):

Hong Huang -- CEO Of China Interactive Media Group

That was from 2006. I get the impression she her profile has started going up faster this past year. If so, it will be interesting to see how her star continues to fare as the Olympics approach. Her outspokenness is pretty startling, and as much love as she gets from her fans, and as much guanxi as she may have in political circles, at some point she may cross a red line in the international media storm that surely will descend on Beijing this summer. I hope not, but no one can foretell what will happen in China, and certainly not in 2008.

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To understand today's China, listen to Hong Huang | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

From out of "nowhere" (4.00 / 3)

And instead, they're paint-spraying your walls and hurling stones, and you're like, "What did I --?" You know, giving you molotov cocktails in your courtyard, things like that. So I think we're caught completely off guard by this kind of reaction...

This reminded me of how a lot of Americans felt re: 9/11. There are, of course, some significant differences (e.g. the freedom of the press and of expression in the U.S. versus state-controlled management of national identity in China), but there are some significant similarities as well (e.g. wholesale cluelessness about how one's own country is perceived negatively by large sectors of the rest of the world.)

... all progress depends on the unreasonable mensch.
(apologies to G.B. Shaw)

by marco (cowannar at gmail punkt com) on Thu Jun 26th, 2008 at 02:34:33 PM EST

Re: From out of "nowhere" (4.00 / 3)

marco, thanks, a top level introduction to a personality i'd never heard of before, and way of thinking about China that i'd only encountered peripherally.

A fair amount of my own work at present is discussing the state of the huge wind industry in China: where it is and where it's going. There is a disaster for windpower in the making there, of global proportions because it's in China. The hardware quality is very poor, infrastructure will take years to build, and turbines are performing poorly. A high-level colleague, reporting from Beijing, told me this week that the Chinese only care about megawatts installed, and are not concerned that MWhs are not being produced. (Should I be saying this in public?)

In order to craft some sort of solution to this pending black-eye to windpower, it is essential to have a better understanding of the Chinese culture and mind set. This diary is a good start for me.

Skennah Kowa

by Crazy Horse on Fri Jun 27th, 2008 at 05:28:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From out of "nowhere" (none / 0)

Crazy Horse, sorry for the late reply.

I am not too surprised that the quality of wind power hardware is not that great at this point. On the other hand, I am wondering, did your colleague in Beijing say if there have been any noticeable improvements in this area? (As I mentioned in another comment a while back, similar criticisms were made about Japanese products back in the 50s and 60s, but of course, things have changed since then.)

Also, are there any other countries comparable to China in their level of economic development/industrialization that are players in the wind industry? If so, how does the quality of their hardware and output compare with China's?

... all progress depends on the unreasonable mensch.
(apologies to G.B. Shaw)

by marco (cowannar at gmail punkt com) on Thu Jul 10th, 2008 at 09:34:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: To understand today's China, listen to Hong Hu (none / 1)

Great blog, Marco!

if you ask the Chinese to name a Chinese philosopher, they'll say Lao Zi, Confucius. That was 5,000 years or 2,000 years ago, you know? And you can't say a major culture of dominant economy in the world, the last time they produced a philosopher was 2,000 years ago. That's sad. That's really sad, and I do think free thinking has a lot to do with it.

From what little I know about Chinese history, it seems that the Han Emperors were amazingly successful in molding and controlling popular opinion to the benefit of the Emperor and that has been an enduring fact of Chinese life for 2400 years. Mao just inherited and benefited from that habit of mind.

This spring I saw a segment of PBS's Frontline, I believe, that dealt with the attempt to establish the very concept of a legal system and of the people using laws, lawyers and courts to resolve disputes in the countryside. The government was sending young lawers out into villages to hear and resolve disputes. The workings of an emerging justice system were shown. The law having always been that the local strong man gets what he wants, and people hope he respects customs.

Is there any evidence that schools are starting to educate the next generation about concepts of civic responsibility? It seems to me that currently China has the Confucian tradition, the Communist Party and "it is glorious to be rich" as a governing framework. I have my doubts as to the adequacy of that framework.

Anything further you can add will be appreciated. Keep up the good work.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

by ARGeezer (argeezer@yahoo.com) on Thu Jun 26th, 2008 at 10:57:50 PM EST

It was, I think, for more than molding ... (none / 0)

... popular opinion. It was relied heavily on molding the economic geography of China, via the Great Canal, so that existence of a more stable central government meant also the existence of greater prosperity in much of the country, and conversely the breakdown of stable central government meant the breakdown in prosperity.

Ocean born transport is less dependent on an effective central government keeping the lines of commerce open, and can get by much more readily with a hodge podge of entrepot city states trading with thuggish brutes in the hinterland.

But for that to work best, you'd want either an archipelago or a peninsula with peninsulas jutting off it surrounded by large islands and peninsulas.

Utsukushii kereba sore de ii

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Thu Jun 26th, 2008 at 11:48:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

To understand today's China, listen to Hong Huang | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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