On September 18 at 7:30 PM at the Beijing Bookworm (4 Nan Sanlitun
Road), an English language bookshop, library and café, Mr. Duncan
Hewitt presented a lecture on his new China book,
Getting Rich
First.
Mr. Hewitt, the former BBC Shanghai bureau chief, has lived a
long time in China. In 1986 he began his career of China watching
as a Chinese language student in Xi'an; currently he lives in
Shanghai. Tall, slim and articulate, Mr. Hewitt discussed the
content of his book and outlined the major changes China has
experienced in the last fifteen years.
"When I first came to China in 1986," Mr. Hewitt said, "People
knew where they stood. China was a 100 percent Communist country.
Beijing seemed like an ancient, sleepy capital. The state
controlled everyone's lives. In the last fifteen to twenty years
amazing changes have happened in China. It's almost a free-for-all
society and this so-called Communist country is as modern as
anywhere in the world. Shanghai has been redone, almost rebuilt
into a super modern city. In fact my cell phone works underground
in the Shanghai metro; the British have yet to get that kind of
technology."
Mr. Hewitt explained that he wrote his book to help other
foreigners and China watchers to understand the incredible changes
that are transforming China. "Many tourists have remarked to me:
China just doesn't seem very Communist," he said. "I wanted to
document the different phases that Chinese society has gone
through, to make sense of how it was and what it is now. My book is
titled after Deng Xiaoping's famous lines during his second
southern tour in 1992. That's when social change really began to
speed up."
With the advent of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms the state
began separating itself from many areas of life that it had
formerly controlled. The result was great social upheaval. This
process caused mixed feelings: the Chinese people were glad to have
freer, more independent lives but at the same time they had to
become more responsible for their own lives as well. Social reforms
in health care, urbanization and youth culture: the country has
been experiencing these transformations at an amazing pace.
"England, after World War II, took forty years to develop and
modernize; China has taken only 15 years," Mr. Hewitt said. "When
the changes started the government was focused on economic
development. Many loopholes in the social safety net appeared. The
Chinese people experienced a huge shock: workers were laid off;
people lost heir pensions; hospital coverage disappeared. All these
things take time to revise. Many people felt lost and left out,
especially the older generation, the people who had been caught up
in the Cultural Revolution."
Mr. Hewitt also compared China's development to that of the
Eastern European countries. "In Eastern Europe, when the Berlin
Wall came down, everything changed. But in China the Communist
Party still rules the country amidst all these forces of
modernization. Morality has been altered, especially among the
younger generation, and social problems have been created by the
economic reforms. The country must deal with the issues revolving
around urbanization and industrialization – what is the role of the
Party now? Do the Chinese people still believe in communism?"
Mr. Hewitt's book examines in depth these problems, these
transformations, and what the Chinese people think about their
changing society. The book features numerous interviews with
Chinese citizens living all over the country. Young people, old
people, peasants and rich businessmen all speak through his book.
Vital issues: morality campaigns, property rights, the validity of
the rule of law – are highlighted.
"The big question is," said Mr. Hewitt in his concluding
remarks, "is whether the current government will accept civil
society?" How effectively the Communist Party evolves and leads
this rapidly changing country remains a global question.
(China.org.cn by Valerie Sartor, September 19, 2007)
