A sidenote on Shanghai

After my last post I began to think that maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh on Chinese consumerism. And I don’t want to give my family, friends in America this tainted view of China. After-all I came here because of my love for the Chinese people and culture that I found in America and my previous trips to Taiwan and China. This is a culture that is still living it is just being infiltrated with a western culture of individualism and consumerism as well. All of which are not necessarily bad. I think I portray them in a negative way because I fear that the culture I love will disappear with westernization, and that the mistakes of industrial nations will be repeated by the Chinese. In a lot of ways this is true – China has polluted every river-way and water-way in the east and filled in the largest canyon in the world, all in the name of economic might. At the same time they have lifted millions out of poverty. However I don’t believe that every country has to follow the same industrialized path that America and Europe did. After-all, it was all an experiment that was not completely a success – especially considering the Armageddon like predictions that some scientists are having for our world. But because of our mistakes and path to industrialization, China now has an excuse for its disregard for environment and human rights violations. While the excuse ‘we’re just following the path you did’ leaves a sour taste in you mouth, you can’t exactly blame them for wanting to move forward at any cost. And so the consumerism that I complain or worry about is just imported from the west, so in a way it’s partly our fault!