Let's go fly a kite, etc.

It was another beautiful day - rivaling the one a couple weeks ago. They set up a Beijing Olympics stand by my favorite square (that is full of people dancing, flying kites, roller blading and playing hackey sack at night) because an Olympics exhibition will be in a building across the street. We played hackey sack with about 8 people. I bought a small watermelon kite and we already had a big one (see picture). Chinese people are expert kite flyers, no running involved. Our kites got tangled with others' a couple of times but it was so much fun!

I talked with some students today about Mao Zedong, the Communist party, Taiwan, and the one child rule. I realize much of the following conversation is somewhat short-sighted and simply put, but I'm just relaying our conversation (which was in Chinese).

Regarding Taiwan, they said that the Chinese government doesn't have any influence over Taiwan's government. The two governments recently started working together more closely following Taiwan's change in president. Last week, Taiwan and China started flying direct for the first time since 1949. However, the last I read, the mainland also has missiles pointed at Taiwan. I read an article that talked about how China's government tries to do subtle things to affect Taiwan, such as sending mainland people over to Taiwan to work and thus establish some sort of mainland influence. It also said how China's government was rooting for the current Taiwanese leaders to win the election and were possibly supporting them financially. That said, the fact that Taiwanese people vote helps them to maintain a sort of independence. The students said they hadn't heard anything about mainland influence, but we agreed that other countries sometimes know more than us about what our own country is doing.

Regarding the Communist party, they said that a lot of people are part of the Communist party, but a lot of people aren't. Part of the reason a lot of people aren't is that it's kind of a bother to become a member. You have to show interest for a while and for a few years must prepare for written tests, oral tests, and an interview before being admitted. Some of them said next year they can become a part of the Communist party. The tests are about historical leaders and their opinions and thoughts on different government regulations and situations (kind of like a "what would you do if you were the president?"). They said they think a lot of these steps are really unnecessary, but it's just part of the process to become a member.

Regarding Mao Zedong, they said that generally, they think Chinese people like him, especially the Communist leaders. They like him mostly because he helped many people. However, they also said that a lot of people have mixed feelings because he oppressed many people, for example burning their books, making them work on farms, not allowing children to receive education etc. I asked them why the Communist party still "idolizes" him if there are such mixed feelings and they said this is something they really do not understand either. They suggested that maybe they are using him as a type of role model with the goal of "creating a better China" in mind, just not in the same way. I also asked them whether they had freedom of speech - they said yes; if they wanted to say she didn't like Mao out in the streets, it wouldn't matter today. This picture is from my visit to Tienanmen Square.

Regarding the One Child Rule (Vocab word of the day: du sheng zi nu 独生子 女) and having children: Mao Zedong encouraged everyone to have lots of kids - more kids was better. He himself had many wives and children. After his death, the One child rule was enacted. This rule said those from the Han ethnic group could only have 1 child. Those from the other 55 ethnic groups (minority groups) are not subject to this law and there are other Han ethnic group exceptions (which I don't know the details of). I believe some of these exceptions involve farmers, paying a lot of money for a second child, being highly ranked in the Communist party, and some families (in some situations) can have a second child if their first child is a girl. However, the students said that if it hasn't already been enacted, a new population-control law is going to be put into place allowing those born after 1980 to have 2 children. The government realized that there will be a huge swell of elderly people with a much smaller population of working adults to take care of these elderly people. This is one population problem. Another is a huge imbalance between male and females. The students said the tradition of preferring a boy is still in play in China. However, they said she doesn't think there is really a reason to prefer boys anymore. Before, they were preferred because the wife usually went to live with the husband's family and parents almost always lived with their children. So if you had a son, you could pretty much guarantee you would be taken care of. However, now less and less parents are living with their kids and the tradition of the wife moving to the husband's home is also now not as popular.