Dr. Balla taught at Beida University
as a Fulbright Scholar.
Steven Balla, associate professor of political science at George Washington University, recently returned to the U.S. after a year in China as a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Balla lectured on regulatory policy in China and the United States at Peking University in Beijing. He and his family recorded their impressions and adventures of China on a popular blog, An American Family.
Professor Balla took a few minutes out of his busy fall semester to give an update on his views of China.
How much cultural awareness of the United States is there in China?
For starters, there is much more cultural awareness of the United States in China than there is of China in the United States. Although this cultural awareness is quite broad, I found that it isn’t very deep in places. For example, many twenty-something-year-olds are big fans of American television shows such as Hao Pengyou (Friends) and Prison Break. They certainly know much more about these aspects of American culture than me, although that isn’t necessarily saying very much! Yet students at leading universities who are studying government and politics as their major often asked very, very basic questions about life in the United States. “Now that Obama is president, will guns be outlawed in America?”
I know from reading your blog that you and your family studied Mandarin. How vast is the communication barrier?
We found that some communication barriers are pretty trivial, while others require constant effort to overcome. All four of us had been studying Mandarin for nearly three years prior to our touch down in Beijing. So we were ready, from day one, to get out into the community and start using our language skills. What we found out, really quickly, was that, in some respects, we knew only enough Mandarin “to be dangerous,” so to speak. Sure, we could order certain dishes, even in restaurants with no English or picture menus. And sure we could get into cabs and announce where we wanted to go. But what do we do when the fuwuyuan (servers) and shifu (drivers) start talking back to us, often very quickly and in Beijing-accented speech? Let’s just say that, in those early days, we didn’t always get the food we were expecting or to the destination we had in mind!
Before long, these kinds of basic life difficulties had faded into the background as communication barriers. There was no room, though, for complacency and celebration, as “higher-order” barriers were erected as quickly as we could tear down the simpler ones. As our conversations on the street progressed, we found ourselves asked about our religious beliefs, China’s one-child policy, the global financial crisis, you name it. It always seemed that it was after failures to communicate that we actually went out and learned the specialized language we would have needed to communicate successfully. There were plenty of conversations where I wish I could have pressed a “rewind button” and gone back to them, armed with my newfound Mandarin vocabulary. In the end, communication barriers are probably the main reason why life in China as a “foreign friend” is both phenomenally exciting (we made a conscious effort to be thrilled by our successes, no matter how small) and incredibly exhausting (we slept really, really well!).
Did you find that anyone was suspicious of your “motives” in China? For example, did students ever think you were trying to promote democracy?
There certainly were no explicit tensions regarding our living and my working in China. One part of the reason, I think, for the good relations we enjoyed stemmed from the fact that I was teaching about American politics and policymaking. Students, and people in general, found it very easy to compartmentalize what they knew and learned about topics such as the multitude of ways in which Americans regularly participate in public affairs. “This form of democracy may work in the United States, but it is not really relevant for the Chinese people and political system. With so many poorly educated citizens, such democracy would only serve to undermine the stability and further growth of the country.” From the beginning, my main pedagogical aim was to enhance the ability of the next generation of China’s leaders to make “evidence-based” decisions. What do we know about the effects of school choice on the educational attainment of American school children? In my view, such an approach is not inherently suspicious, yet it can be, in the long run, subversive to those who enjoy the privileges of political power, whether we are talking about elected officials in the United States or the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.
What do Americans get wrong about China?
What Americans get wrong about China is the idea that they can “get” China. “China is where all the jobs are going.” “The air in China is terrible.” “China has a lot of human rights problems.” Many, perhaps most, Americans approach China through one such frame of their choosing. Now, individual frames can be helpful in getting ourselves oriented in the daunting face of five thousand years of history and 1.3 billion people (is it 1.4 billion yet?). If carried too far, though, such single-mindedness ultimately produces no more than a caricature of China, pushing to the side the country’s incredibly rich economic, geographic, linguistic, ethnic, and political diversity. Many of the conflicts that inherently arise from such diversities are being contested, right now, on the proverbial and literal streets of China. The average American, I would say, has no idea how exciting, and terrifying, life can be in China today, with so much of the country’s identity and future up for grabs.
China has launched the most ambitious military modernization effort taking place today. Is conflict between the U.S. and China inevitable?
It depends on what you mean by “conflict.” If you mean ideological conflict, of the type that produced the Cold War between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective proxy regimes around the world, then the answer, I would argue, is a clear “no.” The prevailing world views in both Beijing and Washington, DC are inherently pragmatic in their orientation. Contrary to what many ordinary Americans believe, China is a Communist country in not much more than name these days. And contrary to what many ordinary Chinese think, America’s leadership does not see China’s rise as a threat to the security of the United States and the world.
In another sense, conflict between China and the United States is indeed inevitable. As perhaps the two leading world powers as the twenty-first century progresses (although the European Union certainly has an argument to make), China and the United States will increasingly find themselves competing with one another on a number of dimensions. This competition will go deep into Africa and other places that are rich in natural resources. It will also go out into the reaches of satellites and space exploration. And it will continue to play out in more traditional venues, such as relations across the Taiwan Strait. How will such conflicts be resolved? The fact that competition between China and the United States is driven more by pragmatic economic imperatives than entrenched ideological differences opens up the possibility that situational difficulties, when they inevitably flare up, will not spill over and poison bilateral relations as a whole.
Did you attend church services in China? What was that like?
One of the greatest challenges for us was living as Catholics in a non-Christian country. There are only a handful of cathedrals in Beijing, which, by the way, is a city of almost unimaginable scale! To make matters worse, none of these cathedrals were at all in close proximity to where we were living. What this meant was that just getting to weekly Mass was a serious logistical undertaking. We essentially organized our entire day around the time and location of the Mass we were planning on attending. “Since we are going to the six p.m. Mass at the North Cathedral, let’s jump on the 814 bus at four p.m. Then let’s have dinner after Mass at that awesome dao shao mian place (noodle house) that’s right down the street from the cathedral. If the traffic isn’t too bad coming home, we should be back by nine-thirty.”
As for the services themselves, we found ourselves drawn to Masses that were being said in Mandarin. Although we certainly could not follow the priests’ homilies word-for-word (and sometimes not at all!), these Chinese-language services were so incredibly full of worshippers and so joyous in spirit. Just how full? Well, on Christmas Eve, we showed up for Mass two hours early and snagged the last four seats with an unobstructed view of the altar. Just how joyous? There was so much singing and participation from the pews that weekly Masses felt like high holy days, which was energizing, to say the least.
I find that average Chinese citizens – the so-called “laobaixing” – are surprised to learn that the rest of the world views their country as a superpower. Did you find similar reactions?
Most of the students and people on the street that I came into contact with view China as a “superpower in the making.” In their view, China is still too impoverished economically and too weak militarily to be considered a bona fide superpower today. They also invariably communicated to me their optimism that the economic and political growth China has experienced over the past thirty years will continue unabated for the next three decades. Maybe at that time, they reason, China will finally be able to look the United States right in the eye, as one superpower to another.
Were you surprised to see tensions between Mainland China and Taiwan ease during your time in China?
I found that while tensions between the Mainland and Taiwan eased at the elite level while we were living in China (although Taiwan’s hosting of the Dalai Lama may put a bit of a temporary chill on things), out on the streets there was certainly no shortage of expressions of nationalism and no surrender when it comes to the future of relations across the straits. One day, after I concluded a lecture on American politics, during which I never came remotely close to mentioning anything having to do with Taiwan, a student stood up and asked, “Do you agree that Taiwan is and always will be an inseparable part of Mother China?” It is not uncommon to hear people describe China’s internal history as a never-ending cycle of breaking apart and coming back together. In the twentieth century, for example, there was the end of the last dynasty, the era of the warlords, a civil war, and a humiliating foreign occupation. All of this turmoil was followed by the unification of the Mainland under Mao Zedong and the Communist Party. According to this kind of historical telling, Taiwan is only temporarily, and painfully, separated from the rest of the Chinese nation.
How would you characterize China’s current relationship with Japan?
Although recent public opinion polls suggest that Chinese attitudes toward Japan are becoming less and less hostile, I once again found plenty of nationalism and resentment out on the streets. It was not unusual for me to hear, from some of China’s best educated university students, expressions of outright hatred toward Japan. In the end, this hatred seems to boil down to the fact that the Japanese have never offered an apology for the atrocities that were committed during the period of occupation.
India?
In the West, we often postulate about rising world powers. Besides China, this list typically includes nations such as India and Brazil. Given their status as Asian neighbors, the competition between China and India is often framed by western observers as a battle for regional supremacy. In practice, I found very little reference to India among students and the people I came into contact with. India, it seemed, was not much more than an afterthought, rightly or wrongly, in the Chinese view of the world.
Were you frustrated by the Chinese government’s internet controls?
For much of the year, we were more or less pleased with the speed and freedom of our Internet connection. We were able to use Gmail, Skype, and Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends, which is obviously crucial when living so far away from home for such a long period of time. Then, in the run-up to the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident, things suddenly took a turn in a very bad direction. The websites we use to create and display our blog were blocked by government censors, and therefore we could no longer directly access these indispensible communication tools. Although we used proxy servers to get around the “Great Firewall,” such circumvention was extraordinarily time-consuming and frustrating. It was like going back to the days of dial-up (which weren’t actually that long ago)!
Throughout this period, I was surprised at the lack of any serious impact that censorship has on the use of the Internet by the average Chinese netizen. Most Chinese users most of the time get their news, do their shopping, and communicate with family and friends through domestic web sites that do not run afoul of government censors. In fact, one day, after delivering a lecture during which I advertised our blog, a hand went up in the audience. “Your blog cannot be accessed here in China. Why don’t you move it to a website where we can actually look at it?” My response? “Of course you can access our blog. I continue to update it regularly from right here in China.” The auditorium was full of incredulous looks. “How is it that you can visit a blocked website?” Answering this question became their homework, if you will. “If I can figure out how to post to our blog, then you all certainly have the technological know-how to read and react to what we are saying.”
What did you and your family miss the most about the U.S.?
Of course, what we missed the most about the United States were our family and friends (and our two Golden Retrievers!). Censorship issues aside, information and communication technologies were wonderful tools for helping to shrink those 7,000 miles that lay between us all. For example, because I had been seeing my parents regularly on Skype, it did not feel like a year had gone by when I saw them again in person upon our return to the United States. Technology made it so much easier than it otherwise would have been to just pick up the conversation where we had left it the other day when we last chatted. In general, staying in touch online made it possible, to a very welcome extent, to dodge that dreaded question ex pats hear so much when they come home…”How was China?”
Many of our friends and family members expected that we would have greatly missed American food while living in China. Sure, we would have appreciated a good, authentic slice of pizza now and then! Actually, though, we are now craving the food in China much more than we ever pined for American cuisine. Put simply, China is a foodie’s paradise! The ingredients are so fresh. There is so much emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Meats appear in dishes as not as the main course, but as condiments, in small strips and cubes. The spices are spectacular. On top of all that, there is so much regional diversity in Chinese cooking, much more so than many Americans can even imagine. A good friend of ours from the United States visited us while we were living in Beijing. One day, we took him to a fantastic little Yunnan restaurant, a place that specializes in the cooking of one of China’s southwestern provinces where there is a high concentration of minority peoples. It was great to watch him marvel over bolo fan, a dish where sticky rice loaded with pineapple cubes is brought out to the table inside the pineapple itself. Does anybody know where we can get this dish in the United States?
How can average American citizens improve their understanding of China?
Our friend who visited us is, I think, a great case in point. It is fair to say that he knew relatively little about China before he got on that airplane. Sure, he had eaten Chinese take-out, had read about China in the newspaper, and had watched travel shows about famous Chinese sites. But that was about it. Even after only ten days in the country, his awareness of all of the diversity I have been talking about increased immeasurably.
For many Americans, though, they do not have luxury of visiting family members and friends who are actually living in China, eating in its back alleys, and using its local means of transportation. For these Americans, I would suggest that they make efforts to get their news about China from a multitude of sources, from a number of different perspectives. For example, don’t be afraid to browse the website of China Daily. Sure, it is an official publication of the state-sanctioned media. But knowing the government’s positions on the issues of the day is an indispensible part of the process of becoming “China literate.” And if it is at all feasible, travel to China outside of the confines of a regimented tour group. Although this certainly is an adventurous way to move about the country, it absolutely can be done, even by those who possess little to no Mandarin skills.
Any parting advice for Americans who plan to live in China for a year?
When you are packing your bags, be sure to leave your Type A personality back in the United States. And when you arrive in China, embrace the discomfort that will assault your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth at seemingly every turn.
Just days before we moved back to America, we found ourselves sitting at the home of a family in a small village out in the middle of the Hulunbeier grasslands, which are located in the far northeastern reaches of Inner Mongolia. The setting was absolutely beautiful, with hundreds of cows and thousands of sheep dotting green hillsides under skies of bright blue and puffy white clouds. The deepest beauty, though, came as we shared a home cooked meal of lamb and yoghurt. Sitting on tiny stools, we traded stories about life in China and the United States. We learned that the family’s children go to school in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, a nine-hour bus ride away. The son is studying animal science, and plans to return home when he graduates from university. The daughter has dreams of moving to Yunnan, which is about as far away one can go from Hulunbeier and still remain inside China’s borders. We wonder if this dream will come true for her.
The road to this wonderful chance encounter certainly filled us with lots of discomfort. There was a plane ride to a city where we had never been before and where we had no hotel reservation waiting. There was a driver we hired to take us as far out into the grasslands as he possibly could. And there was an all-day hike that ended in the village only because a passing milk truck stopped and offered us a ride the rest of the way.
In our experience, there is no shortage of ways for Americans living in China to turn their discomfort into opportunities for cultural exchange and learning. It may be as simple as buying tea for the middle-aged women who meet up for chats every morning at the local McDonald’s. It may entail traveling all the way to Xinjiang and photographing young children in centuries-old Kashgar neighborhoods that are being systematically torn down. All of us, each in our own way, have a lot both to offer and to learn from China, if only we are willing to give up some of that control we are so accustomed to exercising over the world around us.
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