This was originally posted on blogger. I’m chatting with a couple Chinese folks at the hostel I’m staying at in Shanghai. Many people I speak to in China have a surprising reverence for America. I ask one of my roommates, “in America we have the American dream. Do you have the Chinese dream here in China?” He says that actually, I still want to go to America, that’s where we all want to go. In Shanghai, Suzhou, and other prosperous cities in China, I’m told more and more young people are trying to move abroad to study. “But,” my hostel-mate caveats, “is it true that you have many guns in America?”
I’m talking with a girl from Shenzhen and the hostel receptionist one evening. The girl from Shenzhen asks, “is it true New York is the world’s most developed city?” I’m not a New Yorker but I’m more than happy to shit on it. I tell them the New York subway is dirty, the trains aren’t on time, many people live without a home, and a million people died in America from COVID. The receptionist nods solemnly, and says, “maybe it has to do with politics.” The Shenzhener says, “maybe we all see the darkness in the places we are from.”
It’s also true that we see light in places we are not from – oh, how public transport advocates envy China’s brilliant, world-class high-speed rail network. And in China, the Shenzhener tells me, they also love Taylor Swift.