The Foreign Service Journal, January 2011

freshman class, the academy accepts only one out of every 50 — making it five times more competitive than the top Ivy League schools, which boasted only a 10:1 ratio last year. As a casual visitor coming to grips with China, I was advised to avoid the three Ts — Tibet, Taiwan and Tianan- men—and, in any case, I had no reason to probe in sensitive areas. In wide- ranging conversations, however, I found the younger generation to be self-confi- dent and thoughtful on most subjects. They are genuinely trying tomake sense of their turbulent recent history, from the Communist Revolution, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution and Tian- anmen Square massacre to the pre- sent economic boom. History was brought home to me in wrenching personal stories of confis- cated family properties, parents forced to inform on grandparents, forced re- education through labor in the coun- tryside, and even families pulverizing prized heirlooms out of plain fear dur- ing the Cultural Revolution. What sur- prised me most, however, was the impact on this narrative of the PRC’s contemporary economic miracle. I en- countered no sense of bitterness or vic- timization, at least among the burgeon- ing middle-class Chinese I met in Hangzhou, but rather boundless opti- mism and pride in what they have achieved. Clearly, the new lifestyles on display and access to previously un- imagined fashion, cars and consumer goods trump the past, and the young are eager to make the most of them. Still casting a long shadow over everything is the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung, whose likeness stares back from all paper money. Though he is revered as the father of modern China and admired for his military brilliance, citizens openly and hotly debate his re- sponsibility for the excesses and fitful stop-and-start cycle of reforms during his tenure. I heard such arguments voiced in public and without apparent fear. In fact, while the state is every- where and, most concede, observes and presumably knows everything, I did not myself experience such security as op- pressive. Admittedly, I never fell afoul of the law. On the contrary, I was reassured by the presence of laidback police agents as concierges at residential buildings and by gates manned by un- armed police at the end of each resi- dential street or alley. In West Lake Park, for example — unlike in Central Park — artistic lighting and ubiquitous security cameras allow visitors to stroll safely through its vast grounds all evening long. The nexus of privacy, security and individual rights in a country of 1.3 bil- lion obviously has many dimensions. But as a casual visitor two decades after the crackdown at Tiananmen Square, I did not necessarily feel that the balance was skewed. Certainly, in the area of religion, the presence of Christian churches with active parishes alongside the prevalent Buddhist temples im- pressed me, as did gospel singers at public gatherings I attended. What Lies Ahead? The unanswerable question, of course, is how long can the PRC man- age the present, precipitous rate of change? In New York City, stores van- ish and are reborn, but in Hangzhou Beneath the veneer of the malls, however, one gradually detects an older China, unaffected by the headlong rush to consume. 32 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1