China

Pollution at the Great Wall of China. Photo by Thomas Galvez via flickr.com.
Smog hangs over the Great Wall in China. Photo by Thomas Galvez via flickr.com.

China is suffering an environmental crisis, and it’s become a health hazard. Using social media, young activists are now disseminating shocking photos and information. Through their lenses, we see Beijing’s air, thick with smog, and rivers lined with hundreds of rotting animal carcasses. For Chinese and world citizens, it seems clear these environmental problems can’t be ignored, and protests have sprung up across China, especially on its Eastern seaboard. In an interview in Dissent Magazine, Jeffery Wasserstrom asks Duke anthropologist Ralph Litzinger to discuss China’s new environmental movement.

One of Litzinger’s most interesting research findings is that there is a major class discrepancy in reacting to the environmental issues:

Much of the publicity about deteriorating air conditions came from a new kind of middle-class activist citizen who took to the streets to monitor the air, posting findings and images on weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) and other social networking platforms. […]But head out into the outer rings roads of Beijing, where the poorest of Beijing’s migrants and residents live and work, and you experience a very different situation. You see fewer people wearing masks, and hear much less complaining about the air. It is not that migrant and urban fringe communities in Beijing don’t care about health and environmental issues; it is just that they haven’t received the same kind of attention that the middle-class urban resident has received.

In China, the middle and upper classes are able to assess their environmental situation and adapt. They may shop for organic foods, build protection from the poisonous air, stay home from work or school on bad air days, or even leave the country. The poor are merely left to brave their new, toxic environment—at least until their richer countrymen make major changes.

The CEO and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Asia, Wei Sun Christianson frequently tops lists of China's most powerful women.
The CEO and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Asia, Wei Sun Christianson frequently tops lists of China’s most powerful women (business- and otherwise).

The social status of women in China is receiving a lot of attention again, and this time there might be good news. A study out of accounting firm Grant Thorton’s Beijing Branch claims that the proportion of women in senior management positions has jumped from 25% to a staggering 51%. Of the 200 businesses surveyed, 94% of them had women in these upper level positions. This seems like a great finding for women in China, but Laurie Burkitt of the Wall Street Journal advises that the news should be taken with a grain of salt.

Burkitt cites a new study by National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the New York-based Asia Society. Their findings claim that five Chinese men are in a senior position in the workplace for each one woman that reaches a comparable position. Burkitt also points out that just 10 of the 205 members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee are women. Even Chinese views on whether women should be in the workplace at all have been sliding. In a 2010 survey:

61.6% of men and 54.6% of women said that “men belong in public life and women belong at home,” an increase of 7.7 and 4.4 percentage points respectively from 2000.

It certainly looks like attitudes on women in the workplace are changing in China. The direction of that change remains an open question.

This Chinese park sign forbids prostitutes (along with superstitious activities, kite-flying, and feudalism), but says nothing about mistresses. Photo by Yendor Oz via flickr.com.

Providing sexual services in exchange for money is illegal in many parts of the world, “oldest profession” or not. And where prostitution is legal, it is often not regulated, leading to a whole new set of problems. On the other hand, being a long-term, extramarital lover may be frowned upon, but it’s generally not illegal. Sociologist and sex researcher Li Yinhe argues (as reported by the online edition of the South China Morning Post) that if mistresses and prostitutes are in the “same supply-chain”—that is, they essentially provide the same service—then prostitution should be decriminalized. In her talk at a “Love and Culture” forum, Li went on to discuss modern marriage, which she also sees in socio-economic terms:

…[T]he sociology professor said that judging from its current form, [marriage] would soon break away from its “shackles” and become more “free”… “The reason we had marriage was [traditionally] to bear children and allow each generation to inherit private property,” she said.

“If there are other uses for property and less cohabiting couples raising children, then the institution of marriage is likely to become extinct,” she added.

Occupy Hong Kong banner by Thomas Galvez via flickr.com
Occupy Hong Kong banner by Thomas Galvez via flickr.com

China is an expanding country, trying to find where it fits in the social and economic framework of powerful nations. Conversely, its people are trying to find where they fit in the Chinese social structure. As they prepare for a change in political leadership, China is also faced with they rise of the individual. In an article for Voice of America, Shannon Van Sant interviewed UC Irvine sociologist Wang Feng about this phenomenon.

Much like in many areas in the Middle East, Europe, and North America, parts of China have recently seen a surge of protests and “mass incidents.”  Feng describes this as “directly linked to the growth of China’s middle class.”  While incomes in China increase, Feng explains, the expectations Chinese citizens have of individual rights and pursuits grow too. Everything from land ownership to corruption and taxation is now a subject of contestation.

These protests put the Chinese government in an awkward predicament.  Once infamous for its stifling of public activism, the state must react to these protests with the eyes of the world upon them. So far, it has tried to clamp down on the instigators but, in some cases, have also given in to the protestor’s demands. According to Dr. Feng, Chinese society has already changed—the government will “need to come in to really implement these bold reforms. Otherwise, well, time is running out.”