An attempt at sense

Upon arriving in Beijing, we were informed that BOCOG had arranged a tour to help acclimate us to China and give us a better look at its people and culture. Needless to say, I was excited. My first trip across the earth to a foreign land, I was bursting with potentialities. The things I’d learn, the people I’d meet, and the experiences I’d savor. And this tour seemed like the appropriate starting point, a brief overview of everything China.

And then we found out where we were starting.

A water treatment facility.

Baffled as I was, there wasn’t much to do but accept this turn and embrace it. After all, there must be a reason for starting here. There was, of course, but I didn’t realize it until our government-sponsored tour was long over.

Our next stop: A preserved village, a Chinese community, “paradise”, that was intended to show us how people in China could live.

Suddenly, I realized this tour wasn’t the overview I’d been hoping for. I wasn’t going to find anything real here, or at least real in the sense of fully legitimate. What I WAS going to see was scripted for our American eyes. It was a journey with a message, a message to me in propaganda. At first, I was sickened. Literally. I couldn’t swallow the saccharine-covered pill they were feeding us. Did they think that we, journalism students from America, couldn’t see through the Mao-tinted glasses? Did they really expect us to buy this idyllic picture of China and it’s people? I was insulted.

And then I took a step back. With the help of a professor, I began to look at this tour differently. It wasn’t a study in Chinese culture; it was a study in messages, audience and propaganda. It was a chance to see what they thought of us, our biases, our expectations and what message they felt they needed to deliver to us. This was the perfect opportunity for us to see America looking at China looking at America,

So the study in propaganda begins with the water treatment facility.

(Disclaimer: The is purely a superficial study in propaganda, based only on this author’s first-hand experience.)

Alright, so the water treatment facility. Before arriving in China, every person that heard I was going responded with the same remark. “That’s incredible! But don’t drink the water.” Hell, we even covered it in class. It was as if we drank the tap water we’d be certain to incur Mao’s Revenge.

So it makes sense that the first place the Chinese government-sponsored tour takes us is a water plant. To show us silly Westerners that there’s really nothing to fear in the water. I mean, look how many steps removed it is from sewage. (That’s 3, for those counting at home. And it’s not enough me.)

I still don’t drink the water. I won’t even brush my teeth with the stuff.

And then our journey takes us to a real Chinese village, “paradise provided by the Communist Party of China,” or so the pamphlet we received read. This village was a theme park, equipped with a newly built Buddhist monastery “where people come to worship daily for China respects its Buddhist tradition”—never mind that during the reign of Emperor Wuzong in 845, he ordered the destruction of 4,600 Buddhist monasteries and 40,000 temples with another 250,000 Buddhist monks and nuns forced to give up their Buddhist lives.

That’s okay though…every country has its demons, especially one with such a long history. It’s just the blatant covering over such events with red paint (red symbolizes happiness in China) that turns my stomach.

Our tour continued to a retirement home. It was here we saw how wonderfully the Chinese take care of their elderly. They even sang us a song, in front of all their old folks. The song opened our eyes through beautiful lyrics to how happy these people were to end their lives here where they are treated with respect.

It might even be true—if only one of the old men or women looked up from their games long enough to give us a smile. And what’s more respectful then being treated like an animal in a zoo, stared at as living proof of China’s wonderful elderly care system.

But we weren’t done. Our final stop was into the home of an actual Chinese person. The house was spotless; the old woman who owned (and I use that word loosely) the place sat on a chair as countless Westerners invaded the living room. Upon further investigation there was no food in the cabinets, the bathroom looked unused and had a Western-style toilet (before some of our finest Westerners decided to relieve themselves) and the bed looked like it’s never been touched. When asked by one of the more culturally understanding students whether she liked living here she replied with a pause.

“….Yes.”

Whether that pause indicates anything is beyond me. I know I wouldn’t like living anywhere that conducted tours in my home. But I’m an old-fashioned Westerner.

And that’s what I learned on this tour. My biases. See, in China the propaganda is blatant. They don’t mask what they want you to believe. When they want you to believe that the government is great, they will tell you so by showing things such as these and telling you that it’s because of their great government.

We’re used to more subtle form of propaganda in America. Propaganda is leaked through the media, through entertainment and through advertising. It isn’t usually blatant. In fact, it tends to be more associative. But make no mistake, it’s there.

My disgust at Chinese propaganda was tempered by the reality of the situation. I was in a foreign land with foreign people with a foreign way of doing things. That includes propaganda. When you have as many people as China does, you need to reach them in the quickest way possible. Sometimes there’s no room for subtleties.

It was easy to direct my anger at China and it’s propaganda. It was harder to realize that the same practice goes on Stateside in a different form. And it was nearly impossible to accept that it’s my job as a human being, to see through all of it, and leave any frustrations on the wayside.

As Shakespeare wrote, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”