Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

Some more observations from China and HK. Ten years ago Chinese t.v. in the hotel had CNN and BBC and maybe couple of Chinese stations. CNN and BBC were available only in hotels. While these stations are probably not widely available outside of hotels, the number of Chinese stations have grown to over thiry. In Shanghai, some HK stations and ESPN Asia were also available. The Chinese stations now depend on advertising for their survival and there is almost no obvious propaganda from the government. (more on that later) As a result the programs in Chinese are much better than before. The downsided is that you get bad commercials just like here. Kids are dragging their parents to KFC or McDonald and with the one child policy and the emphasis on sons, there are a lot of fat boys walking around now.

Even though there are no overt propaganda on t.v. now, I learn from this trip that you have to take what you see in the media with a grain of salt. This is the 10th year of the hand over of HK to China. It is interesting how that is being portrayed in the media. On CNN and BBC Chinese democratic activists would be brought on the air complaining about the lack of universal suffrage in HK and that China has total control of HK. On the Chinese channels inevitably when it comes to HK they would bring in a westerner working in HK who would say how great it has been in the last 10 years and that Hk will prosper as part of China. Of course neither side is completely honest. People in HK did not have complete freedom under British rule, something the BBC should know. It is just that the political decisions that used to be made in London is now made in Bejing. And HK has not survived the Asian economic depression, the bird flu and SARS during the last 10 years and still prosper because of the help of China. The continued success of HK is mainly due to resilency and skills of the HK people, whether they be Chinese or Westerners.

As a matter of fact China still has a lot to learn from HK. Despite the transition to capitalism in the large cities, many people in China do not have the skill to compete in a capitalistic world. For example despite being more friendly as I mentioned, many service worker do not know how to provide good service. A shop at the airport had about 10 employees but when my wife asked a question nobody could answer it. In an airport shop in the U.S. or HK there would be 1 employee and he/she would be able to answer the question. In restaurants there would be 10 waitresses standing around but nobody fill the teapot unless being asked. Despite trying to get ready for the Olympics next year, Bejing is not world class yet. Neither is Shanghai. On my next blog I will tell of something that happened to me to illustrate why China still has a long ways to go.