Literary Discussions

Several weeks ago we went to a restaurant and I had a long talk with the beautiful young waitress from Fujian province.  She speaks Fujianese dialect as well as Mandarin. She mentioned something about her BROTHER... so I asked how her family was affected by the ONE CHILD policy. She explained that those living in the countryside were not as carefully monitored as those in large cities. She explained that in some cases, families simply elected to pay the fine/penalty for having a second child. She is not a DISSIDENT. I do have one friend on Google Plus who was raised in Brazil, lived in Japan and learned Japanese, and now lives in Mainland China, is fluent in Mandarin, learning Cantonese, writes with freehand strokes (not pinyin) and plans to take citizenship in 5 years.  The first think I asked him is whether it is scary there. He said his sister is also in China. He said one must view China differently from the "rose colored glasses" of the West who have not actually lived there. Tavis Smiley did a week long special from China and part of it was a long interview with the very successful rapper, Mr. Balon (cant remember first name), an African American who dropped out of some Ivy League law school in USA, moved to China, acquired native speaker fluency... and all because he felt that America would never accept him as an individual but would always see him as a Negro, whereas in China he has found greater acceptance.   So in answer to your excellent question, I have never spoken to a dissident but I have had contact with a number of people raised in places like Beijing.  One Chinese nurse in a NYC hospital, middle aged, told me she and others were thinking of returning to China because life might be better.  We are good friends with a young nurse who went through high school in Beijing and then came to America. She is native fluent, no accident, in English and of course Mandarin.   The most negative comments I have heard are from a Chinese speaking woman from Malaysia (where Chinese are a non-Muslim minority).  Her parents spoke Chinese, but she also speaks Malay. I asked her what she thinks of mainland China and if she would be afraid to move there. She said she dislikes Chinese people because they are so selfish. I have a feeling that this is her own personal prejudice, perhaps from experiences in Malaysia. We all realize that in America we can find people who praise America as the greatest nation in the world, and then one can find Americans who speak very negatively.  One can see intellectuals like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky who are critical of America.  I hope these anecdotes shed some light on the issues. In the 1970s I learned to get by in Russian and spoke to many Russians who had left the USSR.  They were devout Russian Orthodox who, for example, saw the Tsar's family as religious martyrs and saints. No one in the 1970s ever thought that the USSR would collapse or that there would be more freedom. I spent some months in a monastery in Jordanville NY who printed church service books and smuggled them to the underground church. I mention these things to point out that one may find "dissidents" in any arena as well as people who have a positive outlook.