This Generation (21 page)

As a neighbor of ours, North Korea has always been a pain in the neck. A lot of people take the simplistic view that North Korea is bound to be our friend forever, since our two states pledge allegiance to the same belief system, but this is a strange way of looking at things—a bit like saying that just because we're both Argentina fans, then we have to be friends too. Of course, in the end everyone's realized we're actually fake Argentina fans, but fake in different ways. Others take the naïve view that if there's another war
we will have to come to North Korea's aid, because we can't have a capitalist country right there on our doorstep and because we made huge sacrifices to defend North Korea the first time round. That's an odd position to take, too, for who can say that two bosom pals will never have a falling out, and there's no guarantee that the North Korean people really thank us for what we did, in any case. And if war did break out between North and South Korea, the North might well lob a few nuclear warheads at the South but end up getting beaten anyway, and the following might happen: With South Korean territory affected by nuclear radiation, the two sides might switch ends—just like halfway through a soccer match—and we'd have South Korea on the north side of the thirty-eighth parallel for a change. Actually, it's not important what ideology is supported by the countries adjacent to us, for that's not a major issue in contemporary warfare—what matters is whether our neighbors are civilized, and whether we are.

North Korea has abundant natural resources, a population proportionate to the country's size, and a commendable national spirit; for it to be reduced to its current level of poverty has to count as quite an achievement. Some people attribute North Korea's problems to the sanctions imposed by the international community, particularly the United States, but I'm not sure they truly understand the country. Of course, I can't claim to truly understand the country either, but in an age when information is so widely available, if a country is so difficult to get to know and if its citizens have even more difficulty getting to know the rest of the world—or risk being shot if they try—then it is bound to be poor. The less access to information, the more backward the economy—that is inevitable. What's ironic is that this extremely autocratic nation that does everything it can to brainwash its people calls itself the “Democratic People's Republic of Korea,” just as the bloody and dictatorial red regime in Cambodia in the 1970s, which in just four years caused the death of a fifth of its population, called itself “Democratic Kampuchea.”
It's only when they recite the complete name of their country, I bet, that the people of North Korea ever have the chance to mention the word
democracy
.

We can't interfere in other countries' internal politics and we can't comment on our own—all we can do is comment on the former. Like a straggler looking back sympathetically at someone trailing even further behind, I always keep hoping that North Korea can join the world, can stop being Asia's orphan, even if it doesn't do any better than us. Here in China we're always ambivalent about how far to go: heading right, then veering left; one hand waving, one hand clenched; pressing forward, then pushing back; steering west and talking east; but at least we're part of the world, at least we're never again going to perform a loyalty dance, tears welling up in our eyes as we fondle the leader's portrait. For everyone to submit to the authority of one person or one view can never be the standard by which one determines the success of a state or a regime. Actually, when we look at it now, all that fuss we used to make about this class or that, about the correct outlook and the right banner, it was all just a game or all just a dream. Forty or fifty years ago, we were always getting in a tizzy about which class was going to have power, but in fact that's not the issue at all, for any group of people who get power will inevitably become a new class—there is no evidence to show they will naturally and inevitably uphold the interests of the class to which they originally belonged. No matter what class you identify with, no matter what kind of thinker you are, or politician, or military strategist, working out how to get power is not such a towering achievement—it's the one who works out how to
limit
power who is truly great.

Finally I'd like to share with you that song of Luo Dayou's—one I've always liked—as a way of expressing our hope that the people of North Korea can live better lives or at least not starve, and also to remind ourselves that once you're lost in the bitter sea, it's so hard to get out of it.

The orphan of Asia weeps in the wind

Red mud on sallow chin

White terror in brown eyes

West wind wails in eastern skies

Nobody plays straight, my boy

Everyone wants your favorite toy

So much searching up and down

For answers that just can't be found

So many sighs of despair at night

So many tears just out of view

Mother dear, how can this be right

Mother dear, how can this be true

September 12, 2010

Some friends have asked me
why I'm not taking a stand on the Diaoyu Islands incident and condemning Japan.
³⁰
What I tell them is: Even though none of the earth under my feet is my own, I still pay a lot of attention to issues about territory. When I first heard about this business, I dashed off a comment online with great conviction: “Protect the Diaoyu Islands!” But the result was that the chat room host told me I was trying to publish illegal content and asked me to revise what I'd written. I racked my brains to think of another way to put it, and it was only when I altered the post to read “Protect the Senkaku Islands” that it could be published without further ado.

This latest contretemps is truly a major incident, one that has
compelled the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work through the weekend on formulating a protest statement. If you're enjoying a perfect life, with wife and child, house and car, work and leisure, health and fitness all in perfect shape, then, if you're appropriately stirred by patriotic sentiment and in no mood to “conceal your strength and bide your time,” then of course you should feel free to protect the Diaoyu Islands. But if there are things in your life not quite so secure, my feeling is that you should attend to them first, rather than worrying about something so remote.

But perhaps you will say to me, “When the big issues are so clear-cut, what do one's own personal little losses amount to?” That's true, but people have the right to define for themselves what the big issues are. In this case, for example, I think first we have to look at the government's attitude—how can you rush ahead of the leadership? If the leadership denounces Japan's actions, that means they want you to condemn them too, but if they simply express regret, that means you can put a stop to your denunciations. If the leadership wants denunciation and you want to take action, that reaches the limit of what the leadership can tolerate, and if you really take action the leadership will have to punish you, because the leadership is playing a game of chess with a lot of pieces and since you're just a single piece, how have you got the right to jump right off the board? And on this board you are a black piece, whereas the leadership is a white one, in part because the working people are bound to be a bit darker-skinned. Black is the color that suits you best, but the most important thing is, the leadership that is already washed white wants you to sing blackface when you charge forward, whereas at the key moment they will sing whiteface.
³¹
If you're unlucky you'll find out later that the leadership has happily struck a business deal with the supposed aggressors.

Regarding the Diaoyu Islands issue, I am sure that our government's
primary concern is its firm control over the domestic situation; whether there is oil under the sea is not so much what's on their minds. Oil is what the Japanese want, and that's why they suddenly got so interested in the islands in the 1970s. But the Chinese government only cares about stability—they don't want any unpredictable risks in foreign relations or military affairs, and so this has caused an issue which isn't actually all that complicated to be dragged out interminably. There may well be another area on our borders that is similarly controversial and capable of provoking friction and local hostilities with neighboring countries, but just as long as it's not very big and its loss would not affect China's chicken-like shape and it's located in some out-of-the-way corner that the people and the media don't know much about, the government may well feel that it's best to be somewhat accommodating and treat it as though it's already been sold off to a real estate mogul, since neither rooster nor hen are all that bothered about it. But the Diaoyu Islands have often been in the news these last few decades, so public attention is high, particularly after all those scenes on TV of our leaders receiving foreign dignitaries at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. It would be just too embarrassing if after all this fuss Diaoyutai ends up in someone else's hands, and so pressing the claim for the Diaoyu Islands has become a matter of pride for the government, and I'm confident they won't be ceded to another country any time soon. But for the Chinese government, the best solution is to keep on dragging things out, delaying things until there's another shift in the tectonic plate, so that the Diaoyu Islands directly get tacked onto Fujian Province, for that will make things a lot simpler, and we can sort out questions of underwater petroleum some other time. So I'm not worried that the Diaoyu Islands will be occupied by the Japanese, even though in fact they've already pretty much done that. And in terms of this current incident, the best outcome is that the captain is held for ten days, and after nine days of us strongly condemning and gravely protesting, the Japanese let the guy go, for that way finally our protests have borne fruit. As
for the people who sing blackface, of course it does no harm to sing when they've got nothing better to do with their time, so long as they don't get into it too deeply and don't let it affect their lives, for don't forget that it's even more important to protect the things that you and your family should have, and don't get upset if you find that you've already drained your cup and the leadership hasn't even opened its bottle, and don't imagine that you're really responding to the nation's greatest emergency, for the nation has a lot more pressing issues than this.

September 19, 2010

Yesterday, September 18—a sensitive date
in China
³²
—some of my friends debated whether or not to take to the streets, since it seems there is no objection to us demonstrating against Japan, for the Diaoyu Islands, and for our fishing-boat captain. Finally, in a nation where in many chat rooms it's impossible even to type the word
demonstrate
, we are free to demonstrate. So should we or should we not take part in a demo on this subject?

First of all, I think it's true to say we have three classes in Chinese society today: masters, slaves, and dogs. But often a person may take on double roles. As for which two roles these are, I doubt that anyone is going to feel that he's playing the master. Not long ago, the masters needed slaves to echo their words and wait on them hand and foot, but now they need dogs to do some barking, and according to dog logic, no matter how it's treated by its master, it always has to protect the property whenever an outsider encroaches.

Keeping this point in mind helps us to think more clearly about the question. But the good thing is: We also have one more choice, simply to remain spectators. Why would we choose to do that? In the eyes of the powers that be, the difference between a little thing and a big thing is simply that the first may provoke one protest and the second may provoke eleven; the site of real privilege and authority has not exerted itself in any way; apart from calling in the Japanese ambassador multiple times, our diplomats are quite composed; and we don't see any real determination on the part of our government to take retaliatory measures—no economic sanctions, never mind a show of military force. They're hiding their strength and biding their time, so we might as well just do the same. After all, it's enough that we are dogs—why reduce ourselves to the role of dogs that perform tricks to order?