I have been recently quoted in Aimee Barnes’ blog where she poses the question: What Makes China Uniquely Cool?
I’m not sure I agree with the “cool” premise, but its certainly unique and alluring and most foreigners I know who lived there are addicted.
Here is my take on what makes China “cool”:
For me it’s the unique cultural experiment that made China what it is today. The Cultural Revolution was in a very real way a social experiment on the scale and magnitude that has never been seen in human history. One party rule, yet the people are (mostly) happy? That just goes against our deepest fundamental western values. The country is so full of contradictions. It’s so disparate, yet so homogenous. So safe, yet so dangerous. So synchronized, yet so chaotic. Xenophobic, yet so warmhearted! Of course you know what I mean.
It’s a country that until just 30 years ago was so isolated and removed from our western world that people still thought that the Great Leap Forward was a success! It might as well have been a different planet!
And of course the pace! It’s just relentless. In Europe we have cultures that are set in their tracks. For a couple of generations now nothing fundamental has changed. But even the two world wars don’t compare the the social topsy turvy that China has undergone. And all of it so recently, you can see it happening in front of your eyes! You are right in the middle of it! It is really mind boggling what has happened in the last 35 years. And that’s what makes China so cool!
The whole article can be found here.