I remember my first blog post when I wrote about my amazement of Beijing’s city landscape as a manmade spectacle. The awe inspiring site of the concrete jungle that is Beijing gradually wore off and now I feel I will have reverse culture shock when returning home to Pittsburgh in two days. After all if I felt a city like Qingdao with 1.7 million people felt empty what am I going to think about Pittsburgh and Butler!?
This trip has taught me valuable lessons, but I feel the most important lesson is that I now know no matter how difficult or strange the environment may be I can adapt and learn to live. I never thought I would be able to navigate the city of Beijing. I simply thought it was too big but now I can basically use the subway, busses, and taxis to get to even the most obscure location in this vast city.
The six months I spent in China has exponentially improved my Chinese as you can see by the last post where I shared my article with you all. I could have never done that before coming to China and now I can write articles, talk to people for hours on end, and communicate just about everything I want to say. As a Chinese major I would have been remiss to not take advantage of this opportunity.
These six months have been a great experience for me, but they also lead me to wonder if my future career will involve China. I think about what I would like to do in the military and it seems like China could be a close associate in the future. Ten years of Chinese is not enough, and I still need to remain diligent in my studies not only in the language but in the culture and political system as well. When I think about China’s future I cannot really place any predictions on where the country is going, but a personal experience helps me put a useful metaphor on what I think might happen.
One morning I was running on campus and I passed another Chinese student. I recognized his face from seeing him in the cafeteria and he was definitely a full-time student at Capital Normal. I passed him at my six and a half minute / mile pace knowing I still had two more miles to go after the first so I needed to conserve my energy. After passing him I heard heavy panting and footsteps getting faster and faster behind me. I looked back to see the same student fly by me all out sprinting. He ran another one-hundred meters or so and then began to slow down and then completely stopped placing his hands on his knees to rest. I passed him a few seconds later still at my 6:30 pace as he stood hunched over, probably done running for the day. I think of this event as a metaphor between China and the United States. So often do I hear about American being “threatened” by China’s rise. I also hear Chinese students say that America cannot deal with being #2 in the world. I see this as useless competition. China is obsessed with beating out America for this so called “#1” spot in the world, but what I see is an obsession that could cause the country to collapse within itself. Like the student, China is at an unsustainable pace of growth, resource consumption, and environment degradation. China has placed itself in a precarious position as it fights a population problem, environment problem, and not to mention uprisings dotted throughout the country. I feel if China tries to maintain this sprinter’s pace it will surely end up like the student. This, however, does not just affect China but the entire world. Too often is the “it’s our business and our problem, so stay out of it” line used in China. In fact, it may be YOUR business, but it is OUR world and with the technological advancements in the past century the world is much, much smaller than before.
In a completely blunt statement I will say, China has not been “on top” since the 1400s and now 600 years later it finds itself among world powers again. The thirst for a return to glory is evident, but what is not understood is that times are different. We no longer have separated kingdoms with minimal contact, but instead the world revolves around international relations. I admit it is not fair to pin this ancient view point on China, because what people often do not realize is that China is a brand new country. As strange as it sounds it is a brand new country that has been around for thousands of years! 1949 was the birth of today’s China and 60 years later this country has experienced tumultuous revolution, unprecedented growth, and foreign bullying. A lot has happened to this country in the past century and for us to demand changes in human rights, international policy, and the one party system simply is not fair. I feel that China will reform itself as it sees fit and at its pace. This is where the metaphor diverges from the truth. Yes, China is at a sprinter’s pace right now, but that is only because it just shot out of the block. Soon China will find its 6:30 pace and run with the rest of us. What is required from everyone involved is patience, but also where the United States comes in to play is providing a helping hand for anything as China starts to solve the problems posed on itself and the world.
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This is my last Blog post and it has truly been a great way to record my thoughts and keep sane. This is the first blog I have ever had and I must say I enjoyed getting my experiences down on “paper.” This is the end of Jordaninbeijing but it is not the end of my travel. I cannot say I will be keeping a blog but I will always use the experiences I had in Beijing as I move from place to place and I become Jordanin____. Thank you all and I cannot wait to see everyone when I get back!
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Jordan J. Foley
傅力波
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