The "Real" China

The "Real" China

I would venture to say that most foreigners coming to China to travel, study, or even work are interested in getting to know “the real China.” Of course this involves coming with an idea of what the real China is like, where it is to be found, and what is not the real China. This last part seems to be the most easily defined as I have heard countless times that Beijing, Shanghai, and some other place are all definitely not the real China. And every time I hear such a statement, I feel it necessary to lecture the individual mercilessly.

I’ll first say that I personally love generalizations. They’re very handy. I can often be found saying “Chinese people do this,” and “Chinese people do that.” Generalizations make it much easier to explain my experiences in China to friends and family back home without having to add so many qualifiers that my statements become meaningless. “Chinese food is generally very oily … but there are four main schools of Chinese cooking and China encompasses a huge geographical area with officially 56 ethnic groups and hundreds of differing cultures each with distinct cuisines.” Yes, generalizations are very convenient as long as one doesn’t get carried away with them. So I feel that any attempt to take the whole of China – its peoples, foods, and cultures – and boil it down so as to define any specific place or subsection of the population as “real” to the exclusion of other parts of the same country is just a recipe for horribly inaccurate stereotypes.

It’s an unfortunate fact that many foreigners equate the real China with poverty. Never mind the foreigners who still imagine the China of the 1960s, workers in Mao suits clutching little red books. We know we’re better than those misinformed travelers. But there are still so many of us that envision a China of leathered workers with funny hats toiling in rice paddies while ancient pagodas tower behind them. Certainly such workers exist and such ancient pagodas exist – though I’m not sure you could find them all in one place thanks to China’s tourism bureau – but why take this scene and say it’s the only true representation of the whole country? I can somewhat understand those trying to be statistically accurate and point out that something like 80% of the population lives outside the cities. (Hmm, it would be nice to have a citable statistic here.) However, it still makes no sense to exclude other parts of the country because they don’t fit that statistic. And 20% of China's population and landmass is still a lot.

I get rather annoyed every time I hear the statement, “Shanghai is not the real China.”

Why not?

It’s very western.

How so?

It’s modern / all about making money.

Forgetting the fact that everyone in China is out to make as much money as possible (Anybody know this slogan? “To get rich is glorious!”), why does modernity or skyscrapers make the city non-Chinese? Discounting Shanghai would be like going to Sydney and saying that it’s not really part of Australia. No, I have to go find a toothless farmer in the outback and claim him to be the representative of Australia. New York? LA? Those aren’t part of the real United States. The Deep South is where one can find real American culture. And Montreal … ah, I won’t touch that one.

So I’m of the opinion that Shanghai is in fact the real China. Every city planner in China wants their city to be the next Shanghai; every citizen in China wants to make money, and many of them flood into Shanghai for this reason. I consider the contents of the menus at McDonalds and KFC to be Chinese food. Besides the fact that giant, multistoried franchises pervade every major Chinese city and are always packed to the rafters with Chinese patrons, these fast food chains greatly reflect Chinese tastes. McDonalds regularly offers things like minced shrimp nuggets, taro pies, and egg-drop soup while proudly displaying photos of chicken sandwiches with shiny gristle and oily skin. Yum. KFC’s spicy chicken sandwiches are actually spicy, and its crispy, greasy skinned drumsticks are a national favorite. Does anyone even go to KFC in the States anymore?

Meanwhile, foreign tourists flock to villages and farms around Guilin, Xishuangbanna, Lijiang, and other such places to have an authentic Chinese experience. They see “authentic” ethnic dances, after which the dancers go home to watch TV (soap operas) like the rest of China does for entertainment. They marvel at ancient or communist monuments, which are exploited to the fullest by the government and swarming with souvenir vendors. They may even sleep in a farmer’s home, not realizing that the farmer’s real profession is hotel manager. They experience things that the vast majority of Chinese people never will and don’t want to. Is that the real China?

Written June 16, 2004 by Shelley Timmins (shelleytimminsatyahoodotcom)

China Anecdotes and Antidotes | Home