Chengdu Dreamin' in Chinatown DC
“...we're hardly in an authentic Chinese environment...”
Tuesday, April 8, 5 pm EDT
Here's how our China project works: Melissa Block and her producer, Andrea Hsu, now in Chengdu, are filing for this blog, and, when they have a few spare moments, they might even interview people for our radio program. Remember radio? Since a full week of coverage as we've planning to do in May requires lots of material, they will assemble stories now and hold them.
Chinatown in Washington, D.C. is where East meets West in the most awkward and surface manner.
photo montage by Art Silvermna, NPR
The rest of us, including myself, producer Brendan Banaszak, executive producer Chris Turpin, host Robert Siegel, photographer David Gilkey and engineer Stacey Abbott will go to Chengdu in early May. Aside from reading all the great comments and private emails that have come as a result of this blog (keep 'em coming!), we're talking to China experts, Chinese ex-pats in this country and reading books, magazines and websites concerning the country.
And on our lunch breaks, we emerge from our headquarters here into Washington, D.C's own Chinatown -- or what's left of it. We're just two blocks from a big Chinese arch that the city of Beijing gave to this city decades ago. However, it's starting to feel like a vestigial relic. In the past dozen years a big new sports arena, chain restaurants, and other distractions have chipped away at the Eastern feel of this neighborhood. When new stores come in, they pay lip-service to Chinatown by slapping some Chinese characters on their signs. Although surrounded by all these symbols, and a few remaining Chinese restaurants, we're hardly in an authentic Chinese environment.
So, we rely on reading to steep ourselves in the place we're going. I've been reading the May National Geographic magazine with its spectacular photos of the country, and two fine articles by Peter Hessler. I like this comparison he makes:
"It's worth comparing with Whittier's century, when American industry and agriculture were revolutionized. Back then the prime motivator was actually a shortage of workers. The U.S. had plenty of land and relatively few people; anyone who saved a few months' wages could move west and farm. Industrialists had to hire unskilled workers, mostly recent immigrants, and they made the most of limited labor. The need for efficiency inspired innovations that changed the world: the cotton gin, the sewing machine, the assembly line, the American system of standardization and interchangeable parts.
"China's industrial revolution has followed a different path. There's little incentive to save labor, because of constant migration. Competition is ruthless, but it???s not the sort that leads to innovation; most plants simply try to shave down the cost of making low-margin products. Education suffers from a similar low-end approach. Chinese schools have been remarkably successful at basic skills -- the literacy rate is over 90 percent, compared with 65 percent in 1982, according to the Ministry of Education. But the conservative curriculum depends heavily on rote memorization, and higher education is particularly weak."
That same issue of National Geographic also has a story by Amy Tan that might be the basis for a short feature on our air. It's about the Dong people of remote southern China. They use song to communicate their history in the absence of a written language.
Another source of great insight is the May issue of "Good" magazine. I've never heard of it before, but our intern Travis gave it to me. It features some vivid graphics that set out the patterns of growth, demographic & ethnic statistics in China. The magazine manages to have lots of fun with its subject, including a long piece about a faux "Orange County" development several dozen miles outside of Beijing. However, there's not a lot from Sichuan in either magazine -- a good thing since we get to open a door on someplace less frequently covered.
Still, until my lips are burning with Sichuan hotpot, it'll all very unreal.
-- Art Silverman
5:04 PM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink
