Land Reform - Do the East only dreams of the West?

Nov 8, 2008
Los Angeles, Ca

A friend of mine and I are applying for the Dorthea Lang- Paul Taylor Documentary Prize offered by Duke University. The prize funds a collaborative documentary project for a writer and a photographer. We had been discussing our interests and what our pitch for a month now. We wanted to ask a question, a question that would need research, time and dedication on our part instead of simply using the grant money to merely document a foregone conclusion. We both felt that it would be a more interesting way to approach the project. After all, if we already knew the answer, then is not the documentary simply a way to prove that we are right?

We wanted see about a comparative analysis of American market culture compared to the emerging market culture of China (food market that is). As China industrializes and the middle class expands, do they shift towards the American style of sanitized supermarkets and give up on the traditional markets that I have spent the last few years photographing? Or is there something so deeply ingrained to their attachment of that style of markets - knowing that the chicken is freshly killed that day - that China would never become a version of America as they industrialize.

As American becomes more and more conscience of their food choices and the impact their purchases has, farmer's market thrive, Buy Local and Grass Fed gains momentum. What will the future of American markets be like? Will it ever become a clean version of the traditional markets in China. Will Americans ever be brave enough to look at death in the face and see an animal killed for their benefit and be ok with it?

Are the developing nations have another example to look at, another model to emulate than the West? Without it, will it be able to dream of a different dream of prosperity and progress?

As we finalize our grant application here, NPR had a news story this week about land reforms in China:

" In China, land issues and peasant rebellions have traditionally brought down imperial dynasties. Land reform was at the heart of the Communist Revolution in 1949.

Now China's leaders have quietly announced a new rural revolution, making it easier for farmers to lease or trade their land-use rights. This will transform life for the country's 700 million farmers...

Under the new reforms, Beiping village is the first in the province to set up a cooperative. It will lease farmers' land, consolidate the patchwork of plots, then modernize and mechanize farming.

In return, it promises each farmer 440 pounds of grain a year or the cash equivalent at market prices. After three years, each will also receive a share of the cooperatives profits. They won't have to do anything for it, unless they want to work for the collective, earning about $8 a day.

Chinese farmers don't actually own their land, but they do have land-use rights — and these reforms make it easier for farmers to lease these rights or sell them to agribusiness. Any land transferred can only be used for farming, in order to guarantee China's food security...

'Our leaders are rolling out policies to help farmers get rich," Liu says. "They want to close the gap between the city and the countryside. They want to urbanize the countryside. The small fields will become big fields, and we'll have rows and rows of houses like in the city...'

Details aside, these reforms are far-reaching — China's Communist leaders rose to power by liberating peasant farmers from the reviled landlord class; now they're promising to liberate peasants from the land itself."

(All Things Considered, NPR, Louisa Lim)

I curious as to what China dreams of becoming.

Angry Youth, the New Generation's Neocon Nationalists

August 2, 2008
Los Angeles, CA

In a recent issue of The New Yorker (July 28) there is an article about the Chinese students who rejects the West. The article starts with a discussion of this 6 minute anti-Western video posted on a Chinese website. The reporter, Evan Osnos then goes on to talk at length with the Chinese student who is the creator of this video clip. The student, Tang Jie describes how him and his friends get around the government blockage of certain western media websites in order to get a sense of the news being reported by the Western Media, he says "because we are in such a system [of media censorship], we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed."

Wow! I wish American public are as this self-aware of the lies and the biased coverage that we are being fed by the media.

Then Tang Jie added, "but when you are in a so-called free system you never think about whether you are brainwashed." My thoughts exactly! He is right on the money and I am impressed with such acute level of awareness of the Media's function as a propaganda machine.

Tang Jie goes on to talk about the recent Tibet violence and how he was disappointed in the coverage by Western Media and how he felt it was inaccurate. "Tang couldn't' figure out why foreigners were so agitated about Tibet - an impoverished backwater, as he saw it, that China had tried for decades to civilized."

Wait, impoverished back water that another has tried to civilize. Is that not the standard justification for any and all acts of unjust war, occupation and conquests? We were just recently in Tibet and I am not sure that the Tibetans are feeling the benefits of China's effort of "civilization" - who is drink the cool-aid now?

The article progressed onto Tiananmen Square and its 20th Anniversary next year. "The students in 1989 were rebelling against corruption and abuses of power. Now a days, these issues haven't disappeared but have worsened...however, the current young generation turns a blind eye to it. I've never seen them respond to those major domestic issues. Rather, they take a utilitarian, opportunistic approach."

Wait - is he describing Americans? I guess Communist or Capitalist, we all suffer from apathy.

"The problem is that we didn't know what a good government would be. So we let the Chinese Communist Party stay in place. The other problem is we didn't have the power to get them out. They have the Army!"

Do we all simply suffer from the inability to dream of Utopia? Of perfection? We do not know what would be better than George W so that he has stayed. We cannot imagine exactly how to build a better society so we have done nothing as long as gas is cheap and distractions are plenty. But wait, you are afraid of the Army? I have seen the Chinese Arm and Police and I cannot say they strike fear into the heart of men. Yet again I can't say that I am afraid of Chief Wigum either, yet American military is still feared around the globe.

The article ends with Tang and Evan Osnos waiting along the Olympic torch route, "the crowd's enthusiasm seemed to brighten Tang's view of things, reminding him that China's future belongs to him and to those around him. When I stand here, I can feel deeply, the common emotion of Chinese youth, we are self-confident."

Are we self-confident? Do we feel like the future belongs to us? Or are we simply too cynical and opportunistic to rally any kind of nationalism and care enough to act on behalf of our future? Communist or Capitalists, the problems of our future seems strikingly similar.