The Dower Power Hour

The world community is all a buzz about the People’s Republic of China. The nation is home to 1.3 billion people and is considered the up-and-coming world power, and maybe even superpower. They have exploded onto the scene with intense vitality in the sphere of economics, technological sophistication, and cheerleading. Wait, cheerleading?

That’s right, at least according to a recent Newsweek article. Early this month, China participated in the relatively new Cheerleading Worlds, an international competition that is attracting an ever-increasing following in this global age. Last year China performed “a bizarre routine, waving Chinese flags and streamers.” Karl Olson of the U.S. All Star Federation (USASF), described it as “more of a cultural performance” and “not really cheerleading per se.”

However, only one year later China came back with a nationalistic vengeance and placed 5th in the finals, pushing out Australia, Scotland, Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, and five other countries that didn’t make it that far. The team performed a far more standard, although impressive, routine of acrobatics and tumbles, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd.

So why is this happening and why is happening now? Well, on the one hand there is the surface-level answer: international cheerleading is just taking off so this is the first opportunity China has had to strut its stuff in this arena. But more importantly, I think this reflects China’s desire to beat “the west” at its own game. Whether it’s the free market or cheerleading, China seems intent on showing the world that it has entered a new era of international preeminence.

Chinese nationalism has always been a key component of that region, whether it’s during the Ming Dynesty, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, or under the current system, the Chinese national-cultural identity has always been a mark of intense pride among that people. It was this intense feeling of superiority that made it so difficult for China to modernize. It took two Opium Wars, two massive internal rebellions (Taiping and Boxer, respectively), and ultimately a defeat against the historically subservient island-nation of Japan before it was politically acceptable to truly question the status quo. To be fair though, world history actually validates this traditional superciliousness, at least to some degree.

With the exception of the last 400 years (and some might say the last 300 or even 200), China really has been the world superpower. Even during the Roman Empire, China was bigger, more advanced in almost every recordable way, and although occasionally unstable during dynasty changes, in the long-run more self-sustaining. I am not saying that I am a Chinese nationalist or anything, but it’s important to keep a good sense of perspective and take a break from the Euro-centric western tradition now and again.

For anyone interested in reading about the modern Chinese experience, I highly recommend “Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present” by Peter Hessler. Hessler is the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic. The book is primarily anecdotal, a compilation of numerous individual stories of Hessler’s Chinese acquaintances, students, and friends artfully weaved together to create a coherent narrative with tangible themes. This includes not only your “standard” stories about young Chinese moving from the countryside to the factory cities, but also some more unusual or forgotten tale, such as that of Polat, who is a member of the Uighur ethnic minority.

Speaking of books (as good a segway as any), I am currently reading Yellow: Beyond Black and White by Frank Wu. Dr. Wu is the dean of Wayne State University Law School, one of only three Asian American law school deans in the United States. His book concerns racism in America and, as the title suggests, “argues for a new paradigm of civil rights that includes people of all backgrounds rather than relying on a black-white paradigm and that addresses forms of racial discrimination that are not obvious but subtle.” (I haven’t finished it yet, so I will quote Wikipedia for now.) Frank Wu caught my attention when I saw him in a 2002 interview about his book a few weeks ago. My best friend from high school, a staunch conservative, read Yellow and was so impressed by it that I still remember his praise for the book years later. You can expect to hear my thoughts on the book in about a week, depending on how long it takes me to sit down and finish it.