Yu Hua, in his book, China in Ten words, tries to describe current China. The words used by the author in the description include people, leader, Lu Xun, disparity, revolution, reading, writing, grassroots, bamboozle and copycat. In the subsequent chapters, the author gives details concerning the country in respect to the three words. He tries to compare the past and present China seeking to identify the difference. The central argument according to the Hua’s book is that, there exists a subtle difference between the China during the Cultural Revolution period and the present day China as far as governance and development is concerned.
The initial term used to describe China and create the subtle difference is ‘the people.’ According to the author, the term was strong and was a unifying factor for the individuals in the country (Hua 1-326). In fact, he mentions that the country was called ‘the People’s Republic of China.’ He says that in 1966, chairman Mao played an instrumental role by initiating the cultural revolution because the elitists were undermining the Chinese society. He says that ‘since 1949, the people are the masters (Hua 1-326).’ However, the author justifies that the people do not have a voice just as was the case before the period of Cultural Revolution.
One of the justification that Hua gives is the demonstration that occurred at Tiananmen Square. The facts of the demonstration reveal that people were killed because of their fight for democracy. They wanted a democratic leader to take over the leadership. The media has equally deprived the chance to air what was going on at the demonstration ((Hua 1-326)). The protests were witnessed in the year 1989 not long after the Cultural Revolution. With the details on the cultural the demonstrations, the author has a feeling that the right of expression in an ordinary Chinese is undermined creating a little difference between the past and the present day China. The author talks about the manner in which the present-day China is interrelated with the Cultural Revolution era.
As far as the term ‘leader’ is concerned, Hua sees am country where leadership is devalued and diluted. The only leader that he says was powerful is Mao Zedong (Hua 1-326). The individual saw a problem in the country and mobilized individuals to come together and fight the common enemy. After his reign, sanity was brought in China. However, it is unfortunate that people are slowly going back to the same period and it could be worse because no leader is willing to stand up against the atrocities and fight them to the latter.
Hua uses the term ‘revolution’ to describe the economic problems that the people of China face. Most of the countries have a feeling that China is one of the countries that are well developed. The demographic overview points out that most of the people are employed (Hua 1-326). Besides, the country thrives because of the technological advancements. Hua reveals that it is not as good as it seems. He states that behind the good statistics in China today, crises lurk (Hua 1-326). He gives an example of the loans that drive the Universities in China and states that the figure is at around 200 billion Yuan. According to the book, the debts are likely to impact negatively on the commercial banks.
Additionally, still on revolution, the author makes it clear that most of the individuals within the country have to dig deep in their pockets and provide funds to settle the loans that are paralyzing the economy. The students in different universities are expected to pay a lot of money, and the burden is too much (Hua 1-326). According to the author, the university fee has been rising, and he says that it will continue rising if a befitting solution is not found to address the problem. In the description, Yu has connected the past with the present. He links the cultural revolution period with what is happening at the current time. He says that thuggish businesspersons violently appropriate the official seals in a manner that resembles what used to happen in the past. According to him, it is not right in any way.
As far as reading and writing is concerned, the author describes what most people read in written works. He states categorically that most people have been reading about the violence that happened in the year 1966 and the early 1970s (Hua 1-326). Hua says that he liked reading most of the history with minimal disruptions because the content of what he had to read was deep. As far as writing is concerned, the author says that he had to quit writing to save his sanity. He describes how he wrote about the events that took place in 1966 and early 1970s in China and says that they were marred with violence, he anticipated that such events would be witnessed in future time, so he had to find a way of stopping. Well, he seemed to have predicted the events in a right manner because, in the year 1989, some people died as they fought for freedom (Hua 1-326). The individual used the concept of writing to bridge the gap between the past and present-day China.
Additionally, the slim gap between ancient China and the present day is brought out using the term ‘disparity.’ Hua says that in the in the first decade of the People’s Republic of China, there were no cases of wealth disparity that is seen in the present day China (Hua 1-326). The system in China depicts a situation where the rich continue to be rich as the poor languish in poverty. The idea is that people are going back to the period the Cultural Revolution when oppression was at its best.
Also, the terms, ‘grassroots, copycat and bamboozle’ have been used to talk about the subtle gap in the two eras. ‘Grassroot is used to talk about reversed fortunes which were evident in the Cultural Revolution era. On the other hand, the term ‘Copycat’ is used to depict the manner in which counterfeit products are being created in China (Hua 1-326). The term ‘bamboozle’ has been used to depict the manner in which the administration in China is fooling the citizens as they sabotage the economy.
In conclusion, the book China in Ten words speaks volumes about the position of China as far as matters politics and economy are concerned. The other nations cannot see what is exactly going on because they are blindfolded by the development projects that are going on in the country. The democracy of the citizens is equally compromised. The 1989 protest confirmed how this democracy is at stake. With the information presented in the book, there is a pressing need for the rulers in China to change their way of doing things because if it does not happen, the country might as well plunge back to the Cultural Revolution people. The signs are many.
Works Cited
Hua, Yu. China in ten words. Vintage, 2011.
