China Chat: Change in Beijing; Letters: Clinton

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

When I was in Beijing, I asked Scarlett Sheng whether climate change and energy conservation are topics that are on people's minds.

Ms. SCARLETT SHENG (Beijing Resident): I think the government and also the - like, the schools and universities is trying to teach the students and all the family, all the people here in China like how important it is.

NORRIS: Scarlett's father points out that, funny enough, his parents and their generations were the ones who really knew how to conserve, but they did it out of poverty.

Sheng Jingjiang says, nowadays, their lives are much better, their energy consumption has gone up, and they're conscientious because they want to be, not because they have to be.

Mr. SHENG JINGJIANG (Beijing Resident): (Through translator) When I was young, Beijing winters were cold, very cold. Now, they're much warmer. The whole world is getting warmer. Beijing is growing larger and larger. There are more and more high-rises. Everything is changing.

NORRIS: And everything has changed so much in Beijing. One of the things, Melissa, that I was struck by when I was there is just how much conservation is part of everyday life there. They don't use the same terminology that we used here. They don't talk about climate change or global warming. But, it is very, very much a part of how they live and a point of pride for them.

And one of the things that I was struck by is this notion, you know when you go to the refrigerator here in this country, you often stand in front of the refrigerator, oh, what do I want to drink, what do I want to eat, what am I going to fix for dinner tonight? Never happen over there. I mean, they -to the point that they almost map out their refrigerators so they want - when they want to reach in for a particular vegetable, they know exactly where it is; they pay attention to how many times they open the refrigerator door. It's all about conservation.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

It's interesting, Michele, I was struck by something in your piece, when you were talking about people with second homes and cars now heading out into the countryside, you know that I was just in China on a reporting trip to Chengdu.

And as you know, Robert Siegel and I are going to be doing a week of broadcasts from there in May from the 19th to the 23rd. And when I was there two weeks ago, we were there on a holiday weekend and we were heading out of town, it was a national holiday for the first time, and the traffic was bumper-to-bumper. It took about an hour plus just to get out of Chengdu itself, and then the highway was stacked, and it was all people going - many of them out to homes in the country, others to visit family.

But, you had this odd sense of - you know what, there was one turnoff for an ecolodge, a quote, unquote "ecolodge." And there were, you know, hundreds upon hundreds of cars stacked up to get into the ecolodge. I mean, the whole notion of, sort of, what the countryside means in China, as compared to what we might think of as the countryside, I think is really changing. There are so many more people headed out there, escaping the cities on weekends, going to guesthouses and villas and extended-stay homes, and it has real consequences on, obviously, the environment.

We heard a lot about this in terms of habitat, especially for giant pandas, which is one of the stories we're working on. You know, what happens when the land that those animals can use gets encroached on by more and more people who are going out there to hang out and have a weekend.

NORRIS: Interesting clash of cultures there also, because if people head to the countryside, that's also a site of real abject poverty in China - 10 million people living without electricity.

BLOCK: But at the same time, a lot of the people that we talked to said, bring it on, this is great. More people coming out means more restaurants, more hotels, more places I can sell my vegetables, sell my pork. They see this as a win-win.

NORRIS: Melissa, I have to tell you, I've been impressed that you've been able to bring it on all week, because you just got back from China. So, it must feel for you like this is the beginning of the day, not the end of the day.

BLOCK: Oh, it's good to be back. We're also very interested in hearing what our listeners want to hear about China, when we're there next month doing the show from Chengdu. You can tell us some ideas at our blog, and you can find that at npr.org/chinadiary.

NORRIS: Now, on to your thoughts about yesterday's program.

BLOCK: We've been airing several stories comparing the candidates for president with a particular business or brand. And yesterday, it was Hillary Clinton's turn.

Professor SUSAN JUNG GRANT (Marketing, University of Colorado): Perhaps Senator Clinton could be, you know, sour cream and chive potato chips. It's the idea that it's a little bit different from the main category.

BLOCK: That's Marketing Professor Susan Jung Grant describing Senator Clinton.

NORRIS: Come on, guys. Sour cream and chives?

BLOCK: This is from David Gramling(ph) of Oakland, California.

NORRIS: He writes, did you think we were all asleep out here? If you want to engage in an analytical experiment that will enliven our understanding of the candidates, you might want to design a series around how they differ from corporations and brand-making techniques, not embody them. Does NPR really want to be in the business of metaphorically making corporate the little bit that is left of our democratic process?

BLOCK: Paul Parnas(ph) of Bow, New Hampshire didn't enjoy the story either. What absolute fluff, he says, I expect better journalism from NPR. But I guess it was so much easier to throw together a story portraying her campaign metaphorically as Lay's Potato Chips. When did public radio start abandoning its duty to get at the substance and the facts?

NORRIS: Finally, Remit Catch(ph) of Rochester, New York. He heard out a preview of some of the food for Pope Benedict XVI this week. You described the tradition of bread and salt as Slovenian, he writes. I know that Slavic, Slovak and Slovenian are hard to keep straight.

In this case, you were looking for the word, Slavic. The custom of greeting guests with bread and salt is an old tradition that still survives in Slavic countries. In Poland for instance, we reserve this greeting for newlyweds.

BLOCK: And we're reserving a place for you in our letters segment. Just go to npr.org/contact.

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