Freewrite: The man with the status symbol
Many years ago I visited China with my husband. Well to be precise it was January of 2001. I spent 2 months in this vast country. I found it overwhelming in some places and on public transport. One realizes that indeed there are a lot of people in this country and also the cultural differences. It meant that I had to get used to people being in my so-called personal space. I got used to it.
One evening in a remote town – we needed to find a restaurant. Armed with our picture book we started our search. A well dressed Chinese man in his pinned striped suit, brief case in one hand and toilet paper - 12 rolls - in another hand - approached us. He stood quite close and asked politely - in his best english whether he could join us for a drink to practice speaking in english. Delighted to mingle with locals – we said yes immediately.
We choose a restaurant and sat down. He began to tell us about Japanese people – he called them ugly. I asked why - his response was "It is obvious!". We did not understand - no comments. We listened. We then dared to ask him about the toilet paper as he held the bag while seated. He said many in the town could not afford toilet paper hence it was a status symbol.
That was 2001. I would love to visit again to see whether things have changed in that town.
I've looked at toilet paper differently ever since then.
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I believe China is going through a complete cultural revolution at this point in time. Older chinese can have these old ways of thinking about other races. But it seems the younger generation (more attached to the internet) is less concerned with nationalism. Just my perspective from speaking to people that have visited and lived in both Northern China and Southern China.
@gray00 Yes indeed -I believe that as well. I work with many chinese young people. However, the young visiting the West are well educated and privileged. The people encountered in North and South China might have also been privileged - having access to the internet which is still censored in China.
There is also an economic revolution taking place. Despite that there are over 1 billion people and typically the change is not distributed equally.
As a result, I am still curious about that town; whether toilet paper is still a status symbol or whether other things are now considered luxury.
Hi @gray00 i agree with you in part and think you make a good point about younger generations and the internet. I would point out as @momgrow mentioned the internet is heavily censored in China and to use it in the way most of us do would make us criminals. However could this censorship in part be counter productive to the Chinese states agenda? Reportedly one of the most recently banned sites in China is the game streaming service Twitch.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45600272
We all know that there are a lot of enthusiastic young gamer's in China and actions such as this could effect nationalistic sentiment in their youth.
In regards to the elder generations being more nationalist i take a slightly different view. I have a few British/Chinese friends who are 2nd/3rd generation immigrants who tell me their parents/grandparents have taught them they fled China due to poverty and oppression in equal part. I think the amount of Chinese immigrants in the west pays testament to this at least in part. I have a feeling the only strong nationalists in China are the indoctrinated or those who stand to gain from the current regime.
last time in china i was amazed by how many things on my phone i could not access, what a trip
I live in Venezuela and right now I just had to pay 74.000.000 (local currency) for 4 smalls rolls of toilette paper, unfortunately in this countries this is a luxury.
@jenina619 I totally understand and can imagine that toilet paper would indeed be a luxury item in Venezuela. It is a sad and shocking situation.
It is disheartening that in many countries - it is most likely a luxury item.
Lol... Toilet paper as a status symbol? I find it hard to believe. It seems the citizens of some of all these countries developing at a faster pace are not finding life easy at all. Even in my country that's still considered as a developing nation, no one has ever referred to toilet paper as a status symbol. Life is really funny!
@resuscitate any item that can only be bought by those with money can become a status symbol. It is very sad when basic hygiene items become status symbols.
I believe China would be a world apart from the China you visited and that unfortunately for them its only got worse. Some might make an argument and point to the statistics of how many Chinese have been lifted above a poverty line that someone deemed appropriate.
I would just point to examples such as the Chinese social credit score where if you act and live in a fashion the state has dictated is in their opinion inappropriate, such as buying to much alcohol or speaking unfavourably about the government then you stand to lose the privilege of being able to travel by train or fly by plain, you can even loose the right to have your children schooled in places of higher recognition. The worse bit is that they are using massive advances made in facial recognition software to monitor their own citizens and have peoples scores amended as a result of this monitoring.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit
This is no conspiracy unfortunately its a harsh fact of what China has become.
Just google it its has been widely reported and there are multiple sources to fact check.
It saddens me deeply to see how such a rich culture with lots to offer the world has a governance with such a totalitarian ideology.
@the-one-true-dan Yes is would be unfortunate if the situation is still dire. Please take a look above - @gray00 reports quite a different scenario. When I visited I was allow to go almost everywhere freely and the situation seemed normal but it was not really so. Tourists do not always know what is happening in society.
One can never be 100% sure of the media reports either. I think to satisfy my curiosity I would really need to return because then I can be the one-true-judge. :-)
hehe its always important to stay open minded :)
I think the reason the Chinese man talked the way he did about the Japanese is most likely this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
"The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century.[27] It accounted for the majority of civilian and military casualties in the Pacific War, with between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel dying from war-related violence, famine, and other causes."
He might have been alive during the conflict his parents most certainly were and all these deaths were a result of Japanese aggression.
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7, 1937, to September 2, 1945. It began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 in which a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops escalated into a battle.
During the Marco Polo Bridge Incident Japanese military demanded permission to enter the Chinese city of Wanping to search for a missing soldier. The Chinese refused.
@wikitextbot and the @the-one-true-dan - yes indeed - the history goes deep but I did not want to presume. He gave us his views - we preferred to listen.
i am going to start walking around with toilet paper, i got a bunch of it!!
In your neck of the woods - people might think you are crazy.