Unveiling the newest SARS fashion and gear. This type of story is becoming more and more common in Chinese newspapers. As you may have noticed the paper that I am reading most often is Hebei Ribao (Hebei Daily News). Although it is no surprise that the news would have many articles about the positive aspects of the fight with SARS, there is one facet of this that I find to be very interesting. I have been trying to read the newspapers but to be quite honest browsing the headlines would be a more apt relation of what I do. My Chinese still is not at a sufficient level to really read a newspaper. Consequently I spend alot of time looking at pages like this. Recently there has been a change on the front page of the paper. Just below the picture there is always the box full of links to stories that you would click daily. Until earlier this week the first link always led to the daily SARS statistics. This has changed in the last week though and now if you click the top link you are taken to this page. That page is an honor roll of what companies and groups have donated the most to the fight against SARS.
The honoring of those who have donated is not just limited to the Hebei Daily. I have talked to some of my Chinese friends and they say that they have begun to see many stories appear in all of the Chinese newspapers they read. So why is there a big focus on these donations? I mean if the Chinese government wishes to show that it is doing all it can it could, and does, publish countless stories about the heroic efforts of the government to fight SARS. I do not know whether this type of thing happens in American media during an ongoing natural disaster or not. The only times I have lived through natural disasters were in Houston when I was very young. I think that it is a sign of the new direction that communism has taken in this country.
When I first arrived in China I heard that the CCP had anounced that businessmen were in fact part of the proletariat. When I first heard this news I was floored. By definition how can businessmen be proletarians? This recent development in Chinese media shows that the party is approaching business through the media in just such a fashion. Businessmen truly are part of the Chinese proletariat. I think these articles are a subtle type of Stakhanovism. I think that party is reminding the private entrepeneur and businessmen that although they have been allowed free reign in the marketplace there comes a time when they must remember their responsibilites to the party, state and society.
Of course I could be completely wrong and the Stakhanov tactic may have been heisted from the Chinese by the Russians. I have noticed that at traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies it is loudly proclaimed who gave how much. A list is even made and posted so that it is the first thing that is seen when entering the courtyard of a house. So this new thing could be an unconcious attempt by the merchant class to move up to the level of literati in a re-emerging Confucian social structure. Just another lesson for myself, I will never fully understand China. Luckily I really enjoy trying, and I am holding out for my 60th birthday when Confucious assured me that it will all come clear.
If anyone has any insight into this particular problem please send me an e-mail and enlighten me.
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