DICK'S TRAVEL TIDBITS

A CONVERSATION WITH JIAO ZEYANG

As chance would have it, Linda and I were seated in a row of three for the flight back home from Beijing.  A gentleman with a very long frame had the window and I sat next to him and Linda had the space of the aisle. This was my good fortune, for my “sidekick” was Jiao Zeyang, an accomplished Chinese architect associated with the Institute of Urban Planning and Design at Nanjing University. He also works out of private offices with JAS Architect and Associates in Nanjing.  

Rarely in my travels have I enjoyed the mental exhilaration that I experienced in conversation with Jiao.  He is a man of great passion in his commitment to Green architecture; he has a very quick mind, and a tumble of thoughts that flow out him so quickly that it was sometimes difficult for him to find just the right English phrase, but he found it.  His insight into China, its architecture, its people and its national ambitions were influential in helping me set a framework for my writings about our trip. 

In calligraphy, Jiao Zeyang translates into “warmth-water-mountains” an expanded version of his original name of Jiao Yang because his  father wanted to give his name balance and to reflect those elements of nature that are essential: warmth (house); mountains (land); water (home, crops, beauty)

As we began our conversation, I mentioned how inspiring the Olympic Village was and what dramatic images the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube provided to visitors.  Watching opening and closing ceremonies in the stadium, I recalled Bob Costas saying, “well from now on the discussion will be about who can be second best to China”.   Jiao liked that and picked up the thread to tell me a story. 

Ai Weiwei, a famous Chinese poet and student of folk lore found himself involved in the search for the architectural concept which was eventually built, and while Weiwei has a caustic, critical viewpoint on the Olympics and the politicized athleticism it projected, nonetheless, he suggested the “Bird Cage” concept to the Swiss architects who won the right to build it.

As Jiao reported it to me, when China opened worldwide competition for design of its Olympic Stadium, the eventual successful Swiss architects, J. Herzog and P. deMeuron submitted a design based upon the concept of Chinese lanterns.  They wanted to link Chinese culture and history to the stadium, of course, and they believed that the lanterns drew upon both.  Their submission finished within the Top Five and then a second round of competition was undertaken with those five firms resubmitting or revising their design.

Herzog and de Meuron were convinced that they could not win the competition with merely a revised lantern design, so they asked Ai Weiwei to assist them in finding a new concept.  In their travels about China seeking such a symbol, and in his knowledge of Chinese history and habits, they found what they were looking for. 

In the marketplace where Chinese in rural villages and small cities go daily to get fresh produce, meat and supplies, it is very common to see birdcages with birds in them.  A singing bird is one of the most endemic of Chinese cultural pleasures, and the construct of bird cages frequently used bamboo, carved with images, calligraphy and small sayings, “for good luck”.

It was in this ancient connection to Chinese village and country life (the Bird Cage), that the two Swiss architects took from Ai Weiwei and made into their final design submission.  We know it as the “Bird’s Nest” but its foundation concept is actually the Bird Cage and that is the symbolism important to the Chinese people that is imbued in the stadium design.

What China wanted from the Olympic stadium was a structure that would show the world that it was “Number One” as Jiao put it, and in that they succeeded.

However, Jiao was even more excited about the water cube. From the beginning, its design was to use Green technology by recycling water, constructing Dupont chemically created walls to insulate the interior from summer heat and to protect it against loss of heat in winter. He was very familiar with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, who is one of his heroes, and he admires some of the recent construction in Golden Gate Park which reflect Green design.

Here is a link to an observer’s description of both the Olympic Stadium and the Water Cube, and while his explanation of name (Bird’s Nest) does not comport with Jiaou’s, he does give a nice description of appearance and design.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/feb/11/architecture.chinaarts2008

Jiaou and I moved on to observations about contemporary China, and a bit about its recent history.

Jiaou deeply admires Premier Wen Jaibao, a native of Tianjin, and a graduate from Nankai High School, as was Chou en Lai.  Both men have made reputations in China because of their ability to see into a new future, opening the economy up to capitalism and market forces, even as they keep Party control over the major directions in which the general economy will move.  As Wen Jaibao likes to say, even capitalism needs planning.  (A lesson that General Motors has been learning recently). 

Jaio noted that Premier Wen Jaibao chose to begin his party career by going into the provinces and living among farmers and other traditional, but poor Chinese populations.  He believes that is one large reason why the premier is so attuned to Chinese general feelings and why he has reached out to include the rural population in the growing wealth of China.  Recently, he abolished all property taxes for farmers, a policy last used by the first of the Ming Emperors, Hongwu.

China learned to feed itself under Hongwu, and Wen Jaibao’s policy promises a similar expansion of production, but also an improvement in standard of living.

Jaio’s next comments really caught my attention.  Western countries like their present, he said, and they don’t worry too much about the future;

But, he said, China does not like its present and it wants to reclaim its worldwide status lost during the Qing Dynasty and the 20^th century Nationalist Party of Chiang Kai Shek. 

Mao took the first step, and he invigorated China, Jaio said, but did not allow it to open its doors to the world. Mao was suspicious of a hostile west, and being a common agriculture worker himself, he worried about becoming isolated and falling victim to a conspiratorial plan by intellectuals and other political figures to topple him.

To forestall this, he rounded up the urban middle class and budding professionals and sent them back into the countryside to farm.  They knew nothing of farming and many tens of thousands died, while others simply lost their professional lives forever.  It was, in effect, A Great Leap Backward. 

Thus it was, after Chou en Lai opened China to the world, and Mao died, there was no knowledge among Chinese builders and professionals on how to build a bridge, or a dam, or a sophisticated highway, or a modern rail network. 

Under Mao’s successors that changed.  China has learned how to plan and how to build an intricately interwoven web of industrial plants, enhanced farming, expanded energy generation, water/flood control, and modern transportation networks of rail/auto/air.  It has passed this expertise on to its next professional generation and under Wen Jaibao, China has opened the “Bamboo Curtain”.

When one walks in, one sees 200 years of western history, as though filmed in time-lapse photography, racing before one’s eyes as China remakes itself.  The 2008 Beijing Olympics demonstrated that the remake is well in hand, and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai will confirm it.

It is worth noting that there have been two other emperors of China who have come from abject poverty to rule the country: Liú Bāng, founder of the Han Dynasty, was born into a lower class farming family, as was Hogwu, founder of the Ming Dynasty.  Mao was certainly in good company in terms of his origins, and of course, it remains to be seen how long his dynasty will continue to rule China under the Mandate of Heaven.  But Premier Wen Jaibao has certainly continued and deepened its modernization.

Jaio was quite emphatic that China’s effort to gain world respect drives much of its policy at home and abroad.  Investment in world currency; construction agreements around the globe; purchases of soybeans from Brazil and investment in oil development in Angola are all part of the role that China is creating for itself.

Issues that might have diverted it earlier are being finessed.  Agreements on governance have been reached with Hong Kong; the relationship with Taiwan is on hold for a longer historical review; Tibet is not to be talked about just managed, and while China is frustrated by North Korea, it not quite sure what to do with it until the family dies.

Since my conversation with Jiao, indeed North Korea has offended China and many western nations with its nuclear testing and rocketry.  It is strongly believed that power in North Korea is about to pass to Kim Jong Ill’s youngest son, and the world is essentially on alert trying to find a response to events dimly revealed.

Jiao made another observation that really sat me up.   “China”, he said, “is the  only country in the world where the party owns the army.”  What the party decides to do…for the greater social good… it does without legal impediments or provincial rights or protests.  It just does it, with due consideration for people’s concerns.  Three Gorges Dam is a great example of balancing pro and con, but on balance, the party decided that saving lives, keeping people safe and generating power was more important than all other considerations.  Building a 2.5 square mile World Expo in the middle of downtown Shanghai, along both banks of the Yangtze River is another example of decision followed by prompt execution.  No court review. Party owns the land and the army.

“Chinese”, Jiao said, “at every level work very, very hard.  Students work long hours to get prepared for exams to get into high school;  longer hours to get ready for exams to get into college; but whatever the level of expertise or work…be it welder, construction worker, machinery operator, businessman, office worker, farmer, even beggar, or vender on streets, all Chinese work very hard at what they do.”

See this account of the most recent efforts of Chinese college aspirants.  The standard of annual examinations for entry into special opportunity has long, historic roots in the Confucian structure of examination for bureaucrats.  Now, to have a much improved life in China one must attend college.  Not all can by virtue of their inability to pass examinations. See this account of the most recent examination challenges for college aspirants:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/world/asia/13exam.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

They want two things, Jiaou said, “they want to improve their lives and they want to make the country strong in the eyes of the world.  They have a very strong commitment to Chinese status in the world; they want to be important once again”.

Religion: Most Chinese are not religious. Mao shut it down for 30 years, but in any case, 90% of Chinese hold no organized religious belief.  However, they are very superstitious.  Yin/yang; balance of natural forces; fung shue; astrology; numerical fortune telling; crushing bones and reading patterns; all of this is part of the Chinese belief system.

Jiao said to me that the Chinese definition of Harmony is simply having food to eat and freedom to speak.  One speaks to find balance in nature, and in the interaction of man with nature; that is why the Green movement captures his attention, energy and imagination. 

Small observations which emerged from the conversation with Jiao:

Tree plantings in each of the cities we visited by the tens of thousands of trees…tree farms, tree tripods, tree medians…natural rainfall permits this. 

Air pollution is bad; coal is bad; clean electricity from hydro is good (not without cons, but balance in favor of it). China has the world’s most advanced program of recapturing pollution from coal burning and is instituting it.  

Urban renewal, rebuilding infrastructure, creating subways, building dams, carving out urban space is all a part of creating modern China.  And in China, the Party owns all land…and the army.  When it makes a decision, things happen: bullet train to Tibet….it is done. 

Too many cars: one pays a special fee to buy a car and in most cities it costs $2500 to register it.  This is a one-time payment but if the car is sold, the fee is imposed again on the new purchaser.  In Shanghai it costs $5000 to register a car but there is a lot of wealth in Shanghai.  The car of choice in order: Mercedes, BMW, Buick. 

LOCAL SAYING I HEARD FROM A GUIDE: to attract a pretty lady, have a private apartment; to attract a very pretty lady, have an apartment and a BMW; to attract the most pretty lady, have apartment, BMW and credit cards.

In Beijing, if one owns a car, one cannot drive it one working day a week.  There is no place to park and too much pollution, so one takes public transport one day a week. The number(s) on license plate indicate which day you cannot drive the car. 

Bicycles, bike carts, bike transport lorries, bikes with electric power, bikes with combination pedal/gas, bikes with riders on back, taxi as bike (rickshaw as bike….they are everywhere, except in downtown, old Chongqing, where roads were too old and narrow….no bikes seen…but outside of old down town we see them.

Beijing  17 million

Xian    7 million

Chongqing: 33 million

Shanghai: 20 million

No small villages in China….:-)

There are three centers of important commerce in China which are now open to the world:  Beijing/Tientsin; Shanghai; Hong Kong/Canton.  There will be more.

Jiao mentioned that at the time of the Special Conventions following the Opium Wars in the mid-19^th century, Germany, England, France, Italy, and US all had special enclaves around Shanghai (the Bund…which we visited).  

All that these countries wanted, except for the United States, was money; they did not invest anything in China.  But the United States sent missionaries, teachers, and entrepreneurs who invested in China and over the decades built a huge reservoir of good will. 

The Chinese like Americans, Jiao said; they see us as the model for what they are trying to create for themselves. There is a Chinese saying, Jiao repeated to me:  if two countries are alike (Hitler/Stalin), they will fight; if they are different (China/US) they will work together sampling and taking from one another those things that they need. 

China has a deep, long lasting favorable attitude toward the U.S., Jiao said, and while the missionaries may not have converted the Chinese to Christianity, they taught them well, educated them, and opened up their view of the outside world.  Even Mao had a very favorable view of the U.S., Jiao said, but he was rejected by the United States in favor of Chiang Kai Shek.

One Child Policy: Jiao is a second child; he has an older sister born before the policy went into effect.  He has one daughter; he would consider migrating to the west to raise a larger family.  He would like a son.  He is visiting his sister in Los Angeles at this time because she has immigrated to the United States so that she can have a larger family.  There are ethnic concentrations of Chinese in several countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States because there, they can have larger families.

Time passed quickly amidst this conversational journey, and too soon perhaps, we were in Los Angeles.  Jiao and I are staying in touch via email.

To look at my pages on our visit to China, please CLICK HERE.