Objectivism in China
by JJ Tuan
Objectivism is a philosophy unheard of in China. In fact, a cursory online search of Objectivism yields some hits in Japanese, but none in Chinese. Yet as the most populous country in the world, China presents a unique opportunity as an untapped market for promoting Objectivism. What are its characteristics that would make it particularly receptive or resistant to Objectivism?
To begin with, the most obvious advantage is that China consists almost entirely of atheists. Over one billion people who are born and raised atheists. To be an atheist in China is nothing but ordinary. Kids grow up educated in an exclusively atheist setting at school. Most of their friends and family are atheists by default. You would think that in an environment where religion has little influence, where people live and prosper without even being aware of the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant, where science is highly valued and promoted, would be a prime fertile ground for Objectivism to thrive.
Well, there are drawbacks. Often, the problems are hidden in the disguise of highly-touted Chinese virtues.
The Chinese culture has a strong sense of family. By that, I mean a tribal mentality. Within the family, sacrifices are expected. Good parents should unquestioningly sacrifice for their children for their better future, in turn, the children are expected to grow up to take care of their parents and do their bidding, well past adulthood. Parents expect to have authority to plan out their children's entire lives. Among Chinese students who come to the U.S. for graduate studies, it is more of a norm than not that their parents continue to dictate their academic lives along with their personal lives from the other side of the globe. The control, instilled since infanthood, continues to have a strong hold even remotely. And the new generation, one they have children of their own(at a time approved by parents), in turn expect to run their kids' lives, never having a chance to run their own. The concept of being an "individual", of what one wants for himself or herself, carries so little weight that it can be easily dismissed in an argument.
A characteristic related to the tribal mentality of the Chinese culture is what's called "never air dirty laundry within the family". Whatever conflicts and injustices that happen within the family, whether it's verbal or physical abuse, swindling of one member of another, must stay within the family. It would be a disgrace to the whole clan for anyone within to seek help from outside, and thus, "airing the dirty laundry". The family must keep up appearances to others in public. Any internal problems must be tucked away, and the person who exposes them is worse than those who created the problems in the first place. This promotes the practice of long-term evasion and pain endurance, results in psychological damages for all but the perpetrators, and encourages problems to fester and worsen. Living a long and miserable life is deemed desirable, as long as appearances are kept till the end. It's no wonder that "endurance"(as in bearing pain, suffering and injustice) is also a Chinese virtue.
Another Chinese characteristic is the need to win, that is, in comparison to others. This at first, may not seem bad at all. After all, what's wrong with the desire to excel and distinguish oneself, as long as it's through honest means. But it's the standard of winning that is the problem. It is not uncommon for a Chinese to be brought up constantly comparing himself to others around him to see if he is winning, by a very second-handed standard. Since preschool ages, children are sent to calligraphy classes, piano lessons, etc., in order to score one higher against other kids in the neighborhood. Once they enter elementary school, the standard becomes the test scores, level of English mastery, or whatever the fad is of the moment, whether it be go lessons, watercolor lessons, or membership at youth clubs. But throughout this, the point for each kid is to be given a standard, and score higher than the other kids. The sense of gratification lies not in learning, but in knowing that you did better than anyone else, in something that they seem to care about. This accounts for the well known fact that students from China excel in taking tests. The years of training in purposeless exertion often leaves them perplexed, when they need to self-direct to figure out what they want to do. They are trained since childhood to be given a set of rules by others, unquestioningly, and prove themselves worthy by those standards. They've been robbed of the opportunity to learn to pick their own values. Their own personality may have been diminished so much over years that it may not even be conceivable for them to say something as simple as, "I don't have to do this, because I am not interested." They are used to do what they are supposed to do, not what they want to do.
It's a common misconception that the Chinese value education. While it's true to the extent that schooling is upheld as a high value, it is really the diplomas that are valued, rather than purposeful learning. School is something you go through, hopefully scoring high on tests while you are at it. The purposelessness of what one actually learns goes against the cultural claim of valuing learning. This again, goes back to a second-handed standard. Everyone must get a certain amount of schooling, but once out of the schools, most Chinese, however excellent students they were before, stop learning matter-of-factly. The years they spent in school was a role they filled to satisfy their family. As time continues, their new roles allow them to leave learning behind.
In discussing promotion of Objectivism in China, one fact worth mentioning is, there isn't a word for "context" in Chinese. Words are created to express concepts. If a word doesn't exist in a language, it would indicate that the related concept is foreign to that language. And this makes the communication of that concept especially challenging to the culture that uses that language. And "context" is hugely important in Objectivism.
Lastly, there is the million-dollar question: how much effect does communism have over the country? On one hand, the whole country is raised in communism. Kids wear red scarves, sing songs about the Party, do Young Pioneer salutes and recite long passages of communist text in classrooms. On the other hand, people have learned to pay lip-service to it as a way of life.
So despite the fact that China consists of a large atheist population, many obstacles exist in its culture and language that are resistant to the Objectivist concepts of individuality, honoring the self, facing problems head-on for resolution, and last but not least, "context". Yet the very existence and perpetuation of these problems could very well be what in the end will make Objectivism useful and attractive to people in China.
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