After a busy two weeks in Beijing, I'm sitting at the desk in my office at
home, enjoying a cup of good American coffee (I know my European friends
will think that's a contradiction in terms), working my way through over
1,200 backed up emails and grateful for the easy availability of melatonin.
My return to China came almost exactly 23 years (TWENTY THREE YEARS!) after
my last sojourn there, and I'm pleased to report that China is
exemplifying -- in most respects -- an explosion of extropian values
throughout society. Perhaps the primary impressions I'd pass on to the
group here are three.
First, China is experiencing what must surely be the most accelerated and,
in sheer numbers, largest instance of urbanization in human history. The
visual landscape of Beijing has been utterly transformed: For as far as the
eye can see in any direction from countless points around the now
much-larger city, I saw rank after rank of mid-rise and high-rise buildings,
almost all built within the last ten years. This vision is certainly one
that wouldn't be out of place in many science fiction stories, given the
wildly syncretistic styles of architecture and the simple newness of all the
buildings.
Second, while the central government and highest levels of political life in
China are certainly NOT democratic, there has also been a breathtaking
flowering of human freedom in China. At every level of society, I saw many,
many instances, large and small, of an exuberant new enjoyment of liberty.
This is expressed in many ways: Free markets of small vendors have formed
spontaneously in many places and, after initial attempts by the government
to suppress them failed, they are now tolerated and, in many cases, even
encouraged; state-owned enterprises are being sold off as fast as the
government can organize the process; people now accept some insecurity and a
steady end to the "iron rice bowl" of permanent, unconditional employment as
the price of innovation and liberty; there is a great hunger for learning
the ways of legality and mutuality instead of command and authority and, in
situations as diverse as road traffic, lines at theaters and cash registers
and business deals, there is a development of a new, voluntary civil
society.
Third, the genie of cultural change is definitely out of the bottle.
Chinese television and other visual arts media have become a seething
hothouse of syncretistic creativity, swiftly adopting elements of a global
culture of symbols and syntax; new trends in literature and criticism are
developing faster than the established literati can keep track; throughout
the culture there is an exuberant xenophilia that finds expression in an
unselfconscious experimentation at levels from the largest public displays
of communication to street slang and business manners. Throughout all of
this runs a reservoir of potent optimism and good humor that stands in sharp
contrast to the weary socialist seriousness I knew when I began studying
China and Chinese culture and contemporary history almost three decades ago.
As an extropian, I found all this deeply satisfying and endlessly
fascinating. One question I put to my Chinese friends and colleagues was
whether the pace of change they were experiencing was somehow frightening or
tiring. Interestingly, there was very little negative reaction. Put
simply, the direction of change and its rewards have been so positive for so
many people -- and so obviously and tangibly so -- that no one I spoke to
expressed real reservations or regret. The speed with which real prosperity
has percolated throughout Chinese society has made the swift change easy to
take. The flowering of opportunity has more than offset the loss of
security. There are definitely concerns about whether China, as a whole and
as a society, can adopt new ways of managing its civil society. But these
concerns are tempered by deep-seated and thoroughgoing optimism.
On a personal note, this trip was extremely successful -- both for the
specific case I'm working on now, and more generally for my prospects of
working with the Chinese legal community that is now experiencing an
explosive growth of numbers, creativity and optimistic hard work. As a
result, I'll be busier than ever in '02 in my professional work and
therefore may be even more quiet here than I have been over the last year.
So I'm very grateful to the new infusion of talent and energy we're
experiencing in the management of ExI, and look forward to working with the
folks who have recently come into the process of helping ExI to fulfill its
mission. We've got more reason than ever to be rationally optimistic!
Onward!
Greg Burch
Vice-President, Extropy Institute
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:33 MDT