Kolonnawe Silibiris goes Chinese

 

Do you remember the photos in China Today distributed freely at Chinese embassy in Colombo?

Rice farmers under wide bamboo hats.

Thousands of bicycling men and women in city streets.

Red flags flying high atop archaic Government buildings.

Giant card board cut - outs of Mao Tse Dong smiling benignly at every corner of the streets.

The teenagers waving the little red book at the Cultural Revolution Rallies and the reactionaries with their head bowed and a board proclaiming they were traitors.

I don’t know about you but that was my memory.

We learnt that  Deng Xio Peng liberated Chinese economy when he came into power having been in exile for some years in a pig farm when he had fallen out of favour of the Communist Party.

Mao died and the gang of 4 including Mao’s powerful wife went on trial.

That was 30 years ago.

The magnificent vision of Deng Xio Peng then… assaults the senses of any visitor into China now in a kaleidoscope of colours, hundreds of buildings that soar into the sky making one feel very small, Fast trains connecting cities and massive airports in each city, thousands of kilometres of multi laned highways, millions of factories producing anything and everything for the consumers of the world.

The sheer scale of the buildings and the extent of property development is mind boggling.

When one observes the panoramic view from the Pearl tower in Down Town Shanghai, one’s mind would find it difficult to process one would see. The massive Womfu River winding around huge tall buildings that come alive with hi- tech light shows at night, huge screens advertising the latest fashion from around the world, the elegantly dressed slim Chinese girls in the arms of obviously rich boy friends is totally incongruous with Mao’s China.

There is no overt presence of government, there are no card board cut outs of Mao anywhere, let alone any Government officials.

The teenagers wear fashionable clothes and just like any teenager in the western country immersed in a world of  iPods, iPhones, iPads, Fabs Tabs and what not.

However, the most curious thing is for a country with a population of 1.2 billion, the conspicuous absence of people in the street. Lots of shiny new cars but hardly any people! The odd few you see would be silently moving  by on  their electric scooters.

High speed trains that tops 300km/h run silently between cities while the cities are serviced by an incredibly efficient subway system that costs no more than $5 for the longest trip.

Every city with huge airports with impressively modern architecture serviced by a number of domestic airline maintaining high standards, and virtually full flights is a huge boost for the domestic trade within China. The stories from the 1980s and 90s where the passengers shared the flight with caged birds, chicken on board seem incredulous.

All factories provide on- site  accommodation and 3 meals to their workers as part of employment conditions. Some managers lamented that they still find it difficult to recruit workers. The days of workers lining up at factory gates appear to be long gone. Instead, the employers line up to attract workers to their factories.

Tolled highways  with multi lanes connect towns to cities. One such “small town” 175km from Guanzou city with 1million people looked a small replica of major cities. Some of these towns had rows and rows of unoccupied 50 storey buildings and huge shopping malls akin to the infamous ghost towns. One finds explanation somewhat baffling. The property developers get a loan from the bank. They complete these huge developments where there is no hope of occupancy within 5 years. Then they apply for another loan keeping the first unoccupied development as collateral. The Government makes money in the process too. This model seems like Enron economics all over again. Harbours, Airports, empty highways, ghost towns are all part of a 5 year plan regardless of the lack of immediate return on investment.

The current Sri Lankan development plan appears to be a replica of the Chinese development plan.

If the Sri Lankan employees  can become  as polite, efficient and skilled as the Chinese employees who literally go out of their way to be helpful, Sri Lanka is definitely better off following the Chinese model than aping the American or the British system aped by the black arsed “white” Sri Lankans who steered the island into a fragmented nation since independence.

Development or not, affluence of the city folks or not one thing remain constant in China. The food! They still have a penchant for eating freshly killed animals cooked right on the table, chicken blood tofu, offal like pig intestine, chopped up bull penis soup, hens beaks and feet, sea cucumbers and sea urchins which would make most westerners puke.

Hey! What the heck!!

When in China do as the Chinese do and try some Bull’s Penis soup surrounded by giggling female cooks who abandon their posts in the kitchen to come and watch you to make sure you eat it all! Up.  “It’s goooood for mennn”…as they say.

So eat up boys and make them women happy and  Love you Loooong.