If You are the One – China TV and Culture
After spending a few months living in China, I know that many of the stereotypes that Americans think of the country are not true. Even as one who prides myself on being as understanding as possible, it is impossible to know what to expect until you get there. I stayed mainly in major cities, so that in itself is exposing myself only to a sub-culture within China as you would expect if you only went to major cities in the US but none of the small towns.
Anyhow, there is a lot more order than I remembered yet a lot more chaos too. There are a lot more liberties there which is probably due to not having the same sort of litigious society. You want to jump on the ice on a lake at a tourist location? The guard didn’t stop people even with the signs that forbade it. You fall through the ice? Well, you’ve been warned. Don’t think you can sue for your own actions.
You want to drive your scooter on the sidewalk? No rules against that. But, on the highest level of expression, it does get trickier. Yet, day to day people are actually very nice people, but the power holders are the ones who are limiting what can and can not be shown and said as seen in this article.
There is a breakout hit TV show in China called “If You Are the One” which is a sort of dating show which is considered racy by standards of Chinese TV. Note that I say Chinese TV and not Chinese culture. In many ways, US is a lot more repressed except for in the media. One is not necessarily better than the other, but we are not as different as people would have you believe.
At the end of the day, I see that change is coming. As Americans, we believe it should just happen immediately and quickly, but given the nature of the number of people, how people have grown up, the need for a smooth transition, I don’t think a country like China can do that without a phased approach. I think that is what we are seeing.
Now there still may be some things the government does that are not ideal, but change is coming. Change is happening. I really hope some of the more negative practices disappear as well.
Article about If You are the One: NYT Article
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