Sara in China

China is in my Head, or How China Today is like Industrial Revolution-era London

I’m beginning to see the effects that living in China is having on the way I think about things, how I see the world.

It’s certainly changed my understanding of the internet, and in a way that’s almost visceral. You can read all you want to about censorship and filtering, but until you experience if first hand, until the Great Firewall gets in the way of your natural information seeking activities, you can’t really understand how different the internet can be. And without consciously intending it, this experience is creeping into my writing, adding a layer to my view on technology news that I think is helping me see bigger picture implications of policy decisions and design choices in technology.

It’s also affecting the way I consume information. Reading a book isn’t the same. I have always believed that individual circumstances—be it place, experience, or bias—unavoidably influence how we read a book. That’s the beauty of the the individual experience of reading a shared cultural object. But I find that China has had an acute effect. Reading Committed, I found myself identifying with Gilbert’s in-limbo travel experience in Southeast Asia with her fiance in ways that wouldn’t have registered before this year. Reading At Home, I found myself wishing Bryson had expanded his research beyond western recent history to address eastern conceptions of home, so I started making my own connections to fill that space.

My meandering looked a little like this: reading passages about London’s smog pollution and food adulterers, I couldn’t help but think how similar the problems sounded to the headlines coming from China today. Major cities are swamped with oppressive smog from coal burning factories. There are congestion and public housing concerns. The urban population exceeds the rural population for the first time (in the UK it became clear in the 1851 census, in China it’s 2012). There are labor disputes surrounding child workers, factory conditions, and long hours. There are extensive food tampering and safety issues. I wondered, is this just the natural course of growth for industrializing societies? That you have go to slog through the mess before regulations reactively respond in an effort to tidy up the place? And then I wondered, why haven’t the lessons learned from the 1850s been passed on? China’s adolescence might be sped up compared to the Industrial Revolution timeline, but it doesn’t stop China from going through an awkward phase. I’m sure I’m not the first person to draw these parallels, but it’s indicative of the kind of thinking that opens up to me now.

I expected that the living abroad experience would have this kind of effect—isn’t that why people do it? To broaden horizons and other such lofty self-improvement goals? Still, it startles me when I take a step back and notice the difference in practice. I won’t ever be a China expert, but being here is certainly having its effect on my world view.