FR — LARRY ROMANOFF — Quelques vérités à connaître sur la Chine — March 28, 2022

 

Quelques vérités à connaître sur la Chine

Par Larry Romanoff,  le 04/04/2022

 

1960 -- The rural workforce turned their attention from the fields to factories

 

 

Des miliciens passent en formation devant la place Tiananmen lors du défilé militaire marquant le 70e anniversaire de la fondation de la République populaire de Chine, à l'occasion de sa fête nationale, à Pékin, en Chine, le 1er octobre 2019. (Photo : Thomas Peter/Reuters)

 

CHINESE   ENGLISH   FRENCH   NEDERLANDS

 

Il semble qu'à chaque fois que le sujet de la Chine est abordé, nous sommes inondés d'observations, de déclarations et de conclusions très étonnantes, qui semblent presque toutes provenir de l'espace. Il n'existe certainement pas d'autre sujet sur cette planète sur lequel autant de personnes sont si mal informées et arrivent à des conclusions aussi irréalistes.

 

Nous avons un dicton qui dit qu'après avoir passé un mois en Chine, vous pourriez écrire un livre ; après un an en Chine, vous pourriez écrire un chapitre ; dans cinq ans, vous pourriez écrire un paragraphe, et après cinq ans, vous pourriez écrire une note sur une carte postale - sur la nourriture. Ce dicton est presque devenu une légende urbaine, mais il est essentiellement vrai. Je me souviens encore du jour où, marchant dans une rue du centre-ville de Shangai après avoir séjourné dans le pays pendant environ un mois, j'ai ressenti une illusion d'une clarté si extrême que je me suis dit : "Je pourrais écrire un livre sur cet endroit". Je ne peux pas expliquer les processus mentaux ou sociologiques qui se combinent pour provoquer cette illusion initiale de compréhension et de clarté, ni les forces qui la démantèlent si efficacement et progressivement pour aboutir à une situation où plus on passe de temps en Chine, moins on la comprend.

 

EN -- LARRY ROMANOFF -- Some Things You Should Maybe Know About China -- March 28, 2022

 

Some Things You Should Maybe Know About China

      By Larry Romanoff, March 28, 2022

 

1960 -- The rural workforce turned their attention from the fields to factories

 

Militia members march in formation past Tiananmen Square during the military parade marking the 70th founding anniversary of People's Republic of China, on its National Day in Beijing, China October 1, 2019. (Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters)

 

It seems that whenever the topic of China arises, we are flooded with the most amazing observations, statements, conclusions, almost all of which appear to come from outer space. There surely cannot be another subject on this planet on which so many people are so amazingly misinformed and arrive at the most unrealistic conclusions.

We have a saying that after spending one month in China you could write a book; after a year in China, you could write a chapter; in five years you could write a paragraph, and after five years you could write a note on a postcard - about the food. That saying has become almost an urban legend but it is essentially true. I can still recall the day when, walking down a street in downtown Shanghai after being in the country for about a month, I experienced an illusion of such extreme clarity that I said to myself, “I could write a book on this place”. I cannot explain the mental or sociological processes that combine to cause that initial illusion of understanding and clarity, nor the forces that so effectively and progressively dismantle it to a condition where the more time we spend in China the less we understand it.

And yet, after living in China for nearly 20 years, I find myself constantly challenged and "corrected" by persons who have never been to China, have obviously never read anything useful about the country, and who may not even actually know a single Chinese person. Yet this total lack of knowledge is apparently not a hindrance to the huge amount of philosophical pontificating about "how things really are in China".

I have often thought that I could stand and speak on China for an hour and that my audience (of Canadians and Americans) would sit with their mouths open and their faces blank for that full hour. They would have nothing to say and no questions to ask, because they would be unable to fathom a set of cultural circumstances where the events I report would be able to exist in their world. The disconnect would be almost total. I recently wrote an article titled "Understanding China" that contains some cultural elements of the above kind. (1) You might care to read it; it's brief and interesting.