I will be a bit vague with parts of this but hopefully this will be of interest to some of you. Apologies in advance that this might be more a list of disjointed thoughts than really a chronological recount.
I was born in the US and I am part of the Chinese diaspora. I haven’t been back since before covid.
I’ve mentioned this on a couple other parts of lemmygrad but I went on a trip that was funded by the chinese government, essentially a group tour around china. My one complaint is that 13+ museums in a 10 day span is… a bit much.
One thing I found interesting was the amount of communist imagery present. You’ll find it if you’re out and about on the city, or in the entrance of museums/parks if you’re looking for it. Especially the “Socialism Core Values” sign, I saw a ton of those signs. I know that because I was visiting I saw a ton more than I would in day to day life, and I don’t think it would feel too intrusive in day to day life, but it maybe felt slightly excessive to a visitor? I definitely prefer them than advertisements, like on Line 5 of the Chongqing Metro.
As for the cities, they were really nice. Really interestingly, though, because the second tier cities I was at developed later than for example Nanjing, the environment was a lot cleaner and modern than Nanjing actually. The cities are decently walkable, tons of metro/bus, didi(chinese uber) is incredibly cheap, and there are tons of public bikes/e-bikes to rent. Streets were clean of trash, tho the older places didn’t have trash per se, but rather gave a dirty vibe. The new parts of china are better than the US, and the old parts are worse. China is still definitely a developing country, which is sometimes easy to forget with how fast it’s developing.
On another note, the common sentiment i’ve heard is that 发展, development, has been really fast. This is obvious to even us from the west, but it’s really hard to think that there are people living from pre-解放(pre-1949, pre-liberation, pre-cpc? idk the best term to translate this), serfs, essentially, who have seen the country develop to this extent. For example, a taxi driver I was talking to on the way to a HSR station, mentioned that the district we were driving through was just barren dirt when he was a child.
The superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of those forces than under the capitalist system. As they develop, the people’s material and cultural life will constantly improve. One of our shortcomings after the founding of the People’s Republic was that we didn’t pay enough attention to developing the productive forces. Socialism means eliminating poverty. Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism …
- Deng Xiaoping
It was also really interesting to see things i’ve read about like, 绿水青山就是金山银山(i think it translates to lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets?, it works a bit more poetically in chinese i swear). However seeing it in like the really pretty parks they’ve constructed is a lot different than just reading about it i think.
There still are definitely contradictions within china. One thing i’ve heard is the pressures of having to provide a house and car from the son’s family(tho the tradition varies by province and is better in some), housing prices, and not great state of the economy.
as for food - really good. i typically eat chinese food at home anyways so it was so great coming back to china eating-wise. Also there is this mountain in chongqing that is literally full of just hotpot restraints.
As for traditions, i think it can be a bit overbearing at times. 面子, face, and like gift culture is much too roundabout for my tastes. However, I do get a pass for when i don’t follow them because i’m a foreigner(it’d be even more if you were like white), but still I feel like it’s a bit much… mandatory gifts at every occasion makes it almost like less special to give gifts and also genuinely a burden to get gifts for everyone…
Prices - oh my god everything felt so cheap. Some of the best milk tea i’ve had for 20 yuan(3 bucks). didi(ubers) for like 10-20 yuan for like even a (10+) min ride. My friend got meituan(chinese doordash?) delivery for neck pillows right before his flight and it came same hour. Everyone uses QR codes here(!!), and there are portable chargers for rent everywhere. I’m not joking when i say everything is so much more convenient here. FRUIT IS SO CHEAP, my heart can’t take $6 watermelons at sams club after the prices in china… I don’t think people in china understand how bad it is in the west like living/convenience wise. I mentioned to a massage lady that the wage for a service worker is like 40k+ and they got so excited about that prospect because in china that would be a very large wage. However, because they’re considering china prices they don’t understand how hard it would be to live on that much because of how insane housing and cost of living prices are in america.
TO ADD ON, hotels are so cheap. Genuine 5 star hotel for $100, luxury chinese hotel for like $50 too. Like for rent you can actually star for multiple months in a nice chinese hotel.
Speaking of prices, qinghua(tsinghua uni), beida(peking uni), and other schools are less than 1k a year in tuition. what the hell. I’m going UMichigan in state and i’m still having to pay 20k in tuition. (I might study abroad next year next year in china, it’s crazy that the school is in top 5 in the world in engineering, above MIT and stanford for that category).
I swear the malls here are so much better. a random mall i went to in a second tier city was better than literally any mall i’ve been to in america. And look at this mall in chongqing(the pastries were so good, not too sweet)
And a mall in Xiamen had rock climbing, an art studio, indoor skiing(which idk how that works), a rentable kitchen space, and such good milk tea.
And finally, the HSR and metro experience.
Honestly, I don’t have many comments on the HSR, and I think that’s the biggest compliment I can give it. You go through security that’s really quick, wait for your train(unfortunately it was so jam packed i didn’t get a seat some of the time i’ve ridden it) then get on and you really don’t feel much when riding it. It’s quite quiet and not much vibration at all. The fact that it was so non-memorable makes it all the more impressive. Big cool station and trains and good smooth experience.
As for the metro, it was very nice a lot cleaner and more modern than the NY and toronto metros. The fare ranges from 1-7 yuan depending on how far you go, (0.15 cents to 1 dollar), and you can just scan a QR code on wechat to pay. ALSO they have different air conditioning depending on the car which is really cool. Full platform screen doors too(and not screen doors, but other barriers at elevated stations).
ya’ll should ever go back to china if you get the chance. The most unforunate part is that there are a lot less flights and they’re a lot more expensive post-covid. Your flight will probably be the most expensive part of your trip…
anyways that was a lot of yapping, i’m still a bit jet-lagged so i’ll end it here. feel free to ask any questions
Thank you for sharing! I’m curious how being a 华人 colored your experience. How did this trip inform your feeling of identity belonging to both your 祖国 and 美国? What’s your sense on how the broader 华人 americans / ABCs feel about the above?
Also, I totally agree about the malls. I’m not sure what percentile of people can actually afford it, but some of the shops were really creative. I loved that they were essentially selling themselves as arts and crafts centers, like you could fashion your own leather goods or paint things or make pottery. It felt like that sort of thing is much healthier for society within a consumerist culture.
Personally, I feel american in that I’ve absorbed a lot of parts of the culture, which I think there are parts that I prefer to chinese culture as i’ve kinda alluded to above, but I hold more national pride for China, personally. I cheer for China in the olympics, and personally am a lot more interested in Chinese history. I’m still not sure what I fully consider myself, maybe still chinese-american?
For most ABCs I feel that they either have a very negative perception of china, or a positive perception of china with a negative perception of china. The people who were with me on the camp pretty unilaterally would be against the chinese government(no democracy, etc…) but they could just feel that the environment was just better I think.
Hmm… For example the rock climbing place I went to was a bit cheaper than the rock climbing place I usually go to(and a lot smaller) in absolute terms, but relatively it would be much more expensive. I couldn’t tell you about the skiing, baking, or art studio though. My guesses is that they’d be pretty expensive for regular people. In addition, my cousin said that most locals don’t frequent the super big chongqing mall that i showed, but rather just go to smaller local shops as while it’s not unaffordable, it’s just much more cost effective to buy things elsewhere.
Thanks for taking the time to write out a response, your insights are really valuable!
As a Chinese-American, sadly I can confirm that in my experience, most Chinese-Americans are pretty brainwashed by Western propaganda and hate/are ashamed of China or being Chinese at some level. Personally, I love and support China and the government but I’m afraid to openly admit that. Once I just simply said “I got friends in China” and a (History) teacher whipped his head around and screamed “WHAT!?!” And gave me the most evil glare. I’ve had a college professor literally tell the class that Chinese people have no concept of love.
I don’t know how internalized the propaganda actually is for Chinese Americans, or if they’re just simply afraid of vocalizing support of an “enemy” country while knowing that every person surrounding you has an insane irrational hatred of China and all chinese people and literally want blood.
Hmm, i feel like most abc believe china to be really nice environment wise like rest of asia but dislike the government. memes like social credit are pretty common. It’s never to the point of demonizing chinese people, i would say the most common stance is support for the people but not the government.