Faan Laih La!
Posted by dm at 2/27/2007 12:02 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
I'm back.
The amount of time it should take a person to fly from India to Hong Kong is about 5 and a half hours. The amount of time it actually takes me is 24. Part of this has to do with the bizarre schedule of international flights out of Mumbai--they depart between 1 and 5 am. Which means that if you are connecting from a domestic flight elsewhere in India, which tend to fly during daylight hours, you are in for a long wait in Mumbai Airport.
It's an instructive 8 hour wait. I am traveling from the world's worst airport to the world's best. Mumbai Airport is squalid. There are more passengers waiting than there are chairs. No restaurants, only a little "Internet-Snack-Cafe" with three dirty tables and a couple of ancient computer monitors. I log in, and am greeted by a barrage of pop-up ads for porn sites. About 3 minutes later, I manage to get into Gmail, which loads at glacial pace. This, in India, the land of the IT revolution.
Big black mosquitoes are checking out my exposed ankles under the computer desk. Mumbai Airport is bordered by one of the biggest slums in Asia. With visions of dengue and malaria dancing through my head, I quickly log off and head for the loo.
In the women's bathroom at Mumbai Airport, an attendant in a grubby sari hustles me into a reasonably clean toilet stall. When I emerge, she pushes a hunk of toilet paper at me while simultaneously turning on the sink faucet. As I turn to go, the same hand, palm outstretched, is shoved into my chest with a nasty grunt.
At the other end of my journey, when I exit the Cathay Pacific flight and walk into the shiny, glassy cathedral of Chek Lap Kok airport, I feel like I've arrived in heaven or Oz. In the bathrooms, faucets turn on automatically, simply by waving your hands, and nobody's demanding spare change for a towel. The arrival hall dazzles me with possibilities: I can buy shampoo at Watson's! Get a fresh juice at MiX! Go yam cha at Meih Sam, Maxim's!
Meih sam. Beautiful heart. I am home.
Faan laih la.
While I was in India, a very nice young man, a recent business school graduate, cornered me at a party and started interviewing me as if he were a reporter, not an MBA. "You live in China, but you spend a lot of time in India. Here we feel like China is our competition. Since you have experience of both places, maybe you can tell me, which country do you think will win?"
I hesitated. The first thing I wanted to say is, "I don't live in China, I live in Hong Kong, which is a different thing altogether." But I realized my questioner wasn't interested in these subtleties. And that tact was required, since the MBA was so young and eager. So I observed, diplomatically, that the Chinese seemed to be good at some things, Indians at others, and they both had many hurdles to overcome in the rush to economic development.
Later, I thought about the India-China thing. They're both rapidly developing countries, each with a huge population of poor peasants at one end, and an entrenched elite at the other who are grabbing the lion's share of the pie. And both are massively corrupt systems. (Every time I settled a bill in India, the proprietor offered to pad the receipt without my asking. When I'd refuse, they'd look at me like I was nuts.)
But India is a place where family, caste, community and religion are still far more powerful than consumer culture. India never had a Cultural Revolution. If anything, it's had the reverse--a deepening of religious and community divisions under the Hindu Nationalists. The cities are filled with temples and the temples filled with worshippers. Neighborhoods are segregated by religion, by caste and community. Mobility in this society depends almost completely on the circumstances of your birth. Successful politicians are the sons, daughters or wives of other successful politicians. Industrialists, ditto. Bollywood stars are the children of other Bollywood stars.
The Cultural Revolution was a horrible, inhuman, devastating thing for China. But, paradoxically, it created a blank slate that now allows the Chinese to jump giddily into the dubious joys of consumer culture. (Another paradox--Mao wanted to make a Chinese socialist "New Man". Instead, his insane purges of history, society and culture opened the door for the "New Consumer.")
Yeah, there's still guanxi and the political elite of the CP to contend with. But the grip of the CP on Chinese life simply cannot compare with the thousand-year-old baggage of culture, religion and social classifications that India carries along with it on the road to modernity. China's corruption and one-party rule are far more likely to be cast off someday than India's ancient social systems.
I love India. Its old and complex, living culture makes it a most fascinating place to travel. It is a democracy, where people are free to speak their mind, and give their votes to whomever--Hindu reactionaries or Communists or film stars. Indians will not give up their ceremonies, their customs, their taboos. Nor will they give up their freedom to make noise, squabble, hash out their differences in public. As a place to explore and enjoy, I'd head for India over China any day.
But the very thing that gives India its character is what gives China its edge in this stupid development game. China will "win". I just wonder what that "winning" is ultimately worth.
The amount of time it should take a person to fly from India to Hong Kong is about 5 and a half hours. The amount of time it actually takes me is 24. Part of this has to do with the bizarre schedule of international flights out of Mumbai--they depart between 1 and 5 am. Which means that if you are connecting from a domestic flight elsewhere in India, which tend to fly during daylight hours, you are in for a long wait in Mumbai Airport.
It's an instructive 8 hour wait. I am traveling from the world's worst airport to the world's best. Mumbai Airport is squalid. There are more passengers waiting than there are chairs. No restaurants, only a little "Internet-Snack-Cafe" with three dirty tables and a couple of ancient computer monitors. I log in, and am greeted by a barrage of pop-up ads for porn sites. About 3 minutes later, I manage to get into Gmail, which loads at glacial pace. This, in India, the land of the IT revolution.
Big black mosquitoes are checking out my exposed ankles under the computer desk. Mumbai Airport is bordered by one of the biggest slums in Asia. With visions of dengue and malaria dancing through my head, I quickly log off and head for the loo.
In the women's bathroom at Mumbai Airport, an attendant in a grubby sari hustles me into a reasonably clean toilet stall. When I emerge, she pushes a hunk of toilet paper at me while simultaneously turning on the sink faucet. As I turn to go, the same hand, palm outstretched, is shoved into my chest with a nasty grunt.
At the other end of my journey, when I exit the Cathay Pacific flight and walk into the shiny, glassy cathedral of Chek Lap Kok airport, I feel like I've arrived in heaven or Oz. In the bathrooms, faucets turn on automatically, simply by waving your hands, and nobody's demanding spare change for a towel. The arrival hall dazzles me with possibilities: I can buy shampoo at Watson's! Get a fresh juice at MiX! Go yam cha at Meih Sam, Maxim's!
Meih sam. Beautiful heart. I am home.
Faan laih la.
While I was in India, a very nice young man, a recent business school graduate, cornered me at a party and started interviewing me as if he were a reporter, not an MBA. "You live in China, but you spend a lot of time in India. Here we feel like China is our competition. Since you have experience of both places, maybe you can tell me, which country do you think will win?"
I hesitated. The first thing I wanted to say is, "I don't live in China, I live in Hong Kong, which is a different thing altogether." But I realized my questioner wasn't interested in these subtleties. And that tact was required, since the MBA was so young and eager. So I observed, diplomatically, that the Chinese seemed to be good at some things, Indians at others, and they both had many hurdles to overcome in the rush to economic development.
Later, I thought about the India-China thing. They're both rapidly developing countries, each with a huge population of poor peasants at one end, and an entrenched elite at the other who are grabbing the lion's share of the pie. And both are massively corrupt systems. (Every time I settled a bill in India, the proprietor offered to pad the receipt without my asking. When I'd refuse, they'd look at me like I was nuts.)
But India is a place where family, caste, community and religion are still far more powerful than consumer culture. India never had a Cultural Revolution. If anything, it's had the reverse--a deepening of religious and community divisions under the Hindu Nationalists. The cities are filled with temples and the temples filled with worshippers. Neighborhoods are segregated by religion, by caste and community. Mobility in this society depends almost completely on the circumstances of your birth. Successful politicians are the sons, daughters or wives of other successful politicians. Industrialists, ditto. Bollywood stars are the children of other Bollywood stars.
The Cultural Revolution was a horrible, inhuman, devastating thing for China. But, paradoxically, it created a blank slate that now allows the Chinese to jump giddily into the dubious joys of consumer culture. (Another paradox--Mao wanted to make a Chinese socialist "New Man". Instead, his insane purges of history, society and culture opened the door for the "New Consumer.")
Yeah, there's still guanxi and the political elite of the CP to contend with. But the grip of the CP on Chinese life simply cannot compare with the thousand-year-old baggage of culture, religion and social classifications that India carries along with it on the road to modernity. China's corruption and one-party rule are far more likely to be cast off someday than India's ancient social systems.
I love India. Its old and complex, living culture makes it a most fascinating place to travel. It is a democracy, where people are free to speak their mind, and give their votes to whomever--Hindu reactionaries or Communists or film stars. Indians will not give up their ceremonies, their customs, their taboos. Nor will they give up their freedom to make noise, squabble, hash out their differences in public. As a place to explore and enjoy, I'd head for India over China any day.
But the very thing that gives India its character is what gives China its edge in this stupid development game. China will "win". I just wonder what that "winning" is ultimately worth.
Loved this post. You put your finger right on it.
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I confess to a deep ignorance about India and mainland China. However,the fact that india still has its social distinctions intact may in fact prove to be an advantage. Having just read John Promfet's Chinese Lessons I was struck by the total absence of any real social values or bonds in China - Mao's enduring legacy. I don't suppose that Walpole's England was a very egalitarian society but time has shown what can grow from some very basic ingredients. India has the structures and restaints in society and politics to reform and grow. Does China?
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Welcome back. Faan Laih La is what I say everytime I am home. Fantastic blog and liked what I have read so far.
Just thought I would say that the chinese carry thousand year old baggages too.
I am sure that India will improve with time. Hong Kong seems to have travelled far since Martin Booth's 'Gweilo'
Maybe a look at the indian communities living in HK too as a follow up from your indian holiday.
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Very interesting insights. I was once in a relationship with a woman in Hong Kong whose family were ethnic Chinese, but with strong ties to India through both birth and intermarriage. She still has family living in some of these Chinese enclaves in Mumbai. So I really appreciate hearing stories of your travels and experiences.
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Welcome back indeed. As a tech geek, your description of "Internet-Snack-Cafe" at Mumbai Airport is surprising. Love to see some pix if you have them. The airport pictures in Wikipedia and a few at flickr look bright and clean. And I didn't expect pop-up ads for porn sites and ultra slow internet access in an airport.
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Wonderful insights. Enjoyed every line.
How clean do you think the slate got after Mao's cultural revolution? I can think of at least two factors that may have kept a bit of stuff. One is the size of the country and the population. Some diversity must have survived the intended uniformity. And two would be, innate things I would like to think that we are born with, like a sense of wonderment and the seeking of the spiritual which even for children born during or after the cultural revolution may have lay dormant or half dormant rather than erased.
Still, for the most part I think your analysis is very impressive.
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aha I guess I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes...THIS is the reason why I never see a " box" with fruit and b&w photo in the mainland! I thought it was just a Cantonese thing not practiced elsewhere. Ching Ming had to go during the Cultural Revolution, right?
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A lot of cultural practices in China survived the Cultural Revolution. But the public structures and social support for the festivals, rituals, etc. were damaged or destroyed. I predict that traditional Chinese cultural stuff is going to make a big comeback on the mainland. Actually, from what people tell me, it already is--as witness the vogue for traditional characters in names.
But whenever lost or neglected cultural practices stage a revival, they always return in a changed form. There's a little distance, nostalgia or irony, or sometimes a complete distortion of the original intent and feeling of the practices. This is one of the hallmarks of a post-modern society. So, as a society in the "cultural recovery" stage, China is "ahead" of India, too.
What's interesting to me is how Hong Kong has taken a different path. Here we have a Chinese culture that has evolved naturally into a modern, cosmopolitan society. People are burning paper in canisters for their ancestors at the foot of Sir Norman Foster skyscrapers, and there's no feeling of disjuncture or self-consciousness about this. It's all part of what Hong Kong is.
There's a really good academic article buried somewhere on Christine Loh's website that talks about this--and it concludes that mainland Chinese bureaucrats feel threatened by Hong Kong because it represents an alternative way to be, at once, modern, successful, and Chinese.
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