Embeddedness through Utilitarianism: An Example of Cultural

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
Embeddedness through Utilitarianism
An Example of Cultural Identification of Chinese Post-85s in Alberta
by
Xiang Li
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCATION
CALGARY, ALBERTA
JANUARY, 2016
© Xiang Li 2016
Abstract
This research study utilizes the theoretical perspective of critical inquiry, and
employs multi-disciplinary methodologies within a critical bricolage, to contextualize
Christotainment in Alberta, Canada, analyze its nature, and the reasons for its
acceptance by Chinese Post-85s (people who were born between 1985 and 1990 in
China), and examine its effects. The compound word of Christotainment refers to the
merging of “Christ” and “entertainment”, indicating the socio-political and
socio-cultural marketing of Christian fundamentalism. The findings are as follows:
a) Christotainment to Chinese Post-85s in Alberta represents a power of
cultural embeddedness;
b) The motivations for the involvement of Chinese Post-85s in Alberta in
Christotainment are both external and internal due to the utilitarian characteristics of
their cultural identification;
c) The embedding effect of Christotainment on Chinese Post-85s in Alberta
imposes upon the Chinese a Western cultural hegemony characterized by its
ostensibly profiteering purpose.
At the same time, bricolage as methodology opened possibilities for
alternative understanding as the study unfolded and the author wrote about struggles,
confusion, emotions, and her personal achievement, as well as that of the interviewees
during the four-and-a-half-years of exploration. The study is constantly in progress
ii
with the pace of the constantly shifting values and cultural identity of the special
group of Chinese Post-85s in Alberta.
Keywords: Utilitarianism; Christotainment; embeddedness; Chinese Post-85s;
bricolage
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Acknowledgements
My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr. Shirley Steinberg, a respectful,
responsible and resourceful scholar, who is also my mentor and a closest friend. Dr.
Steinberg has inspired me to initiate the research, and provided me with valuable
guidance in every stage of the writing of the dissertation. Her keen and vigorous
academic observation enlightens me not only in the research but also in my life.
I extend my thanks to Dr. Jackie Seidel, Dr. Kent Donlevy and Dr. Kimberly
Lenters for all their kindness, invaluable assistance, counsel and criticism which have
led to innumerable improvements of this dissertation. I shall also thank my editor, Dr.
Deb Bradley who has used her expertise helping me polish the dissertation.
My sincere appreciation goes to the six participants involved in the research
who generously shared their life stories. Each of them deserves credit for the quality
and style of this dissertation.
Last but not least, I shall thank all my family and friends, for their support and
encouragement. It is a prestige to have them along this life-changing journey.
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Table of Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgements...............................................................................................iv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.................................................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem: How I Came to Research My Topic ............................... 2
Getting to know Christotainment: I can do this research ................................... 2
Purpose of the Study............................................................................................12
Research Questions........................................................................................ 12
Definitions and Terms .................................................................................... 14
Theoretical Perspectives ......................................................................................18
The Theory of Embeddedness......................................................................... 18
The Theory of Cultural Identity/Identification ................................................. 19
Critical Theory ............................................................................................... 20
Contemporary critical theory............................................................................. 21
Cultural studies. ................................................................................................. 22
Delimitations .......................................................................................................23
Limitations...........................................................................................................24
Significance..........................................................................................................25
CHAPTER 2: RELEVANT LITERATURE ......................................................................27
Christotainment: More than Religion ...................................................................27
Contextualizing “The God Strategy”: Faith Selling in North America and China......28
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The Christian Religion and China..................................................................... 33
Religion, Popular Culture and Chinese People in North America: Complex of the
Complex ...................................................................................................35
The “Triple Glass Effect”................................................................................. 35
Emotional Motivation for Conversion ............................................................. 37
Religion, Popular Culture and Cultural Identity................................................ 39
Summary ....................................................................................................... 40
The Theory of Cultural Embeddedness .................................................................43
From Networking Embeddedness to Cultural Embeddedness .......................... 43
Origin: The Polanyi concept of embeddedness. ................................................ 43
Granovetter: moving towards social network embeddedness.......................... 44
Contextualizing Embeddedness: Culture and Embeddedness........................... 45
Intriguing a plural economic behavior: From network embeddedness to cultural
embeddedness................................................................................................................ 46
Moving beyond economics: Culture embedded in culture. .............................. 46
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................48
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................49
Introducing Bricolage ...........................................................................................49
Rationale for Using Bricolage in Cultural Studies ............................................. 50
Bricolage and Cultural Studies of Christotainment........................................... 52
Methodologies and Methods in the “Collage”................................................. 53
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Method: Autoethnography. ............................................................................... 54
Method: Autobiography. ................................................................................... 56
Data Collection and Processing....................................................................... 56
Content analysis................................................................................................. 57
The participants. ................................................................................................ 59
Data processing.................................................................................................. 62
Semiotics............................................................................................................ 64
Dialectics............................................................................................................ 65
Limitations..................................................................................................... 67
CHAPTER 4: AUTOBIOGRAPHY..............................................................................69
CHAPTER 5: A REVIEW OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY—REGRESSION, ANALYSIS,
SYNTHESIS, AND PROGRESSION ................................................................86
Data Analysis and Findings ...................................................................................90
Self and Identity............................................................................................. 95
Cultural Embeddedness and Cultural Identification ......................................... 98
CHAPTER 6: THE SONG OF YOUTH: LIFE STORY INTERVIEWS OF SIX .....................101
CHINESE POST-85S IN ALBERTA...........................................................................101
CHAPTER 7: CONTENT ANALYSIS: CHARACTERISTICS AND CULTURE IN THE
ORGANIZATION OF CHINESE POST-85S IN ALBERTA .................................121
A Shared Pattern of Culture................................................................................121
Background ................................................................................................. 123
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Quotes and themes ......................................................................................... 123
The opening-up policy...................................................................................... 132
Political system, exam-oriented education, and role model effect. ................ 134
Da Yuan and single child. ................................................................................. 140
Espoused values: life objectives and philosophy. ............................................ 144
Criticality: a competence or a paradigm? ........................................................ 149
Utilitarianism............................................................................................... 154
Utilitarianism in education. ............................................................................. 155
Utilitarianism in career planning. .................................................................... 159
Utilitarianism in social activities. ..................................................................... 164
Contributing factors for utilitarianism in Post-85s........................................... 169
Marketizing of economy. ................................................................................. 169
The influence of exam-oriented education. .................................................... 170
The influence of family, school, peers, and social morality. ............................ 171
The pressure of career development............................................................... 172
Survival of the Fittest ................................................................................... 173
The nature of criticality? .............................................................................. 176
CHAPTER 8: CONTRADICTIONS: CULTURAL EMBEDDEDNESS AND CULTURAL
IDENTIFICATION......................................................................................179
The Contradictions of Characteristics and Behaviors of the Post-85s ...................191
A Lack of Subject Consciousness Versus Self-Protection Awareness ............... 191
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Anti-Indoctrination Versus Implicit Learning and Internalization.................... 192
Emotion Versus Rationality: Thoughts And Practice....................................... 193
Contradictions in Attitude Towards the Status Quo in China................................195
The Judgment Towards Injustice Versus Justice ............................................. 195
Yielding to What Was Given Versus the Desire for Change and the Longing for
Advanced Social Systems.......................................................................................... 196
The Contradictions Regarding Attitudes Towards the West, Western Culture, and
Living Abroad........................................................................................................... 198
Anti-West versus adulation towards the West. ............................................... 198
Explicit religion versus implicit religion............................................................ 201
Attitudes towards Christianity in China versus in Canada. .............................. 202
Imaginary image of the West versus real life experience: Contradictory
identities. ...................................................................................................................... 203
Beyond Orthogonal Cultural Identification: The Adaption of Post-85s Chinese
Students in Canada .................................................................................................. 205
Complex of the Complex: Contradictions, Multi-Layered Cultural Embeddedness
and Multi-Dimensional Cultural Identification........................................................... 208
CHAPTER 9: AN OPEN-ENDED CONCLUSION........................................................210
References .........................................................................................................213
Appendix: List of Quotes .............................................................................. 243
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This is the first time I have written research in this way: telling my own story. My
time writing with “I” was in elementary school. I wrote journals at that time, asking questions
about myself and about the world. After I entered middle school, I stopped, as my teachers
told me that in exams no one would care about my world or how I would see it. Papers like
that would not get me high grades. I did not ask why, because high grades were all I wanted. I
followed the rules, writing objective and scientific “academic” papers for exams. I stopped
asking questions; I stopped inserting myself into writing; I did what others did. I got decent
grades from middle school to high school and in college. I cannot recall any of these research
papers; they have nothing to do with me. But at the time I wrote these assignments, I felt safe
and comfortable writing to get grades, and I forgot how to ask questions about myself and
about the world.
This is my third time writing this introduction. The first two times I wrote in an
objective and scientific manner . . . I wrote a lot. Re-examining the introduction, I found
myself only as an outsider, and the world I described had nothing to do with me. I was a
reporter. It was confusing as I could not see the meaning behind why I was doing this,
spending years on research that had nothing to do with my life.
I decided to rewrite the
chapter in an unfamiliar way, but that would give the chapter meaning. I became a very
young child again, telling my own story, asking questions about myself and about the world.
High grades are no longer what I pursue. I am seeking a way to know myself, and by
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knowing myself, understand the world I inhabit. I have chosen to do research that will be an
adventure through which I can explore myself and the world—to see the qualitative, and not
expect positivistic answers to a posed hypothesis.
Statement of the Problem: How I Came to Research My Topic
I moved from the notion that “I can do this research” to “I must do this research.”
That process helped me come to my topic: “motivation and effects of Christotainment as
cultural embeddedness—an example of cultural identification of Chinese Post-85s in Alberta”.
Post-85 refers to a most controversial and complex generation in China who were born
between 1985 and 1990. I will explain this term more fully later in this introduction.
Getting to know Christotainment: I can do this research
I first came to know the word “Christotainment” from Shirley Steinberg and Joe
Kincheloe’s (2009) co-edited book, Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture.
Steinberg and Kincheloe described Christotainment as a power from the merging of
fundamentalist Christianity and popular culture (p. 1). In the book, scholars critically
examined how Christian fundamentalists in the United States employ popular culture to
attract believers (especially youth) to make socio-economic profits while at the same time
hegemonizing the American public.
I was applying to doctoral programs at that time and thought that I could do cultural
studies, which would be relevant to my background. I was not sure about my topic then, and I
searched for established scholars in the field. Steinberg and Kincheloe became the first choice
in my research; the title and topic of their book grabbed my attention: “Jesus” “popular
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culture”; the two keywords suddenly reminded me of the most famous Chinese rap singer,
Jay Chou (of whom I am a big fan). I found his songs charming because he uses mysterious
words such as “Messiah,” “sin,” “final judgment,” “heavenly father,” “Chapter III, verse four”
all the time. I had a blurred impression that those words related to Christianity, but I had no
idea what they meant. To me, they were fresh, different, mysterious, and above all, Western.
The use of these scattered words makes Jay Chou, a non-Christian Chinese, fresh, different,
mysterious, and above all, Western. I am not the only one who found him this way. My peers
all love him. The media addressed him as “the King of Pop” of our time, and marketing of his
records is successful.
In 2003, Jay Chou issued his fourth album, with “In the Name of the Father” as its
title song. Over 50 Asian radio companies agreed to set the 16th day of July as “Jay Chou
Day,” and “In the Name of the Father” was first broadcast that day to an estimated
1,000,000,000 Asian audience, most of them Chinese. Up to 3,000,000 copies of the album
were sold that year, which made it the champion in Asian music sales (Yang, 2003). The
music video was shot in a Christian church, with the lyrics of

“We are all sinners burdened with different sins”

“The only judgment we are expecting is that in the name of the Father”

“Shut up your mouth, and that’s your only redemption”
with the background music of a complete version of the Lord’s Prayer. This memory has
lingered for years. What is interesting is that Chou is not a Christian.
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By January 2009, a total of 8,200,000 records of Chou’s album were sold, not to
mention circulating pirated copies, potentially tripling the number. Records from Phoenix
New Media show that among Chou’s fans, people born between 1985 and 1990 in China
(known as the post-85s) account for a large proportion of listeners, and they are arguably
most influenced by the “pop culture of God” boosted by Chou (Jin Shi Jie, 2013).
The golden brand of this “Western God” has been welcomed by Chinese young adults
and has succeeded in commercial profiteering. In 2007, Pepsi invested up to 100,000,000
RMB (1,666,666.67 USD) on its commercial advertisement of “Blue Storm” with Jay Chou
as spokesman, using his song of the same name as theme. Keywords in the lyrics include
“confession”, “Messiah”, “the end of day”, “Chapter III, verse four” (Lv, 2007).
I was shocked by the figures I found. I was even more shocked that neither I, nor any
of my peers, had asked questions about how and why it was happening. We indulged in what
Chou brought to us—the pleasure from something fresh, different, mysterious, and above all,
Western.
Steinberg and Kincheloe’s (2009) book inspired me, and I did some further research
on Christotainment. In North America (especially the United States), the media-facilitated
commercialization of evangelical/fundamentalist Christianity has drawn broad academic
attention. Power is gained and used by the social groups of evangelicals/fundamentalists who
have invested tens of millions of dollars to shape the entertainment world of “faith” merged
with influential media corporations (Lindsay, 2007, p.142-143). This God-selling industry is
guided by a religious worldview and its cultural products diversified: reading materials,
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movies, TV series, and pop songs (Moore, 1994, p.6; Brown, 2012), etc. Einstein (2008)
commented that “marketing is a necessary evil—even for religion” (p. 207), and scholars
have problematized such marketing of religion, claiming that it embeds religious “signals”
and messages into popular culture which turned Christianity itself into “pseudo-Christianity”
(Domke & Coe, 2008, pp. 5). Compared to Christianity as a religion (please refer to the
definition in the following section of this thesis), this pseudo-Christianity has moved beyond
religion and has become a socio-political power used to ideologically shape the American
public, adapting them to the cultural identity of evangelicalism/fundamentalism, with less
tolerance to diversity and democratic social justice…this is what Steinberg and Kincheloe
(2009) refer to as Christotainment. This impact has become part of North America.This
impact has become part of the North America culture.
Understanding how Christotainment works sheds light on my own experience with
Christotainment as a Chinese person. From my life, I started uncovering more examples of
merging Christianity and popular culture. This had not occurred to me previously, but when I
started searching my present memories, I was shocked again by how often this phenomenon,
which could easily be ignored and in a popular sense, has been ignored, is manifested. I
remembered how my high school classmates prompted me to get a very little tattoo of the
cross on my arm; I remembered how my closest girlfriends would sit together imagining the
vision of us having a romantic wedding in a big church, wearing the pure white dress (which
has the opposite meaning in China, as the color white is for funerals); I remembered how the
city went crazy for Christmas, and there was hardly a single seat left in any restaurant on
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Christmas Eve. The melody of “Silent Night” would linger for a whole month in December,
although few knew what the English song was about.
To most of the Chinese, especially of my generation, the concept of the Christian
religion is blurred. What Christotainment provides us is the idea of Christianity created by
big companies. What we see from all the forms of this popularized idea of Christianity is a
new culture: a culture that is fresh, different, mysterious, and above all, Western.
Christotainment has been integrated in the culture for my generation of Chinese young men
and women. As for why such integration happened and how it may have influenced our lives
as cultural embeddedness—well, we never asked.
It is at that moment of witnessing this prevailing trend in China as well as among
Chinese students in Alberta that I decided that I would research Christotainment; my work
could reveal the motivating forces for cultural embeddedness in terms of individual and
furthermore the society and find out what effects such embeddedness may have on the
Chinese people of my generation in Alberta. My thought at that time, however, remained at
the stage that the topic would be interesting, but not seriously ideological, which was
different from what I explored later.
My proposal was accepted, and some “god” must have blessed me that Dr. Steinberg
took me as her student. Whenever I don’t know who I should thank, I thank God. This god
has been integrated and embedded in me; it has become part of who I am; however, I have
never asked how and why this notion had become embedded in me. It happened because I did
not have a clear awareness that it happened—the ultimate hegemony of a Western-centered
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culture. Now it is time to ask the questions. Taking loans from Christotainment: I must do this
research.
In 2011, I came to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I got to know a girl on QQ (the Chinese
Skype, China’s most influential chatting software) who was also coming to do a Master’s
degree in education, and she has family in Calgary. The first meal I ate after I got off the
plane was at a church. The girl introduced me to the church, and she was introduced to the
church by her Chinese family. Food was free, and the church was crowded with Chinese
students of my age. The girl told me that it was a welcoming and social event, a “must go.”
There were performances as well: pop song singing, hip hop dancing, and punk music
playing. I had a good time there, and the Chinese students I got to know that day
outnumbered the total number of acquaintances I made later at the university. We enjoyed the
food and the performances together, like at home. The preaching started after the meal and
performances, and we stayed there to show politeness and gratitude to the host, although we
were not interested in the preaching. We were there for pleasure, and for the sense of
belonging, but we could accept listening to the preaching. It was like a trade: pleasure and
sense of belonging for preaching, for being embedded within the Western Christian culture. It
seemed fair.
When I recall that welcoming “party,” I still have no idea what denomination that
church was. I went there because my peers did. Besides, I can identify myself among the
people there. It was not about religion, but about cultural identity. As a Chinese student
studying abroad, my cultural identity is fluid as I have been experiencing different cultural
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patterns at the same time from China and Alberta. It can no longer be defined by my Chinese
national identity, nor by the national identity of the country in which I study. I was seeking a
safe cultural identity in a Western church, but among my Chinese peers. This is what
Christotainment can provide me with here in Alberta, Canada: part of the West, part of my
own country. If I had to pay for such a “treat” (being embedded with some Western message),
it seemed like no big deal.
It is, however, a big deal, because that is how cultural embeddedness/hegemony
happens. As Gramsci defines it, it is the act of winning consent of people to values without
force or overt propaganda (Gramsci, 1971; Thomas, 2009). It is subtle and insidious, until
little streams gradually converge and form a flood. By the time we take the Western culture
and values for granted, we have been brainwashed, hegemonized, and the Chinese part of our
cultural identity is often lost.
At that moment I realized that my interest lies more on the “buying” phenomenon.
Based on Steinberg and Kincheloe’s (2009) work, I started to think from the perspectives of
the buyers. What motivates us to willingly following what has been offered to us? Benefits.
Ideologically, that is utilitarianism, which means benefits and profits has become dominant
among humans, and all kinds of relationships developed between human beings (no matter
whether individuals or the nation) are reduced to commercial relationships. Property and
materials rule the world (Marx and Engels, 1976, p.674).
As I rewrote this chapter, I recalled a past experience with my friends here in Calgary.
At first, it appeared to be a trivial shopping event, casually done with friends for fun, but
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when I reexamined the event, I found the connection to my research on Christotainment—the
motivating force for the cultural embeddedness of Christotainment. Christotainment as a
culture has been embedded in the values and ideology of Chinese students living in Alberta.
On the one hand, the students are willing to take it in as advanced culture; on the other hand,
Christotainment has been sending out messages to make effects.
It was a night when I was chatting with my friends on Renren (Chinese Facebook,
China’s biggest social networking website). They informed me that there was a big sale on
one of our favorite brands, and they wanted to buy something “cool and Western, just as
shown on the ads on Taobao” (Chinese Ebay, China’s biggest E-commerce website). I was
curious. What would be both “cool and Western”? Then I saw the ads: fashion necklaces with
the little cross pendants. “They are easy to find!” “Everybody has one!” “Not expensive!”
“There are lots of styles to choose from!” they commented. How many styles for a cross
pendant could be developed? I did not ask because they insisted that I find out for myself.
The next day we set out early, as the store is a long bus ride. An hour later we arrived
at the store. As we stepped in, the first thing that jumped into my eyes were the three shelves
of fashion jewelry, all with the cross. There were, as my friends insisted, many colors and
styles to choose from: golden, silver, ivory, turquoise, ivory, pink, from punk to classic,
daywear to party design, wood to metal, with and without diamonds, with pearl and with wolf
teeth—any style you could imagine. The price was cheap even for students like me. There
were matching tops and pants with the cross as well, all of them “stylish.” My friends were so
happy, and one of them bought six necklaces and two tops. I bought one little pendant for
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$2.00. I don’t know why I was buying, but my friends all bought some, and the one on my
hand was so cute and delicate. Besides, I agreed that the cross is Western, so if I came back to
China wearing this, my friends would recognize that it was from the West, as we see the cross
as a symbol of Western cultural identity. That was all I was thinking when I checked out at
the front desk. There were so many people lining up, I did not have much time to think; I
followed my peers. We were not alone.
Christotainment is prolific in Alberta, and it has a plethora of manifestations, just like
the colors and styles of the cross necklaces. Individuals can find one that suits his or her
individual taste. It is irresistible because it always knows how to meet our needs, and it won’t
cost us much each time. Diversity forms, low cost, needs-satisfying, those are the “trivial and
casual” forces that drive people to open the door for Christotainment to embed Western
culture in their daily life. It is we, Alberta’s Chinese population who were born between 1985
and 1990 ourselves, who partly motivate the embeddedness of Christotainment. Studies have
shown that such embeddedness of this pseudo-Christianity through popular cultural products
has identity-forming effects on Chinese people (especially the younger generation) in North
America (Wang & Yang, 2006; Cao, 2007, 2008; Han, 2009; JungHee, 2009). I, along with
many of my Chinese peers, take from Christotainment, but I notice that we never question the
danger it may bring, until cultural embeddedness arguably develops into cultural
colonization.
I decided that I must do something to contribute to raising the consciousness of
Chinese people, especially those who are living in between the interaction and collision of the
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Chinese culture and Western culture. I will start with people from my generation, the post-85s
who have had similar experiences: Chinese non-immigrants in Alberta. This group is unique
as they are “one foot in China (where they gain financial support and have bonds through
social networks such as family and friends), one foot out” (Guo, 2010). That adds complexity
to the study of Christotainment, as this group of people is simultaneously exposed to the
socio-cultural contexts of North America and China, both of which are immersed in this
“God-selling” industry. The cultural identity of this group is more difficult to position, and its
formation may work differently.
I take this group, including myself, as a starting point, to allow space for further
research. I want to introduce to my peers that I believe Christotainment is a problem for our
culture; it has been embedding Western culture into them through both Chinese media and
Western media—that it has a gradual affect on shaping their cultural identity (something that
they may not recognize). I want to raise awareness for them to start examining their cultural
identity, and how their identity has been constructed with the impact of Christotainment. I do
this as my research progresses, and I use the results of the research as implications for future
research in cultural identity and education. In this way, both the research itself and the
duration for doing the research have meaning. I see my work in this area as contributing to
cognitive and cultural change, an act of social justice.
My research continues the studies on Christotainment and its effects on cultural
identity construction (or cultural identification) hidden beneath economic profiteering. The
research contextualizes Christotainment within the focus group of Chinese post-85s in
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Alberta, Canada, and analyzes the motivation of Christotainment as cultural embeddedness. I
employ bricolage as a methodological approach. The rationale for using bricolage is that it
can critically and holistically examine the complexity of cultural issues through
multi-disciplinary and multi-layered methods as justification and supplement for each other
(Levi-Strauss, 1966; Steinberg, Kincheloe, & McLaren, 2012).
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study, through the use of bricolage, was to discern the motivation of
profiteering of Christotainment and its cultural identity shaping/reshaping effects, by
positioning myself as a China born and raised post-85s student in Alberta. I used
autobiography to examine my own experience with Christotainment from both North
America and China. I followed by selecting ten individuals whose identity/positionality was
similar to mine, using semi-structured interviews to further open up more possibilities for
making meaning of Christotainment and its effects (in terms of cultural identification) on
individuals from the same focus group but different socio-economic backgrounds. My
research also used content analysis on documents of Christotainment, to note how it is
demonstrated, and I used a semiotic read to identify such demonstration in real life. Dialectics
were applied to understand the complexity of both the focus group and Christotainment.
Research Questions
For the autobiographical phase of this research, the guiding questions were: How does
Christotainment work to influence the formation of my current cultural identity?
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The specific sub-questions to support were:
1.
What are the factors that brought me to be involved in Christotainment, from
what channels and where?
2.
How and when did I identify Christotainment as different from the religion?
3.
How did I realize the effects of cultural identity (re)shaping that
Christotainment has had on me, both in conscious and unconscious ways?
4.
How have I been dealing with Christotainment; have I ever taken it in from my
own will, leave it as it is, or problematized it? Why?
For the follow-up interviews, the research questions were:
1.
What are the internal and external factors that influenced the way post-85s
Chinese students in Alberta see and confront Christotainment?
2.
How did/does Christotainment construct the cultural identity of the focus group
according to the specific socio-economic and socio-cultural background of the
individuals from the same group?
The content analysis and semiotics of this study addressed the questions below:
1. Why is Christotainment “pseudo-Christianity”?
2. What are the similarities and differences between Christotainment in North America,
and those in China in terms of cultural embeddedness?
The dialectical analysis addressed these questions:
1. What are the contradictions within the focus group that have forged its complexity?
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2. What are the contradictional forces that motivate the cultural embeddedness of
Christotainment?
3. What are the relations between those contradictions?
The research questions for all phases of the study are connected with each other, serving
as basis and/or supplement for each other, and the bricolage was applied to all questions.
Definitions and Terms
Christianity. According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2015), this term
refers to “the religion based on the person and teachings of Jesus Christ, or its beliefs and
practices.”
Christotainment. Christotainment is a term introduced by Shirley R. Steinberg and
Joe L. Kincheloe and was elaborated in their co-edited book Christotainment: Selling Jesus
through popular culture (Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2009). The combinatorial term of “Christ”
and “entertainment” illustrates the merging of Christianity and entertainment media.
Cultural hegemony. Cultural hegemony refers to the practices of one social class that
dominates or controls other social classes in a multi-cultural society by manipulating culture
in that society (including beliefs, cognition, values, etc.). In that way, the ideology of the
dominating class will be taken as standard, without force but through ideology and discourse,
and recognized as universally effective in the society (Gramsci, 1971).
Cultural identity. Cultural identity refers to the belief of one ethnic group, or an
individual in the group, in the values of the ethnic group—it is how they see themselves. It
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includes understanding and consideration of the lifestyle, history, and relationships within
this group (Deng, 2005).
Duplex effect. Duplex effect here refers to the double effects from both one direction
(A to B) and the retro direction (B to A).
Embeddedness. Embeddedness originally refers to economic integration and
functioning in society. The term has now expanded to include how economic practices have
effects in, and are influenced by, the wider areas of social networking, religion, politics, and
culture (Granovetter, 1985, 2007).
Entertainment media/mass media. Entertainment media/mass media here refers to
all forms of consumer products facilitating public pleasure. Most of them are highly
technology based and reflect a virtual form of reality. Entertainment media includes but is not
limited to digital media (the internet in particular), movies, TV shows, video games, and so
forth.
Evangelicalism. Evangelicalism features “a belief in the infallibility of scriptures, the
sovereignty of God, the depravity of human beings, and the centrality of the conversion
experience” (Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2009, p. 2). A central notion is that human beings can
only be saved by God.
(Evangelical) Fundamentalism. Radically following evangelicalism comes
fundamentalism which, while inheriting what evangelicalism has as basic doctrine, derived
from it as characterized by a rigid disbelief of intellectual rationality (Steinberg & Kincheloe,
2009). In this dissertation the level of fundamentalism involves mainly evangelical
15
fundamentalism. Fundamentalism will only be addressed to indicate a blind belief towards
the deified West.
One-child policy. The one-child policy is a national birth control policy in China
initiated in 1979. As the policy states, each family from urban areas in China is only allowed
to have one child (exceptional cases not included). Chinese post-85s in this study are all
subject to this policy (Fong, 2004).
“One-foot in, one foot out.” “One-foot in, one foot out” describes the situation for
Chinese immigrants and students abroad who are immersed in the socio-cultural environment
from the countries in which they reside, while they simultaneously have deep connections
with China because their families and most of their social networking remains there (Guo,
2010).
Popular culture. In Gramsci’s (1971) theory of cultural hegemony, popular culture is
a term contradicting “high culture,” which is the culture of the dominant class. Popular
culture represents the masses, and in contemporary society it is always conveyed by media. It
is important to note that popular culture is ever-changing, relying on what is popular in
contemporary terms.
Post-85s Chinese. Post-85s Chinese refer to those people who were born in China
between 1985 and 1989. This is a unique generation with contradictory characteristics,
deconstructed by high technology-facilitated digital media, post-modern aesthetics and
philosophy, and consumerism and profit-oriented (or as some call it, “practical”) world view
and values. At the same time, post-85s have been deeply immersed in traditional Chinese
16
culture and values as they 1) have parents born in the 1950s when China was under the
leadership of Chairman Mao, and there was a boost to the Communist movement; 2) received
an exam-oriented education with strict schedules and traditional ways of schooling which do
not encourage critical thinking and creativity. As of the year 2013, most post-85s have
completed studies in college or have just started their careers.
Pseudo-Christianity. Pseudo-Christianity has the appearance of Christianity, but
shares only the simplest part of it, e.g. symbols such as the cross, random words from the
Bible, et cetera. It forges a false consciousness, rather than a religious belief, based on
attaining socio-economic and socio-political benefits that cannot be obtained otherwise.
Reform and Opening-up policy. The reform and opening-up policy refers to the
Chinese economic and political program launched in 1978. The principal strategy is to
promulgate economic reform within the country, while at the same time open up the country
to participate in international economic, political and social affairs. This policy radically
changed the “close-minded” situation of China since 1949 and brought China to rapid
economic development (Brandt, Loren et al, 2008).
“The little emperor/princess.” It is a unique title for singletons born in China during
the one-child policy time. They are stereotypically regarded as “spoiled” by their families, as
the focus and only hope for the family (Fong, 2004).
17
Theoretical Perspectives
This study draws upon the theory of embeddedness, the theory of cultural
identity/identification, and critical theory as its theoretical foundation.
The Theory of Embeddedness
The socio-economic theory of embeddedness is utilized here to reveal the nature and
examine the socio-cultural effects of Christotainment, which appears to be an economic
action in that it is profit-oriented in the first place (Stenberg & Kincheloe, 2009).
Polyni (1944) introduced the concept of “embeddedness,” claiming that any economic
action is embedded in social relations. Economic actions are motivated by non-economic
factors rather than simply profiteering (Huang & Wang, 2007). Granovetter (1985) developed
Polayni’s theory by pointing out that on the one hand, economic actors cannot be separated
from social context; on the other hand, however, they are not completely restricted by social
factors. Economic actions do not mechanically follow some “still” social rules alone, but are
driven by the pursuit for multiple benefits, and such actions take place within specific
contexts that are always in motion. Here economic and non-economic factors interact with
each other, resulting in the “social embeddedness” of economic actions, which refers to
embeddedness in a broader context of social networks, culture, politics and religion.
Based on Granovetter’s work, sociologists and anthropologists went on to deconstruct
social relations and specified “recognitive embeddedness,” “cultural embeddedness,” and
“political embeddedness,” demonstrating that ideology, values (or collective understanding),
and power dynamics may co-influence decision making (Uzzi, 1997).
18
Although the embeddedness theory deconstructs economic actions well, the
contextualization of embeddedness is not complete, and does not highlight the agency of the
actors. Actually, it remains at the stage of Granovettor’s “social network” mode, which
restricts the context of actions in a set network, with actors and “objects” as nodes. Instead of
dialectically and culturally interpreting social contexts, this “social network” mode of
embeddedness does not avoid the trap of “structural-rational absolutism” (Zelizer, 1992).
This study further develops the embeddedness theory, emphasizing the dynamics of
embeddedness, focusing on the interaction and co-existence of the embedding and the
embedded. The terms “subject” and “object” will not be used, because embeddedness is
multi-layered, and the directions shift. It is unlikely to delineate the absolute “subject” or
“object” of embeddedness, as the relationship is complex and always in motion. Guided by
such perspectives, this study employs and criticizes embeddedness theory to examine
Christotainment. Christotainment as embeddedness is neither under-socialized, nor
over-socialized. It is dynamically embedded in a broad and complicated context, and has
effects not only limited to economic benefits, but also involving social, political and cultural
impact.
The Theory of Cultural Identity/Identification
The theory of cultural identity/identification is used in this dissertation to explain the
socio-cultural effects that Christotainment may have on Chinese post-85s in Alberta.
Cultural identity refers to the beliefs of an individual (or a group) in the values of the
group. Scholars agree that cultural identity can be constructed (Said, 1993; Zhang, 2007; Han,
19
2010; Holliday, 2010). The construction of cultural identity is influenced by life style, history,
and relationships, that is, the culture within this group (Deng, 2005). The general mechanism
of cultural identification follows a process of ignorance, confusion, misunderstanding, some
knowledge, and understanding. However, cultural identity and its mechanism is more
complex now than previously; globalization has blurred boundaries between nations, so it is
hard to define cultural identity by nation. A group of people within the same nation may find
themselves with different cultural identities. Orthogonal cultural-identification theory also
suggests that it is possible that an individual who is exposed to various socio-cultural contexts
may simultaneously take on different cultural identities (Oetting & Beauvais, 1991). The
theory can be applied to the study of the complexity of cultural identity of Chinese post-85s
in Alberta:1) as a whole, they may identify various cultures as “one foot in (North America),
and one foot out (of North America)”; 2) as individuals from different socio-economic
backgrounds, their cultural identities may differ. The construction of cultural identity of
Chinese post-85s in Alberta is complex and may shift from time to time. Attention should
also be paid to examining the position of Christotainment during identity construction and
how it functions in the multi-layered process of such construction.
Critical Theory
Both the theory of embeddedness and the theory of cultural identity/identification
must be integrated with critical theory to examine holistically the socio-cultural problem of
Christotainment, thereby situating it in specific historical context and to analyze not only the
complex and paradoxical nature of Christotainment itself, but also the process by which it is
20
accepted. Under non-Western contexts, Christotainment may hegemonize people exposed to
Western contexts as it tends to embed a belief of Western cultural superiority. I utilize critical
theory here, because it identifies how power works, and how it works to continue the
hegemonization of a population.
Under the umbrella of critical theory, perspectives guiding this study include
contemporary critical theory and cultural studies.
Contemporary critical theory. Two main points in contemporary critical theory are
of concern in this study:
1) Historical contextualization: Social or cultural issues are not still objects that can
be studied alone or separated from their historical background, without taking into
consideration the social, cultural, political and economic factors that function within
such background, and these factors are always in motion as well (Steinberg &
Kincheloe, 2012; Lindlof & Taylor, 2002). In this study of Christotainment as a
socio-cultural issue/problem, I situate it in the historical background of the
contemporary globalized world, and further localize it within the group of Chinese
post-85s in Alberta, examining the forces that have shaped Christotainment to what it
is. According to contemporary critical theory, those forces are not absolute but keep
changing and interacting with each other, so that the study evolves to adapt to the
drifting of the context. That is why I have employed bricolage as the methodological
approach for this study. See Chapter 3 for an elaboration of the rationale.
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2) Authorship: contemporary cultural/critical theorists believe that research is not
objectively conducted to produce absolute truth, and the researcher (author) with his/her
complicated background is also part of the research (Steinberg, 2012). That is to say that the
research to some extent represents the researcher (author)’s “politics and poetics” towards the
issue under research (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002, p.53). In this sense, there is a need to clarify
the positionality of the researcher (author) to better understand the ways and reasons for
him/her to conduct the research. Accepting the positionality of the researcher (author)
represents the “humility” of the researcher (author), showing that he or she accepts that the
research is not absolute truth in itself but more of a reflection of his/her ideas (Kincheloe,
2011). In this study, I use autobiography to complete authorship research, integrating myself
with Christotainment to explore it, taking into consideration my own experiences with it.
Cultural studies. Although arguments exist suggesting that cultural studies is more
of a methodological approach (Zhang, 2012), this study sees it as a theoretical outlook for
seeking meanings behind daily life. In particular, cultural studies facilitates understandings of
people making meaning of their lives through cultural representations and by engaging in
popular culture which allows “a sense that they are in control of their own cultural identity”
(Hall, 1997; Giroux, 2001; Carlson & Dimitriadis, 2003). Contemporary cultural studies also
stresses power dynamics of Western hegemony, with popular culture as the conveyer
(Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2012). In addition, there is a shift to the focus of “power from within”
(Lash, 2007, p.56). This sheds light on the study of Christotainment to 1) make meaning of
the merging of Christian fundamentalism and popular culture behind its practices in everyday
22
life; 2) reveal the cultural identity constructing effects of Christotainment on people
practicing or receiving it; 3) examine “the power from within” the group of these people that
consciously or unconsciously promotes Christotainment and to seek the reasons that may
happen.
Delimitations
1. Steinberg and Kincheloe’s work on Christotainment focuses on Christian
evangelicalism/fundamentalism. As this study contextualizes Christotainment in the
group of Chinese post-85s in Alberta, there are no denomination specifications in
Christotainment. This is because the Chinese post-85s were not born and raised in
North America, thus lacking a thorough understanding of religious denominations and
having only a general acknowledgement of “the Western God.” Hence, the study
focuses on the relation between “China” and “the West” in Christotainment, rather
than the diversity of denominations under the umbrella of “the West”. “Christianity” –
denominations are about religion, not region of the world. Evangelicalism and
fundamentalism are aspects of Christianity that not all Christians accept or practice.
2. This study examines the demonstration of Christotainment in Chinese media and in
the media of North America. It does not delineate in detail the differences between
Christotainment in Canada and in the United States, but rather generalizes it as
“Christotainment in North America”. To be specific, what is focused on is
Christotainment in North America among Chinese Post-85s.
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3. This study analyzes Christotainment as “pseudo-Christianity,” which is delineated
from Christianity as a religion and it does not include traditional missionary work that
does not involve entertainment media.
4. As a qualitative research study using bricolage as the methodological approach, the
interviews do not include large samples to collect quantitative data from all the
Chinese post-85s in Alberta. Rather, the interviews go deep with each interviewee to
interpret Christotainment. How the participants responded may reflect their own
experiences with Christotainment, taking into consideration their individual unique
backgrounds.
Limitations
1. The researcher belongs to the group under study—Chinese post-85s in Alberta, and I
know most of the interviewees personally. Bias on both the researcher’s part and the
participants’ part must be considered when interpreting the data gained from content
analysis of Christotainment documents and from the interviews.
2. Diversity of the interviewees has not been taken into account in this study. I did not
seek out differently-abled, LGBTQ people, etc.
3. The study uses bricolage to open possibilities for interpretation of Christotainment,
but as neither the context nor Christotainment itself is objective, there are always
unexpected results coming out during the process of the study. The study kept pace
with all the changes, but no holistic and certain final result can be stated.
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4. As Christotainnment has been introduced and problematized somewhat recently, this
study focuses on the theoretical analysis of the nature of Christotainment, the forces
that motivate its cultural embeddedness into the focus group, and the effect it has on
the focus group. The study does not discuss guiding policy or give detailed
suggestions for how to deal with the problem.
Significance
The study contributes to the research on the effects of Christotainment in terms of
constructing cultural identity of Chinese young adults (post-85s) abroad, and to open
possibilities and leave space for further research in related areas. First, the study reveals the
nature of Christotainment, which is underdeveloped in literature; second, this study examines
the mechanism of the construction of cultural identity, taking into consideration the
complexity of the focus group who were exposed to different cultural modes; third, this study
stresses the uniqueness of Chinese non-immigrant post-85s, providing a new outlook on the
diversity of Chinese groups in Alberta.
Methodologically, the study serves to advance bricolage in qualitative research, as it
enabled me to keep up with changes in both the context and the research “subjects and
objects” coming out. That is, the study was always “in process” with the help of bricolage.
Additionally, the use of autobiography adds to research on the positionality of the researcher,
combating Creswell (1988)’s argument that qualitative research should not be done “in one’s
own backyard”.
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In terms of educational significance, the study is expected to arouse the consciousness
of Chinese post-85s who are currently living abroad, to the presence of Christotainment and
its implicit culturally embedded power to manipulate in them a Westernized mode of
consciousness. In this Westernized consciousness, they take for granted that what is Western
is mainstream and therefore a naturally universal rule to follow, thus arguably losing their
sense of national or cultural identity. At the same time, the study calls for educators and
cultural pedagogues who advocate diversity in learning to take action before such
embeddedness manifests into a threat of political extremism and fundamentalist cultural
hegemony, as it has arguably done in the U.S. As Stevens (2008) subtly “paraphrased” a
passage from the Bible, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it
without even thinking. Instead, always be looking for God in the culture” (pg. 135). We must
be aware that a Western God is embedded in the culture (s) in which we live.
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CHAPTER 2: RELEVANT LITERATURE
Christotainment: More than Religion
The book Christotainment: Selling Jesus Through Popular Culture (Steinberg &
Kincheloe, 2009) defined and elaborated upon the concept of Christotainment. The
combinatorial term of “Christ” and “entertainment” illustrates the merging of Christianity and
popular culture with the help of entertainment media. Kincheloe and Steinberg addressed the
issue of Christotainment as a unique American phenomenon; the concept of “Christianity”
they referred to involved Christian evangelicalism/ fundamentalism in particular. Steinberg
distinguished Christotainment from religious normativity and criticized it as cultural
phenomenon. Christotainment has little to do with the religion itself, but plays as
pseudo-Christianity, which pursues socio-cultural and socio-political benefits that may not be
obtained otherwise. As Steinberg pointed out,
When attempts are made to proselytize and convert, the overt nature of
missionary work is apparent. However, when a mainstream normalizing
culture includes themes and messages assumed to be acceptable by
populations, there is a different outcome (Steinberg, 2009, 132).
In this book, cultural scholars worked together to study the existence and effects of
Christotainment in the daily life of American people. They revealed Christotainment as a
power used by political fundamentalism to combat popular culture by “appropriating” it.
27
Similar to how the Chinese militarist Lin Tse-Hus designed the “Westernization Movement”
in 1861, this pseudo-Christianity strategy borrows from the enemy to defeat it..
Although Christotainment is a new-born term, the pseudo-Christianity to which it
refers is not new. There is a body of studies on the “holy marriage” of Christianity and
popular culture that has blurred the boundaries between the sacred and the secular (Einstein,
2008). This marriage has developed diverse forms, not only in the United States and North
America as a whole, but also in other parts of the world, China being one of them.
Contextualizing “The God Strategy”: Faith Selling in North America and China
In North America, the media-facilitated commercialization of
evangelical/fundamentalist Christianity has drawn broad academic attention. As Hoover
(2013) pointed out, when media is involved, the religion cannot stay they way it used to be,
and Christotainment (though not the exact term used in the book) is not religion (Lundby,
2013). There is increasing research interest about this transformed “religious” phenomenon in
the United States. In my perspective, Canada experiences the phenomenon in similar ways.
In the first chapter of Shopping for God, Twitchell (2007) stated: “It is not about
belief, or spirituality, or the yearning for transcendence…those are truly important matters” (p.
1). He suggested that when religious experience is sold and consumed through media,
Christianity transforms from “in your heart” to “in your face.” He also criticized the
competition between churches in the new age of technologies, claiming that the American
public pays for these “spiritual” wars in the marketplace.
28
Michael Lindsay (2007) examined the evangelical/fundamentalist participation in
American cultural affairs. According to Lindsay, when “faith” is merged with influential
media corporations, the social group of evangelicals/fundamentalists who have invested tens
of millions of dollars to shape the entertainment world both gain and use power (Lindsay,
2007, 142-143). This “God selling” industry, guided by a religious worldview, offers
diversified cultural products including—to name just a few—reading materials, movies, TV
series, and pop songs (Moore, 1994, 6; Brown, 2012). In Hendershot’s (2004) view,
evangelical cultural products are created by power and in turn they intrigue power. As he put
it, marketers see those products as “useful tools” rather than some “simple ads for Jesus” (p.
17). Evangelicals use those products to break down the barriers between believers and
non-believers through a casual and pleasant process.
Although the influence of this powerful God-selling industry has achieved widespread
penetration into many corners of the public’s daily life, this penetration was not typically
forced, but often welcomed by a public seeking fun and pleasure from what the
commercialized cultural products of religion offered. Laurence Moore (1994) noted that
“Liberal Protestant influence had reached just about every cultural niche where it could
reasonably have been expected to go. ‘Hegemony’ is not the right word to describe the
situation” (p. 235).
In this sense, commercialized religion does not simply press itself on the public, but
the public chooses to take it, which in turn prompts its popularization. As economic theories
explain, only when there is need, will the supply develops. That in itself is hegemony, only in
29
a more subtle way as the circulation has long been embedded. Charles Brown (2012) and
many other scholars have pointed out that besides the fun and pleasure, what the God-selling
industry produces is an “evangelical sub-culture” in which religious signals and messages are
embedded, and people may find their identity among others who are involved in the same
subculture (Hunter, 1982; Ammerman, 1987; McDennell, 1995; Brown, 2012). These studies
revealed a deeper motivation for the public to take in commercialized religion beyond
seeking fun and pleasure—identity.
Other scholars do not see such religious sub-culture as existing in isolation; it has
immersed in the popular culture and cannot be extracted as a singular entity. The embedding
of religious “signals” and messages into popular culture has turned the Christian religion into
“pseudo-Christianity” (Domke & Coe, 2008, p. 5). Domke and Coe examined the role that
pseudo-Christianity has played for the last eighty years, with the help of public media. They
pointed out that it is more important to “talk the religious talk” then actually “walk the
religious walk” (Domke & Coe, 2008, p. 6). Such statements suggest that what we are
studying is not the Christian religion, but something beyond it. It is a weapon to control the
American public has embedded “signals” into many groups and individuals. It has become a
socio-political power that ideologically shapes the American public, influencing them with
the cultural identity of evangelicalism/fundamentalism, notably less tolerant of diversity and
democratic social justice.
In Canada, Christotainment as pseudo-Christianity has drawn both economic and
socio-political benefits from the public. Besides the success of religion-based movies, the
30
success of the Canadian televangelist Benny Hinn may serve as a good example of how
Christotianment grows from local to global. Benny Hinn was not born in Canada. His family
immigrated to Toronto from Israel in 1967. He was not evangelical initially but converted to
Christian evangelicalism during his teens while his family was in Toronto. In China we would
call him “halfway monk,” which implies the lack of a religious foundation. Benny Hinn, as a
“halfway monk,” or “halfway evangelical,” however, succeeded in taking advantage of his
Christian identity. His religious books are best-selling, and he hosted This Is Your Day, a
television program that is popular internationally. The program is shown on many networks,
including Trinity Broadcasting Network, Daystar Television Network, Revelation
TV, Grace TV, Vision TV, INSP Networks, and The God Channel. He also created the
“Miracle Crusades,” in which he claimed to “cure through faith;” curing through faith sells
(Nickell, 2002).
Televangelists have expertise in marketing faith (Einstein, 2008). Literature on Benny
Hinn examined the socio-political and socio-cultural influence of his religious products.
Scholars criticized Benny Hinn as misleading the public with “false claims” about faith,
which at its core is profiteering. There is also evidence showing that such false religion has
extended to influence people in less developed countries, Fiji, for example (Budniewski,
2008; Shaffer, 2008; Newland, 2010).
Pseudo-Christianity has been referred to as “hyper-real religion”, “implicit
Christianity” (FĂTu-Tutoveanu & Pintilescu, 2012), and as Steinberg and Kincheloe (2009)
conceptualized it, Christotainment. As for how widespread such pseudo-Christianity has
31
become, Kincheloe (2009) believed that although it derived from Western colonialism and
has expanded across the contemporary world, it has greater influence in America than in
Europe or elsewhere. He held that such pseudo-Christianity, which he referred to as
Christotainment, is connected especially to Christian fundamentalism, a uniquely
Americanized phenomenon (or power dynamic, to be specific). It is also through
Christotainment that Jesus has been Americanized so as to “recover” the white, male, and
heterosexual American image to combat liberation movements that fight for rights of “the
other.” In this regard, Christotainment occurs mostly in the U.S., exerting theological, social,
and political changes to the nation. As for its functions in Europe and other parts of the planet,
Kincheloe (2009) believed that Christotainment is still in the beginning stages, and is too
much “on the fringe” of people’s daily lives to result in the type of serious consequences
noticeable in the U.S.
The studies above show, however, that Christotainment has spread to Canada as well
as other parts of the world. In summary, the studies on North America all agreed that
Christotainment has moved beyond religion and has been embedding the Christian culture
into the public for economic profiteering as well as seeking socio-political and socio-cultural
power. The situation in Canada is not that different from what the US has been through, but
as for other parts of the world, China for example, the motivation for people to accept
Christotainment and its impact varies.
32
The Christian Religion and China
While Christotainment continues to spread in North America, the Christian religion
merges with pop culture, thus becoming culturally embedded moreso than the Christian
religion itself; such embeddedness is taking place in other parts of the world as well. China is
one example.
In China, Christianity has been popularized among Chinese people (especially the
younger generation) by way of the religious and cultural messages that are often embedded
within rap music, commercial films, animation, video games, and other forms of pop culture.
Luo (2010) studied one example of Christotainment in China, The Bro Jesus Show. The show
was created by Pastor Enoch Lam from Hong Kong. He conducted sermons in the form of
stand-up comedy. He used posters to distribute propaganda, on which he was dressed up as a
number of funny characters. That was unprecedented as it broke people’s preconceived idea
of “hard sell” related to sermons (Luo, 2010).
In the East, however, academic research on Christotainment is more limited than in
North America. In China,
there have been studies on the combination of Christianity and
Chinese traditional culture, and comparison studies between the value of Confucius and that
of Christianity in pre-modern times (Lu & Ye, 2009; Wang, 2009); in Hong Kong, research
has criticized deliberately distorted references to Christian expressions in popular vernacular
that deconstruct and distort or denigrate the original sacred images behind these discourses.
Yet with respect to socio-political and socio-cultural effects of Christotainment embedded in
Chinese contexts, there is a lack of concern, enquiries and deep interpretation in this research.
33
Even less attention has been paid to how Christotainment as “pseudo-Christianity” conveys
Western religious cultural signals and messages that may have shaped the cultural identity of
Chinese people, especially the younger generation who are exposed to a diversity of cultures
in the globalized world, and who have had access since birth to the world of hyper-reality
with the help of high technology.
Part of the reason for the dearth of research is because religion related issues remain a
taboo under the pressure of the Chinese government, which recently issued an official
document entitled, Suggestions for Doing a Good Job of Resisting Foreign Use of Religion to
Infiltrate Institutes of Higher Education and to Prevent Campus Evangelism (General Office
of the Central Committee, 2011, No.18). Due to the lack of critical analysis on the nature of
Christotainment, there is confusion between the real religion of Christianity and
Christotainment (either imported from the West or indigenously developed in China).
Christotainment has been insidiously playing the game, sacrificing the Christian religion as a
scapegoat for all the impact Christotainment on Chinese people. In summary, unlike in North
America, there is still misunderstanding between Christotainment (pseudo-Christianity) and
the Christian religion. Although Christotainment emerges from a Christian fundamentalist
framework, the readers/audiences are a “complex” and would not likely be identified as
fundementalists (Frykholm, 2004, 15). In this sense, most Chinese people involved in
Christotainment may not identify themselves as pure fundamentalists when religion (if
deprived of its “Western” meaning) is not what they seek. While the government is vigilant
about the saturation of the Christian religion, Christotainment as Western cultural
34
embeddedness has not been identified or problematized, although it exists and influences the
Chinese people.
Religion, Popular Culture and Chinese People in North America: Complex of the
Complex
Chinese people in North America (excluding those who were born and raised there)
are a special group living at the crossroad of cultures. As the idea of cherishing their
homeland as their root has long been embedded among most Chinese people, on the one hand,
they have complex connections with China, both socially and emotionally; on the other hand,
they have direct interaction with the country in which they live, immersed in the culture of
that country. Studies show that their attitudes towards the new country and its culture can be
contradictory as well. They may have worked hard to integrate into society so as to gain
equal access to the opportunities for success as native-born citizens have; however, they may
simultaneously lack a sense of belonging given the barriers (the triple glass effect, for
example) (Guo, 2013), they may face during such integration, which accounts for one of the
reasons why they tend to seek identity from their own culture (Myles & Cheng, 2003; Wang,
2009; Guo & Chase, 2011).
The “Triple Glass Effect”
Shibao Guo’s (2013) research investigated the barriers facing Chinese people during
their integration into local cultural and social life in Canada. For example, his theory of “The
Triple Glass Effect” describes how implicit “rules” in the job market of Canada have kept
Chinese immigrants away from equal access and opportunity. First, “the glass gate” keeps
35
immigrants out of non-labor job positions due to the requirements for language or working
experience in Canada; second, “the glass door” bars immigrants from professional training
opportunities or social network establishment; finally, “the glass ceiling” prevents immigrants
from seeking further career development or higher positions. Although the Triple Glass Effect
theory focuses on the working conditions of Chinese immigrants, it generally also implies the
socio-cultural barriers facing Chinese people (both immigrants and non-immigrants, e.g.
international students) when they attempt to integrate into local life in North America. Studies
also show that lack of local social networking or interaction with the local community may
also in part account for why such implicit barriers exist (Guo, 2013).
As mentioned above, these implicit barriers may in turn drive Chinese people to find
their sense of belonging back into their own community among Chinese people and their own
culture, despite the fact that they live in North America. At this point, the socio-cultural
experience of this special Chinese group may be more complex than those living only in
China, and different from the local people in North America as well. First, these people were
born and raised in the Chinese culture, and when they came to North America, they directly
encountered the new culture while at the same time looking back to their own culture.
However, their “own culture” at this time can no longer be referred to as the traditional
Chinese culture of the time they were born, but saturated with a diversity of cultures due to
globalization. As Greek philosopher Heraclitus’s metaphor shows, they are not able to step in
the same river of culture for a second time.
36
Emotional Motivation for Conversion
Studies about religion and Chinese people in North America indicate that for those
who turn to the Christian religion, there is practical motivation as well as emotional
motivation. Wang and Yang (2006) conducted research with a focus group of Chinese
students and scholars in North America. Within a focus group, they found that the motivation
to convert to the Christian religion included:
1. They were received first by the Church when they arrived in North America, which
encouraged them to choose Christianity as their first choice when converting to a
religion. For example, the church may have provided them with food, entertainment,
and social activities when they first arrived, welcoming them as a community with
which they can identify.
2. They were immersed in the popular culture they encountered (which may include both
resources from China and from North America) saturated with Christian religion and
culture, which has had impact on them and gradually shaped their way of seeing the
world. Here, curiosity also accounts for one of the reasons they are willing to interact
with Christianity.
3. They wanted to get rid of the political and social corruption in China which featured a
lack of faith, and because North America is developed and advanced (mainly in
economics), they took for granted that the “mainstream religion” here is developed
and advanced, so that they turned to Christianity to find a sense of belonging in
developed and advanced North America.
37
Wang and Yang (2006) also pointed out that among the new converts, many remained
doubtful and hesitant. They converted to Christianity not because of the religion itself, but
because of the socio-cultural, or even economic benefits they perceived it may bring.
Cao (2007, 2008) emphasized the benefits (especially economic benefits) the
Christian religion may bring to Chinese believers. He stated that the religion may form a
community which bonds believers together and raises money to do business. The “Wenzhou
model” offers a successful example. By actually “doing” religion, Wenzhou people (whether
in China or abroad) have promoted their own brand, which has brought them considerable
profits. In turn, successful entrepreneurs have invested large sums of money to contribute to
the “Wenzhou Church” (partly because they wanted to show off their success), thus making
the “Chinese model of Christianity” even stronger. The religious meaning of such behavior
remains subordinate to their socio-economic and socio-cultural effects. Cao also pointed out
that the identity of people involved in such “religion” is complex, as they belong to
Christianity while at the same time are not restricted by the religion. Religion represents more
of a tool for them than a faith.
Simonson (2013) examined in detail the digital religious eloquence and pointed out
that while audiences (some of which may convert) are “benefiting” from religion, e.g. gaining
energy to “help establish identifications, fix meanings,” their relationships with “religious
symbols and embodied religious experiences are enhanced” (Lundby, 2013, p. 96), thus
gradually immersing them into religious culture. That is what popularized religion really
38
wanted to bring to audiences, but is usually more invisible than the “benefits” and thus likely
to be ignored.
Religion, Popular Culture and Cultural Identity
From the above studies we see that when religion meets popular culture, a new, more
powerful cultural complex is born. According to Baranowski, what religion can forge as faith
communities is actually “counter-cultural” (Baranowski, 1993; Donlevy, 2009); however,
when religion is merged with popular culture that also conveys values, what it forges is
culture itself. Notions such as God is here and not high above the secular world and Jesus did
not avoid culture (Stevens, 2008), motivate a new religious-cultural complexity. Studies show
that popularized religion has effects on the construction of people’s cultural identity.
Song (2010) pointed out that the power emerging from the integrated complex of
religion and popular culture can be influential. Such complex is flexible, as it can fit into both
government policies and people’s daily lives. It may change in pace with social change to
meet the needs of the public (Song, 2010, p. 115). He examined the channels through which
“popularized religion” functions. On one hand, the government can use the power of the
complex to promote a particular cultural identity. On the other hand, popularized religion can
infiltrate into people’s everyday lives through commercial activities. Both work together to
drive the public into the pre-designed cultural identity.
Holliday (2010) focused on the complexity of the construction of cultural identity. He
claimed that it is difficult to define a certain cultural identity, as the cultural realities in which
we live are diverse. From this perspective, what Song (2010) suggested about
39
government-promoted and commercial activity-facilitated cultural identity is not absolute.
Therefore, a pre-designed cultural identity may not be identical in reality. From the
macro-perspective, however, although cultural identity is fluid, the cultural identity
developed from globalization and cosmopolitanism serves the Western-centered interest
(Bhabha, 1994; Hall, 1994; Holliday, 2010). This means that the ambiguity of cultural
identity has also made it vulnerable, which can be used to serve a certain party of interest.
The cultural identification is Western-biased, which means people tend to identify Western
culture as the advanced.
To combine Song and Holliday’s work, we can see that when the Christian religion
becomes popularized either through administrative promotion or daily life, it embeds
West-dominant messages and images into the public sphere, constructing a “Western-centered”
cultural identity. Such cultural identity may change as the socio-cultural context changes, but
the West dominant discourse remains. Young et al (2013) suggest that when a dominant
discourse is realized, a new cultural identity needs to be constructed to disrupt that discourse.
Although no universal mode of the new cultural identity is possible, it has to be developed
according to different contexts.
Summary
The literature demonstrates that the popularization of Christianity involves more than
its original religious meaning. In North America (the United States and Canada) and in China,
Christianity, together with Western culture and the values it conveys, have embedded in the
popular culture which people access throughout their daily lives. The motivation for people to
40
engage in Christotainment may involve pleasure, curiosity, (economic) profits, and a sense of
belonging and self-identification in the shared community. The motivations may vary when
context changes. People from North America, Chinese people (in China), and Chinese people
living in North America may have different reasons to become involved in Christotainment,
and Christotainment may have varying impact on them. For the group of Chinese people
living in North America, although there are studies showing the complexity of their cultural
identity and their contradictory attitudes towards converting to the Christian religion, less
focus has been cast on specifically how the popularized religion (as Christotainment) may
have influenced them in terms of their cultural identity construction. Among this group, even
less attention has been paid to the post-85s generation born under the “one-child policy” and
the “reform and opening up policy,” which have made them more complex in their cultural
identity and their attitudes towards the West. How they engage Christotainment, and how
Christotainment may influence the construction of their cultural identity, needs further
concern and interpretation.
The literature also indicates that Christotainment (though conveying religious signals
and messages) has become a power embedded within Western dominant culture. Such
cultural embeddedness has swept North America and expanded to China as well. From the
perspective of critical theory, there is no certain and solid truth; one must always take into
consideration any change of circumstances. In this sense, it is hard to draw a definite
conclusion about what impact Christotainment may have as universal to all individuals so
involved; however, the turn to conservative politics did bring ideological influences to
41
American society (Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2009). Political administrators together with
transnational corporations created a consumer culture of hyper-real pleasure and pursued
socio-economic benefits from this mass production of entertainment. At the same time, this
consumer culture helped to induced the public into a paradigm of ignorance and simplicity, a
false consciousness encouraging them to live there comfortable. Consumers are by and large
happy with the cultural production of movies, music, and video games offered to them, and
have little awareness of the tacit strategies of identity construction and ideology shaping that
hides under the fantasy of the production. The identity promoted is a uniform American (or at
least “Western”) image of the white, male, heterosexual at the dominant centre, alienating
“the other,” while the ideology is to accept and be happy with such an identity without posing
deeper questions or challenges to such ideology. In this mode, there is less and less room for
democracy or dialogues to occur. In the name of “the Father” (who was actually “emigrated”
as an American), tolerance for diversity and opportunities for difference is no longer worth
discussing (Giroux, 2009; Kincheloe, 2009). Although the situation in China shares some of
the same characteristics of the identity constructing effects of Christotainment, the Chinese
people to some extent motivated the development of Christotainment. For the in-between
group of Chinese people living in North America, their cultural identity is more fluid, thus the
effects of Christotainment on their identity construction needs deeper interpretation. The
post-85s group is the “complex of the complex,” resulting from the context in which they
were born and raised, thus making their cultural identity harder to define. How their cultural
identity has been constructed while exposed to the Christotainment-saturated contexts of
42
shifting between North America and China is yet to be explored, leaving open possibilities
for further unveiling..
The Theory of Cultural Embeddedness
The theory of cultural embeddedness stems from the theory of embeddedness in the
field of socio-economics. From the above studies on Christotainment, one can see that
Christotainment is more than a simple religious phenomenon. It is rather a “complex”
contextualized by the economic, political, social and cultural environment. I see
Christotainment’s cultural embeddedness as mainly in two layers: 1) it embeds Christian
religious signals and messages in the entertaining popular culture (as can be seen literally by
the term itself); 2) such embeddedness (which is no longer the original Christian signals and
messages) embeds West-dominant culture in non-Western cultural contexts such as China. In
the latter part of this chapter, I review the development of the theory of cultural
embeddedness. By studying “the general,” my goal is to better understand “the specific”:
Christotainment as cultural embeddedness.
From Networking Embeddedness to Cultural Embeddedness
Embeddedness is a term mostly used in the field of economic sociology; its
interpretations usually employ a perspective of positivism. In such realm, “embeddedness”
refers to one system integrating organically with an object system, or in other words, it means
the endogenic process of one thing forming within another.
Origin: The Polanyi concept of embeddedness. Karl Polanyi (1944) introduced the
43
concept of embeddedness as the relationship between “social relations” and the “economic
system.” He held that the former is embedded in the latter, not vice versa. In his famous
argument about the three forms of exchange—reciprocal,
redistributive, and market, the
first two types of exchange are embedded within a socio-cultural context, but market is an
emerging “economic system,” absolute and independent from socio-cultural context. In his
view, market is a “disembedded” form of exchange which, unlike the other two forms, is
independent of the social and cultural system.
This absolute concept of market reversed what other sociologists such as Durkheim
and Weber advocated; Polyani was continuously challenged for its reductionism and its
one-directional perspective of
“social embeddedness in economy” that disregarded the
dynamics and interdependence of economic and socio-cultural structure (Rizza, 2006).
Granovetter: moving towards social network embeddedness. Over the last two
decades, Mark Granovetter has made significant contributions to the development of theory
that contextualizes embeddedness in a larger social background. Studies of embeddedness
have extended from its primary “economic embeddedness in the society” to the wider areas
involving social network, culture, politics and religion. Granovetter developed the concept of
embeddedness to refer to the embeddedness of economy in social networks (Granovetter,
1985; 2007).
Granovetter emphasized the importance of interpersonal relations both within and
outside the market. In the social context of such interpersonal relations networks, actors (who
perform economic behavior) are ideologically influenced in their economic performance. In
44
contrast to Polanyi’s view, Granovetter believed that the economic system is embedded in
social networks, and that how actors intend to act “is rooted in tangible and active systems of
social relations” (2007, p. 56). Such social relations may involve cultural, political, and
religious elements, but most important are interpersonal relationships such as kinship, family,
community, and so forth; this is where the weakness of Granovetterian theory lies (Rizza,
2006).
Although Granovetter developed the concept of embeddedness to explain that an
economic system is socially embedded and that how actors operate is influenced by social
relations, he limited the social relations (or social context) within a set network of
interpersonal relations. Instead of dialectically and culturally interpreting social context, he
did not completely get rid of the trap of “structural-rational absolutism” (Rizza, 2006).
Cultural embeddedness within economic phenomena was not highlighted, and its ideological
effects on its participants (both producers and consumers) were left unexamined.
Contextualizing Embeddedness: Culture and Embeddedness
In recent years, the theory of embeddedness has tended to move beyond the
Granovetterian set mode of networking embeddedness. Cultural embeddedness
contextualizes embeddedness in the broader social, economic, political and cultural settings
and examines how those elements may have impact on economic and even cultural issues.
Culture, as Granovetter suggested, is most complex, involving all social, economic, political
and religious elements. He evaded culture in developing the theory of embeddedness, as he
assumed that culture is too broad and blurred to grasp and define. This was reasonable given
45
that Granovetter used the methodology of networking analysis, in which the subjects and
objects are certain. Therefore, it was hard for him and his followers to abstract absolute
elements from the complex of culture and to turn the elements into the knots of a network.
Should we abandon culture when studying embeddedness? The answer is no.
Intriguing a plural economic behavior: From network embeddedness to cultural
embeddedness. By problematizing the Granovetterian theory of social network
embeddedness, new institutionalists who advocated for the crucial part institutions play in
economic activities broadened the theory, asserting that social networks of interpersonal
relations is not the decisive factor relating to embeddedness. Instead, economic systems are
embedded in institutions that are historically, socially and culturally constructed, and the
dynamics of institutions is the key factor that influences the behavior of economic
participants (Powell & DiMaggio, 1991; Meyer & Scott, 1992; Fligstein, 2001).
In this perspective, within the institutional context a sense of collective worth to
specific entities and activities is underlined (Johnson, 2012). That is to say that institutions
such as mass media, for example, which are socially and culturally constructed, have in turn a
cultural influence on actors and can drive them to a collective way of making decisions. That
is also considered as the cultural dimension of embeddedness or cultural embeddedness
(Zuckin & DiMaggio, 1990).
Moving beyond economics: Culture embedded in culture. As the theory of cultural
embeddedness has been employed to study economic behaviors, it has also expanded into the
46
field of cultural studies, to explore the cultural embeddedness of culture. Yang (2010)
examined the different layers of cultural embeddedness in cultural issues: macro, meso, and
micro layers. The macro layer determines the general direction of the embeddedness (e.g.
what is embedding in what), with a final goal of constructing cultural identity and values. The
meso layer concerns ethics (or preference), that is, cultural embeddedness affects people’s
decision making, forming a plural preference or “implicit ethical rules.” The micro layer of
cultural embeddedness internalizes the plural preference or the “rules” and restricts
individuals’ behaviors. According to Yang, the process of cultural embeddedness is the
process of internalizing cultural context into cultural content, and only in that way can
cultural embeddedness have impact on individuals. Yang’s theory resonates with that of the
institutionalists above. They agree that cultural embeddedness may have impact on
individual’s behaviors, but Yang expanded the theory from economics to cultural studies,
indicating that the final result of cultural embeddedness is reaching the goal determined at the
macro level, that is, to construct cultural identity and values; however, understanding how
cultural embeddedness is motivated, what has driven cultural embeddedness to have effects
in the three layers, and how the effects diversify according to the change of context, has yet to
be explored in depth.
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Conclusion
This study is based on and further develops the theory of cultural embeddedness, using
Christotainment as a specific example of cultural embeddedness to study motivations and
effects. The study also continues the research on Christotainment, contextualizing it in a
special group of Chinese post-85s in Alberta, to examine how Christotainment as cultural
embeddedness works on the focus group in terms of constructing their cultural identity, and
what motivated such embeddedness. Using bricolage as the methodological approach, this
study provides a critical perspective to interpret Christotainment as cultural embeddedness.
By taking into consideration the particular context, windows may be opened through which
more possible answers may be revealed.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
To consider the complexity and multi-layered characteristics of Christotainment as
cultural embeddedness, as well as its cultural identity-constructing effects, this study used
bricolage as the guiding methodological philosophy, integrating auto-ethnography, content
analysis, semiotics, and dialectics as co-working methodologies. Methods include
autobiography, interviews and contradiction analysis.
Introducing Bricolage
According to Levi-Strauss (1966), bricolage refers to a methodological philosophy
similar to “using a tool box,” from which researchers may choose a diversity of methods from
different disciplines, using them as justification and supplement for each other to conduct
research as holistically as possible.
Bricolage may reduce the limitations of using one mode of research, as it opens the
possibility to employ diverse methodologies and methods from a variety of disciplines to read
the multiple layers of a cultural text from different perspectives. Bricolage is different from
mixed methods because it is always in motion and allows space for the continual
development of the research. It may keep changing as the research unfolds and is fluidic to
suit the coming results. It is not expected in research employing bricolage to draw definite
conclusions or universal truths, but rather to reflect “an evolving criticality” (Kincheloe,
McLaren & Steinberg, 2012). Also, bricolage empowers researchers as active agents, who see
no universal mode of the production of knowledge and whose work enables the shaping of
49
reality (Bresler & Ardichvili, 2002; Kincheloe & Berry, 2004, 2012; McLaren, 2012; Mcleod,
2000; Selfe & Selfe, 1994; Steinberg, 2010, 2011, 2012).
Rationale for Using Bricolage in Cultural Studies
Bricolage is suitable for cultural studies, as the multi-perspective and evolving
characteristics of this flexible methodological philosophy suits the dialectical and complex
nature of cultural issues. Bricolage emphasizes the agency of researchers during the process,
allowing them to “interpret, critique and deconstruct” (Steinberg, 2012) the cultural text of
complexity and to ask questions about it
Steinberg (2012) addressed from a macro view the impossibility of delineating a
“universal research method” to conduct cultural studies, in that there is hardly a standard as to
what questions should be given priority and put on the top list of research, considering the
variation of contexts in which these questions are located. Viewed from a microscopic
perspective, each single question in itself is a multi-layered complexity with a dialectical
nature. Answers to the same question may not be exactly the same when examined from
different theoretical perspectives applying different methodologies and methods. This is also
because the focus on the layers of the question may vary when researchers from different
historical, social, political, and cultural backgrounds seek answers to the question from their
own positionality. Similarly, critical theorists believe that methods have embedded
assumptions that may not be discovered by passive researchers, and thereby applied
unanalyzed (Kincheloe, McLaren & Steinberg, 2012). The conclusions drawn from such
50
assumptions in the research may have deficits and thus not be authentic, representing a
deviation from the original intention of the critical inquiries.
In Steinberg’s (2012) concept, bricolage as an interdisciplinary approach is to be
advocated when conducting cultural studies. One of the reasons for this is because “the study
of culture can be fragmented between the disciplines” (p. 182), requiring multi-layered and
multi-perspective ways of examining the complexity. Kincheloe and Berry (2004) also
described what bricolage may bring about as “a complex collage,” and the production process
for such a collage can be seen as a synthesis of the researchers’ position, thoughts, together
with what they have done to interpret the connections between cultural text and its locus.
Bricolage views the researcher as an active player in the research. On the one hand,
bricolage empowers the researcher to interpret the cultural context from his/her own
perspective; on the other hand, bricolage admits that the researcher may embed his/her
experience and values in the research. The positionality of the researcher may shed light on
the interpretation. The humility of bricolage sees the limitations of the so-called “objective”
research and opens possibilities to make meaning of a cultural text which is evolving in itself.
Considering all the above, bricolage provides an approach for appreciating the
complexity of culture, and allows the researcher to conduct cultural studies as holistically as
possible, to open as many potential answers as possible.
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Bricolage and Cultural Studies of Christotainment
Bricolage was used in this study to consider the complexity of both the mechanism of
Christotainment as cultural embeddedness and its effects of constructing the cultural
identities of post-85 Chinese in Alberta.
When contextualizing Christotainment in the focus group of post-85s Chinese in
Alberta, the mechanism of Christotainment becomes more complex than when contextualized
in North America. If the way Christotainment works on people from North America can be
seen as cultural embeddedness, embedding evangelical/fundamentalist values into those who
are originally from the “Western” culture, then such embeddedness is doubled when it comes
to post-85s Chinese who were not born and raised in the West. This is because on the one
hand, Christotainment still works to embed Western values into the Chinese group; on the
other hand, however, the Chinese group takes initiative to be embedded by Christotainment,
that is, they intentionally take in the Western values, reversing the direction of the
embeddedness. Social and cultural factors work together to motivate such reversion. To study
the duplexity of such embeddedness requires a methodology that is critical and can shift
between different disciplines and perspectives so as to dialectically analyze the contradiction
of the issue. That is what bricolage can do.
Similarly, when it comes to the study of the effects of Christotainment in terms of
constructing cultural identity, it, too, is complex and multi-layered, particularly considering
the uniqueness of the focus group. First, the original cultural identity of post-85s Chinese is
not certain, if there is one (Zhang, 2007). Their cultural identity is not identical to their
52
national identity, as they have long been exposed to non-Chinese cultures brought in by
globalization and the development of high technology; after coming to Canada, however,
their cultural identity did not completely shift to the Canadian mode either, though it arguably
shifted to a great extent (Cao, 2008). The cultural identity of this unique group is more hybrid,
and always in motion. Sometimes it is more Western and sometimes it is more Chinese. How
Christotainment works to motivate such motion must be studied based on the complexity of
Christotainment itself, as well as the complexity of how and why the focus group takes it in.
The cultural identification influenced by Christotainment does not follow a simple and stable
mode from objection to acceptance (Deng, 2005), but is rather multi-dimensional,
multi-layered, and keeps changing. Bricolage is a “best way” to study such unfolding and
complex process.
Additionally, as bricolage empowers the researcher to be an active agent in the
research to make meaning of the cultural text from his/her own experience, it can be well
applied in this study because the researcher herself is a member of the focus group. Exploring
my experience with Christotainment has provided an authentic perspective for interpreting
the mechanism and the effects of Christotainment, thus clarifying the ground of the study. By
humbly admitting the potential bias and imperfection of the study, the researcher is able to
avoid the restriction of “truth seeking,” but is free to unfold possibilities.
Methodologies and Methods in the “Collage”
Methodologies used in the “collage” mainly include autobiography, auto-ethnography,
content analysis, semiotics, and dialectics. The methodologies served as justification and
53
complement for each other in this bricolaged study. Autobiography was used to position the
researcher and provide a stand of the research. Content analysis was carried out by critically
examining the results from interviews and documents including movies, advertisement, pop
songs, etc. to make meaning of Christotainment and to explore the mechanisms of its
embeddedness, opening possible ways for interpretation that take into consideration the
specific social, economic, political and cultural context. Semiotics was incorporated with
content analysis, focusing on the study of signs and codes related to Christianity to see the
social dynamics behind them. During the above process, dialectics served as a thread to sew
up the scattered results, organizing and analyzing them as contradictions, clarifying the
different layers of the issue under study, breaking it down and then summing it up as a
complex of contradictions.
Method: Autoethnography. In bricolage, researchers are aware that any passive
methodology (and method) are embedded with assumptions yet to be analyzed (Kincheloe,
2011). Researchers also have a humble understanding that their research reflects their own
insights, which may be shaped by the historical, social, economic and cultural contexts in
which they are located. That is, a researcher’s positionality may influence the way he or she
reads the text, and the texts that are chosen to be read. It is important for researchers to clarify
their positions in the research in the first place, providing a “stand” to help them avoid the
risk of either getting lost in the research or passively stuck in an empirical paradigm that
requires definitive answers and ignores the influence of contexts.
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Auto-ethnography, which Machechal (2010) describes as form of research that
“involves self-observation and reflexive investigation in the context of ethnographic field
work and writing” (p. 43), can be considered as a methodological way to help researchers
identify themselves in the research and connect identity to the wider historical,
socio-economic, political, and cultural context in which they are situated. The clarification of
the researcher’s position also sheds light on the position of the research they are doing within
the context. In this sense, neither the researchers nor the research can be seen as objects that
stay still; rather, they are inscribed by a wider context and keep evolving as the context
changes. Auto-ethnography analyzes the researcher in the research as a complex of
contradictions in him/herself, embedded in a complex context (Berryman, 1999; Tenni et al,
2003). This way of analyzing the researcher’s personal practice as dialectical data has been
applied in many areas involving the study of human society (Li, 1997; McKernan, 1991;
Stoddart, 2001; Tenni et al, 2003).
In this study, from a macro perspective, autobiography/ethnography enabled the
researcher to position herself in a context similar to the focus group under study: post-85s
Chinese in Alberta, to find the similarities of the cultural identity construction of this group,
with herself as the mirror. From a micro perspective, auto-ethnography examined the
uniqueness of the identity construction of the researcher given her specific socio-economic
and socio-cultural background, which may be different from others in the same group, and
thus deepen the interpretation of such construction by revealing diversity and multiple layers
within. Auto-ethnography allowed the researcher to combine herself with the research and the
55
context, to examine the mechanism and effects of Christotainment both in a general
macro-context and a specific micro-context, to see the contradictions in herself and in her
peers during cultural identification influenced by Christotainment. This has allowed the study
to emerge as holistically as possible.
Method: Autobiography. Autobiographies study how identity is socially and
culturally constructed within certain contexts (Kincheloe, 2005). Autobiography can be a
“post-formal” inquiry, in which the reason for one to understand his/her social construction is
to “facilitate one’s ability to become a responsible and transformative member of larger
communities where socially just activities are coordinated—activities that address oppression
and alleviate human suffering” (p. 2). Autobiography used in this study is not a
self-indulgence process to study identity (or selfhood) only for the sake of “self,” but to
understand the position of the researcher in the research so as to facilitate the research that
may result in actions to change the status quo. As the researcher is also from the focus group,
examining her own experience with Christotainment may inspire her understanding of
Christotainment’s influence on her peers, making the study authentic and more persuading for
raising critical awareness of those who may have had experiences similar to the researcher.
Data Collection and Processing
There are two major ways to collect data about one’s own experience. According to
Tenni (2003), for a study that is “intensively personal,” a large proportion of the data is about
the researcher him/herself. As this study has a focus group of post-85s Chinese in Alberta, my
56
own experience served as a mirror or a “hint” to further explore the focus group; data
collection in this study thereby was different from merely analyzing data about the researcher
him/herself. My experience served to introduce the research in which I am one of the
participants. The data collected represented my experience with Christotainment, both from
memory, from present practice, and my own thoughts.
Semi-free writing was the first step, tracing to as early as possible to record the
happenings and the consequences of any events that have to do with Christotainment,
together with my original thoughts about the event. The autobiography was then reviewed as
the second step, by which I compared different events and their consequences together with
my original thoughts, seeking similarities and differences regarding how and why I reacted to
Christotainment given the complexity of self (e.g. there can be confusion, objection,
acceptance or a mix of a variety of reactions). For the third step, I examined the results from
the second step, to sort out any elements that have to do with the construction of my cultural
identity, and to analyze the dynamic interactions of these elements. In this way I was able to
see what role Christotainment played within my cultural identification, and also to find out
what factors influenced Christotainment’s function in constructing my cultural identity.
Content analysis. Methodologically, content analysis is a way to systematically
describe, code and interpret the content of communication. There have been arguments on
whether content analysis is quantitative or qualitative in nature. Berelson (1952) and Holsti
(1969) stressed the characteristics of “systematic and objective” of content analysis.
Neuendorf (2002) defined content analysis as a quantitative methodology which is carried out
57
by “scientific method” (p. 10). There are also scholars seeing content analysis as qualitative,
such as Glaser (1965) who addressed it as qualitative analysis that is constantly comparative.
Mayring (2000) delineates qualitative content analysis as mainly empirical. Critical
researchers interpret content analysis as not only qualitative, but also rigorous and
hermeneutical as 1) the content (or a text, such as a movie text) is embedded in “popular
discourse” and reflects the mainstream values of the specific context it is set in; 2) both the
process and results of content analysis are in constant motion which is always unfolding
(Keller, 1995; Steinberg, 2012, p. 186).
Content analysis has been widely used in examining media document such as movies
and TV shows since the 1980s, and its usage has expanded to interpreting human
conversations such as interviews to see the social dynamics and per-assumptions behind the
conversations (Mayring, 2000). In a post-modern genre, content analysis practice has taken
on new functions as hyper-reality tools are available for researchers to “re-visit” the past,
which means that there is possibility for critical researchers to review the interpretation of the
past text and to “problematize” the interpretation (Steinberg, 2012). That suits the nature of a
critical approach of study such as bricolage which is in constant motion as the study advances
and refutes absolute truth that a “scientific study” claims to come up with.
In this sense, this study used content analysis to interpret open-ended interviews from
the focus group of post-85s Chinese in Alberta to first indentify Christotainment as
“pseudo-Christian” and find out its main existence and functions, and then great focus was
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casted on interpreting how and why the focus group see and reacts upon such existence,so as
to explore deeper cultural reasons behind their attitudes towards Christotainment.
Data collection: open-ended interviews. Data collected for content analysis mainly
involved open-ended interviews.
The participants. Regarding the background of participants, I chose a group of six
Chinese students who were born between 1985 and 1989. They were born and raised in China
and by the time of the interview, they have not finished their immigration to Canada, but have
been living in Alberta as students or new professionals (they just started their career) for at
least two years by the time the interviews were conducted. This was to ensure that the
participants have long been immersed in traditional Chinese culture, but have the opportunity
to get in touch with Western culture as well, and to distinguish them from immigrants as they
are not completely Westernized and still have deep relations with China. Genders and sexual
orientation issues were not under consideration as I selected the candidates. As this study is
not quantitative and based on mass sampling, the purpose of the interviews focused on deep
interpretation of each participants taken into consideration their diversified backgrounds
while at the same time seeking commonness as a unique group in Alberta. Data collected
from the interviews included mainly the transcripts.
All the six participants were graduate school students in the University of Calgary and
the University of Alberta at the time the interviews were conducted. Three of them were
working on a Master’s program, and the other three were doctoral students. All of them have
received formal higher education in China, and four of them have professional work
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experience as engineer, university professor or have worked in the management level in big
multi-national cooperations.
I conducted six in-depth interviews of which the transcripts have been used for content
analysis. As this is a bricolaged study, I kept the interviews open-ended. Besides the
mentioned six interviews which took one and a half to two hours to complete individually, I
also conducted follow-ups in the form of casual conversations. That is part of the reason why
I chose a group of participants whom I am a friend with and whom I had known for at least
two years by the time the interviews were done. They must remain in my social networking
circle, which makes it easier for me to update their living status as well as changes to their
thoughts. I expected the interviewing process to be open and subjective. What I expected to
hear is the voice hidden deep within their heart which they would not easily give away to
someone whom they could not trust. As they have been struggling for a better life with
getting the permanent residence as top priority, I have kept contact with them till present to
be posted about their progressive and constantly transforming attitudes towards values.
Including myself, these delicate utilitarian have flexibly shifted between different
socio-cultural contexts with “benefits” as the lighthouse guiding them to find the fastest way
out.
By the time I am revisiting my thesis in the year 2015, three of the participants have
successfully obtained the status of permanent residence in China, two of them are waiting for
the results, and another is expecting to get the status through marriage.
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Participant A went through the Provincial Nominee Program, and quitted his job right
after he received the invitation letter because he told me that his job was boring,
time-demanding, and that he accepted the job offer simply because it met the requirement for
application.
Participant E now works fulltime as a cashier. She obtained the Permanent Residence
through the Experience Class since she had worked as an electronic engineer in China for
five years before she came to Canada. In Canada she obtained a second Master’s degree in
engineering. She is relaxed and less stressed talking about her current job. “The PR is my top
priority. As long as I can legally stay in Canada for as long as I want, I don’t mind doing my
current job which is way below what my skill sets can offer.” She also told me that her
biggest concern now is to get married as soon as possible.
Participant F was a doctoral student at the time of the interview. He became a
Permanent Resident in 2014. He then dropped out from his study. He told me that he gave up
a decent job in China as a professor and decided to go back to school simply for the
Permanent Residence. Now that he reached his goal, and he no longer needed to waste his
time on something that he was not interested in, and most important, something that “cannot
get” him “a decent job” here in Canada. He is now a first year law school student in a
different university, and he said his dream is to become an immigration lawyer. “Now I don’t
need to pay the tripled amount of tuition fee for realizing me dream.” This is what he said to
me last week over the phone as I was asking him whether he regrets giving up the doctoral
study which he did for three years and start from the beginning.
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For the other three participants, Participant B has finished his Master’s study in
mechanical engineering and is now working as a translator. He told me that he will quit his
job and go back to China after he gets the Permanent Residence. “With the PR status and
working experience in Canada, I will get a much better-paid job in China than what I had
before. I am West-plated now.”
Participant C has finished his doctoral program in economics. His dream is to become
a professor in Canada. He has locked himself up and is devoted to his publication. He turned
down my invitation for dinner and put it straight-forward, “Now for me there is nothing more
important than getting the PR and finding a job. I don’t want to waste time on anything else. I
will buy you a big dinner after I succeed.”
Participant D was supported by China’s National Scholarship which requires a
commitment of returning after completion of the study. He is E’s boyfriend, and he told me
that despite all the conflicts that he has had with E, he still wanted to marry her, and the PR
status is the biggest consideration. E knows what his boyfriend has been thinking about but
does not feel offended. For her at present, getting married has become top priority. Even if D
may need to go back to China and work for several years, the separation does not seem to be
bothering her at all.
Data processing. Some argue that content analysis should start with hypothesis and
the processing of data is to refute the hypothesis (Robinson, 1951; Lindesmith; 1952).
Steinberg (2012) described a different process of critical content analysis as two phases:
“analyzing the text and letting the textual analysis speak” (p. 186). In this sense, content
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analysis stressed the hermeneutical interpretation of data collected. This study mainly follows
Steinberg’s theory of content analysis to process data. I reviewed the data and the outcomes
from the interview transcripts, let the text speak and found themes from it. I found that it is
because of the contexts where the data was situated in. So I focused on exploring the relation
between the data and the context to find out the commonness and difference regarding the
demonstration of Christotainment as well as how the focus group reacted upon it when
situated in different contexts.
To be specific, the content analysis of interviews was carried out in two phases. First,
I analyzed the data collected to see how each of the participants get in touch with
Christotainment (or the pseudo-Christianity) and what are their attitudes towards it; Second,
the text was reviewed and I was led by the text as it shed light on the reasons (themes) for the
commonness and difference of such attitudes. What I have found is that the attitudes changed
as the context and the participants’ identity change. The themes found from the second step
are arguably be the main reasons or elements that caused such change. In this way, elements
that have been motivating the change of the context and the participants’ identity were sort
out. Integrating Christotainment and the elements found, I found clues for how
Christotainment works to construct the cultural identity of the focus group given the constant
changing context and the group itself. This study is rigor as the outcome is not predictable
and is not in still shape. That is to say, as “one result for a specific time”, it is not expected in
this study to produce a certain and universal truth, but the result only goes as the time and
space shifts.
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Semiotics. Semiotics is a methodology that mainly studies signs and codes, which
was originated in the early 19th century in the field of linguistics. At its early stage of
development, the major work that semiotics does is makes meaning of the “objective” signs
in linguistics. Scholars such as Saussure contributed to the foundation of the theory of
semiotics as a way to interpret “arbitrary” signifiers which may not necessarily have a
meaning in themselves but were given the meaning by human. Peirce (1934) claimed that
semiotics can be used to conduct scientific discovery by exploring the logic of the
relationship between an object, a sign and an interpretant (which can be seen as a new sign
which may result in another circulate leading to more possible interpretants). The application
of semiotics has now expanded from linguistics to a wider system of signs and codes used by
humans individually or collectively, the later can be seen as arguably culture.
In this study, semiotics was used under the context of Westernization to study the
signs and codes of Christotainment and to gain knowledge that how the focus group makes
meaning of such signs and codes is based on the embedded identification that the West is the
“advanced”. This has helped exploring the socio-cultural dynamics behind the signs and
codes, thus revealing the reasons for Christotainment to have effects on the construction of
cultural identity of the focus group.
Data collection and processing. Data collected for semiotics in this study involves
visible signs of Christianity, such as churches, the cross, the Bible, and the images of God and
angels, etc. Those signs may appear in real life or in hyperrealistic media. At this stage, there
is cooperation between content analysis and semiotic analysis.
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Interviews conducted for content analysis used data collected from semiotic analysis.
For example, participants were asked questions about visual signs of Christotainment, such as
“Where did you see signs of Christianity?” “What were your first reactions of seeing those
signs?”
The data processing has incorporated critical content analysis as described in the last
section and semiotics to interpret how power works behind the seemingly “objective” signs
and codes of Christianity and how the focus group deal with such power taken into
consideration their different socio-economic backgrounds, thus gaining insights in how and
why Christotainment may have effects on the focus group.
Dialectics. Dialectics is a philosophical way to synthesize opposites into co-existence.
There are many kinds of dialectics, the most influential including early dialectics (including
Socratic dialectics and “naïve dialectics” or “simplistic dialectics” developed in Taoism and
Confucianism), Hegel’s idealistic dialectics and Marxist dialectics.
Early Western scholars such as Socrates and Heraclitus see dialectics as a way to seek
“truth”, and the truth is always specific and relative. Sometimes the truth can turn to its
opposite given specific conditions. In Ancient China, there are naïve/simplistic dialectic
theories. For example, Taoism holds the theory of “Yin” and “Yang” which represents the two
opposite but incorporating elements of the world; The “golden mean” from Confucianism
stresses the dynamic balance of different elements of the world, indicating that either “too
much” or “too little” will break the balance of the world and make it change until it reaches a
new balance.
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Hegel’s dialectics is closely related to logic. He stressed the constant motion of nature
and human mind as “process”. To Hegel, everything comes into being as the result of the
conflicts of the contradictions from within. Hegel’s dialectics is based on idealism and has a
bias towards agnosticism as it sees everything as absolute uncertainty.
Marxist dialectics, which is also known as materialistic dialectics, critically heritages
the basic point from Hegel’s dialectics, but it abandoned the idealism part of Hegel. Marxist
dialectics includes three major perspectives: unity of opposites, universal relation and
constant development. According to Marxist dialectics, both the natural world and the human
world are historical and are composed of opposites (known as contradictions). The opposites
(contradictions) are universally related to each other and interact with each other. Sometimes
they have conflicts and sometimes they cooperate and become unified. Such unified
opposites (contradictions) form the world that is in constant motion/development with new
contradictions taking over the old ones.
Marxist dialectics can be used to analyze the historical dynamics of different factors
that result in a social phenomenon, to see the interaction of the contradictions from both
within and outside to gain insight about the complexity of the issue under research. This
study has borrowed the perspectives from but not limited to Marxist dialectics to analyze the
contradictory characteristics of the group of Chinese post-85s in Alberta and their
contradictory attitudes towards Christotainment. This has shed light on understanding the
inner and outer reasons for Chrsitotainment to have effects upon the focus group, and on
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revealing the complexity and different layers of the effects of Christotainemnt on the focus
group in terms of constructing their cultural identity.
Data collection and processing. Contradiction analysis was the major method under
dialectics in this study. Data collected from the auto-biography and interviews were used.
First, the study sorted out the main unities of contradictions: the focus group (Chinese
post-85s in Alberta) in terms of cultural identity; Christotainment; the attitudes (reaction) of
the focus group towards Christotainment; the cultural identity constructing effects of
Christotainment on the focus group. Second, the study summarized all the contradictions
within each of the above unities. Third, the study analyzed each contradiction and figured out
which are the principal contradictions and which are the secondary contradictions. Marxist
dialectics believes that the principal contradictions function as the major motivation for the
dynamics of the unity, while secondary contradictions serve as supplementary. By sorting out
the principal and secondary contradictions within each unity, as researcher I (and my readers)
had a better understanding about the complexity of the focus group and Christotainment itself,
and had a clue about the subtle relations between the focus group and Christotainment, thus
further figuring out the mechanism of Christotainment when contextualized within the focus
group.
Limitations
The limitations of this bricolage may include:
1. The cultural studies of Christotainment may be time consuming considering the
complexity of the mechanism and the complexity of the recipients.
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2. To conduct a bricolage study, the researcher has to have a profound knowledge
of all the perspectives and methodologies that will be involved in the study (Kincheloe,
2011). As the experience of the researcher is limited, she may have misunderstanding
and confusion during the research and have her bias integrated with the research.
However, she will admit such possibilities and clarify her positionality in the
autobiography, which will make the research open for further criticism and
development.
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CHAPTER 4: AUTOBIOGRAPHY
This is the second time I have revisited my past and written my own story. The first
time was when I had the first class with my doctoral supervisor, Dr. Shirley Steinberg, who
has changed my life ever since. Before I came to Canada, I had been a Chinese student under
the Chinese mode of education for 25 years, and I had always been the “successful example”
of that mode. I was never asked to write an autobiography, only “scientific essays” in which
personal emotions and preferences were regarded as not objective and so not reliable. In
exams, writings based on “unreliable” subjective opinions will not score. Only the objective
“truth” that can be universally applied as a representation of intelligence deserving reward.
For Chinese students, the future is decided by scores. I am used to hiding my feelings for the
sake of a “better” future.
When Dr. Steinberg asked us to write an autobiography as the assignment for the
first class, for the first time in 25 years I had the chance to “officially” look at myself and
express what had long been hidden in my mind. It was the first time I could jump out of the
scientific, objective framework to be the real me. The long- ignored, abandoned “self,” which
had been treated as “illegal” throughout my educational life, was finally allowed to be
reclaimed. I was shocked, released, delighted, and full of revitalized energy. That moment
was a rebirth for me. I had tears of excitement.
Two years later, I started to rewrite my autobiography. This time I am writing it as
part of my doctoral dissertation. I am studying myself as a research project. I am examining
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my experience and seek the meaning of it, exploring the power that has brought me to
become who I am.
As I write this piece of autobiography, I am still not sure whether I am a Christian or
not. I have not been baptized, and I never go through the religious rituals. I do not go to a
regular church. When I went to churches it was not always because of God. In that sense, I
should not be considered a Christian; however, I pray sincerely to God every night, for the
well-being of people I care about, and I pray especially for the well-being of myself as well. I
wanted to have a church wedding. I celebrate Christmas (in the way of shopping – and
participating in gifting?). I watch movies and TV series in which I see the faithful sons and
daughters of God (most of them white, and some of them Asian), and I recommended those
movies and TV series to others (all of them Chinese). I wished to become a Christian, or, not
exactly a “Christian” but a “Westerner.” I do not want to be a Christian who is living in China.
I can be a Christian, if I can stay in the West.
As I write this piece of autobiography, I worry about my application for permanent
residence in Canada. I am dying for it. I should not be thinking in this way, but I cannot help
it. Sometimes I’d rather do cold scientific research, dealing with numbers, producing fancy
models, than do this writing which is connected to myself, which unveils my desires,
struggles, and confusion, which might otherwise be hidden under a smooth, good looking
“objective research result” demonstrated by beautiful diagrams. As I chose to do critical
research, I thought I would be ready to look at myself, to examine my “identity” and my
feelings about it, but when I start to do so, I became scared.
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I hate to say it but I hate my identity. Ever since I was a little child getting to know the
world, my Mom set me a goal: be an international person. That “international,” as I examine
it now, refers to “the West.” My Mom started to teach me the English alphabet and words
when I was around five years old. I still remember the time when the whole family (with
grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins) gathered together to celebrate my birthday. I
performed an English poem, and received full compliments. One of my uncles said, “Xiang,
you can speak English at this young age, so you can be a translator when you grow up.”
During the 1990s, translators were well-respected (and rich) in China, much more respected
than doctors or lawyers, because they know “foreign” languages, and of course, by saying
“foreign,” we mean Western. Professional translators are still rich and respected now, but
there are now stricter requirements to become one. At that time, however, anyone who spoke
foreign languages could be rich and respected. The little me, however, said, “No I don’t want
to be a translator. I want to be an ambassador who can build a bridge of friendship between
China and foreign countries.” The words of “bridge of friendship” were learned from my
Mom, but the wish to be an ambassador is mine. I did not have a clear understanding what an
ambassador should do, but I knew that they could bring things from the West to China to
“help” China grow. I saw that on TV, and I learned that from my parents too. And my Mom
told me that there have been only eight female ambassadors in China, and she encouraged me:
“You can be the ninth.” I agreed.
From that time on, through high school, my life was about working towards that goal,
to be the ninth ambassador. I know, and my family knows, that it was only a good wish, but
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as my father said, if we set a big goal and work for it, we will end up close to reaching the
goal; but if we set a small goal, we will end up reaching nothing, not even close. I believe so
too; I believe it is good to have high expectations and work hard to realize them.
In real life, when a big goal is broken down into smaller goals, we focus all our efforts
to fight for those small goals, and sometimes forget where we started from and what we are
eventually fighting for. I started to learn English systematically in Grade 2. My first English
teacher was a professor, and she taught English for beginners to children during her leisure
time. Before I met her, the only thing I knew about her was that she graduated from an
English church school in Shanghai, so people believed that she would be a great English
teacher. I still remember my first class. In China, we call a teacher “Teacher + last name” to
show respect. The first thing this lady taught us is “Do not call me Teacher L! Call me Mrs. Y
(Y is her late husband’s last name)!” We simply do not address a Chinese lady, especially a
teacher, in that way, but she said it is the Western way of saying it, and she would punish us
each time if we addressed her the wrong way. She did punish those who addressed her the
wrong way, but not to me. Sometimes my classmates forgot the rule, and she would let them
recite “Mrs. Y” ten to twenty times. Mrs. Y was a strict and sometimes weird lady, but she
was knowledgeable and efficient, and she cared about students. I have been a student for
more than twenty years, and I feel lucky that I have had the most wonderful teachers (we call
professors teachers in China, too) during my education. Mrs. Y is one of the most influential
teachers in my life, both personally and academically. She consolidated my passion for
foreign language and culture studies (I intended to use the word cultivate, but it is my Mom
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who started my interest and cultivated the passion, so I used consolidate instead), and gave
me confidence in this field. That confidence lasts even till now.
Mrs. Y’s way of teaching English was cold but extremely effective: recite. We used
New Concept English as our textbook, and Mrs. Y asked us to recite every single word in the
texts. In each class, we were required to recite out loud the text we had learned. No pause or
repetition or hesitation was allowed. If we made one mistake, e.g. mistaking “he said” and
“said he,” we had to start all over again until we fluently recited the text. That way of
teaching and learning, if evaluated now, would be considered as objective, not creative and
not critical at all. It is, however, effective. Mrs. Y’s practice was an extreme demonstration,
but it shows the traditional way of education in China, at least until the end of high school. It
had a bright side, because it meant that given similar levels of learning “talent” and learning
environment, the person who works harder may have a better chance to get better results and
an easier way to move forward. I had been satisfied with that for many years because I
benefited from it.
If I go back to examine that now, however, I see the problems. The most outstanding
is “the learning environment,” the context, the socio-economic background the students are
from. I noticed this problem and admit that it is a problem after I came to Canada. The most
important thing I also realized is that “working hard” is not something that everyone can
easily do. In China, I have been the majority, the mainstream among Chinese (although we
may think more highly of Western people; I will talk about that later). I can work hard
because I do not have the pressures of life such as survival, employment, marriage, raising
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children and supporting the elders in the family, so I can focus all my time and energy to fight
for my goals. I can live a smooth life in a Chinese way, also with a feeling of superiority
because compared to other Chinese, I am international. After I came to Canada, I became the
minority, the outsider. Compared to the real Westerners, or even immigrants, my international
identity became my weakness. I wanted to sit down and “work hard” on my research, but it
becomes difficult when there is the high pressure of life, or surviving, which at this moment,
is mainly about immigration. I also have a clear understanding, which has been embedded in
me, that if I do not work hard, I cannot deal with the pressure and cannot survive. That
becomes a vicious circle. It is also ironic that now that I have finally started to do real critical
research, because I am dealing with something that is connected to myself, that from myself I
see the struggle of people who are similar to me. It is not that easy for the prioritized, the
majority, the mainstream, to think or act critically, because when life is comfortable,
“working hard” is not considered a privilege.
At the time when I was in Mrs. Y’s class, I did not see the problem, because most of
my classmates and I were from the same community. At least one of our parents was a
business professor, if not both, and the other worked in positions for the municipal financial
department, or in banks. As we were the only children in our families,too, we never had to
worry about food for tomorrow. The only thing we needed to worry about is how to perform
better academically to win a place for better education. Under the exam-oriented mode of
education in China, students competed in exams for entrance to better elementary schools,
junior high schools, high schools, and universities. Accordingly, the purpose of education was
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to train students to perform well in all the selective exams. That is why both students and
their parents welcomed Mrs. Y’s “effective” method, although that meant a long time of hard
work. As a child I never had free evenings or free weekends, because I had to recite the texts
in the evenings and go to Mrs. Y’s class, and the Olympic math class (which was supposed to
draw in those students with a specific interest in math, but because all my peers went, I had to
go too). I wanted to have fun, and my parents would let me know that I should save that for
the future, and gradually I got used to that, and I started to find fun in my study. I found that
working hard made me a favorite student to my teachers, a “role model” for my peers, and
the pride of my parents. That made me happy. I never thought that I was not living a life of
my own—and that lasts even till now—I am still living a life for others. I used to think that I
would be the last one to be critical, because I was living the “right” life, and my teachers and
parents never have bad intentions toward me, so I will listened to them. There was no need to
think twice or to argue with them because that meant a waste of time, during which I could
recite another piece of text or solve ten math problems.
That way of thinking has made me, and when I faced barriers in my study, or when I
received poor results in exams, I blamed myself. When I saw other students who did not have
the chance to go to better schools, I blamed them for that, too. I never thought that there
could have been a problem in the pedagogy or the whole educational system, and I never
thought that those students might have unemployed parents or sick grandparents to distract
their focus from study, not to mention those from rural areas who might not have the money
to buy a pencil. I used to think that there should be more teachers like Mrs. Y, or stricter ones,
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so that the education could be more effective. That would work if students were in a similar
context, so that the harder they worked, the more competitive they could be. But that is an
idealized and naive wish.
The pedagogical mode for which I used to advocate is prepared for “elites,” which
eliminates those students from a less competitive socio-economic background. Even for the
“elite” students, that pedagogical mode may deprive them of their ability or consciousness to
think and act critically, reducing pedagogy so that they become effective “problem-solving”
machines, ready to work for the authority (which for children are teachers and parents).
This simplistic way of thinking has been embedded in me ever since I was a child.
Besides blaming myself for not performing well, I blamed only luck. For the young me, luck
was manageable, too, and it could only be managed by God. I came to know this from my
grandma. She and her family suffered from the Cultural Revolution during 1960s and 1970s.
The father of my grandma, who was the richest landlord in his town, committed suicide after
the Red Guard deprived him of all his property overnight and imprisoned his family in a
cowshed. My grandma was forced to “make a clean break” with her husband (who was exiled
to a remote hinterland) so that she “would not be implicated by him.” However, that did not
save her, as she had to bring up three girls all alone (the youngest was a toddler).
Grandma seldom talked to me about those dark years. She has a pride of heart, which
kept her strong enough to survive with her daughters, and she was not willing to weep to
others about her sufferings to gain sympathy. My Mom, however, told me all the stories about
that time. She told me that Grandma had to complete several people’s workloads until late in
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the evening, and then was forced to be “Pi Dou” for hours (criticized and denounced,
sometimes with physical punishment in public meetings, which was a typical Cultural
Revolution ritual). If she did not come home until midnight, Mom, who was a teenaged girl,
would go a long way to the beach to look for Grandma, out of fear that she intended to end
her life in the sea after all the humiliation, like many other women in similar situations have
done. Grandma would never do that, but how could a scared young girl know? Grandma
always taught me that one should know when to yield and when not to. She went through all
the sufferings and kept silence for the sake of her daughters, but she never yielded.
After the nightmare ended, Grandma converted to Christianity. She did not convert to
Buddhism because she despaired of anything related to China, and would not give her heart
and soul to the land of sadness. She was well-educated, which was rare in the times she was
born, when females were not encouraged to go to schools.
Grandma believes that learning can change life, and she believes that the process of
development means that the advanced take the place of those left behind. She believes that
the West is advanced, and she chose to convert to Christianity, as she has faith in a God in an
advanced world. Grandma introduced God to me, and taught me the Lord’s Prayer. She told
me to pray to God every night, and to pray before each important event. “God will help you,
as he did me,” she said. I did not have a clear understanding what God had helped her with,
but I listened to her. The most important thing is that it worked! I would pray when there was
an important exam or a selective contest coming. Of course I was working hard to be
prepared, but I prayed anyway. The result would come out as I wished, and I thanked God for
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that. Years of education under the “elite” mode made me realistic, and I chose to believe
those practices that would be effective. The “effectiveness” of God confirmed my faith in him,
and that in turn, confirmed my faith in what God represented: the West.
With the help of God, and with my devotion to my course work, I successfully got the
chance to go to the best junior high school in the city, and before the senior high school
entrance exam took place, I had already received offers from three top schools, and ended up
in the best school with the highest score requirements. I ranked 18th in the entrance exam in
this city of three million people, and I was exempt of tuition fees for the entire three years.
Under the exam-oriented educational model, which aims to train elites, the common
way to evaluate a student is by academic performance. Students with decent scores are stars.
They are surrounded by friends, and they live with compliments from others, which makes
them confident and encourages them to make progress in other areas. In China there is a
complete system of “student leadership” that begins in elementary school. We joined the
“Communist Young Pioneer Team” in elementary school. It is not required, those who are not
“young pioneers” are regarded as incompetent, so almost all the students took vows to join
the team. I joined the team in Grade 3. I recall that I vowed to have faith in Marxism and to
devote myself to communism. I did not know about Marxism or communism at that young
age, and I never took the vow seriously. Other “young pioneers” did not take it seriously
either. When we grew up, we vowed to join the Communist Youth League, and then the
Communist Party, but we seldom cared about the vows we made. We chose to join the
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organizations because everybody else did, and we benefitted from it because we lived under
Communist Party rule. We chose to do things that were effective and beneficial.
Coming back to the student leadership system, once we became young pioneers,
students were then organized in units. There were three levels of units, and each unit (except
the lowest one which has only one leader) had a main leader and five to seven “committee
members.” Leaders of lower level units obeyed leaders of higher level units. It was similar to
military hierarchy, but was in schools. To take a 50-student class (the normal size of a school)
for example, there could be five groups, and the group leaders (controlling ten students) were
the junior leaders in the class. The class has a “monitor,” who was the senior leader of the
class, and under the leadership of the monitor, there were five to seven committee members
in charge of academics, sports activities, meeting planning, as so forth. Altogether there
might be ten to twelve student leaders in the class, and all the other students usually obeyed
the leader. Those who rebelled received punishment from the teacher. Furthermore, each class
was a second level unit, and obeyed the lead of the highest level unit, which was the school.
There was one top leader in charge of all the students in the school, accompanied by another
five to seven committee members.
I have been that top leader since elementary school. I understand that student leaders
do not have real power (although they may have some compared to other students), but they
are set to be the student “authority.” They have “status,” which in itself is power. Student
leaders do not work for students, and their main responsibility is to carry out school policy
and help teachers take control of students to maintain the order of the school, which we called
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“discipline.” What is interesting is that students voted to have their own leaders, and usually
who they voted for turned out to be the teachers’ favorite students as well. That was not a
coincidence. To explain: both students and teachers must have shared a common interest in
choosing the student leaders. Students vote for the ones that they respect, and whom they
think will help them make academic progress; teachers like to choose those who can set good
examples for students, and who know how to listen to their teachers, who are not “critical,”
or at least who appear not critical.
Such student leadership system worked all along the way even until graduate school
in universities, but the relationship between student leaders, students, teachers and
school/university leaders became more complicated. What has never changed is that student
leaders work for the teachers, the school, but not for students. In return, they benefit from
being leaders and are the privileged among their peers, e.g. they may have bonus scores in
exams, easier access to scholarships, and receive priority in job-hunting after graduation. The
society supported student leaders. They have been marked, literally, ever since elementary
school; e.g. leaders of different levels of the units can wear special badges; the “Gang” may
have one to three red lines depending on the level of the unit. That was a privilege for student
leaders, guaranteeing they would benefit after school; they wore the badges even when they
went shopping for groceries with their parents. Students were classified at a very young age
in China. As I recall it now, most of the student leaders I knew were from middle class
families, and once they became leaders, they kept being one along the way.
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As a student leader since elementary school, I have a clear understanding about
“effectiveness,” and I understand that in China, being critical to authority is not an effective
way to benefit from that authority. Through the years I learned when the right time was to
show and when the right time was to hide. I learned that from the experience of my parents as
well. Both my parents are straightforward people who had contempt for the unhealthy
bureaucratic practices. They would say no to their authorities whenever they wanted to. Of
course, they were never student leaders, nor were they important leaders at work. My father is
an established scholar with numerous publications; he cherishes his academic career as his
life and has devoted his heart and soul to it, but he has never been a Dean, while his
colleagues who are less strong in the academy can always find a good place in the leadership
system of the university. Mom has a similar situation. I saw that and I knew from a young age
that I was not going to be like them. I am the child of my decent parents, and I could be
critical and speak out against the authority, but I chose not to. That paved my smooth way for
almost twenty years in China. I could have lived this way forever, and it is true that after I
earned my Master’s degree, I received job offers from the government and state-owned
corporations, and I almost ended up working for the National Security Administration, which
meant I would have to hide my identity and never have a chance to go abroad (the West) as
freely as I wished.
I still remember the time when my family struggled about making the decision to
decline the offer from NSA. I was in tears for days because I won that chance after all the
selective tests, interviews, and political background investigation. My parents insisted that I
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decline it and focus all my energy to apply to study abroad. I remember what my Mom said
to me over the phone, “I don’t want you to be one of them even if you can live comfortably
being one of them.” Although I did not see her face, I could feel her despair for the Chinese
government and the whole bureaucratic system, and her strong will for not letting her only
child end up being contaminated by it. But Mom, I have already been contaminated, through
all the years of education that have shaped me into the one that you are proud of.
Though I had different opinions than my parents, I agreed with them on the “fact” that
if I wanted to both keep my integrity and live a comfortable life, I had to go to the West,
because it had long been embedded in me and my family, and many other Chinese, that the
West is the advanced, civilized, or at least “normal” world with relatively equal opportunities
for everyone. I never thought about whether I would be suitable to live in such a world with
years of “contamination” under the Chinese context. After I came to Canada, I started to
experience this “ideal world,” which was not the same as I thought it would be. I started to
confront barriers, difficulties, and pressure.
My Chinese way of thinking and living could not be fully carried out in this different
context. I prayed to God but it did not always work as effectively as it used to do when I was
in China. As an international student from China—not an immigrant and not even a
permanent resident—I found it hard to fit in. English skills, which used to be my strength and
which had helped me gain all the honors throughout my education, now became my
weakness, together with my international identity. My strengths are still my strengths when I
am with Chinese students here, from whom I gain back my confidence and find myself again,
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but not with local students. I used to worship the West, but I never thought seriously about
being a Westerner. I was satisfied to have an international identity, as it was my dream to be
“international.” Those thoughts came from a Chinese context, and I realized that too late.
When I was truly standing in the land of “the West”, everything changed when the context
shifted. I wanted to change my identity and I wanted to be a Westerner, at least legally.
To make that come true, I had to first fit into the new world, and one of the most
effective way is with the church. I talked to Chinese students (not immigrants) who were
doing graduate studies in Alberta, and that is a large population. All of them had some
connection with the church, but not all of them are Christian. They have either taken part in
church parties, or do Sunday classes, or perform for events organized by churches. Some of
them are members of the Christian clubs on campus. They were informed about, or
introduced by their Chinese friends, usually their classmates, to those events and clubs. I once
asked one student why he went to the religious events. His answer surprised me: “It is not
religious in the first place,” he said. “I went there to know people and to have fun.” I then
asked him why not Buddhist or Islam events. He answered, “I don’t want to be too religious.”
I have been to some of those events too. As in my narrative in the first chapter about
my first meal in Canada, the church dinner which I had with many other Chinese students
was like a trade: pleasure and sense of belonging for preaching, for being embedded within
the Western Christian culture; it seemed fair.
Even now I still have no idea what denomination that church is. I went there because
my peers all went. Besides, I could identify myself among the people there. It was not about
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religion, but about identity. As a Chinese student studying in Alberta, I was not happy with
my international identity. That identity put me in an awkward position. Culturally speaking, I
cannot be simply defined by my national identity, but for sure I do not hold a Western identity,
though I longed for one. The church provided me with an opportunity to step into the Western
world, while at the same time made me feel not isolated when I was among my Chinese peers.
To some extent, the church set up a bridge of friendship between my Chinese identity and the
Western world, which made me feel safe and comfortable again.
If I ask myself why I went to events in a Christian church rather than events from
other religions, I have reasons. God is embedded in me. This God is a Western God. This God
is the West. I have been living in a culture in which God and the West it represents is
regarded to be advanced, effective, and trustworthy. This idea was embedded in me by my
grandmother, my parents, and people around me. God lives in China. The media criticized my
generation as the spoiled, and the rebellious, but even this spoiled and rebellious generation
does not rebel against God. Our “Pop King” Jay Chou, who introduced rap music to the
Chinese, which has subverted people’s traditional attitudes towards arts, sings lyrics from the
Bible and we are crazy for that without knowing what the lyrics really mean. We worshipped
heroes from cartoons and movies who could save the world under the guidance of God. We
celebrate Christmas and Easter; we advocate church weddings to guarantee the “pure, bright,
and beautiful” about love. When we think of God, we think of the West, as if our happiness
will be guaranteed if we follow the steps of the West. If there is one thing for sure that we
share with the generation of our parents and our grandparents is our faith in the West—but
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why? We never asked about when and where we developed our illusions about the West. We
never asked because we were never trained to ask questions, or to even think critically.
We are trapped within a vicious circle, and the start of the circle is yet to be found. We
worship God, the West, because that way of thinking has been embedded in us; we never ask
questions about our worship because we do not know how to ask questions. We do not know
how to ask questions because it has been embedded in us that asking questions is not
effective or beneficial; we keep silence then, and that consolidates our worship because it is
left out of the question. The culture of worshipping God, of worshipping the West, without
asking questions is then formed, and we live comfortably in it. That comfortable feeling
ceases when we come out of that culture and step into the real Western world. We are then
lost and feel unsafe. We start to seek safety and a sense of belonging. Churches effectively
provide us with what we need. We participate in church events and we find ourselves again.
We find ourselves again with the help of God. We never ask questions about it, and hereby a
new circle starts and a new culture is formed. That is my situation, and the situation of
Chinese students who are studying in Alberta. To make it more complicated, this time we are
literally in the world of God, because we are in the West. How that adds to the circle and the
culture, and how we should deal with our identity, is yet to be answered.
As I write this piece of autobiography, I gather all my efforts to apply for permanent
residence in Canada. I am not happy with my international identity, and I long for a legal
Western identity. I have an illusion about my potential “bright” future as a Westerner, but isn’t
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it like my illusion about the West before I came here? I am not sure about the answer yet, but
what I know is that I finally started to ask questions, and that should be a good start.
Kincheloe (2008) put it well that only when we realize that there is a problem can we
start to deal with the problem. What I am doing now is asking questions about myself
because I see a problem with myself and with people who are like me. I am excited about
what this may lead to. For me, this is a way I had never thought about, and in fact, it is not yet
“my way.” I have to pave this way myself, to go my own way, but I am confident I can do so.
It is time to start to make a change.
CHAPTER 5: A REVIEW OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY—REGRESSION,
ANALYSIS, SYNTHESIS, AND PROGRESSION
I waited for a particular month before I started to do the “data analysis” of the
autobiography. That month was December, Christmas time. Long before December 25, the
Christmas Day, I was asked by all the Chinese people I know in Calgary the same question:
“What are you going to do during Christmas?” And I asked them back too. Long after
December 25, I was asked by all the Chinese people I know in Calgary another similar
question: “What did you do for Christmas?” And I asked them back too.
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Hu & Zhang (2010) reviewed different perspectives about the concept of “culture,”
and abstracted commonality from all the differences. They concluded that culture is a social
climate formulated through human development. Seen from a critical perspective, culture as a
climate has a space-time limit, which means it works for a specific time in a specific space. In
this sense, there is a culture of Christmas among Chinese people in Calgary, at least in
December. What is interesting is that Christmas is a Western festival, originally Christian, but
is celebrated by non-Christian Chinese. Why don’t they celebrate festivals originating from
other religions? What has formulated the Christmas culture, or has it long been embedded? Is
there a bigger climate, a bigger culture behind it? What can such a culture bring to the
Chinese and later social climate?
With those questions in mind, I started reviewing my autobiography, making meaning
of my own track of life, seeking themes from the turmoil of all the trivial events in my
memory. Connelly and Clandinin (1988) said, “There is no better way to study curriculum
than to study ourselves” (p. 31). That applies in culture studies as well. By studying ourselves,
we may at least gain an insight into the culture and the world in which we are located .
According to Fivush et al (2011), autobiography conveys autobiographical memory,
“a uniquely human form of memory that integrates individual experiences of self with
cultural frames for understanding identities and lives” (p. 321). As I examined my
autobiography, I saw a history of the contradictory intersections of self and culture. In terms
of individual development, it is a history of being simplistic and stupefied. It is also a history
of the construction, de-construction, and re-construction of identity. Seen from a
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socio-cultural perspective, autobiography indicates a history of an embedded culture of
Western superiority, a history of embedding and being embedded, a history that explicates the
present and projects it onto the future.
Pinar (1976) posits individual experience as a “data source;” he designed four stages
for the study of such data: regressive, progressive, analytical, and synthetical. The four stages
collaborate to constitute the wholeness and meaningfulness of autobiographical study. To
conclude simply, according to Pinar et al (2004), in the regressive stage, one goes back to the
past; in the progressive stage, one seeks possibilities for the future; in the analytical moment
one investigates both the past and the present; and in the synthetical stage, one “reenters the
lived present,” integrating the past experience in the organic development of him/her at the
present moment (p. 521). My work on the autobiography was based on the critical inheritance
of Pinar’s four-stage method, and adjustments including the sequence of the stages and the
intersection between different stages was made to keep pace with the development of the
research.
In the previous chapter, I focused on the regressive step in which I tracked my life
experience, enlarging those I considered important in my memory. Next I conduct the
analytical step in which I jump out of the past to see from afar, and demonstrate the themes
I abstracted from my life experience, as well as the way I came to those themes by making
meaning of the autobiography and abstracting “elements” that influenced the formation of the
themes. Then I will do a theoretical analysis of the multi-layered connections within elements,
themes, and between elements and themes.
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As this is a bricolage work in which the writing develops with the research, there may
be new details added from my personal experience. Data analysis (the analytical step) is
carried out together with new entries to the autobiographical memory. Grumet (1990) made a
point about such “retouching,” and alleged that each entry to the autobiography “expresses
the particular peace its author has made between the individuality of his or her subjectivity
and the intersubjectivity and public character of meaning” (p. 324). The revisiting and
re-thinking (or as Pinar addressed it, the regressing) of the autobiographical memory is
integrated in the analytical stage, reflecting the balancing status between the researcher and
the meaning she made from the memory under a specific time-space context during the
research. That balancing status becomes a history as soon as it is reflected, but the research
goes on. The analytical stage (data analysis) thereby is not an objective moment which
produces a solid truth that can be universally applied, but is rather organic and can be seen as
evolving criticality together with the regressive process (autobiographical writing). In this
sense, when the analytical step is completed, it represents a critical evolvement of the
autobiography (from which the “data” has been generated), so that the two parts together are
an integrated and meaningful body reflecting the history of the researcher and the research,
while at the same time implying the on-going development and the renewal of both. The
critically inherited Pinar’s “synthetical moment” of autobiographical study is conveyed in the
analytical moment as well, and the “synthesized body” of the researcher is not simply a
project of her past subjectivity, but has been renewed and is in constant renewal as the
research carries on.
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I chose to put the “progressive stage” as the last moment in my autobiographical study,
as it is a discussion about what has not happened. It sheds light on the future. That future,
however, is not abstracted from the past and the present, nor is it a simple continuation of
either. It is about possibilities which stem from the embedded past and the present, but is
open to changes. The future is the child of the past and the present, just like I am the child of
my family and of my culture. This future is changeable, but how it can be changed depends
on an understanding of how the past and the present have been embedded. My goal to
conduct an autobiographical study is to deepen the understanding of such embeddedness by
“working from within” myself, and only when the embeddedness is noticed and understood
can a change be made accordingly (Pinar, 2004, p. 518).
Data Analysis and Findings
When it comes down to practical operation, the theme abstraction technique borrows
from Brown & Schopflocher’s (1998) “event cueing” method, which has been used in
autobiographical memory testing. The operation of event cuing involves three steps: first, the
testee is asked to describe certain events from his/her memory. The researcher then concludes
those events in objective cue words, e.g. parents, family, school, and so forth. Second, the
researcher allows a time period (usually no longer than a month) before presenting the cue
words to the testee, and the testee is asked to reflect on the cue words and re-describe the
events from his/her memory in accordance with to the cue words. Third, the researcher
encodes the subjective narratives into models with variables and conducts calculations to find
out quantitative correlations between those variables (Brown, 2005; Zhang & Zhang, 2008).
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The event cuing technique performs well when applied to grasping relevant
information from the autobiographical memory, leaving out irrelevant or disturbing
information, and it can increase the controllability and effectiveness of the study. The
quantitative result may provide useful hints for understanding individual development. The
technique is mainly used in cognitive and clinical psychology, but has its deficits when
applied in culture and developmental psychology (Zhang, 2008). First, the technique isolates
individual experience (as reflected from memory) from the socio-cultural context in which
those experiences happened, and it does not interpret the meaning behind them. Second,
during the cuing and encoding steps, the “within” situation (Pinar, 1978) such as motivation,
emotion, and values are left out of concern. Third, the calculation is conducted isolated from
the socio-cultural context, so that the context is assumed to be a vacuum; in this sense, what
can be produced are thereby idealistic and purified results lacking authenticity and
sustainability.
In conclusion, the event cuing technique provides an insight to control and operate
one’s autobiographical memory, but lacks proper focus on one’s subjectivity or
intersubjectivity within the socio-cultural context. I made interpretive adjustment to the
technique and combine it with Pinar’s four-stage method of autobiographical study.
First, I allowed one month before I started to revisit my past and make meaning of it
in the present. I re-read my autobiography, and as Steinberg (1997) put it, I “let the text talk.”
As the text “talked” to me, those scenes in the past recurred in my mind, and the context (the
situation during which the scenes happened) became clearer. I then recorded every word that
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came to my mind as I “watched” the scenes. Those cueing words are not only objective
words, but also imply my thoughts and emotions as I reviewed my own life track in the past,
and represent the flow of my consciousness at the present. Grumet (1990b) compared the
identity of an individual to a “chorus.” As I encountered myself through the autobiography
piece, I “heard” this chorus of nouns, verbs and adjectives, which seemed to represent turmoil
but have contributed to composing my life now:
Inauthentic faith, international, the West, a Western God, China, tradition,
family, goal, teacher, confidence, others, pedagogy, benefit, confirmation,
background, culture, leadership, vicious spiral, simplify, stupefy, luck, silence,
choose, authority, uniformity, rules.
Those words depict a sketch of the contradictory development of “myself”; on the one
side of the contradiction, I have been embedded with a culture of Western superiority, a
culture of a Western God since pre-school age, first by parents, and then family, peers,
teachers and community. During the process, that culture has been internalized and has
become part of the ideological configuration of my identity. On the other side, the Chinese
tradition of obedience to authority and rules, of sustaining order and uniformity, which is the
pedagogical principle of the education I received in China, simplistic me and buried my
thoughts about challenging my parents, family, peers, teachers, and community, and hindered
me from asking questions about what has been embedded within me. That tradition as a
pedagogical principle is what Paulo Freire (1968) referred to as the culture of silence. That
culture represents another layer of embeddedness that has been internalized as part of the
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configuration of my identity. The two sides of the contradiction determined the way I choose
to see the world, what I choose to see, and how I choose to react towards what I see. When I
carried out the reaction in China, I received benefits and was spared of “trouble.” I even
became a leader because I had been implementing the culture that had been embedded in me.
Thereby the embeddedness was enhanced, and my faith in the Western God and the Chinese
authority was confirmed. That faith was inauthentic because it was based on benefits. I was
stupefied even though I received the “best” education, the education for “elites.” I was
stupefied because of the education I received!
If I had not come to the real West, I would still be living “comfortable” in my
background. My “faith” would not have changed. I would have accepted the job offers from
the Chinese government and would have become an accomplice of the authority, maybe later
becoming the authority itself. The cultural embeddedness of my faith in the Western God and
to the Chinese authority would be carried on, at least in my children. The spiral would be
continued. I agree with Pinar (2004) that the development of self and identity is a social
process, and I would add to it that the development comes from the socio-cultural context and
will in return re-construct the context through education in the next generation.
After I came to Canada, the background of that development changed. I am not in the
place where I used to be. According to Kincheloe (2005), place is dependent upon one’s life
journey, and it impacts the history of individual development. The “drama” of life evolves
when the place changes. China is the place where I had temporary comfort and safety when
living with my faith in the Western God and the Chinese authority. In other words, China is
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the culture where my identity maximized my benefit. That culture is embedded in my identity.
That culture is me. However, when the place shifted to Canada, to the real West other than the
one in my parents’ or my teachers’ words, my identity brought me trouble rather than benefits.
The domino effect happened when I started to doubt my identity, challenge my faith, and
criticize the embedded culture deep within myself. When the building of “me” as a whole
started to de-construct, my identity became vulnerable, providing the opportunity for new
cultures and values to infiltrate, to embed within the weak “me” and to re-construct my
cultural identity. That is when “the Western God” stepped into my life again, only this time, I
encountered God in the place where I used to believe as his own background from the West.
During the above step, I stitched together the cueing words abstracted from my review
of the autobiography. Similar to Brown & Schopflocher’s (1998) event cueing procedure, I
revisited my memory with the cueing words as guidance. I made sense of my past as in the
present, from which I concluded “elements” that influenced the development of the events I
recalled in the memory, and which have influenced my decision making throughout my life
path. These elements are:
Family * Community * School * Tradition * Pedagogy * Faith
All the elements function under the framework of “culture,” and in return construct
and reconstruct that cultural framework. The meaning of the autobiography then becomes
clearer. It can be seen as a life story of the intersection between self/identity and culture,
about how culture works to embed within self and construct identity, which culture has been
chosen to be identified and internalized, and the reasons for the identification and
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internalization that has taken place. The themes of my on-going life story can hereby be
synthesized as self/identity, cultural embeddedness and cultural identification. According to
Pinar (1975a), at this phase of the autobiographical study, the regressive moment becomes
intertwined with the analytical moment, and the primary time-space transformation between
the past and present has been completed.
In the next step, I conduct a theoretical analysis and synthesis of the themes and
elements from both a micro prospective and a macro perspective, making sense of the themes
and elements, as well as the relationship between them.
Self and Identity
While autobiographic narratives reflect one’s life experience positioned in a
complicated network of relationships, they can help define an individual’s self and identity as
s/he examines personal experience with social interactions (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Fivush
et al, 2011). In different socio-cultural frameworks, such defining may be carried out in
different directions.
Researchers have done comparison studies on the cultural differences between
American and Chinese research participants in terms of the orientation of their
autobiographic narratives. The American style tended toward an autonomous orientation, as
participants often emphasized individual characteristics and preferences, while the Chinese
participants focused more on the relationships between self and the society. They tend to
identity “self” as a member of a certain group in which they find a sense of safety and
belonging. Results also showed that the differences became more explicit as the age of
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participants increased (Han, Leichtman & Wang, 1998; Wang, 2001, 2004; Zhang & Zhang,
2008).
In my autobiography, the concept of self and identity is dependent upon “others,”
including parents, family, peers, teachers, community or society as a whole. “I” live in the
eyes of others, and the value of “me” can only be affirmed by others. Although the
autobiography records the life track of “me,” it rather reflects the expectations of the society,
the “place” I in which I am situated, and how “I” have consciously and unconsciously
endeavored to meet those expectations, so as to fit into the society and to benefit from it. Self
and identity, which are supposed to be subjective, become objective as a parasite to the
socio-cultural framework of the society. The socio-cultural framework is also the framework
of tradition, which is incorporated into modern pedagogy and implemented through the elite
and test-oriented education “I” received.
Pinar (1975a) criticized modern schooling and named twelve “counts of indictment”
against it:
1. Hypertrophy or atrophy of fantasy life
2. Division or loss of self to others via modeling
3. Dependence and arrested development of autonomy
4. Criticism by others and the loss of self-love
5. Thwarting of affiliative needs
6. Estrangement from self and its effect upon the process of individuation
7. Self-direction becomes other-direction
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8. Loss of self and internalization of externalized self
9. Internalization of the oppressor: development of a false self-system
10. Alienation from personal reality due to impersonality of schooling groups
11. Desiccation via disconfirmation; and
12. Atrophy of capacity to perceive esthetically and sensuously. (pp. 515)
In the education I received in China, personal emotions were considered to be
“unreliable” and so were suppressed. Subjective expression of self was not encouraged in the
test-oriented pedagogy which simplistic students and trained them to become uniform study
machines. “Rebels” of rules were criticized and punished, while “successful examples” of the
human machines received immediate but short-term benefits and were set as role models.
The concept of identity is not claimed, if it has ever been claimed, by the individual
who is the subject of the identity, but rather through the reflection of external power that
involves family, peers, teachers and the society. The external power is internalized and
dominates the inner experience, and the independence of self and identity are undermined.
The individual who is supposed to be an independent host, now lives as parasite to the
external power. The potential danger is that when that power changes, the parasitic self and
identity become vulnerable. As they lack independence, they have to seek another host where
temporary safety and the sense of belonging can be guaranteed, but less attention is be paid to
the new host, a new external power based on a socio-cultural framework. In this sense, the
individual is more likely to be taken by the new external power and become its parasite. The
independence of self and identity will still be lost. The vicious spiral will continue. Seen from
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a macro perspective, the individual experience may shed light on the invasion and
colonization of different cultures. An external culture may gradually encroach upon a local
culture if the individuals from the latter lack independence of self and identity.
To terminate that spiral and protect the independence of self and identity, we need to
understand the mechanisms and procedures during which the independence is obscured and
finally lost. We need to investigate the “host,” the socio-cultural framework, exploring how
this external power has been internalized and embedded within self and identity, and how the
individual reduces to its parasite, identifying the self only as its reflection.
Cultural Embeddedness and Cultural Identification
As indicated in the analytical stage, the culture that has been embedded within me is a
combination of Western superiority and the Chinese tradition of obedience to social
uniformity.
With respect to my individual development, the embeddedness of the culture of
Western superiority started when I was a pre-school child, when my parents set a life goal for
me to be “international,” which not only means to have global awareness, but implies an
identity that can transgress the boundaries between nations. What was unspoken is that
“international” implies a connection between China and the West, but other less developed
countries are not included, so that the identity I was expected to seek was in fact a
West-based identity. What is most important, that identity must be “legitimate,” meaning it
should not only allow me to have free access to the West, but must ensure that I am accepted
by the West. My connection to the West should not only be that of a visitor, but of a local.
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The desire to have that connection with the West was deeply planted in me, and “the West”
became my faith. That faith was later confirmed when my family, peers, and teachers
provided affirmation and confidence as I lived my life with that faith as a guiding principle.
In contrast, studies show that adolescence is a most important period for the
development of autobiographical reasoning, for an individual to make meaning of his/her
experience by connecting their life story with the world as a whole (Grysman & Hudson,
2010; Fivush et al, 2011). Adolescence represents a significant stage of cultural identification
and internalization. The culture identified as meaningful to an individual can thereby be
internalized; this usually occurs during adolescence (Zhang & Zhang, 2008).
In my adolescence, however, I was not encouraged to express my own emotion, and
the test-oriented, objectivist-based pedagogy I experienced does not appreciate
autobiographic studies. I did not have the chance to doubt what I was told by the authority
wielded by my parents, family, teachers and the society in which I, nor the socio-cultural
situation in which I was thrust. In fact, I chose to obey authority and accept living in the
socio-cultural framework they set for me. I chose to do so because safety was guaranteed, and
I could live comfortably with a sense of belonging. I benefitted from the culture of obedience,
silence, and uniformity, and that is why I identified with and internalized that culture.
In this sense, the cultural identification in my case appears autonomous, but was in
fact a passive process, as there was only one path for me to choose. Like all my peers, my
choice was limited to the path paved by the authority, the path that leads to the culture that
has long been embedded in me. I have spent years of my life looping in a vicious circle—the
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combinatorial culture of West superiority and Chinese tradition has been identified,
embedded and internalized with my self and identity. In the vicious circle, “I,” together with
the embedded culture, interact as both cause and effect of each other, constructing an
intersubjectivity between my past and present, and predicting one direction of a possible
future: to continue looping in the circle.
Returning to the Christmas culture to which I referred in the beginning of the chapter,
it is not difficult to understand that this issue surpasses its religious meaning. It is about the
culture of West superiority that has been embedded in me and Chinese people like me, who
are also tainted by the Chinese traditional culture of obedience, silence, and uniformity which
has dribbled away their doubt and the critical spirit to ask questions, to challenge and to reject.
The vicious circle is alive, here in Alberta, Canada.
The future, however, is progressive, and is open to all possibilities. There are
alternative paths, but still we have to choose. Only by jumping out of that vicious circle, can
we re-examine ourselves and the culture embedded within ourselves. The moment we sort out
what is the real “us” from the culture that has been embedded within us, we gain freedom and
independence for our selves and identities. When the independent self and identity is
re-claimed, a new paradigm based on the balance between individuals and socio-cultural
framework, and the harmonious co-development of different cultures, can be predicted. That
is when a healthy intersubjectivity between self, society, and culture can start to form (Li, Li
& Bi, 2012).
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CHAPTER 6: THE SONG OF YOUTH: LIFE STORY INTERVIEWS OF SIX
CHINESE POST-85S IN ALBERTA
May 4 is China’s Youth Day. China’s Youth Day originates from the “May 4
Movement” of 1919 which, as described in The Chinese-English Dictionary, was “at once
anti-imperialist and anti-feudal.” It marked the beginning of the New Democracy Revolution
led by pioneers of the Chinese Communist Party, and also gave birth to a brand new cultural
force in China: the Communist ideology and the social revolution theory. The cultural
underpinning of the May 4 Movement is responsibility for the fate of the nation, the
passionate resolution of social problems, and the awakening and creation of all social sectors.
Chinese government set May 4 as the annual Youth Day to commemorate the Spirit of May 4,
which is patriotic, progressive, democratic and scientific. Throughout the history of China’s
revolution and construction, the May 4 Movement and its spirit remained cohesive and
progressive, and guided the development of the youth movement as the aspiration of the
times.
According to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council P. R. China, the
official age range of youth is from 14 to 28, which is different from the United Nation’s
standard of age 14 to 25. In the current era, the Post-80s, especially Post-85s, are the largest
youth group in China.
On May 4, 2013, People’s Daily, the organ of the Chinese Communist Party,
published an editorial entitled “Spare the Youth from Senility,” which criticized the
“prematurely old” Post-80s as lacking the vitality and enthusiasm expected to be seen in
youthful people. The semantic meaning of “youth” in Chinese refers to the green and fresh
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spring daytime, while “senility” is related to the dust during sunset. The editorial used the
metaphor in the title to convey that Post-80s in China act too “proper,” and the way they
think and talk is as cautious and meticulous as that of middle-aged people with more life
experiences. Author Bai Long explained what is missing behind the “good manners”:
I thought about it over and over again, and realized that what is missing is the
élan and vigor of a youthful body and mind. Aren’t youths expected to be
venturous, straightforward, and bold in vision and motion? Aren’t they
expected to be pioneers for changes and even revolution? Why am I seeing the
youths in the current society so experienced in life and have already stepped
into the generation of their fathers and mothers?
Long was right in his description of the surfacing outlook of China’s Post-80
generation, yet he neglected the socio-cultural factors that have exhausted this generation.
Unlike the elder generation from the 1950s and 1960s who experienced the “Ten-Year
Catastrophe” of Cultural Revolution, the Post-80s live in a context with incomparable
material conditions and an unprecedented open socio-political and socio-cultural environment
(Jiang et al, 2010). The new context has brought about new challenges as well. Under the
“reform and opening up policy,” cultural products from the West crowded in, together with
capitalist and consumerist values. When market economy replaced planned economy, social
competition became fiercer than ever, and “the fittest survives and thrives” played a key role
in the construction of the belief system of China, representing the “advanced culture” in
practice (Wang, 2007). One implicit value of such culture is West superiority, in which the
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Western model of modernization is taken as the standard, together with its culture (Ye, 2008).
The “advanced culture” embedded in Chinese Post-80s during childhood has been confirmed
and deepened throughout their education by parents, teachers, the whole society, and by
themselves. The industrial civilization and the internet age have provided them with multiple
choices, but the pressure for survival and thriving has constrained them from making choices.
They stepped into a society featuring unprecedented mobility and possibility, while tasting
the helplessness and loneliness characteristic of urbanization. There is a loss of faith and a
confusion of cultural identity in this generation (Zhang, 2009).
Adding to the complexity of this situation, attention must be paid to a special group
within the already “confused and at-loss” Chinese Post-80s—the Chinese Post-80s who are
living abroad, and to be more specific, those who are living in the West. Compared to their
peers in China, this group with its in-reality experience of the West, stands on the intersection
of the densest crossing lines of cultures. I wanted to look in-depth into how they are gradually
being embedded with the “advanced culture” featuring West superiority and West-centralism,
digging out its roots in connection with the specific social contexts that nurtured such
embeddedness, as well as how such an embeddedness may have influenced the construction
of their belief system and cultural identification. I conducted semi-structured, open-ended life
story interviews with six Chinese Post-80s now living in Alberta, Canada. Unlike quantitative
methods based on objectivity and mass sampling, I focused on the subjectivity of the six
participants, interpreting the most personal experiences as they grew up until the present time,
interpreting the self in relation to the socio-cultural contexts that have cultivated their
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characteristics, evoking emotions and revealing their struggles and confusions in life, as well
as their despair and hope towards the future of themselves and the Chinese society. Rather
than the bewildering affiliations and ramifications generated from the subjective individuals,
the emphasis is on the subject itself. The idea is implied in Walt Whitman’s verse “When I
Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” in Leaves of Grass (1892):
When I heard the learn’d astronomer/ When the proofs, the figures, were
ranged in columns before me/ When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to
add, divide, and measure them/ When I sitting heard the astronomer where he
lectured with much applause in the lecture-room/ How soon unaccountable I
became tired and sick/ Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself/ In
the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time/ Look’d up in perfect
silence at the stars.
In ancient China, people believed that the stars in the night sky represented people on
the earth, and they observed the track of those stars to learn the experience of the people they
represented. The aesthetic meaning of the old fashioned remains even now, and the Chinese
still like to think of the stars as their ancestors, protecting and blessing them from the vast
“Tian Jie” (“heaven” in Chinese tradition). Likewise in Whitman’s verse, the “stars” have a
meaning, and they can be seen as that meaning itself. The interpretive method of life story
interview allows me to take an in-depth look at the “stars” as they are, exploring the meaning
they convey. That cannot be realized using a quantitative method in which the meaning, the
myth, and the beauty of the “stars” are “ranged in columns.”
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Robert Atkinson (1998) alleged that everything happens in story form. Each life story
consists of beginning, middle, and end. All stories develop in a spiral form; the end of one
story may be the beginning of another. Although life stories are highly subjective and
diversified, they are “drawn from a well of archetypal experiences common to all human
beings” (p. 5). Combining MacAdams & Pals’ (2006) viewpoint that life stories are produced
by culture and may implicate culture, culture thereby is the “well” from which individuals
draw inspiration and develop all forms of colorful life experiences. As the “Yin (cause)-Guo
(effect)” theory of Zen posits that everything happens, happens for a reason, the root reason
for all life stories to happen is due to cultural influence. Although culture itself may develop
into a variety of shapes and into multiple layers, thus impacting different dimensions of life
stories, the origin, the “well” is always there. That is what Kant described in Critique of
Judgement (1790) as “noumenon,” the “thing-in-itself,” generating a complexity of feelings
and experiences.
I am not saying that the only finding from life story interviews is the understanding of
culture as noumenon, or that as Granovetter has alleged, culture is too ambiguous to study,
making it improbable to find a common “rule” among all its representations. I agree that there
is no objective rule for how culture works that can be universally applied, yet I also believe
that there is no such thing as “absolute subjectivity and particularity,” which in itself
contradicts subjectivity and particularity. There is no subjectivity without objectivity, and
there is no particularity without unity and generality. Under culture’s ambiguity of
subjectivity and the variation of particularity lies a relatively stable and regular pattern, which
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applies to a specific context. That is the relative objectivity abstracted from subjectivity, and
the unity of particularity. According to Atkinson (1997), life story interview is not necessarily
immune from objectivity. It can be “scientific,” otherwise there will is risk of agnosticism in
doing “absolute subjective” research, but his premise is that it is first and foremost “an art” (p.
26). The art lies in seeking the meaning of those life stories. In my research, I read and
interpreted those life stories as a cultural text, abstracting from all the subjective feelings and
experiences a shared pattern of culture, the mechanism of cultural embeddedness, as well as
the patterns identified by individuals from a common text.
I chose six participants for the interview, all of whom were Chinese Post-85s born and
raised in China. They were educated under the Chinese school system and came to Canada
after obtaining a bachelor’s degree from a Chinese university. They were either in a graduate
program in Alberta at the time of the interviews, or had just completed that program within
the past 12 months. Besides what has been introduced in Chapter 3, below shows a general
profile of the six participants involved in the interviews.
Participant A is male. His field is in mechanical engineering. He comes from a civilian
class family from a second-tier city in the Northwest of China. His parents worked for a
state-owned railway corporation. He is the oldest among the six participants.
Participant B is male. His field is in electronic engineering. He comes from a civilian
class family from a third-tier city in the Northwest of China. His mother is a middle-school
teacher. His father works for a state-owned corporation as a labor.
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Participant C is male. His field is economics. He comes from a small town in the
southwest of China. His father is a doctor, and his mother used to work for a People’s
Commune. His mother was laid off after the Opening-up policy and started her own business.
Participant C has a strong relationship with his grandfather, who used to be a farmer.
Participant D is male. His field is robotization. He comes from rural-urban continuum
in the middle eastern area of China. Both his parents work at a middle school in town. The
province where Participant D comes from has the biggest population in China, and that the
competition for College Entrance Exam is relatively more intense.
Participant E is female. Her field is marketing. He comes from a remote village of the
Northwest of China. Her parents used to work for a state-owned water and electronic
corporation. At the time when the first step of the interview was conducted, Participant E was
29 years old, and according to her, females in her hometown would have been married at this
age. Getting married is one of her biggest concerns.
Participant F is male. His field is education. He comes from a village of the Southeast
of China. His mother used to be a middle school administrative assistant, and his father did
labor work. His family moved to a third-tier city later in his childhood and stayed there. His
parents gave birth to him at the age of early 40s, and he is the only one who talked about the
marriage problem of his parents.
A significant consideration as I selected whom to interview was that they have a close
relationship with me as the researcher. They are not only my peers, but are also my friends
and the major part of my social connection in Alberta, besides my supervisor and other
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academic relatives. I chose them as the participants for the reason of trust. I felt it would be
easier for them to open up and share their stories in a “fair, honest, clear and straightforward”
(Atkinson, 1997, p. 37) manner to someone they knew and who are already close to them.
Another significant reason that I see my peers as appropriate interviewees is that they
“touch and connect” with my own experiences in life, which brings us together in a shared
discourse and can evoke reciprocal understandings between us. In this way it was also easier
to find out the commonalities of our life experiences and the regular patterns of culture that
generate such commonalities. In this sense, interviews may become more meaningful as an
art of the human world (Johnson, 1990): “More important in the life story interview than
formality, or appearing scientific, is the ability to be humane, empathic, sensitive, and
understanding” (p.28).
Another interesting part of doing life story interviews is that they not only encourage
mutual understanding between the participants and me, but also promotes co-evolution for
the interviewee and me, as well as a development of our relationship. Life stories change life,
and that was a surprise finding as I conducted the interviews. In fact, there are many other
surprises that I never anticipated nor expected before starting the interviews.
Studies show that compared to Western participants (Americans in particular),
Chinese participants tend to be less open when asked to talk about their own life experiences,
and are less willing to show emotions and feelings about the stories they narrate (Zhang &
Zhang, 2008). They tend to be more question-oriented, in that they speak according to the
questions proposed by the interviewer, and they often adopt a “modest” manner when talking
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about themselves (Wang, 2001; Conway et al, 2005). One of the reasons may be that Chinese
tradition values silence over volubility. That value is implied in numerous Chinese classics; to
name a few, Gui Gu Zi (the origin of the “Yin & Yang” thought) said that “the more you talk,
the more errors you will make”; Yongchun Zhu (1670s) exhorted the younger generation in
Zhu Zi Jia Xun (translated in modern Chinese as Master Zhu’s Family Instructions), alerting
that “to survive in life, abstain from loquacity as one is bound to have a tongue slip if he talks
too much.” In classic literature, the talkative people are always portrayed as the fools or
villains. Ruisheng Chen (1784) criticized a character in an early feminist novel Zai Sheng
Yuan that “she was indeed straightforward, yet not smart enough to know that the tongue cuts
the throat, and that her words will soon give her away.” In current China, silence is still
valued as a life philosophy and a surviving strategy in career and leadership, especially when
one works for the government and state-owned central industries (Yu, 2008).
With that in mind, I did not expect that the interviewees would fully open up their
mouths, not to mention their hearts. Considering my relationship with the interviewees, I
thought I would be happy if they cooperated and elaborated a little based on my leading
questions; however, as it turned out, they elaborated a lot! I was astonished at their
willingness to share their experiences and feelings. What surprised me is that I could hardly
stop them from talking!
During an interview with one participant, I tried to drag his talk back to the question I
prepared, assuming that I could get the “efficient” information I needed; the participant,
however, was so eager to speak his mind that he anxiously “reminded” me three times:
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“I haven’t done yet…” “There is another thing I must tell…” “I still have a lot to say…”
When we finally finished the interview, his thoughts lingered and we ended up in a coffee
shop where the sharing continued with laughter, as he revealed some “little secrets” affiliated
with what he remembered from the interview: “Did I talk too much?” at last he asked
sheepishly. “Did you get what you need? I think I was talking off the topic…”
I got what I wanted, but not only through the direct asking and answering. Nor was
the information obtained simply based on the pre-assumed “topic.” There was no absolute
topic for the interview, as there is no absolute topic for life. Authenticity and subjectivity are
what matters most. Those are the values that have made the interviews meaningful, as they do
in life.
The willingness for the participants to share their own experiences and feelings
reminded me of the first time I was asked to write an autobiography. It was in the first class I
had with my supervisor, Dr. Steinberg. The first assignment she gave us was writing an
autobiography, “looking at yourself.” Throughout my education, I have completed numerous
assignments looking at figures, charts and equations. I have also been asked to look at Mom,
Dad, aunts, uncles, “a best friend,” and “a favorite teacher” in my life. I have told stories
about the “objective world” and the “subjective society,” and I was so comfortable with it that
I even took for granted that it is the way things should be. Dr. Steinberg was the first person
who asked me to look at myself, to tell stories of my own life. For the first time “I” became
the leading character, and I realized that my voice could be heard. I felt myself. I felt
happiness. I was in tears. How could I let go of this unprecedented opportunity to express
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myself? It was inevitable that the autobiography I wrote was long. I could not stop. The
behavior of the participants in the life story interviews resonated with my own experience
when writing the first draft of my autobiography. I saw myself in them, and I had a strong
sense of achievement as I did the interviews.
All six interviews went smoothly. According to Atkinson (1997), the ideal recording
result for a life story interview is a complete life story of the interviewee. The researcher and
the questions can be crossed out, as the interview process should be a narrative rather than a
conversation. In that sense, the collecting part of the interview I conducted is successful, as
all six participants took the main responsibility for talking, and I only played a guiding role.
Literally speaking, the interview was not a conversation because most of the time only the
interviewees were talking; yet it truly was a conversation of mind and feeling, in that it
connected me with my peers emotionally. I saw myself in them. I saw my anxiety, fears,
struggles, joys, and hopes in people who are like me, who have black hair and black eyes, in
people who have travelled hundreds of thousands of miles far from home, seeking freedom
and the meaning of life. I saw myself in those people who share the same life goals, values,
and culture with me.
One participant was from a relatively under-developed town in western China.
Herding sheep was one of her jobs when she was a little girl. Her life goal was to go away
from where she lived and from the way she and her family lived. She told me that her only
hope was through studying, and obviously that became the meaning of her education: “If you
have ever been to western China you will know what I was talking about. Nobody wants to
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spend a whole life there, only losers end up there. There is hardly any decent university in the
whole province.” (Participant E, April 2014)
She made it out when she went to university in Beijing and worked there for five
years after graduation. As for how she made her way to Beijing, she thought for a long time
but did not come up with any specific memories. She was surprised as well. She said that as
she recalled her youth, nothing interesting came to her mind: “My life as a youth was simple.
It’s just about school and exams.” I asked her whether she loved her hometown in which she
grew up. “Absolutely,” she answered without hesitation,
but I am not going back again. It is not because I don’t want to make it better,
but I cannot do it alone. It is like throwing an egg to a hard rock, and I am not
sacrificing my own life for that unpractical noble cause.
She then continued to say that is the same reason why she finally chose to go to Canada and
would try whatever she could to stay. “It is not because I don’t love my motherland nor I
don’t want to make it better, but I am not risking my life happiness for it. It is unpractical and
meaningless.” At the end of the interview I asked her whether she is happy now in Canada.
She lowered her head for several seconds, and then she said in a strong tone, as if she was
convincing herself, “Absolutely. It can’t be worse in a developed country than in a
developing one.”
We went for a coffee after the interview. I asked her how she felt about the interview.
She sighed, and mocked herself with a force smile on her face,
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I always thought that my life was busy and fulfilled, but today I cannot even
remember any interesting moments throughout my life. For the first time I
realized that I am no longer with my parents and am far away from home. For
the first time I realized that I am alone.
In 2014, Jue Sheng Wang issued the “2013 International Education Industry Report,”
which was the first detailed study focusing on international education products. The report
took an in-depth look at the psychological conditions and the current problems of Chinese
students who are living abroad. The study showed that 44.9% of relatively young students
(age under 30) have a feeling of loneliness during their stay in other countries. One of the
reasons is that most of the students in this age range are “single children” who tend to be
more dependent and lack adequate skills to live without supervision from parents and
teachers. Most of the students went through the Chinese traditional exam-oriented education
which seldom encourages independent thinking. They are more likely to feel helpless when
they have to face a new environment on their own. In the satisfaction survey, 90% of students
reflected that they have had physical and psychological problems such as exhaustion,
confusion, loss of appetite, insomnia, and algopsychalia since they left China. 65% blame the
“big cultural difference” for their sufferings.
What indeed is this cultural difference? What is culture? What is culture in Chinese
context? Since Tylor (1871) first described “culture” as “a complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by
man as a member of society” (p.1), conceptualizing culture has become a controversial issue
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in academia. There are over 200 definitions of culture around the world (Zhao, 2014).
Kroeber & Kluckhonn (1952) collected 166 of the definitions in Culture: A Critical Review of
Concepts and Definitions, conceptualizing culture from the perspectives of anthropology,
sociology, psychology, philosophy, chemistry, biology, geology, and politics. The book may
be regarded as a dictionary of culture, in which a plethora of definitions can be found,
including but not limited to the descriptive, historic, behavioral, psychological, and
constructive concept of culture.
I am not going to review those definitions here, since they may be found in Kroeber &
Kluckhonn’s work. Instead, I will take an in-depth look at the Chinese concept of culture
from an etymological view, exploring its development along with the historical change of
social context in China.
The Chinese term for culture contains two words: wen and hua. Wen, in ancient
Chinese, is referred to as interlaced texture. In Zhouyi, a Chinese classic composed in the
times of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.24), also the theoretical origin of yin and
yang, there is an explanation of wen as “the crossing, interaction and hybrid of everything”
(Li, 2006). A later concept of wen is closely associated with ren which means human in the
Chinese language. The term ren wen refers to all attributes of humans and society, including
ethics, aesthetics, ideologies and values. As recorded in Hou Han Shu (Book of the Later Han
Dynasty), ren wen covers all the behaviors of humanity, as well as the phenomenon in a
human society that shows the dependent relationship between wen and ren.
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The other word in the term for culture in the Chinese language is hua. The most
important connotation of this word is to change, or to be more accurate, to transform. Hua
always comes in the form of jiao hua. Jiao means to teach, to persuade, and the term jiao hua
has two layer of implications: a standard of the physical behaviors and spiritual activities in a
human society; the process for such a standard to be produced, spread and passed on to
following generations, and finally becoming identified as norm of the society (He, 2014).
Put wen and hua together, the connotation of “culture” in the Chinese language is both
static and dynamic. First, it shows what is in a human society. It covers all that can be
generated from that society, representing the attributes and extant phenomenon of that society.
Second, it implies the dynamic process for what is in the society evolves and develops into
what can be and what should be in the society. It also shows the empowerment of individuals
in that what they did in the past and what they are doing at the present has been shaping the
society and will influence the future of that society as well.
The Chinese concept of “culture” is culturally defined. As in the Chinese
interpretation of wen hua, both wen and hua are different. In Edward Hall’s (1976) cultural
iceberg model, wen refers to conscious culture including behaviors and explicit beliefs; hua
refers to unconscious culture including values and ideological patterns (Atkinson, 1998; Peng,
2009). To see the difference of both wen and hua Chinese students may encounter, we must
first understand the cultural context they are from, that is, the prevailing, mainstream wen and
hua in China, the “advanced culture” in which Chinese students were situated.
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In the times when traditional Chinese culture dominated the nation, there was a clear
appreciation of cultures. In the concept of “Yi and Xia”, the culture of Xia (the origin of
China) with Confucian as the core values is considered advanced compared to the culture of
Yi (foreign countries) because the Xia culture values morality over power, and reason over
violence. The underpinning is the culture of jun zi, which means people with moral integrity.
The appreciation for jun zi culture had seldom been shaken for over two thousand years
throughout Chinese history. Even though reality often did not uphold the ideal articulated in
the Xia culture discourse, the value itself never changed. It was the practice that went wrong,
not the ideology (Wang, 2007).
The ideology and values in the Xia culture started to change after the First Opium
war in the 19th century, when Western culture was introduced to China together with the
invasion of the foreign, Yi. Since then, there has been a confusion of judgment about what is
advanced culture, and the core values were inversed. The culture of Yi, originating from the
modern West, has gradually been absorbed by Chinese authorities and the public; a culture of
utilitarianism and social Darwinism has been embedded. In this discourse, desires are
appreciated and utilized. Consumerism, capitalism and hegemonism are raging. It is a culture
of benefits.
Benefits may cover material interests, military power, market occupation, advanced
high technology, and cultural invasion. In Chinese traditional values, “benefit” is considered
to be depraving, thus the culture of benefits is the culture for xiao ren, the opposite of people
with integrity (jun zi). As Chines people accepted the culture for xiao ren, what used to be
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seen as devalued became value itself. This ideological embeddedness of Yi is considered to
be an unprecedented revolution that has occurred mostly thorough cultural inversion and
inconsistency in the Chinese history. The revolution has not yet finished, but continues to
expand and deepen even to this day. This silent revolution of culture is problematic, not
simply because of the shift between Xia and Yi, but because of the shift from jun zi to xiao
ren.
From a historical perspective, the root cause of the revolution is the practical
weakness of the Xia culture, despite its advancement in theory. During the First Opium War,
China encountered the crisis of the perishing of the nation, the genocide of the people, and
the collapse of the traditional belief system. Morality, appraised as the core in the Xia culture,
could not have an immediate practical effect on defeating the Yi troops equipped with
powerful modern weapons. The Qing authorities were forced to make decisions to first
protect the nation and the people, “to learn from Yi and fight it back in its own way,” and then
recover the belief system and bring back the culture of jun zi (Wei, 1852). They did not see
the level of cultural embeddedness and colonization that had taken hold. That is the
underpinning of conquering. That is why after over one hundred years of struggles, the nation
and the people remained, but the beliefs were lost. The belief in Yi, or in today’s term, the
West, has become the advanced culture. The discourse of “benefits” has become core values
in the Chinese culture. The cultural embeddedness of the West has taken effect and is still in
process.
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In education, the representation of such cultural embeddedness is in the exam-oriented
mode of schooling. All participants in the interviews, despite the different geographical and
socio-economic backgrounds from which they came, all shared the experience of 12 years of
exam-oriented education. When they talked about the meaning of the 12 years in their life,
they had the same view that high scores in exams was all they wanted; high scores promised
benefits for them, e.g. shaking off poverty, escaping from underdeveloped hometowns,
rewarding careers, easy life both for themselves and their parents, and most important,
guaranteed money. Seen from a macroscopic perspective, since the “reforming and
opening-up” policy in 1978, Deng Xiaoping, President, addressed the PCP Congress:
“Knowledge is the primary productive force,” and since that time the practical values of
education have been weighed over education’s true meaning. The teaching and learning of
knowledge, “objective” facts and what are “useful and practical” are the primary tasks in
curriculum, but the critical way of thinking is undermined. Exams are taken as the only way
to estimate the effectiveness of education. When students score high in exams, all
parties—students, teachers, and schools, are considered to be successful, and education
completed.
During the interviews, when the participants shared their life experiences, the 12
years of school time was often left blank. One participant was from a rich coastal city that
was granted an independent budget in the state plan to guarantee its economic development.
In his story, he listed 21 childhood episodes, each full of interest and delight. He was excited
to remember in detail, and laughed from time to time; however, when he talked about school
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life, the light in his eyes went dim immediately. He told me there was nothing interesting and
all his memories of those 12 years were about how he was laughed at because he got low
scores in natural sciences; he was reluctant to go into details. “Life was extremely boring,” he
said.
In the cultural context of utilitarianism, subjectivity is not as important as what can
practically bring immediate benefits. The latter are the objective materials as indicated in the
Marxist view of materialism, and has been implemented throughout the Chinese population,
from government to the public. When that culture is taken as normative and advanced, people
may become accustomed to the mechanical mode of following the easiest way leading to
benefit. That easiest way is to take in what was taught without doubting and challenging it,
and hereby ignoring subjectivity. Similar to what happened one hundred years ago, the
values for self-cultivation and the belief in integrity are lost. The independence and intrinsic
power of individuals are lost. That may explain why Chinese students encounter uneasiness
and even disturbance both physically and psychologically when they came to Canada. They
are lost when they are forced to live independently. They are lost when they need to live their
own lives. That is the root of the so-called “cultural difference” they blame.
By considering my life experiences and those of my peers, I start to re-think the
meaning of “advanced culture.” The traditional Chinese culture has a deficit in practice which
led to its collapse after the Opium War, yet the culture of utilitarianism embedded by the
modern West and transformed from Marxist materialism can be dangerous when
implemented throughout the country. A balancing paradigm of advanced culture should be a
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dialectical unity of the two opposites. Instead of centering either of them, the new paradigm
should be in a de-centered form based on the interaction and integration of both. Such a
paradigm is dynamic as the conflict and fusion of the two opposite cultures is in constant
motion. Only when subjectivity and objectivity co-exist as supplements can life fill with
meaning.
Like my interviewees, I never regretted stepping out of the comfort zone of
objectivity to come to Canada. Here I started my life as a researcher who is also the essence
of the research. As I finally came to the theory of a balancing paradigm of advanced culture, I
also gained a theory of life itself.
“Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself/ In the mystical moist night-air, and
from time to time/ Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.”
I am the star.
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CHAPTER 7: CONTENT ANALYSIS: CHARACTERISTICS AND CULTURE
IN THE ORGANIZATION OF CHINESE POST-85S IN ALBERTA
A Shared Pattern of Culture
The core of culture is the reflection of shared values in an organization (Schein, 1992;
Ge, Xu & Wu, 2006). In this study, I see those Post-85s Chinese students who are now
studying in Canada as an organization in which the members share common background,
strategic objectives as well as core values. Rather than a typical organization where members
remain close and cooperative, this organization is “self-organizing” (Haken, 1983, 2004).
Individual members develop organically following their own life paths, but there is an
attraction that finally draws them together at a certain point in life. That attraction is the
culture of this organization. Schein (1992)’s theory can at least in part explain the formation
of the culture of this organization. In his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership,
Schein (1992) described culture in three levels: artifacts, espoused values and basic
assumptions, and values. Artifacts refer to explicit cultural products that can be seen and
touched; espoused values are the beliefs lying beneath those products, which can also be
considered as the strategic objectives and philosophy of the organization; basic assumptions
and values are the core of the organizational culture which are implicit but deeply embedded
within the subconscious level. Those assumptions and values are difficult to observe but can
explain the activities conducted by the organization members.
The artifacts comprising the cultural products of Christotainment piqued my interest
to conduct this study. After I conducted the life story interviews with Post-85s in Alberta, and
explored more deeply, I realized the second level of the organizational culture among the
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construction of the Post-85s group. I obtained directly from the interviewees the objectives
and philosophy of this organization. They all expressed their desire for the West and their
goals for leaving China for a better life. That is also their life experience. What drove them to
decide on such strategic objectives for life? The answer to this question represents the utmost
level of the culture of this organization, the basic assumptions and values which the
participants may not explicitly describe in their story telling, and which they may not even
realize.
The previous chapter described the initial results obtained from the interviews. That
chapter represents the first impression I received after communicating with the interviewees.
This chapter offers an in-depth reading of the transcripts derived from the interviews, a study
of the text itself. Key words and themes have been abstracted from the text. I see the Post-85s
Chinese students who are now living in Alberta as an organization. The purpose of this
chapter is to study the culture of this organization. I use what has been explicitly expressed in
the stories to explain 1) the background of this organization 2) the interaction with cultural
products introduced from the foreign 3) the common objectives and the shared philosophy.
The most important part is that when reading between the lines of the text, I explore what has
not been explicitly stated in the words of the interviewees, but that represents the basic
assumptions and values that have motivated them to take on these espoused values and driven
them to make life decisions.
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Background
I found that all six interviewees, despite of having lived in different geographic areas,
had a similar historical, political, and societal background. I collected the key words they all
used when talking about their backgrounds. These are: Deng and the Opening-up policy,
political system, Da Yuan (a unique Chinese style of community where several families from
the same occupation live together), exam-oriented education, role model, single child. The
following chart shows the quotes from the transcripts where all the participants shared
commonness when talking about their backgrounds.
Quotes and themes
Participant Text Section or Quote
A
B
Theme
Since the Opening-up policy was promulgated in 1978,
China started to open her gate towards the world, and the
Western “advanced” culture was introduced together with
sciences and technology. There was a warming-up period.
When I was a kid, it took me time to gradually build the
connection with the West, and that was limited as well.
What we had at that time from the West were no more than
TV shows and movies, NBA and some sports brands.
Those were fresh to us, and everybody would see then as
advanced and high-end. People who pocess products from
the West would be considered fashionable.
And one more thing, when Deng died, my mother was so
sad and she was all in tears. She said that Deng was a good
leader.
To them, good leadership should focus on economic
development, people’s well-being, and should have some
democratic-biased innovative ideas. Deng emphasizes
practice, and his policies helped with societal improvement
and economic development. My parents feel that they are
beneficiaries to those policies. That was the reforming and
123
Deng and the
opening-up policy;
Political system
Deng and the
opening-up policy;
Political system
opening up policy. When I was a little child I didn’t have a
comparison, and I had no idea what it was like before that
policy was promulgated. I got a blur impression from the
stories my parents told me. Those are stories when my
parents were little children. They told me about how
closed-up and uninformed the society was at that time, how
weak the economic was. For example, my aunt has to stay
up in very big lines to buy a TV, and that she had to go
through Guan Xi (backhanders) to get that position in the
line. Now we have more kinds of commodities, and
people’s life is improved. That is what the market economy
has done to benefit the people.
C
D
E
Since the Opening-up, life gets better. It is just a little late.
If we open up earlier, our life is sure to be much better
compared to present. But in foreign countries it has always
been like this (opening-up), so there is no wonder that life
is better in foreign countries. Anyways, I didn’t see it
myself. I was just reasoning.
My dad is a doctor, my mom is a clerk at the People’s
Public Community, and was laid off later when she started
her own business. Luckily the opening-up policy allows
people to start their own business and to “become rich”.
My childhood (from 1988 to 1994) was the times when the
opening up policy was just promulgated, but I don’t have
much impression about it. We didn’t have many
commodity as we have now. I didn’t pay much attention to
food supply or the clothes I had because I was too young
for that. I only remember that we didn’t have much choice
when buying toys. Those that we could have access too
were very expensive as well. I remember that a toy model
of the transformative which they used to sell in the big
mall would cost 150 yuan (25 dollars) at that time. The
total salary for both of my parents was only 100 yuan (18
dollars) per month. Too expensive for us to afford. I really
liked that transformative model. It was so gorgeous. I
didn’t have any idea what it was, though. I only know that
it was expensive and was from the foreign, and that was
enough to made it good.
The opening-up just started when I was born, and
everybody was poor with monthly salary of only ten
dollars. We were still using ration stamps to buy daily
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Deng and the
opening-up policy;
Political system
Deng and the
opening-up policy;
Political system
Deng and the
opening-up policy;
Political system
F
A
B
supply. Even TVs and washing machines have to be bought
using ration stamps. Nobody dared to start their own
business in public because it was not allowed by the
government. If you did that and you served in the
government, you would be fired. When I was a kid I
thought that it must be fun doing business secretly because
you could make money while having fun. The system of
college entrance exam was recovered, and my parents
would encourage me to study hard and get into a college.
At that time anyone who was admitted by a college would
be guaranteed with a job after graduation. My parents
wanted me to get a decent job as well.
I had a deep impression towards Deng Xiaoping. My
parents influenced me a lot on that. My mom was very
grateful because Deng stated the Opening-up policy and
gave people the chance to be educated, and our material
life became better thanks to the policy. I got more choices
for clothing! Life was completely different.
I was brought up in an ordinary family in a city. People I
know all have a similar background as me. We didn’t have
commercial housing at that time. We lived in the apartment
distributed by our parents’ work unit. People who worked
for a same unit lived together. The social network was
small, and we were all from the same social class. We were
all the single child of the family, and would feel quite
lonely when we were young. We didn’t have adequate
cualtural products at that time. We only had our peers to
play with. Also because we were single child, we always
had to visit relatives from both sides of our parents. If my
peers were visiting their grandparents, for example, I had
to play by myself then. I felt bored.
I am the only child in my family. I didn’t have much
feeling about it until I had the comparison. When I first
came to Calgary I had a white roommate who is from
Quebec. When she heard that I am the only child in my
family, she asked me who I hang out with when I was a
kid. I said of course my neighbours, those kids in the Da
Yuan I lived in. She could not understand it because like
they Westerners they have siblings and they play with their
siblings when they were young. However like we Chinese,
especially my generation, we have no concept about
siblings. Kids from the neighbourhood means the same
125
Deng and the
opening-up policy;
Political system
Da Yuan;
Single child
Da Yuan;
Single child
C
D
E
thing to us. It feels quite fine, as none of those kids have
siblings either. We used to play with toy guns. We would
try anything that is fun. We just do it for fun, and never
thought too much about where those toys came from.
I will mainly introduce how I grew up, how I came to
Canada, how I feel about it, and my plan for future. Those
three parts, right? I was born in a small town in China. My
dad is a doctor, my mom is a clerk at the People’s Public
Community, and was laid off later when she started her
own business. Luckily the opening-up policy allows people
to start their own business and to “become rich”. I spent
most of my childhood at my grand parents’. It was fun at
that time. You didn’t need to worry too much. I herded
with my cousin. Both my grandparents are hard-working
people. Next I will talk about my schooling. I went to
school early, before I was six years old. Now children go to
school at the age of six (I am the only child of my family).
I was very smart when I was young. When I was at Grade
6 I won the second price of the National Maths Olympics. I
was the only one who won that prize in the entire town.
That means I had over a thousand peers, and I was the only
one that won.
I started to remember things when I was pretty young. I
grew up in the community of my father’s school, in the
western suburban of my city. I lived there until high
school. I could hardly have any understanding about the
world as a kid. I went to the kindergarten affiliated with my
dad’s school. The western suburban area is more like the
fridge zone between urban and rural areas. I saw different
kinds of people when I was very young.
My family moved two times when I was a kid. We moved
to XN from a very remote area. My father used to work for
a school affiliated to a construction unit of water and
electricity. We moved as the construction site moved.
When I was a kid I lived in that remote area where people
knew each other, and they were all working for the
construction unit. There were many kids in the Da Yuan I
lived in, and I was very happy with their company. We set
up traps on the road and would laugh when people got
caught.
Then we moved to XN and lived in apartment buildings. It
126
Da Yuan;
Single child
Da Yuan;
Single child
Da Yuan;
Single child
F
A
B
is not as fun as I was in Da Yuan. Part of the reason may be
because I went to elementary. Before that I was just
playing with my peers. We would climb walls, pick
apricots and dig potatoes. I enjoyed it very much. I liked
playing with boys because I found myself more like a boy.
There is no fun playing with girls. Girls are always crying,
and they have this morbid fear of getting dirty. They are
boring. I don’t have much feeling about going to school.
Sometimes I would expect to go to school early if I got
bored of the vacations. I wanted to play with my
schoolmates. There is nothing special about my childhood.
My father was the teacher of my school and he taught me
some classes. I didn’t have the chance to play wild because
my dad would easily knew. I never bullied other people nor
was bullied by other people. Life was just fine.
We used have nice neighbors though. They were a nice
couple who were my dad’s colleagues. I still remember
once my mom was fighting with my dad’s sister, and that
aunt slammed the door and left. My mom then fought
fiercely with my dad and was smashing all the dishes,
together with the food in them. I was begging them not to
do this, and I carefully carried the two expensive dishes
with beef in them to our neighbors’ home.
I went to a public school, exam-oriented. I learned
knowledge there. I followed the instruction of the teachers.
I never questioned what the teachers told me. I was a piece
of blank paper, and I became what the teachers drew on the
paper. I wasn’t given the chance to ask questions. Actually
I didn’t even realize that I could have asked questions.
Talking about my education, I went to public school. We
go to the nearest school. We had that school choosing
exams, but they were just taking a form. If you want to go
to your favorite school you have to pay first. We call that
school choosing fee. My parents were not bothered by that.
Our school here is OK so we don’t have much
dissatisfaction. No kid like school. During that time lots of
kids drop out before high school. Most of them went home
to herd. You can choose to play or to study. You can take
home the daily assignment for an entire week, and you can
choose whether to complete it or not. It doesn’t really
matter as nobody cares. In our junior high, the first year we
had 15 classes, but during the third year only 11 left. They
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Da Yuan;
Single child
Exam-oriented
education
Exam-oriented
education
C
all dropped out. If they didn’t want to go to school, they
quitted. We didn’t have much pressure from school. The
only thing is when we had that Jia Zhang Hui (parents
meeting), the teacher would say in public that some of the
kids were stupid and alike, and that made their parents
might feel humiliated. That was it. If the parents didn’t care
much, they wouldn’t scold their child either. Not much
pressure.
(What means “smart” to you?) I did well in maths and
Exam-oriented
Chinese language…I did well in school. My mom was not education
well educated. She only had a middle school degree, and
her family did not give her more than school either. So my
family didn’t help me much in my school. I did well
mainly because I was gifted. I was not a genius, but I was
gifted. That gift went a long way in my life even till now. It
gave me that opportunity to go to Changsha, to go to the
best middle school. That was the best education I could
receive for my entire life considering the limited resources
that my hometown could provide me with. I spent two
years there. I will talk about it later. Because the school
was affiliated to Peking University, it drew many
outstanding teachers from Beijing, and many award
winning teachers in the Hunan province came as well.
They were excellent. Outstanding students like me who
was either born talented, or from a family that emphasized
education would go to that school. We got together. With
the good teachers and good peers, I learned a lot from that
environment, not only knowledge, not only maths,
Chinese, physics or chemistry, but how to be a man as
well. I also learned how to be a leader, and that is
leadership. I got to know how to understand this society,
how to get along with my fellow students, how to innovate.
The school did not simply teach you how to excel in
exams, but also how to innovate, how to create, and so I
felt quite free at school. It was not like those exam-oriented
schools that would make you feel pressured. We were very
happy studying at my school. Everybody was fun. I was
really, really happy.
I had a very bad time when my high school went bankrupt.
It was a private school. I was the monitor of my class.
However I got sick then, and my dad transferred me to
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another school, it was a school for rich people, which we
call elite school. The name was XX international, and only
the richest people in Changsha city could have the chance
to go. I excelled in their entrance exam, and that saved me
almost 4,000 dollars tuition fee per year. I got the chance to
complete my last year in high school there, only because I
performed well in the exams. However I was lost, and I
didn’t make it. I didn’t handle it well. All my peers were
from very rich families. I suddenly had that cultural shock.
There were many pretty girls who wanted to hang out with
me, and I had no idea what I should do. Then I failed in the
College Entrance Exam and only ended up in Changan
University. It was pretty bad. Although I had a great time in
my old school, my experience in this elite school gave me
the chance to know the society. There was a comparison
between the rich and people who are not rich, just like me.
They were not only rich, but also with power.
D
(Why did your school go bankrupt?) It was a private
school, and the boss had some financial problems so that
he had to sell the school. He needed that land. It was my
biggest shame not performing well in the College Entrance
Exam. Although Changan University was still one of the
“211”s, I believe that I could have gone to a better one, like
Wuhan University…if I did better in the exam. My test
results for Chinese, maths and English were at the same
level as those students who were admitted to Tsinghua
University or Peking University, but I was almost eight
scores behind in physics and chemistry. That became my
biggest shame.
I have nothing much to complain about the exam-oriented
Exam-oriented
education in China. Although I did for some time before
education
support an educational transformation, I am no longer on
that side now. Now you have seen a lot happening, and you
would realize that it would be impossible for China to
practice that “education for all-round development”. I still
remember a comment I saw on some forum online saying,
“it is almost impossible for a poor family to produce a
successful and wealthy child”, and they talked about the
reasons for that. They said that the impact of family is one
of the biggest reasons. Another thing that hinders the
practice of a non exam-oriented education is because of
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social relationship, or Guan Xi. It is no big surprise though,
same for everywhere in China. Taken that into
consideration, if the education mode is not exam-oriented,
then it can only be Guan Xi oriented. That would be a
disaster for those students from poor families. The
allocation for educational resources is already unequal in
China. In Shandong province it is better. If you are from a
poor family you still have the chance to go to a good
university as long as you study hard enough. You are the
only person to blame if you fail in the entrance exam. You
would fail because you didn’t work hard enough. In some
other provinces, however, things can be totally different.
Take Shanxi (which is not even considered the poor and
remoteprovince) for example, there is a big gap of college
entrance rate between different areas. The rate can be
100% for some schools, and 0% for another.
That is what is happening now in Xi’an (including the
surrounding counties like Changan), the capital city of
Shanxi province. It is not possible for students in Jinan,
Shandong province who fail in the college entrance exam
if they work hard. If you transform the current education
mode, you are cutting off the way for ordinary people to
survive. That may incur a whole lot of problems. It is the
same with Ke Ju, the imperial examination in ancient
China. That provided a way for ordinary people (not those
who were born in a powerful families) to access the
paramount of power. Although we all know that the
exam-oriented education is not even close to perfection,
but it is a good tester. If you could focus on your study and
survive those years before college, you are a person with
willpower. If you fail, it means you don’t even have the
basic will and skills to survive. That does not apply to
those who drop out school and start business at an early
age though.
Some of those who chose that way of life may succeed as
well though it is more and more difficult now. Being
successful implies that you must have some special talents
or skills that have made you surpass your peers. That
applies to all fields in life. The exam-oriented education is
the relatively most fair and equal mode of education in
130
E
F
China. We don’t have a better choice. When I was in junior
high or high school I would hate this kind of education
because it forces me to do what I don’t want to. I could
have chosen to play soccer or music instead. However it
taught me to be certain about my goal. I must enter a
college in the first place, and then I can start thinking about
enjoying life. You have to be determined. Some people
who did not enter a top ranking college but ended up very
successful in career. They succeeded because they knew
what their goal is, and that they were determined. You
would be but a loser if you don’t even have the basic self
control and if you don’t know what the world want you to
do. You are doomed to be a loser if that is the case and you
have yourself to blame. That’s it. That is the reason why I
won’t oppose the current exam-oriented education.
I was greatly influence by the fact that my dad worked in
my school because I had to study hard and perform well in
exams, otherwise my dad will feel ashamed facing his
colleagues. He would beat me if I got bad scores. I
remember once my parents were fighting badly because I
didn’t do well in an exam, and that made me realize that it
is my duty to do better. However I never had that thought
that I must study hard only for my parents. I wanted to
study hard because the place I lived in was very
underdeveloped. If you want to go outside and change your
life, you have to enter a good university. The difference
between different areas is not that great now, but decades
ago there was this huge gap. Sometimes I would travel to
southern part or to Beijing, and I would see that gap. It is
better now though. I learned that I must study hard first
from my parents. It is unlikely for a 6 years kid to have that
thought. Later I agreed willingly because of my own
experience.
I inherited from my mom her high self-esteem. She had
high expectation towards herself, and she believed that
everyone should work hard to be successful, especially at
school. I agreed with her, and I made a lot of effort on my
school work. My goal was to study hard and then get
admitted to Beijing University or Tsinghua University.
Nothing else. I was very happy because I didn’t have other
goals thus no other concerns, and the media at that time
didn’t infuse too much information to us.
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Exam-oriented
education
Exam-oriented
education
My high school life was the darkest. I extremely hate my
high school. The exam-oriented model sucks. You need to
study non-stop, from Monday to Saturday. You need to
wake up at 5am everyday and can’t go to sleep until 11pm.
You are a studying machine. And the teachers were always
telling you that only those who could be admitted to a good
university may have a future. You may feel like all your
life is about studying. You got that idea from your parents
as well. They kept telling you that only education could
change your life. I strongly disagreed with that, and I was
extremely unhappy. I wanted to study hard to change my
life, but people are different. You can’t let them do things
in a uniformed way. What is the worst about exam-oriented
model of education is that it killed people’s abilities to take
initiatives. It killed what is special in different person.
High school was the most cruel, inhumane period of life
for me. I was always bullied by my classmates because I
was wearing teeth correctors and I was bad at physics.
They called me names and bullied me. The education only
focused on exam results and nobody was caring for my
feelings. Nobody was thinking from my perspectives. I
didn’t have much memory about my high school, and I am
not willing to keep any memory about that period of life.
Analyzing those objective elements, as well as how the interviewees interpreted them
is significant for understanding what role the socio-political and socio-economic elements
played in forming a culture among the Post-85s.
The opening-up policy. The Post-85s overall reflected positively on the reform and
opening-up policy. Promulgated by Deng Xiao Ping in 1979, the policy transformed the
nation from a planned economy to market economy. It also opens up the gate of China to the
globe politically, economically and culturally.
132
There are two possible reasons for the Post-85s’ insight into this policy, which
resulted in their unique insight into “the foreign” introduced to China because of this policy.
First, they grew up in the first stages of the implementation of this policy. Although they were
young children when this transformation came into place, their parents played an important
role in informing them about this significant historical period of China’s history. Because
their parents were born in the 1950s and experienced difficult times like Cultural Revolution
and the Three Years of Natural Disasters, the new policy seemed to be have saved them from
the backward and closed-up economic and political environment they had previously been
subjected to. The policy’s positive attributes made them too grateful to criticize, and they
passed their impressions on to their children.
Participant B (P. B for short) was an engineering student whose parents jointed the
Communist Party ever since they started working. They were also the beneficiary of the
Opening-up Policy under which they got the chance to go to universities and hence changed
their life.
P. B referred to his parents’ comments during the interview:
And one more thing, when Deng died, my mother was so sad and she was all
in tears. She said that Deng was a good leader . . . To them, good leadership
should focus on economic development, people’s well-being, and should have
some democratic-biased innovative ideas. Deng emphasized practice, and his
policies helped with societal improvement and economic development. My
parents feel that they are beneficiaries to those policies. That was the
133
reforming and opening up policy . . . I got a blurred impression from the
stories my parents told me. Those are stories when my parents were little
children. They told me about how closed-up and uninformed the society was
at that time, how weak the economy was. For example, my aunt had to stand
up in very big lines to buy a TV, and that she had to go through Guan Xi
(backhanders) to get that position in the line. Now we have more kinds of
commodities, and people’s life is improved. That is what the market economy
has done to benefit the people. (P.B, April 2014)
As children, the Post-85s’ attention may have been easily drawn to explicit benefits
brought about by the policy the “floated on the surface,” such as toys, clothes, movies, and so
forth. It may have been hard for them to dig deeper or think critically about the downside of
the policy. As cultural products poured into their lives, they were willing to accept them
without examining the culture conveyed in those products. That paved a way for foreign
cultural elements to “sneak in” and embed in the ideology and values of the Post-85s.
Political system, exam-oriented education, and role model effect. The Chinese
political system has been integrated into the Chinese style of teaching and learning. A core
function of education in China is to select qualified personnel to fit into positions for the
political and economic development of the country (China Education Yearbook, 2008). After
the reform and opening-up policy came into being, the College Entrance Exam was brought
back and has become the main system selecting and reserving talented personnel. The
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College Entrance Exam is an outcome of the Chinse traditional selection system and is
considered superior, given the specific context of the 1980s. The Exam improved the relative
equality of educational opportunities for people from a variety of socio-political and
socio-economic backgrounds (Liu, 2006; Feng, 2007), no matter whether they were from the
most remote and impoverished area or from the “Five Black Categories” (a political term
created during the Cultural Revolution to degrade families that were “the class enemies” of
the proletariat). The main beneficiaries of the College Entrance Exam and the exam-oriented
education then came along with it were the generation of parents of the Post-85s. However,
for over two decades, although this mode of talent selection remains, its advantage regarding
eequality for education opportunities has not changed much even though the historical
background and the socio-economic conditions of China have been transformed
fundamentally.
The non-uniformity of education across varying national conditions exposed the
deficits of the exam-oriented mode. It fails to support diverse learning styles and
underestimates the value of training other than simple knowledge acquisition and academic
skills development, such as critical thinking, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation.
Before college, scoring high on the exams represents the key life objective for most of the
Post-85s. They believed that once they reached this goal, life is supposed to be easy and
fulfilled. The exam-oriented educational system has been embedded in their ideology, leading
to a utilitarian mind-set in terms of cognition, judgment and thinking. As these superficial
benefits (e.g. high scores in the College Entrance Exam may secure a place at a good
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university) are usually easily recognized, such mind-sets also simplistic the process of
cognition, judgment and thinking (Zhao, 2000). The Post-85s tend to indiscriminately apply
such cognitive bias into other contexts in life; for example, in the way they understand
examinations for going abroad to study, such as TOEFL and GRE. The mind-set would drive
them to automatically build a direct connection between scoring high in such exams and a
better life in developed countries.
In this process, role models confirm their commitment to such mind-sets which also
function as motivation within the benefit-oriented and goal-obsessed paradigm.
Participant E (P. E for short) is the only female interviewed in this study, and she
indicated the effects of her cousin, a female model in her family have had on her. She also
emphasized the effects that this role model had among her family. In China, the concept of
family involves all relatives even as far as the granddaughter of one’s cousin, for example.
Words circulated around the family and even though P. E did not have a close relationship
with her cousin nor practically interacted with her in person, this role model has been
influencing her along her life path.
I have a relative who is the daughter of my brother-in-law’s uncle. She stayed
in the U.S. for a long time. She was among the first group of people who went
overseas after the Opening-Up. She is now over forty. She was the first group
of people who went overseas to study computer sciences, and she did pretty
well in the U.S. She, as well as her husband, earns a salary of over 80,000
dollars, which made them among the standard middle or even upper class.
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When I was a child I used to hear about them from my aunt, and I found them
awesome. I didn’t have any idea that I would follow her steps and go out as
well. During holidays the whole family would get together and they would
talk about her. (Participant E, April, 2014)
Participant D (P. D for short) also stressed the effects of role models in the interview.
This role model is an alumnus of his high school. Similar with P. E, P. D has never had a
close relationship with this role model. He has never talked to him. What he knows about the
man is his achievements as well as his life story to success. By the time of the interview, it
has been almost ten years since P. D saw him, and that is the only time he had some
connection with him, if any. However when he was talking about this role model, his eyes
were still shining with excitement and admiration. He talked as if he was telling a story of an
old friend whom he had known for his life and that their communication and interaction
never ended. As I listened, I felt that this man was standing right in front of me. Even till now
when I am revisiting the transcript I can still sense the halo granted by P. D which somehow
deified this man whom I would never have interaction with.
Another thing that impressed me most is when I was in the second year in high
school. Before I went to college, the only thing I would focus on was to enter
one of the colleges. Everything I did was for the purpose of that. There was
this story about one of our alumnus who graduated in 1995. I could still
remember his name, and everyone in my high school at that time would
remember that big name. He went to high school in 1992, and was directly
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recommended to Peking University after graduation. He made a report when
he was visiting our school and talked about his experience. He did really well
in high school, and our school at that time was among the best. We even had
that priority to recommend students to Peking University. His peers were all
the most excellent students from different provinces. He went for GRE and
TOEFL when he was in his senior year in college, and he talked about that. He
then talked about his experience of going abroad.
He said that he was living in an illegally built temporary shelter close to the
university. I saw one of those when I was visiting the university. He told us
about a detail when he was living there. He said that he would wake up at four
o’clock in the morning because of the cold. There wasn’t even a heater during
winter time in the shelter. He would use some cold water to wash his face and
then started reciting the “little red book” (GRE vocabulary book). He went to
Yale for politics, and later got a Ph.D. degree. He then went back to China and
started teaching in Tsinghua University. His field was pretty avant-guard at
that time. Though he studied human sciences, his supervisor and he created a
new discipline, which would use mathematical models to analyze the issue of
corruption. He is now a professor and has established a research centre. He
owned two buildings in Tsinghua. He is amazing. During the 2008 Olympic
games he served as the vice president of the anti-corruption group which
belongs to the Party. I have a deep impression of that person. He made me
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realized for the first time that it would be possible for ordinary people like me
to go overseas. He went to the same high school as I did, and he lived in the
same community, and he looks just like us. Even though he was trying to
speak Pu Tong Hua when he was making that report, we could still recognize
his accent from our hometown. He made you know that if you could work
hard enough you would be able to get into a good university, and if you keep
on working hard, you would get the chance to go to the US.
Although P. D takes this alumnus as a role model for life, he only focused on the
man’s academic life that led him to success. P. D did not show interest in other aspects of life
of this man nor his personality. To P. D, it seemed that those had little to do with the man’s
achievements thus there was little that he could learn from or to apply to help with his own
life.
Within the paradigm of utilitarianism, the relationship between cause and effect is
linear and simple: hard work in school will lead to excellent performance in exams; excellent
performance in exams will secure a good university; a good university will provide a chance
for going abroad; once abroad, a bright future is guaranteed. Missing from the paradigm are
“non-academic” skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and innovation because those skills
do not have a direct cause-effect connection to “success in life.”
There have been, though, attempts at an “educational revolution” intending to shift the
exam-oriented mode to a “quality development” mode aimed at integrated education rather
than simple academic competency development. Actually, the government continues to
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advocate such educational policy even now; however, because there is no quantitative and
therefore no “scientific and objective” method to measure the results of such policy, “quality
education” remains superficial and without any practical functions. Even worse, because
quality education does not have a direct or immediate effect which can facilitate students to
enter a good college and further “realize their life goals,” it has been criticized as “neglecting
knowledge acquisition,” and “disturbing instructional guides in class,” and thus was
abandoned by the school, parents, and students (Wang, 2005).
Da Yuan and single child. During the interviews, all six participants mentioned that
they had been brought up in Da Yuan. Da Yuan is a historical product of the planned economy,
in which people worked in units (industrial sections). Da Yuan is the residential community
affiliated with a certain unit. People living in Da Yuan usually worked in the same unit (Sun,
2012).
Da Yuan had a unique physical form as well as a special societal indication (Qiao,
2004). Yuan refers to an introverted space enclosed by walls. Within such physical form,
Yuan facilitates the independent development of a mini society which, seen from a micro
perspective, can be compound and highly organized; however, this mini society is less open
to the outside environment. In terms of societal meaning, Yuan is associated with Jia (family),
which is the most basic component of society. It conveys Chinese traditional patriarchal
values. In a Da Yuan, all the residents work in the same occupation. Instead of ties of blood,
they are bonded together by common economic and political benefits, which makes Da Yuan
a simulated family system. Once such benefits are gone, the family system may confront a
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crisis of deformation. The default bond of benefits determines the vulnerability of the
connection between people living in Da Yuan.
The physical and societal indication of Da Yuan had further effects on the Post-85s
who were born under the one-child policy. As young children, the closest relationships those
Post-85s may have had besides their parents were with their peers in the same Da Yuan. Due
to the closed and introverted features of Da Yuan, those children had few chances to access
information from outside; basically, they acquired their knowledge about society from the
people in Da Yuan. They confirmed the knowledge as mind-set because their information
resource (people in Da Yuan) likewise obtained their information from the same resource.
The climate of Da Yuan was suitable for the growth of rigid thinking instead of critical
thinking, in part due to the lack of information resources.
In terms of societal indications, the vulnerable bond of benefits between people in Da
Yuan de-emphasized emotional cultivation among the Post-85s. Peers in Da Yuan were
playmates rather than friends. There was a recurring coincidence of memory among the
participants in the interviews when they referred to their childhoods as: “nothing much worth
remembering” “all I can remember is playing.” None of them mentioned that they ever had a
dearest friend when they were young. Throughout the six texts, one significant theme in life
is missing: friendship. As Participant E said,
I grew up in the Da Yuan of my father’s school, in the western suburb of my
city. I lived there until high school. I could hardly have any understanding
about the world as a kid. I went to the kindergarten affiliated with my dad’s
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school. The western suburban area is more like the fridge zone between urban
and rural areas. I saw different kinds of people when I was very young. The
school I went to is pretty close to the rural area, but I seldom went there. Most
of my classmates were from the rural, but none of them was my friend.
Although they all refused to say that they felt lonely growing up as a single child,
neither have they mentioned any precious memories with peers. For them as children, to
“have someone to play with” is the beneficial motivation that drove them to have contact
with other people. That is where the sprout of utilitarianism started to grow deep inside the
Post-85s.
Affection is the foundation and prerequisite for the development of morality, and
affection education can cultivate empathy within the learner (Wang, 2010). Especially at an
early age, affection education functions to develop children’s capacity to understand the
perspective of other people and to think for others’ benefits rather than their own. A lack of
sufficient affective education may result in an inadequate and even deformed construction of
children’s mental and moral worlds (Ao, 2003; Kan, 2008 ;Liang & Lu, 2009; Liu, 2007; Yan,
2005; Yuan, 2008; Zhan, 2009; Zhang, 2008 ). It may have further effects on their way of
understanding the meaning of life and the world.
Da Yuan and the single child policy objectively facilitated the missing of affection
education before the Post-85s started to receive school education. They were not provided the
chance to learn to weigh emotions nor affection (even their own emotions) over benefits.
Such a “congenital” shortage in education was carried even further after the Post-85s entered
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school. Under the exam-oriented paradigm, educational goals and objectives were over
stressed, which placed an undue emphasis on the instrumental values of education over other
functions. The intense curriculum and teaching mode left little time for the students’ overall
development, and the values of emotion, affection, and morality were neglected. The exam
and result-oriented educational paradigm not only directed the cognition of students towards
utilitarianism, but also made their understanding of emotions and affection weaker and more
superficial.
Participant D gave a perfect example of the theory above when he talked about his
attitudes towards love life. He was talking in a frivolous tone as if love is but entertainment
and women are objects in a shopping mall. As he described his eagerness for finding a
girlfriend right after he entered university, he made feel that I was listening to people talking
about the Black Friday or Boxing Day shopping frenzy:
(In high school,) a girlfriend would be a distraction to some extent. Under that
circumstance where there was this huge pressure, everybody around you
would tell you that you must study hard, and so your psychological or
emotional conditions can be very unstable. If you add another unstable factor
(like a girlfriend) to that, it could be very dangerous. Nobody would risk that.
But as soon as you enter a college, things change. Nobody would regulate you
anymore, even your parents. They would give some simple advice such as “as
long as it doesn’t influence your study, you could go for a girlfriend”, but who
would bother to decide whether it would influence my study or not? In college,
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study is no longer the primary task. Nobody would think seriously about that
advice. Instead we all go for girlfriends. That is the same for all people around
me. We are like soldiers who finally occupied a castle. Take a girlfriend first,
no matter what! Even for those who might have some feelings toward each
other, no couples would survive the first year in college. We are people with
real needs. We are in need of a real person who can stay by your side and can
accompany you. We need someone who would hangout with you. No matter
how the communication can be convenient thanks to new technology, no
matter how we could see people on the phone, it is still not the same as a real
person around you. That is why we would take finding a girlfriend as our
priority as soon as we entered college.
Within organization culture (Schein,1992), the socio-political and socio-economic
backgrounds of Post-85s provide a context that enables culture to be self-developed within
the organization. Such context nurtured the espoused values and basic assumptions prevailing
in this organization.
Espoused values: life objectives and philosophy. It was apparent from the
transcripts that there is a clear system of life objectives among the interviewees, and
short-term objectives have a linear cause-effect relationship with long-term objectives. The
exam-oriented educational mode has facilitated and emphasized the objectives. Throughout
their education before college, Post-85s had clear short-term objectives related to acquiring
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knowledge in order to perform well on exams. They were more determined about their
long-term objectives: getting an ideal result in the College Entrance Exam and entering a
dream college, making a better life for me and my parents. There is also an embedded
objective sewing the explicit short-term and long-term objectives together: “being someone
like him/her” (a role model—a relative or an alumnus about whom they have seen or heard).
Clear and strong as those life objectives are, they are also simple and superficial. Other
important life themes, such as friendship and love, are missing. That explains why most of
the interviewees found their childhood and youthful lives monotonous, with nothing much to
talk about. The life objectives of those Post-85s had become practical because of their
collective belief in a linear cause-effect relationship between hard work and expected results.
This belief in cause-effect additionally represents a philosophy within the
organization of Post-85s. Traditional Chinese philosophy holds that fortune favours the
diligent, and that the ultimate power (Chinese concept of God) will reward those who work
hard towards their goals and objectives. In the Chinese idiom, this is called “Tian Tao (the
rule of God) Chou (rewards) Qin (hardworking)” (Han, 2011). This belief was taken in by the
Post-85s as their own life strategy and philosophy because of the influence of parents, peers,
and their educational experiences.
First, because the parents’ generation was brought up during an occlusive and
uninformed historical stage of China, traditional values and philosophies had been embedded
in both their conscious and subconscious levels of ideology. Also, the resumption of the
College Entrance Exam in 1977 opened a door towards equal educational opportunities,
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which was thought to lead to a life change. Many parents of the Post-85s are beneficiaries of
the philosophy of “Tian Tao Chou Qin.” They have acted as role models for their children.
Through words and deeds, they taught their children that the best way for ordinary people to
succeed was through hard work.
Second, the unique form of Da Yuan inhibited contact from the outside for Post-85s,
facilitating the internal recycling of information. Successful stories of relatives or
acquaintances, transmitted by word of mouth within this Da Yuan climate, made idols of
these role models for the Post-85s, because the role models demonstrated a practical path
which Post-85s could follow in pursuit of their own life objectives.
Third, the exam-oriented mode of education stressed the pragmatism of “Tian Tao
Chou Qin.” Students who performed well on exams were rewarded. A popular adage in
Chinese schools encouraged students to “bi (compare with), xue (learn from), gan (catch up
with), chao (surpass)” their peers. Contests have even been held in which a “model” who
performs best in the process is selected by the class and rewarded either through words or
material awards. The criterion for the selection is undoubtedly exam results. Students may
receive immediate benefits by working hard, and their own experience confirms their belief
in the philosophy of “Tian Tao Chou Qin.”
Many Chinese scholars have criticized the Post-85s as a generation without faith
(Chen, 2009; Chen & Mo, 2010; Qi, 2008; Yuan, 2012). I would prefer to say that their faith
lies in themselves; they are the God of themselves. Such faith has a distinguished feature
compared to religious beliefs—uncertainty (as the result of the human nature of flexibility
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and ambiguity). However, within that faith lies contradiction. On the one hand, the Post-85s
are determined about their faith within a specific context, e.g. before they entered university,
they may have firmly believed that fortune favors the diligent; on the other hand, as they
started to live independently and were exposed to the greater society, their previous values
and outlook for the world became vulnerable and was challenged, due to the shift of context
as well as the changes within themselves. The interview excerpts indicate the struggles and
suffering when Post-85s were drawn away from the simplistic and linear mode of living and
thrown into the complexity of the greater society. They also give a hint about the process of
self-doubt and the deconstruction of faith among the Post-85s.
Participant C (P. C) had been one of the “smartest” students at school until he was
transferred to an elite school. Many students in that school were from very rich and powerful
families and good academic performance was no longer what made people respectful. As he
mentioned his life in the elite school, P. C sharply adverted his previous proud and exciting
tone to a tone of inferiority with a strong sense of regret as well.
Although I had a great time in my old school, my experience in this elite
school gave me the chance to know the society. There was a comparison
between the rich and people who are not rich, just like me. They were not only
rich, but also with power. One of my classmates, for example, has a
grandfather who was the Vice Provincial Governor of Hunan. And there were
many similar examples. When I first got in touch with those people, my hands
were tied up. I was lost. There was then this girl who wanted to date me, and I
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couldn’t help, and that disturbed my study. It also disturbed my study when I
was trying to adapt to the new environment. It was not necessary because of
the emotional changes from being respected to overlooked. Whenever you
went to a new environment you have to spend time and energy to adapt to it.
(Participant C, April, 2015)
In response to the question, what was your understanding towards the society, Participant C
stated:
“My understanding was pretty shallow. I didn’t realize that the society can be that
cruel, that unfair. I hadn’t even thought about it.”
I spent two years in China after I graduated from college. I didn’t have a job,
and didn’t have a decent place to stay. I was wandering around during that
time. I was all by myself in the big society. I had a real-life experience about
the society, and my understanding about the society was significantly different
from what I learned before. I realized that the society is cruel, unfair and dark.
I used to live off campus, and I signed a contract with the house owner.
However I was cheated by him. That was the first time I started to get in touch
with people from the society, and it left me with a really bad impression.
Those people were not as nice as people here in Canada. I don’t know what to
say about that experience. I just feel sad inside.
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The frustration these Post-85s suffered from exposure to the “real” society has added
another theme to the lives of the Post-85s. There is a subtle deviation from the previously
firm faith in themselves as they began to realize the power of the society. They started to see
the inequity and injustice that had been setting barriers on their path to success. They became
aware of the fact that they could hardly reach their life objectives by simply working hard.
The complexity of the context has interrupted their simplistic belief about success. Instead of
thinking about changing the status quo, the idea of adaptation has functioned as a driving
power, motivating the Post-85s to seek ways to survive and further become the beneficiaries
of the existing context; this is their interpretation of criticality.
Criticality: a competence or a paradigm? Scholars have realized that the cultivation
of criticality has been missing in the exam-oriented educational paradigm in China (Li, 2009;
Peng & Yu, 2007). There has been agreement in academia that due to the long-time lack of
systematic guidance and practice, Chinese college students have degenerated in terms of
critical thinking, and often tend to accept what has been given to them without second
thought (Li, 2009; Yang & Han, 2009). There has also been advocacy for the addition of
critical thinking into curriculum as well (Luo & Li, 2008; Tan & Zhuo, 2006;).
As I talked to the interviewees and interpreted the transcripts, what I found, however,
was that the Chinese Post-85s do have the capability for critical thinking. Criticality as a
competence was well embedded in their ideology. Viewed from the perspective of a
self-organization process, this competence has been developed among Post-85s. Although
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they did not receive direct knowledge about criticality in school, they have spontaneously
developed that competence based on their life experiences.
There are two main schools of thoughts regarding the concept of critical thinking. One
school regards criticality as a competence; Enniss (2011) defines criticality as “a reasonable
and reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do” (p. 1). Another school
holds that critical thinking is a purposeful mental process in which people make judgments
upon the cognition of knowledge, theory, method and context. It is also the process of
self-adjusting to what has been given (Facione et al., 1997; Zhou et al., 2007). Halpern (2014)
integrated the above two thoughts and defined critical thinking as “the use of those cognitive
skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome.
It is purposeful,
reasonable and goal directed” (p. 53).
From the interviews it seemed apparent that the participants all demonstrated the
competence of cognizing and interpreting given information, as well as self-adjusting to fit
into the given context so as to reach their goals and objectives. The functions of criticality as
a competence are well applied. The process for the Post-85s to make judgments or to take
actions is purposeful, reasonable and goal-orientated. The driving force in this process
guiding the Post-85s to make decisions tends towards making profit and survival of the
fittest.
There are tracks indicating the various competencies of critical thinking among the
Post-85s. Excerpt from the transcript of Participant B below show how the Post-85s cognize
and reflect upon information provided to them. They have gone through a process of critical
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thinking before making decisions to accept or refuse what has been given to them. The
following excerpts from P. B indicate his capability of critical thinking and reasoning towards
information infused by others, even from closest family members. He also demonstrated his
courage to challenge the authority, such as the Bible, even in an unfamiliar circumstance such
as a church, which he only visited once in Canada.
Both my parents were born in the 50s. They must have been brainwashed.
They thought that the Party is the standard, and they should lead China. That
thought changed, and it changed significantly. I feel that that change happened
because of me. The reason is that I have not been brainwashed, and via me
they see that there are lots in the Party that are to be criticized.
My parents taught me a lot on that. Both of them are communist, and they
have their own way to break the federalism and superstition. They told me that
all religions are cheating people. They are tools to benefit something. For
example in the past, the propaganda of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism
are all for serving politics. I believe that. All religions were being made use of.
It is the same as the 1989 movement. My mother warned me not to have any
relation with politics. She warned me that I would get used. I believe that like
religions, ideologies are all tools created by the authorities to shape your
values. Some people might buy it and became “stupid followers.” The main
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functions of that stuff are for maintaining societal stability and to make people
compliant to the dominating force.
About the Greek legends, there was no system, and no strong theoretical
support. The Bible stories are better, but I didn’t pay much attention to it after
I finished reading. So I talked to the people in charge in the church about it. I
asked whether there is only one God in your religion. He said yes. Then I
asked whether the Holy Mother is God, he said that she is human. I then
questioned him, does God create humans or it was human that created God?
He couldn’t answer it. I believe that there must be an explanation for it. He
could not answer it simply because he is not professional. There is no reason I
will be converted. If one day I am, then I must be looking for comfort from it.
Religion is made up by humans, and everyone would know that. You are
cheating yourself and others if you believe in it. But it is good to get the sense
of belonging from it.
As Frankenstein & Powell (1982) said, “knowledge, therefore, is a negotiated product
emerging from the interaction of human consciousness and reality; it is produced as we,
individually and collectively, search and try to make sense of our world” (p. 3). The above
excerpts may hint at how knowledge has been negotiated by the Post-85s using the skill of
criticality. They have chosen to take on certain assumptions and values they want to have.
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It is not fair to say that the Post-85s lack the competence of critical thinking; however,
confusion exists about the interpretation of criticality. The Post-85s have well captured
criticality as a competence and as a skill, but missing is criticality as a trait and as a spirit
embedded deep inside the ideologies that guide them in reflecting upon the world. In other
words, the Post-85s use the skill of criticality to question what was given to them and then
decide what works best for them for reaching their goals. However, they have neither
questioned their basic assumptions and values, nor have they questioned the life goals and
objectives they desire to reach. They have never questioned the reason and the way they have
used criticality as a skill. They have never questioned their interpretation of criticality itself.
Interpreting and applying criticality simply as a competence has reduced the Post-85s to
passive, or “pseudo” critical thinkers. Underneath the superficial criticality, their true selves
might better be described as utilitarian and as adapters.
Here a deeper level of the organizational culture has revealed itself. The basic
assumptions and values embedded within this organization can be induced as 1) trending
towards profit, or utilitarianism; 2) survival of the fittest. To read between the lines of the
transcripts from the interview, those embedded assumptions and values function as the
driving force that motivated the decision making and action taking process of the Post-85s. I
came to such a conclusion using the same method as I did previously finding the
commonness regarding the backgrounds of the participants.
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Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism as an ethical thought and social value emerged after the Bourgeois
Revolution in the 17th century. It originated from the philosophy of Bacon and Hobbes, and
was further expanded by Locke, Mandeville, Hume, and Smith in the 18th century. The
theoretical framework of utilitarianism was systematically formed by Bentham and Mill early
in the 19th Century (Gui, 2012; Mill, 1969; Shen, 1995; Zhang, 2007).
Utilitarianism began to prevail when capitalism transited into the monopolization
phase, in which benefits and profits became dominant among humans, and all kinds of
relationships developed between human beings (no matter whether individuals or the nation)
became reduced to commercial relationships. Property and materials ruled the world (Marx
and Engels, 1976, p.674). As a theoretical and ethical justification for the “ruler,”
utilitarianism is based on hedonism. When deciding whether or not an action should be taken,
utilitarianism holds that the criterion should be whether or not such action increases the
happiness of the interested. Although in utilitarianism, the happiness of the majority is
considered to be the ultimate goal of the interested, it does not refer to a collective interest.
For utilitarians, individual interest is the only practical interest, whereas the society is but a
fictional community. The greatest happiness of the greatest number results from the repeated
addition of individual interests.
Built upon those assumptions, in terms of the motivation and effects of actions,
utilitarianism holds that only the outcome effects and benefits are of value and should be
emphasized. The process of actions including moral activities has no intrinsic meaning; rather,
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it is only a tool or an instrument that the subject may utilize to reach the ultimate goal. The
instrumentation of morality is the core of utilitarian ethical values.
Since 1978, China has entered the historical stage of transition featuring economic
construction as the core task and a socialist market economic system as the primary
developing mode. In this new stage, benefit plays a crucial role in social relationships, and
the status of profit and interest has been significantly elevated. Furthermore, the intensified
connection between education and the market has enhanced the social conditions for
utilitarianism to prevail in China, becoming embedded into the ideologies and values of
Chinese youth growing up during that time (Zhang, 2007). That generation of youth is the
Post-85s. Research has shown the intensified value of utilitarianism among this generation in
the following aspects: education, career planning, social interaction, and affective
relationships. In the life story interviews, the participants not only verified the results from
the quantitative surveys, but also provided an in-depth exploration into the mental process of
making decisions about what should be taken in and what should not.
Utilitarianism in education. Studies on motivations for education show that since the
1990s, more than 60% of college students choose to study for reasons such as “finding a
decent job” or “improving his/her own life conditions.” They see education as an instrument
that could “facilitate personal success” and “make going abroad easier.” Compared to
students of the 1980s, the proportion of those who chose to study for “the prosperity of the
nation and the well-being of the people” has dropped 40%, from 70% to 30% (Lu, 2010; Qian,
1999; Zhang, 2007).
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In terms of education content, according to a survey conducted by the Renmin
University of China, 72.5% of students wanted to learn practical and useful knowledge; 73.2%
see literature, history and philosophy as “not useful,” and 69.6% believe that delication to
scholarship is “boring, meaningless and not practical” (Beijing Youth, 1997; Zhang, 2007; Lu
2010).
The above data indicates a general tendency towards educational utilitarianism.
Throughout individual interviews, although the life experiences of the participants varied,
they all demonstrated a strong sense of utilitarianism regarding education. For them,
education was a tool that they can use to enter a dream college, to go abroad, to find a good
job, to help their family live better. They also implied that the exam-oriented mode of
education in China was the fairest way for ordinary people to succeed and to become the
dominating power. The following two excepts from different participants illustrate that the
linear cause and effect relationship has long been embedded within the Post-85s. In such
relationship, working hard at school may directly lead to the result of being admitted to a
good college, and that may open the gate for ordinary people to succeed. Going abroad is
considered a crucial jump which may lead to a glorious future.
“Before I went to college, the only thing I would focus on was to enter one of the
colleges. Everything I did was for the purpose of that.”
“He made you know that if you could work hard enough you would be able to get into a
good university, and if you keep on working hard, you would get the chance to go to the
U.S.”
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“She told me that she didn’t like the university she’s going to enter, but she said that she
must choose a good major that would help her go abroad in the future.”
“The main concern for me is to enter a good university, and that is the prerequisite for
anything further.”
To obtain the opportunity to study overseas, some students even willingly gave up offers
from top universities for which they had longed and worked so hard on for years, even if it is
risky, uncertain, and more time-consuming. Below is one example I heard from the
participants.
Not very soon after that day, I heard from my aunt that one of her colleagues
had a son, and he already got the admission to Peking University. He declined
the offer however and went to another university to study mathematics. I
didn’t think that made any sense, but later I found out that he has an uncle in
Singapore and he wanted to go there after graduation. I was again impressed
by the idea of going abroad.
The following three excerpts from different participants show that for Post-85s who
were born in ordinary or poorer families, the College Entrance Exam is the best way to
change their living conditions as well as their families. As all the participants are the single
child in family, they have been imposed the expectation for the thriving of the family as they
are the only hope. They have accepted the status quo because they can hardly see a better
solution than being devoted to the College Entrance Exam which is as least workable for
ordinary people.
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I remember once my parents were fighting badly because I didn’t do well in an
exam, and that made me realize that it is my duty to do better. However I
never had that thought that I must study hard only for my parents. I wanted to
study hard because the place I lived in was very underdeveloped. If you want
to go outside and change your life, you have to enter a good university.
I don’t have a rich family, so I can only (strive to gain what I want through
hard work). It is not like you can get whatever you want. I have to survive first.
Only when you can support yourself can you think about having fun. The only
thing I want after graduation is a job, in foreign countries. That is it.
If you transform the current education mode, you are cutting off the way for
ordinary people to survive. That may incur a whole lot of problems. It is the
same with Ke Ju, the imperial examination in ancient China. That provided a
way for ordinary people (not those who were born in powerful families) to
access the paramount of power. Although we all know that the exam-oriented
education is not even close to perfection, but it is a good tester. If you could
focus on your study and survive those years before college, you are a person
with willpower. If you fail, it means you don’t even have the basic will and
skills to survive.
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The idea of utilitarianism in these interview excerpts is obvious, yet the participants
do not demonstrate any strong intention to change it. Instead, they describe it as purposeful,
meaningful, and fair. It is reasonable and legitimate that people gain what they desire through
their own diligence. Yet it is problematic that they choose to work hard simply because they
want to fulfill the desire. In other words, diligence is the necessary condition for the
fulfillment of desire, but it is not the sufficient condition, nor vice versa.
Utilitarianism in career planning. Unlike in the 1990s when there were guaranteed
job assignments for college graduates, when the Post-85s graduate from college, they must
find a job themselves. Due to the unprecedented intense competition since the college
expansion plan and the abolishment of the job assignment policy, career planning for
Post-85s has become increasingly utilitarian. Research shows that in terms of occupations
and positions, the most important index that job seekers consider is economic income
(78.4%). In related factors for career choice, 59.6% of the population chose “whether or not
an individual value can be realized” as a significant factor for career planning; 55.6%
identified “power and social status”; 53.7% want an “urban location,” and 32% consider
whether the work experience provides them with better opportunities to go abroad.
There has been a popular advocacy among college students regarding career planning,
which is called the three new “going to’s.” The former three “going to’s” prevailed since the
1950s were: “going to the grassroots, going to the toughest environment, and going to the
most needed areas.” These encouraged youth to devote themselves to the development of the
nation and the public interests of the people. The three new “going to’s,” however,
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completely subverted that advocacy and indicate a strong intention for the success and
pleasure of individuals. These refer to “going abroad, going to economic open zones (coastal
cities with greater openness to the outside world), and going to the areas where you can earn
the greatest amount of money” (Zhang, 2007). Here is an excerpt from an interviewee who
reflected these thoughts:
Question: Why did you work for a foreign company? “They have good
payment. I don’t like state-owned companies. I don’t have a relationship
(Guan Xi), and that I am a woman and I major in engineering. I could hardly
see a bright future in that.”
Utilitarianism in career planning hinders college students from contributing to remote
and under-developed areas, such as the rural and West China zone.
I just know that you wouldn’t be able to have a great future if you stay in the
Northwest. Any student from Tsing Hai province will have the same idea.
That explains why the admission requirement is very high for all the
universities outside this area. In our province, the best university is Lan Zhou
University, but it is still backward compared to other universities. I don’t want
to go to that one either. Even for Xi’an which does not belong to our province
but is close, nobody wanted to go there even if it has a famous university. We
would rather go to the very south, which is far from our home. (Participant E,
April, 2014)
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The Chinese government has promulgated a preferential policy, however, in which
those who volunteer to work in poor areas for one year are guaranteed a chance to enter a
graduate program after they complete the service. That benefit has become the only
motivation for college students to take part in the support program, if any. Otherwise, many
would rather choose to remain unemployed.
Throughout the interviews, I found that although some of the participants have work
experience after graduation, while some have never worked in China, all of them have
thought about applying to a graduate school in China or going abroad to pursue further
education. The key motivations include “for better opportunities,” “to fulfill myself,” “to
improve my living conditions,” “to strive for a better living for my parents and my children,”
and “to escape from the inequity, injustice and unfairness in the Chinese society”.
Below are excerpts from different participants showing a variety of reasons why they
chose to pursue further study overseas. What is similar though, is that the participants came
to the idea of going abroad all by comparing to people around them, such as classmates,
colleagues or family members. The effects that such comparison had on them were either
positive or negative. Some of the participants wanted to follow the steps of the successful
examples they saw in life, while some decided to find a different way out and were ready for
the uncertainty of the future.
I would not stop at a bachelor’s degree. I wanted to go further. I thought
maybe I could learn some technology while practicing my English. My other
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classmates found good jobs after graduation as well, but that cannot explain
everything. Nobody could tell what their future is going to be like.
The main reason I chose to go abroad is because of its good benefits, and I got
that knowledge online. I worked in China, and I had great pressure. I came
here because I heard people say that it would be better here. After I came here,
however, I found things are not what I thought, but there is nothing much that
I could do as I am already here. I do not, however, regret my choice. I want to
immigrate here, and if I have children I would want them to stay here as well.
I chose to study abroad for many reasons. One is that by that time most of my
colleagues had overseas experience. When they talked about their experiences,
they would unconsciously show that they had pretty good memories about that
period. They went to many European countries, like Switzerland, Belgium and
Netherland. It was said that the education system is more advanced as well.
They (my colleagues) all have at least a Master’s degree, or even a Ph.D. I
only have a bachelor’s degree, so I thought I should go further. Another reason
is because of the influence of my friends and family.
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Most of the people around me had started working, or others might go for a
Master’s program if they were really good in school. However, I did have that
idea, and I proposed that to my parents. I told them that my best buddy went to
Canada for a Master’s degree, and my mom told me that if I wanted to go they
would for sure support me.
There is also a shared motivation when Post-85s make those decisions, that is, the
successful example of a role model close to them (such as family member, friend, colleague
or an alumnus). Here again, the most important criteria deciding the value of the role model is
whether s/he is rich and with power.
The following three excerpts are from Participant D who spent a large amount of time
talking about a role model he had since high school. Although it was ten before, he managed
to give all the details of the experience. The emotions of worshipping was unconceivable as
he kept using words of appraisal such as “awesome”, “amazing” and “like paradise”.
He once visited our school with his wife, and sent us a spaceship model which
is over ten meters high. Our school even built a building to commemorate this.
He also brought the most famous astronaut in China to our school. We all
thought that he was awesome . . . .
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Cheng is different. He inspired me that I must study hard to go to a good
university, and if I work harder, I can go to a place just like paradise. When I
was in high school I already knew that Coke and Pepsi taste better than Jian Li
Bao. Those drinks from foreign countries are simply better.
He owned two buildings in Tsinghua. He is amazing. During the 2008
Olympic games, he served as the vice president of the anti-corruption group
that belongs to the Party. I have a deep impression of that person. (Participant
D, April 2014)
Utilitarianism in social activities. Another important demonstration of utilitarianism
among the Post-85s is in social activities, including personal life and relationship building (Li,
2012; Lv, 2007). On the one hand, the population receiving secondary education has
significantly expanded since the 1990s; on the other hand, the internal construction of this
population has become complicated. The differentiation between urban and rural areas,
districts in various development stages, and class differences have exerted a subtle influence
on the Post-85s.
Although I had a great time in my old school, my experience in this elite
school gave me the chance to know the society. There was a comparison
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between the rich and people who are not rich, just like me. They were not only
rich, but also with power. One of my classmates, for example, has a
grandfather who was the Vice Provincial Governor of Hunan. And there were
many similar examples. When I first got in touch with those people, my hands
were tied up. I was at lost. (Participant C, April 2014)
There is a subconscious desire for “being rich” and “being with power” as this
participant expressed his feeling of “at lost”. There is a latent rule and prerequisite among the
Post-85s when they deal with social relations, that is, whether the relationship can be “useful”
to themselves at the current stage or for their future development. That may be seen in the
interviews when participants talked about their life after “entering the society” (most of them
started from college life, some earlier). They also saw benefit-oriented relationship building,
(or Guan Xi in Chinese), as a capacity of which to be proud.
Some would find it hard to deal with Guan Xi at work. I won’t reject that
though. I don’t mind handling Guan Xi and the like. I even like doing so.
However, I do find it exhausting. That is also a reason I chose to go abroad. I
no longer needed to train my skills regarding Guan Xi because I am confident
that I am already very skillful in that. (Participant D, April 2014)
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When it comes to personal life, the Post-85s never bother to hide their utilitarianism
when considering a relationship or even marriage. For example, Participant D put it in a
straightforward manner that he needs a girl friend just for company and for compensation.
We are people with real needs. We are in need of a real person who can stay
by your side and can accompany you. We need someone who would hang out
with you. No matter how convenient communication can be thanks to new
technology, no matter how we can see people on the phone, it is still not the
same as a real person around you.
He also clearly expressed that he did not pursue a girlfriend in high school despite a
strong desire, because it would be “a distraction,” and “an unstable influential factor” which
is very “dangerous” and “nobody will risk it.” When compared to his future long-term benefit
(e.g. entering a good college), any immediate benefits (his desire for love and his own
feelings) must be unquestioningly put aside; however, once he entered college, his attitude
towards personal relationships turned around 180 degrees.
After five years of such torture (being blamed by family and teachers
regarding study life), you have been yearning for a woman, but you never got
one. So as soon as you entered college, you would become desperate for
getting one. Even if you find out at last that love is not what you thought about,
you would still want to have a girlfriend at the beginning no matter what. I
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don’t give a damn. I will find a girlfriend first, no matter what. I did many
things for compensation of my past regrets. Many things.
Participant E expressed a strong sense of disgust as she talked about young Chinese
girls chasing white guys:
I worked for a foreign company, so I had frequent contact with foreigners. I
am not sure whether it was just those engineers (pretty old), but they came
here to do projects, and there would be a lot of young Chinese girls chasing
them. I felt quite ashamed for those girls because those engineers have
families in their home countries. Although they earned good money here in
China, it wasn’t that good when exchanged to foreign currency. They weren’t
very competent. They got hired because they have resources. We need those
resources. Those girls went crazy for them only because they were white. As a
Chinese myself I felt quite ashamed. I would never do that. Those German
guys were too old for me, and they were bald. They were not even
good-looking. I don’t believe that those girls wanted to be with them because
of true love. They seemed to be richer, but they were not.
To interpret her narrative, although she said that she felt ashamed about what the
Chinese girls do, the reason, however, was because “they (the white guys) seemed to be
richer, but they were not.” She also showed evidence to prove that they were not rich. But
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what if they were rich? Things would be different, and what the Chinese girls have done
would then be reasonable. Here, two layers of utilitarianism and superficial values towards
love and marriage can be seen: first, the young Chinese girls are willing to chase “old, bald
and not good-looking” white guys because they are foreigners and appear rich. The basic
reason for such adulation in foreigners is also utilitarianism, as Chinese people believe that
there is a greater chance that foreigners are rich and with power. Second, although this female
interviewee seemed to resist such adulation, she implied her values towards fortune regarding
love life. At the end of the interview, she also expressed her concern about marriage. Unlike
other male participants who did not even mention marriage, P. E stressed that getting married
is one of her top priorities. The excerpt below shows the extra pressure the Chinese culture
has imposed on women:
My biggest concern is about when I can get married. I am not desperate,
though. I just feel that I am the age of getting married. The girl in my family
who married the latest was 32, and I don’t want to be married later than her.
From her words, the motivation for marriage is simple and utilitarian. In China, late
marriage for a woman is considered a shame to the family. She wanted to get married, not
because of love or responsibility, but because if she does not get married at the proper age,
she will be under the pressure of being judged.
By this time, the value “order” of Post-85s regarding relationship building has
become clear: long-term benefits (e.g. entering a good college which may guarantee a bright
future with fortune and power) is always the top priority, followed by short-term benefits
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(personal feelings, e.g. desire for pleasure, need for company, compensation, etc.). “True love”
lies only as the last thing in this value chain, not to mention responsibility for the partner or
serious considerations about setting up a family; this last consideration was not even brought
up in the narratives.
Contributing factors for utilitarianism in Post-85s. Along with the in-depth
implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, and the development of a socialist
market economy, there has been a significant transformation of the values and ideology of
Chinese people who start to pay unprecedented attention to “benefits” (Zhang, 2007).
Brought up in a social environment which emphasizes material benefits and favorable
fortunes, the Post-85s have developed an urgent focus and concern about their living
conditions and realistic interests. The orientation of their values ranged from a focused on
responsibility to utilitarianism. The nature of utilitarianism in Post-85s represents a loss and
confusion of faith, morality, and identification. The main contributing factors are: marketing
of economy, the influence of exam-oriented education, the influence of family, school, peers,
and social morality, the pressure of career development.
Marketizing of economy. One of the leveraging effect of the market economy, and a
driving force prompting the development of such economic mode, is that subjects pursue
material benefits for their own good (Yang, 2001). The projection of the benefit-driven
mechanism on the Post-85s demonstrates an undermining of collectivism and giving
prominence to self-interest. The interviews imply that there is a subtle tendency for Post-85s
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to apply economic theories to social relationship building, such as efficiency analysis and
commodity exchange rules. Within the participants’ life stories, however, diverse forms of
distribution co-exist, and there is an increasing gap of wealth between different areas. Those
have affected the Post-85s directly and indirectly in terms of values and ideology. They tend
to be objective and realistic towards the prevailing policies such as the exam-oriented
educational model. They focus on the cultivation and development of personal competency
and endeavor to secure self interest while pursuing better living conditions for themselves
and their families. Unlike the generation of their parents or earlier, the Post-85s have shifted
their life goals from idealism to realism. Utilitarianism in values is justified.
The influence of exam-oriented education. Within the paradigm of exam-oriented
education, the meaning of and objectives for education have been twisted and reduced to a
tool for passing exams. Getting high scores in exams has been exaggerated and has become
the ultimate goal of education. Academic degrees are over-estimated, thus becoming a
singular label to decide the competency of students. As indicated in the interviews, the
Post-85s have been immersed in the environment of “comparing, simulating, catching up, and
surpassing” in which they focus most of their time and energy on exams as gateways to
higher education. There is a lack of proper instruction in terms of values and culture, which
have resulted in the myopia among the Post-85s regarding ambitious life perspectives. They
tend to choose to cultivate those skills that would be useful for earning more money and
improving their own life conditions. That may narrow down their perceptions of life and the
world, and undermines the values of morality. There is a confusion and even perversion
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regarding the relationship between learning knowledge and learning to be a better person.
The paradigm of exam-oriented education is utilitarian, and it is unlikely that the Post-85s
can stay “clean” from utilitarianism, as they have been immersed in this paradigm throughout
their education in China.
The influence of family, school, peers, and social morality. As discussed in the
previous section on Da Yuan culture, among the Chinese Post-85s there is a circulation of
information conveying values. According to theories on audiences, audiences reproduce
information while they receive information. The effect of role models is also enhanced during
the reproduction process. The Post-85s confirmed their value orientation based on their own
experiences alongside stories of “successful” experiences from their peers. Those experiences
were learned from their families and school, and they also referred to their own experiences.
Guided by the “comparing, simulating, catching up, and surpassing” principle, as well as the
already embedded values of utilitarianism, the Post-85s unconsciously reaffirmed their belief
in benefits.
Another influence of family concerns the return of investment that parents expect
from education. As the generation of Post-85s grows up, education is no longer free. Instead,
parents pay high tuition fees, not to mention the fees they pay to “choose a better school.”
They expect to see a return of such investment after their children graduate. The easiest
measurement for such ROI is by material earnings, which is also taken to evaluate “success.”
While such measurement puts pressure on the Post-85s, they are also willing to prove their
competency through the measurement. Their identification agrees with their parents’ values,
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which enhances the “usefulness” of their actions. When it comes to studying abroad, as the
tuition fee for international students is often triple that of local students, the pressure as well
as the expectation for ROI becomes intensified. It is understandable that little energy is left
for the Post-85s to develop morality and a sense of social responsibility because it is hard to
see immediate benefits in those perspectives.
The pressure of career development. As of this writing in 2015, most of the
Post-85s are in their late 20s or early 30s. In the Chinese tradition, the age of 30 is a
milestone in life. At that age, one is expected to be able to live independently and support
his/her family. However, as the reform and opening-up policy goes deep in implementation,
the employment pressure within the Chinese society have become unprecedentedly intense.
The expansion of college enrollment has catalyzed the pressure for the Post-85s and forced
them to make every effort to stand out. They not only strive to obtain various skill certificates,
but also purposefully accumulate “useful” practical experiences that will lay a foundation for
future job hunting. In China, this is called “gold-plating,” and having an overseas degree
from developed countries is undoubtedly one of these experiences. There is little appraisal of
the quality of such overseas degrees, though. Due to a long embedded worship of the West,
“the foreign (referring to the West)” is qualified to speak for itself, and the “usefulness” of
such a degree is the expectation that it will provide a better chance for the Chinese Post-85s
to win in the competitive job market.
For the reasons above, utilitarianism functions as a basic assumption embedded in the
values of the organization of Post-85s. Within the culture of utilitarianism, in terms of the
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relationship between motivation and effect of actions, only the effects and the benefits that
actions may incur are considered to be of value and worth paying attention to. The action
itself, including moral actions and activities, are not considered independently, but rather as
an instrument or path that lead to the effects and benefits.
Survival of the Fittest
A significant reason that utilitarianism has long been embedded in the values of the
Post-85s and remains unchallenged is their firm belief in the rule of survival of the fittest.
That is also used as a justification for utilitarianism.
The theory that evolution guarantees the survival of the fittest was introduced to
China in the late Qing Dynasty. At that time, China was suffering from the invasion of eight
foreign imperialist powers and was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. The
Chinese nation was at a historical point where its existence was in crisis. Enlightened by the
spirit of democracy and science from the West, a group of Chinese scholars started the
Constitutional Reform and Modernization Movement, which advocated transforming the
Chinese political system from a feudal autocratic monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. The
Emperor Daoguang supported and participated in the movement.
Fu Yan (1854-1921), an important official of the Dynasty, was also one of the Reform
scholars. He translated advanced works from the West including Huxley’s (1896) Evolution
and Ethics, and Spencer’s (1897) The Study of Sociology. Mao Zedong commented upon Yan
as “the pioneer who seeks truth from the West before the birth of the Communist Party” (Hu,
2014). Yan’s theories stress the power of nature as the “rule.” He borrowed from biological
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evolutional theory and applied it to illustrate the sociological reform of China. His theories
played a significant role in promoting the Reform and Modernization Movement. Qichao
Liang (1902), leader of the Constitutional Reform and Modernization, extracted from Yan’s
theory of evolution and made the statement that “all creatures in the world compete with one
another, and the nature chooses the fittest to let them survive.” The theory of evolution was
regarded as a scientific rule and was highly appreciated by those pioneer intellectuals who
were awakened from the backwardness of the autocratic monarchy.
That is justifiable considering the specific historical and political context. Compared
to feudalism, which had been ruling and suppressing the Chinese people for thousands of
years, the theory of evolution symbolized the equality of all kinds of life. Together with
democracy and scientific spirit, the theory of survival of the fittest had been taken as
“advanced” and enlightened Chinese people to take actions to save the nation from the
invasion of imperialist powers.
Compared to Huxley, Spencer’s theory has a more profound and lasting effect on the
values and ideologies of Chinese people since it was introduced by Yan (Xu, 2010; Zhang &
Wang, 2007, 2013). Social Darwinism provided a path towards a prosperous and thriving
nation for China through competition and evolution as demonstrated in the biological world.
The theory became integrated with Chinese traditional values such as humanistic pragmatism
in Confucianism, and was advocated by the Legalists as enriching military forces to make the
country powerful against invasion, which pumped up a frenzy of materialism and
utilitarianism in modern China. Social Darwinism subverted the traditional order based upon
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ethical morality and replaced it as the order of power through competition. The new national
identity featuring power had a positive effect that prompted the Chinese people to fight for
freedom from imperialist powers in the 1900s. However, the order based on power and
competition devaluated ethical morality, leading to severe political consequences. Such order
created the Republic of China (1912-1949), but destroyed republicanism; it generated power
and materials, but destroyed civilization (Xu, 2010).
Over one hundred years have passed, and that theory has been deeply embedded in
the values and ideologies of Chinese people. The interpretation of “survival” and “the fittest”
has deviated from its original meaning, and has directly and indirectly resulted in vicious
competition, utilitarianism, and ignorance toward emotions and humanity (Cai, 2012; Gao &
Yang, 2002; Lin, 2014; Liu, 1994).
In the interviews, the participants demonstrate a firm belief in the theory of survival
of the fittest. It is problematic, though, in terms of how they define “the fittest.”. Their
interpretation of “the fittest” is based on their belief in utilitarianism. “Fitting into the society”
means those who can obtain the best of benefits and interests from the society. The role
models whom those Post-85s follow are either in high office of the “system” (the Party), or
among the upper class who are earning a significant fortune (refer to Participant B). In short,
in the eyes of the Post-85s, “the fittest” are those with power and fortune. There is one
justification for that illustrated in the interviews; the participants all demonstrate that they
strive to be the fittest through hard work and through relationship building. They seek to gain
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power and fortune through “fair” competition, and in that way their survival may be perfectly
justifiable.
On the surface this survival seems to be reasonable, yet in fact it stresses again the
simplistic and materialized values and assumptions on action and effects which have guided
the Post-85s to make life decisions with little consideration of ethical morality or their own
feelings and emotions. In the interviews, the Post-85s indicate their mental processes when
deciding whether an action should be taken. The decision is made after critical thinking.
Although some scholars have argued that the Chinese Post-85s lack critical thinking, actually
they are adept to performing it throughout their life experiences. Then what is wrong?
The nature of criticality?
Critical pedagogues such as Paulo Freire, Joe Kincheloe, Shirley Steinberg, and
Henry Giroux take criticality as a spirit, a trait, and a way of seeking meaning out of life and
the world. It is also a discourse that encourages people to challenge and to change the belief
systems and power structures featuring distortions, injustice, and inequity. According tot hese
scholars, criticality is a paradigm in which possibilities can be open and dialogues can be
built. Discussions can be instigated on what has been said and what needs to be said. In
Giroux (1988)’s view, what has been missing in education is not “a language of critique,” but
“a language of possibility” (Giroux, 1988, 111-112; also see Nicolas et al, 1999). That is also
what the current Chinese style of education has failed to stress, and what has been missing
throughout the educational experience of the Post-85s.
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In Chinese academia, the theoretical development of the interpretation and
implementation of criticality in education is visible only at a superficial level compared to
North America. Two decades ago, critical pedagogues in North America argued for an
“alternative” way of reflecting criticality as a “practice”:
In addition to these logical and analytical skills, we would emphasize that
criticality also involves the ability to think outside a framework of
conventional understandings; it means to think anew, to think differently. This
view of criticality goes far beyond the preoccupation with not being deceived.
There might be worse things than being mistaken; there may be greater
dangers in being only trivially or banally "true." Ignorance is one kind of
impotence; an inability or unwillingness to move beyond or question
conventional understandings is another. This is a point that links in some
respects with Freire’s desire to move beyond an "intransitive consciousness,"
and with Giroux’s call for a "language of possibility." (Nicolas et al, 1999)
At this level, criticality goes well beyond a skill or even a practice and becomes a
paradigm in which there is no standardized framework for understanding. In the case of the
Post-85s, utilitarianism and survival of the fittest represent basic assumptions and values.
Such assumptions and values have been embedded in them as a standardized framework of
understanding. This framework is like a circle drawn around one’s waist, and no matter how
hard he tries, he will never jump out of this circle.
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The only way to escape from that constraint is to change the paradigm. The circle
drawn around the waist must be seen and then challenged.
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CHAPTER 8: CONTRADICTIONS: CULTURAL EMBEDDEDNESS AND
CULTURAL IDENTIFICATION
In the last chapter, I interpreted the transcripts from the interviews and revealed a
culture pattern shared by the Post-85s. The basic values and assumptions prevailing in this
self-organizing group are 1) utilitarianism, a material benefit and realistic interest driven
value orientation; 2) survival of the fittest, an embedded assumption that through competition,
only those who could rake in social properties to the largest extent, or those who manage to
occupy the highest positions, are “the fittest,” and deserve to survive in the society. Those
basic values and assumptions, together with the simplistic philosophical belief that “hard
work leads to positive outcomes,” form a unique cultural paradigm of the Post-85s. This
cultural paradigm plays a decisive role whenever the Post-85s evaluate things they encounter
in life, as well as whether an action is worth taking.
We don’t have that much of social property. However, I want that, and I think
we should have that. That’s why I have to fight. I saw the difficulties and
challenges of life when I was young. I learned that it is very hard for my
parents to live a decent life in the society. I also realized that it is unlikely for
you to change the environment. You have to be a wolf and to hunt as much as
you can. (Participant D, April 2014)
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Religion is one thing that Post-85s encounter in their lives in Canada, and their
attitudes towards religion and its derivatives reflect the operation of the cultural paradigm.
They take advantage of religion instead of believing in it. They choose which religion to use
to their advantage. Due to the embedded belief in the “advancement” of the West, they
predominantly choose Christianity over other religions by default.
When talking about Western religions, I know that Christianity is the normal
one, and Catholic. Catholic is standard as well. I never heard of the words
fundamentalism or evangelicalism. It is just Christianity. The one that believes
Jesus is God. Of course it is a Western religion. (Participant D, April 2014)
I simply believed that all those foreigners who believe in religion are noble,
and that they wouldn’t care much about money and benefits. (Participant E,
April 2014)
When the participants talked about “other” religions, they demonstrated a
discriminatory attitude, possibly due to ignorance. Because those “other” religions are not
embedded in their beliefs as “mainstream,” they were more easily influenced by one-sided
public opinions that focus on the negative image of those religions. For example, one
participant expressed his “objective” view of “mainstream” religions and “cults.” He took the
negative image of Islam to support his opinion.
You should do good deeds without expecting to benefit from it. That is truth.
If you have the opportunity to help other people, you should do it. Those are
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advocated in mainstream religions, at least on appearance. Even Islam would
never encourage people to commit murder. Some extremists may kill because
they think that they are protecting something, but that is not mainstream. That
is cult. That is making religion an excuse. That kind of religion is meaningless.
(Participant D, April 2014)
In this participant’s opinion, it is obvious that Christianity is mainstream because he
chooses a positive opinion about this religion and believes that at least it is a religion
designed to “help other people,” no matter whether in appearance or not. He did not realize,
however, the negative image of Islam can be only in appearance as well. His judgment is
based on a subconscious assumption of inequality from which he chooses to see only the
positive image of Christianity, but only the negative image of “other” religions such as Islam.
The reason for that, again, is the long embedded assumption that the West is advanced.
The Post-85s are not serious believers of Christianity. First, they lack a profound
understanding of the religion itself and its denominations:
When I first came here, I was pretty weak emotionally, and I would follow
others to go to the church. That includes churches of the English people,
Chinese and the Guang Dong group. I have been to all the churches around the
campus. I have no idea what denomination those churches belong to.
(Participant C, April 2014)
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The participants were honest and did not tend to hide their ignorance towards the
Christian religion:
“I never heard of the words fundamentalism or evangelicalism. It is just Christianity.
The one that believes Jesus is God.”
“Does Christianity have denomination?”
The Post-85s knowledge about the religion of Christianity is limited to “Western.” They
may even confuse Catholicism and Christianity, not to mention fundamentalism,
evangelicalism and other denominations. This confusion laid a foundation for
fundamentalists to embed their values and culture into the group of Post-85s, under the mask
of “Western” and “Christianity.” The subtle embeddedness of Christotainment is a perfect
example.
Second, the Post-85s in general have a neutral and even negative attitude towards
religion and missionary work:
When I was a child I used to see those people standing on the street handing
out pamphlets, selling religion to people around. Elder people tend to be
converted more easily, especially old ladies. They would tell me how
wonderful it would be if I convert to religion. I felt they were insane and not
making any sense. I wouldn’t buy that. All my family members are atheists.
We believe that what Confucius said was right. He said that a noble person
won’t talk about mysterious things. I would never believe in that stuff.
(Participant E, April 2014)
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She also expressed a clear delineation between serious religious people and those
non-religious Chinese who go to church:
“Many Chinese people who go to church may find it boring. Are they serious? Are
they religious? Of course not. Those real religious people may not be so superficial and
earthly.”
Similarly, Participant B and Participant D illustrated in the following excerpts their
adversative opinions towards those who use religion to fool the people and to serve their own
needs:
When talking about Christianity, there are two things I know about it: one is
indulgence, the other is the Crusades. The first one is about the Pope, and that
is Catholic. I cannot believe that they would tell people to believe in them
because they could communicate to God. For me that is cult. That is why I
hold prejudice about Christianity. Well, what I said about this religion might
bring me bad luck. I am still, however, repelling any religion that has reduced
to a controlling tool for the dominating party.
The indication regarding religion and the history are negative. My parents
taught me a lot on that. Both of them are communist, and they have their own
way to break the federalism and superstition. They told me that all religions
are cheating people. They are tools to benefit something…All religions were
being made use of…like religions and ideologies are all tools created by the
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authorities to shape your values. Some people might buy it and become
“stupid followers.” The main functions of that stuff are for maintaining
societal stability and to make people compliant to the dominating force.
In the interviews, the Post-85s indicated an attitude of alienation towards religion in
general. When I listened to what the interviewees said about religion, it felt familiar because
the words they used were the words used by my parents and teachers as well. “Religions are
the tools that the dominating power takes to control its people.” That sentence is also written
in textbooks of the social sciences for elementary schools, history, politics for junior and high
schools, and philosophy for college level education. In China, education is guided by Marxist
materialism, which is considered to be “scientific, revolutionary and practical,” and the
curriculum is designed by the Ministry of Education led by the Communist Party. Textbooks
are prescribed, and there are no options for schools or for teachers to choose from. The
exam-oriented mode reinforced the use of those textbooks because all the exams are designed
according to the content included, and creativity is not appreciated as there is only one set of
“standard answers.” The quotes about religion in the textbooks are a “standard answer” which
has been taught throughout all educational levels, from elementary school to college.
Gradually, it has been embedded in the students who received such education, and finally
became their own attitude.
Although most of the Post-85s hold a negative and “critical” attitude towards religions
and their affiliated manifestations such as missionary work, they are not opposed to the
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transformed religions of entertainment and media that is accessible to the public such as
movies, songs and so on. On the first level, they may not notice that there are transformed
religious elements; on the second level, when brought up, they may realize that those
religious elements do exist, yet they see those elements as different from “real” religion and
generally hold that those should not be considered as religious. On the third level, they do not
realize that the transformed religion may have any serious effects on them and tend to treat it
lightly or even ignore it.
When I asked Participant D whether he has participated in Christian events in China,
he said firmly, “No, I exclude that.” However, when I asked later whether he has had any
experience watching or hearing religious elements in public media, his attitude changed:
(Can you remember anything in popular culture that has religious elements in
it?) Of course, the movie Noah’s Ark. I am so impressed by the visual effects
in that film and I love it! Of course I will pay to watch that. Other movies like
the Seven Sins, or the Da Vinci Code, the Fighting Club, there are cool things
in the movies. Those things may get you excited, same as sex. They are same
in essence, just to different extents.
You gain pleasure. You gain pleasure through drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, sex,
or reading. You do things to gain pleasure. I don’t think that stuff from mass
media is brain washing. They are not powerful tools to promote religion. Even
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if there is something religious in the movies, it is nothing but general
knowledge. For example, the Seven Sins, it just tells people that you cannot
commit those sins. What impact those films may have depends on how the
audiences take it. For those serious Christians, what they get from the films
may be to be more committed to God, but for people like me, they are nothing
but films. It is nothing different than talk shows. How can talk shows educate
people?
Well, they just tell you that you cannot do bad things, and that is general,
nothing special. Also like the film Noah’s Ark, it is simply a story in which
many animals are sharing a boat in the sea. I watched it because of the visual
effect. I won’t reject those films as long as they are not simply promoting
religion.
Such attitudes provide a perfect opportunity for Christotainment to embed in the
values and ideologies as “culture” instead of religion. According to the theory of cultural
embeddedness, there is one variation in which culture embeds in culture. Christotainment as a
culture has found its way to embed in the organizational culture of the Post-85s. In the last
chapter, I interpreted the core values of the organizational culture of the Post-85s as
utilitarianism and survival of the fittest. Intrinsically, such culture is the culture of servility
and strategy, both of which are intrinsically defective.
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The servile culture incurs the deficit of human dignity. As indicated from its literal
meaning, the servile culture cultivates slaves and servants instead of nobles. The nobles
pursue independent ideology and individual personality, whereas what the servile culture
nurtures lacks the capacity of thinking independently, not to mention cultivating individual
personality with dignity. Although the Post-85s demonstrate the process of critical thinking,
they base their decisions on comparisons with other people and the evaluation of social
standards. The participants in the interviews all expressed their desire to imitate and later
become successful role models because role models hold the majority of social wealth and
power. In addition, they are honored by the Post-85s as “the fittest.” Contrary to traditional
Chinese culture, in which nobility features imperviousness to the temptation of wealth and
high position (Menci reference?), the servile culture produces those who willingly submit
their dignity, playing up to those “fittest” people in their eagerness to become one finally. In
such a cultural paradigm, that is not considered as shameful, and nobility loses its original
meaning.
The culture of strategy, on the other hand, brings the deficit of morality and integrity
which are crucial to the spirit of nobility. The culture of strategy honors manipulation, and the
definition of victory is superficial and one directional, easily morphing into a
make-or-break outlook. Fame and fortune is the only gauge of success, and people
are unfairly sorted into high, middle, or low social strata. Results instead of process are overemphasized and over-estimated; all methods are justifiable as long as they can be utilized to
reach the final results. In comparison, principles and morality are left behind, or even
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abandoned if considered as a barrier to “the final success.” Based on the twisted judgment of
wins and losses, the culture of strategy develops “Xiao Ren” instead of “Jun Zi,” and forms a
social identification of Xiao Ren over Jun Zi, which subverts the traditional values for Jun Zi.
The culture of servility and strategy determines the weakness and darkness deep
inside the Post-85s, and explains their values, desires, and actions. As the Post-85s started to
enter their 30s, they represented the fresh troops who later will become the main force for the
development of China. The culture among Post-85s is also a vital representative of the
national culture of future China. However, such culture featuring servility and strategy
exposed the deficit of the national characteristics, which may result in the weakness of
cultural identity for the nation as a whole. The weakness is demonstrated in two layers.
First, on the micro layer, it is hard for individuals to obtain steadfast strength from
morality. Morality under such circumstances is unlikely to reach the level of infinite faith.
Although the Post-85s believe in utilitarianism and survival of the fittest, such beliefs are
only functional under certain contexts. In other words, the beliefs are uncertain because of the
nature of uncertainty itself. The prerequisite of utilitarianism is utility, and the prerequisite for
survival of the fittest is fitting in. In this sense, when the belief lacks utility or is no longer
fitting into the changing context, it can be abandoned. Such beliefs, which are not based on
morality, will remain unsteady, and that is why there is social discussion about the lack of (do
you mean religious faith?) faith in the current culture of China. Here the word “faith” is not
limited to religious belief, but also a systemized value and ideology. There is a popular
sentence pattern in idiomatic Chinese that says, “How much is … per jin (approximately half
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kilogram)?” That idiom is mostly used to mock something that cannot be measured. One
prevailing example is “How much is morality per jin?” In public opinion, some conclude that
morality in China will not reach as far as a circumference of 30 li (1 li = 500 meters). Within
the circumference live family members, relatives, and friends, and so everybody knows when
one commits immoral deeds; however, as long as they step outside the circumference, they no
longer interact with people with whom they are familiar. As the restrictions no longer work,
they may do whatever they want without consideration of morality.
On the second layer, it will be hard for the Chinese nation as a whole to gather an
influential collective sense of justice. This national cohesion requires two prerequisites: one
is the sense of justice shared by each individual of the nation; the other is a common value
which has a justice bias for the nation as a whole. Both prerequisites must be supported by a
firm faith, through which individuals acquire a sense of justice as well as the fortitude to
stand up for justice no matter what the circumstances in which they are situated. Through
shared faith, the nation as a whole may cultivate values that appreciate justice, and thus form
the strength of national cohesion. In some nations and cultures, religions can function to
enhance national cohesion, but throughout the history of China, there has never been a
leading and mainstream religious belief that could take on the role.
The Chinese culture is a bricolage of ideologies. Although Confucianism and
Mencianism have prevailed for over two thousand years, they still cannot be considered as a
state-sanctioned religion. It is too difficult to decide which school of theories represents the
core of Chinese culture because there have been too many variation of thoughts; to name a
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few—Confucianism, Mencianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Legalists, and modern theories
introduced from the West, as well Marxism—all take a place and have played a dominant role
in certain historical times. There are also a variety of established principles, such as the
principles for women, the principle of changes, the principle of morality and actions, which
guide the ideologies and behaviors of the Chinese people towards different directions from
the West. Chinese literature and legends have the greatest number of gods and goddesses of
any culture, and there are numerous temples for all of them. The Chinese people worship all
the gods and goddesses, yet they are not serious believers of any of them. They are constantly
in a dubious status regarding their faith and belief.
Due to the uncertainty of faith, the Chinese culture is full of contradictions. Different
individuals may worship different gods and goddesses, and everyone has his/her own reasons,
which explains why Chinese people are skillful in internecine struggle. Different interest
groups see themselves as the symbol of truth and justice and thus do not compromise with
others. Violence then becomes the easiest solution. There have been constant comparisons
and struggles between families, clans, and parties. The comparisons and struggles never
represent just the struggles between opposites or contradictions. The peak is the Cultural
Revolution, during which there were fierce struggles within the same school of thought,
which can be regarded as the extreme of internecine struggles.
The life story interviews demonstrate various struggles and contradictions in the
culture of the Post-85s. The contradictions involve four key aspects: the contradictions within
the characteristics and behaviors of the Post-85s; the contradictions regarding attitudes
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towards the current status quo in China; the contradictions about their attitudes towards the
West and Western culture, as well as their own choice to live abroad.
The Contradictions of Characteristics and Behaviors of the Post-85s
A Lack of Subject Consciousness Versus Self-Protection Awareness
The awakening and development of subject consciousness is a significant symbol of
human society’s progress of civilization (Gao, 2010). The younger generations of China, such
as the Post-85s, however, share a common deficit in subject consciousness. They lack a
holistic perspective of self-consciousness and tend to be passive rather than take initiative.
They are also incompetent in self-reflection, self-supervision and self-criticizing (Zheng,
2005). The exam-oriented mode of education as well as the misleading of traditional Chinese
culture with patriarchy and hierarchy has played a crucial role in forming such deficits
throughout the self-development of the younger generation in China.
In the interviews, for example, Participant C used to be considered outstanding before
high school, and thus was given priority for better educational opportunities such as going to
a better school without taking an entrance exam. As he talked proudly about his experience, I
asked about what made him outstanding; he simply attributed it to “talent,” which was
granted at birth:
“The reason for that is my talent. I was gifted and blessed when I was born.”
He never mentioned his own passion and devotion to his study. He believed that he
managed to be outstanding because of luck instead of his own efforts; however, when he
talked about his life after he entered high school, which was not as ideal, he blamed himself:
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“I was lost. I didn’t make it. I didn’t handle it well.”
Rather than gaining self-confidence, the Chinese mode of education has taught
students to be self-abasing so that when they become frustrated, they blame themselves rather
than criticizing the environment that prompted their misery.
Habitual self-abasement has also contributed to extra sensitivity for self-protection
among the Post-85s. What they have endeavored to do is to protect their self-esteem, their
“face.” That has been a crucial motivation as they made important life decisions, such as
going abroad. In the interviews, many participants consciously or unconsciously showed that
they chose to go abroad so that they could be considered as “successful” by the people around
them, thus gaining vanity compared to their peers. Comparison has always been a life theme
for the Post-85s. They realize their self value by comparing themselves with others. They find
their own identities based upon the judgment of other people as well. The contradictions of
lacking self-consciousness and being overly self-protective have contributed to the
vulnerability and the uncertainty of their identity.
Anti-Indoctrination Versus Implicit Learning and Internalization
Gao (2011) has published a best seller with the name of How to Appreciate the
Post-80s, in which he questioned the prejudice towards Post-80s in China as the “rebellion.”
He justified the “rebellious” behaviors of this generation and claimed that the old-fashioned,
mechanical indoctrination triggered an aversion among the Post-80s, no matter whether such
indoctrination came from parents, teachers, or from any social contacts.
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Within the interviews, this aversion can be seen in participants’ doubts about the
political advocacy propagated by the government. Even though they were obliged to study
and recite it in textbooks, these “rebels” did not take it seriously. They may have appeared to
be docile, though, and followed the rules in order to get scores in exams. In other words, the
indoctrination merely worked when it was related to utility and benefits.
Also when asked about their attitudes towards traditional religious rituals or
missionary work, all the Post-85s participants clearly expressed an aversion against it. They
even used the words such as “stupid,” “deceptive,” and “ridiculous,” to stress their disgust. In
contrast, however, they were never opposed to the implicit embeddedness of political,
religious or cultural note, which has given the opportunity for those to become internalized
within the values and ideologies of the Post-85s. The embeddedness of Christotainment is a
good example. While the Post-85s see it as merely entertainment and welcome it for pleasure,
it has successfully embedded the note of West superiority inside the Post-85s, and later
became the normalized values and culture honored by this generation. The contradictions in
the ways the Post-85s deal with external information has provided a context in which the
silent discourse of Christotainment subtly comes into play.
Emotion Versus Rationality: Thoughts And Practice
Another pair of contradictions noticeable within the characteristics of the Post-85s is
emotion and rational, representing a contradiction in their thoughts and practices. Gao (2011)
commented on Post-80s as “the enlightened generation” and also “the most realistic
generation.” An (2008) described the Post-85s as “empathetic, passionate and having a great
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longing for a bright future” in nature; however as they stepped into society and began to fight
for survival, they experienced “confusion, misunderstanding, frustration” (p.42), and may
have gotten lost in the dazzling material world. Their emotions called for them to pursue the
integrity of life. They longed for love as well as loving from their families, friends, and even
the society and the nation. The pressure of surviving, however, drew them back to reality and
made them servants of benefits. Emotionally, they love their homeland, but in practice, they
utilize any resources available to them in order to be rid of that very homeland.
In the interviews, all six participants demonstrated strong emotions towards their
hometown, and their homeland, China, but when asked whether they would devote
themselves to the development of this land, they coincidentally all reached a negative
agreement. Rationality forbids them from reasoning based on emotion, thus they would not
risk their own future to a vague vision of the “prosperity” of their hometowns nor their home
country. Their actions are consistent with the rationality motivated by the embedded values of
utilitarianism; that is why they are here in Canada, yet deep within their thoughts and
emotions, they still consider China as their root. As Participant B indicated at the end of his
interview:
To be honest, if my home country was well developed and everybody would
easily find a job, who would choose to leave their home? It is the same with
those going to (bigger cities like) Beijing and Shanghai. Your family and
friends are all back at your hometown. Who would leave them and go out for
no reason? If they were at the same level I would choose to stay in my
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hometown. But the fact is that the gap is too big. Therefore I gave it up.
However my root is still in my hometown.
Contradictions in Attitude Towards the Status Quo in China
When it comes to the status quo in China regarding the socio-political environment,
education mode, and cultural settings, the Post-85s hold contradictory attitudes as well. The
interviews illustrate their struggles.
The Judgment Towards Injustice Versus Justice
As the enlightened generation, the Post-85s have realized that injustice exists in China,
and their understanding towards problematic phenomena grows more holistic and in-depth as
they enter society and have real life experiences (such as working). When asked about why
they chose to leave their home to go abroad, they agreed that the socio-political system in
China has fatal deficits; thus, for ordinary people, little chance is given to live an easy life,
not to mention reaching the utmost of fortune and power. The participants had a clear vision
of the morbidity of the system, meaning they are more likely to struggle for survival
throughout their lives.
Although the characteristics of the Post-85s may be constituted by contradictions,
they are hardly committed to their characteristics. The weakness and uncertainty that lies
deep within their nature cause self-abasement makes them skeptical of their own vision. They
habitually blame themselves when they fail at certain points in life, without questioning the
environment that prompts such failure. In that way, they unconsciously justify the injustice
and even normalize injustice as “how things work.” They merely blame themselves for not
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meeting the “requirements” of the society. One example is their justification for the
exam-oriented education mode in China. In the interviews, all six participants agreed that this
mode is far from perfect, but on the other hand, they all see it as the best option for Chinese
people because to some extent it provides “equal opportunity” for all students to be
successful, whatever their socio-economic backgrounds:
If you are from a poor family, you still have the chance to go to a good
university as long as you study hard enough. You are the only person to blame
if you fail in the entrance exam. You would fail because you didn’t work hard
enough. (Participant E, April 2014)
The Post-85s have subconsciously chosen to neglect the injustice within this “relevant”
justice; for example, those children from families of the dominant class do not even have to
go through the cruel competition of all the exams and may still be able to obtain with little
effort what the students from poor or ordinary families have to fight for. People tend to
become used to injustice when they are immersed in it for too long. In that sense they are
grateful for even the smallest aspects of “justice” and thus satisfied. This trick has a similar
function as granting alms to those who are starving to death. Why would they have time and
energy to challenge the injustice that has made their life miserable?
Yielding to What Was Given Versus the Desire for Change and the Longing for
Advanced Social Systems
As the Post-85s justify injustice as justice, they choose to yield to what was provided
to them. They cherish the opportunity to study. They cherish the competition and selection
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they have faced throughout their education in China. They cherish the “freedom” granted by
the government to go abroad, compared to the closing-down policies during the Cultural
Revolution. As Participant E said,
Think about those people who lived in the 1960s; they never even got the
chance to go to school because of the Cultural Revolution. They didn’t even
have enough food to eat. Ask yourself, what kind of youth was that? Why are
you still not satisfied?
Habitually, they constantly compare It is interesting, though, that in the interviews,
they rarely compared themselves with those who have power and fortune. They compared
themselves with those people who encountered more severe injustices, so as to justify the
injustices they have encountered. In that way, they found excuses for yielding to what has
been given to them, and they found excuses for not challenging and keep silent.
To turn to the other side of the contradiction, they have a strong desire for change, and
they long for a more advanced system of social justice. When asked why they think that the
West is more developed and advanced, all the participants mentioned that they believe that
the social system in the West is superior; however, as I probed more deeply and asked them
where they gained that idea, none of them gave me a clear answer. That shows how the
insidious embeddedness of Western superiority has functioned to shape the ideologies of the
Post-85s. In fact, that belief has become part of the Post-85s. They think that way.
That represents a significant motivation that has driven them to leave China and go to
Canada. They are not wasting their time trying to make a change to the status quo of China
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because they believe that it cannot be changed with the effort of a single individual. They
chose to escape from it and go for an illusionary “advanced” social system in the West.
Although they were disillusioned after they came to Canada and saw the reality of the West,
the long embedded way of thinking still allows them to believe that the West is better than
China, and they start to justify that ideology the way they used to justify injustice in China.
None of the participants in the interviews expressed regret for the decision they have made to
go abroad, although they all admitted that the real life here is far less ideal than they thought
it would be before they came to Canada. It is no wonder that they blame themselves for that.
The Contradictions Regarding Attitudes Towards the West, Western Culture, and
Living Abroad
In talking about the West, the participants demonstrated complex feelings. It is
interesting that when asked directly their impression about “the West,” they all held a neutral
or even negative attitude, but when asked about “products of the West,” “systems of the West,”
and “Western people,” their attitude shifted 180 degrees. As they told their life stories, they
unintentionally showed a strong admiration and even adulation for Western culture.
Anti-West versus adulation towards the West. When asked what their impressions
towards the West are, and whether they think the West is more advanced and superior,
participants expressed patriotism and nationalism. Below are two examples:
But overall what foreign means to us is “confrontation.” For example, when
China was applying to be seated in World Trade Organization, it was the U.S.
who was always creating difficulties. We were always oppressed by the
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Western countries, and we stand against them. Our priority task is to surpass
the U.S., as they are our main enemy. When I was a child I never admired the
West because I had no clue about what life is like for their people.
(Did you have the opinion that the foreign is better than China?) “No . . . I didn’t have
much impression about the foreign.”
The following examples show the contradictory opinions they hold for Western
people and culture:
In my impression, they were tall and strong. I don’t have any bad impression. I
also believed that they must be rich . . . I don’t know why I had that
impression. I just had that feeling that they must be well educated. I always
believe that the more educated you are, the richer you should be.
(Why do you think that the West is good and that Western culture is
mainstream?) Because they are advanced. I have my own experience, and I
also heard about it as well. The main reason is that they are rich. They have
that economic power, so that their culture is mainstream. I have had that
impression since when I was a kid. Even in our textbook they would say that
we have to do better than Europe and than North America, which means we
are not as good as them now. Otherwise we don’t need to do better.
199
In the interviews, the participants also gave out a strong positive attitude towards
Western products, social environment, political system and education, yet there is no
evidence that they did in-depths research before jumping to the conclusions. The positive
impression was formed through words they heard from others.
“I only know that it was expensive and was from the foreign, and that was enough to
made it good . . . I only believed that the education should be better.”
“Besides, I wanted to come here as well, because it is good here . . . because
everybody said that it is good.”
“The political system here would prevent bad things from happening, but there was no
such system in China.”
“It was said that education system is more advanced as well.”
The transcripts above reveal the superficiality of the thoughts of those Post-85s
towards the West. Rather than basing their attitudes on real life experiences, their positive
attitudes and admiration is based on hearsay and their own imaginary. They had negative life
experiences as they confronted injustices in China. They then, by default, drew the imaginary
vision they have towards the West and unconsciously realized that vision as if it were real. In
this way, the long embedded value of West superiority has been reaffirmed. The process of an
illusion gradually becoming a real life vision is abnormal and preposterous. In such an
imagined vision, the Post-85s have taken what is psychological as physical, and have been
living in a world they built within their subjectivity. They feel confident about what they
believe, and interpret what they have encountered according to those beliefs without
200
exploring in-depth what things actually are. The reality has been replaced by internalized
illusions of reality created by the Post-85s themselves, similar to the way some psychiatric
patients live in their dreamed world, losing fundamental connections with the objective
world.
Explicit religion versus implicit religion. Contradictions exist when the Post-85s
deal with explicit religion versus implicit religion. That has been illustrated in the previous
chapters of this thesis. To add to the previous discussion, after they came to Canada, the
Post-85s still treated church events as community events in which they had opportunities to
practice English, seek entertainment, and conduct social networking. Far from treating those
events as serious religious rituals, they see them as “cultural” phenomena at most and have
little concern that such culture might have a profound effect on their values. Neither did they
doubt that they would someday convert to Christianity. What is ironic, though, is that only
one year has passed since I conducted the interviews, and as I talked to the participants
recently to get updates from them for this on-going research, they honestly admitted that they
have been constantly attending church events; even for traditional Chinese festivals such as
the New Year, they would go to church to celebrate it. Out of the six participants, two of them
now admit that they see themselves as Christian, and they also told me that many of their
peers who used to attend church events with them just for fun and socializing have now
converted as well. I was not surprised, as I understand that the implicit religion has always
been functioning in a subtle way under the cover of culture.
201
Attitudes towards Christianity in China versus in Canada. The Post-85s hold a
contradictory attitude towards Christianity in China compared to that in Canada. Take
Participant E for example. I asked her about her impression of the Christianity she has seen in
China; she responded with a tone of contempt, and made jokes from time to time as she
recalled her experience seeing Chinese elderly standing on the street giving pamphlets to
passengers and dragged them to convert.
At that time she was sure that she would not participate in the religious events in
China; however, her attitude towards Christianity changed after she came to Canada. She
went to church events, and she brought her partner as well as her friends with her. She saw as
“culture,” “a community event.” For participant E, Christianity in China is neither fish nor
fowl because it is not what has been embedded in the Chinese culture.
What is weird is that we Chinese people, we did not grow up in a Christian
culture, and we know nothing about that religion, but after you came here you
could easily be converted. How weird is that?
She believes that Christianity in Canada is justifiable because that is part of the
Western culture. The contradiction here is that she finds it “weird” for Chinese people to take
part in religious events in China, yet for her it is reasonable to participate in church events in
Canada, which she did. Also, while she finds it “insane” to convert to Christianity, she never
stopped chasing the “fashion” of this religion as a “culture;” she said she once dreamed of
having a church wedding in China. What is casuing such contradictions are the long
embedded values of Western superiority. Compared to the “Western” style of Christianity,
202
which she sees as legitimate, the “Chinese” style of Christianity is only a cheap
copy—“insane” and “weird.” Again she has unintentionally shown the embedded value that
anything Western is advanced.
Imaginary image of the West versus real life experience: Contradictory identities.
Before the Post-85s left China for Canada, they all had an imaginary image about the
West. They built up that image according to hearsay from the people around them, as well as
from media productions imported from the West. The embedded value of West superiority has
been working to process and sublime the hearsay and the media production and finally
transform it into an illusion of Utopia. As participant D said, before he came to Canada, the
West to him was “like heaven.” That illusion motivated the Post-85s to make the life decision
to leave their families and home country to go to Canada.
What is the life experience of Post-85s in Canada once they step on the land of the
West? In the interviews, all six participants clearly expressed that life is not the same as they
imagined here in Canada. The reality has brought them down to earth from their illusion of
the West as heaven. Research shows that Chinese students who study in North America have
encountered to different extents loneliness, isolation, and implicit racial discrimination,
which has resulted in many psychological problems such as study fatigue, self-abasement,
203
social anxiety, and even OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and depressive disorder (Li &
Pang, 2010).
Despite the negative reflections, none of the participants regretted their choice to go
abroad. Their life in Canada is the life they chose. If they keep it secret, nobody else has a
clue about the difficulties and challenges they have experienced. They will still be the pride
of their parents and their family. Since the students’ main social network abroad remains in
China, they will still be looked up upon in their social circles as “the ones who have been to
the West.”
Participant F used to be a college professor in a coastal city in China that is more
economically advanced than some other cities. He gave up his career and family in China and
went to Canada to pursue a graduate degree. In order to pay the $15,000 tuition fee per year,
he had to work part time at a coffee shop five days a week, most of the time on night shifts.
In the interview, he became very emotional as he talked about his experience in Canada. He
showed severe anxiety about his future here as well. Like other participants, he was highly
concerned about his studies, future career path, and most importantly, his opportunity for
permanent residence here. It is not hard to see his regret as he kept mentioning how he was
respected in China as a professor. The difficulties he has experienced in Canada, however, are
kept only to himself. His Chinese social media (Weibo, Wechat and Renren) are glutted with
pictures taken here in Canada, and of course, in the pictures he smiled like he was in paradise.
As the social media are open to all Chinese users, his family and friends, and people who
204
know him only see the happiness from the pictures, and the illusion of the perfect West is
thus enhanced.
To people still in China, only the bright side of the contradiction is shown. Again, the
over emphasized representation of a “superior and happy life” in the West has, on the contrary,
given away the self-abasement and self-protection deep within the group of the Post-85s.
They would rather choose to keep that imaginary image of the West and pass it around to
people they know rather than facing the reality that they might have made a wrong choice. In
order to maintain a balance, they took on two identities: one for Canada, and one for China.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who was born in Canada and married a
Korean woman. He once visited his wife’s family and friends in Korea, and he told me that
his wife behaved like a different person. He was shocked because his wife was always silent
and docile in Canada, but when she talked to people in Korea, she was outgoing, making
jokes and laughing all the time. Similar to the Post-85s I interviewed, the life experience of
living abroad has dissociated their previous identities; they have incurred the development of
multi-dimensional cultural identification.
Beyond Orthogonal Cultural Identification: The Adaption of Post-85s Chinese Students
in Canada
The theory of orthogonal cultural identification was developed based on the theories
of assimilation and acculturation related to populations who encounter multiple cultures. The
theories were first established to study immigrant adaptation involving both heritage culture
and host culture. Early studies tended to take assimilation as a linear continuum of the
205
cultural adaptation shifting directly from heritage culture to host culture (Broom & Kitsuse,
1955; Gordon, 1964; Teske & Nelson, 1974). This may be related to political issues (Sayegh
& Lasry, 1993). Later researchers found that the change of cultural identity as the newcomers
entered the host country is complex rather than unidirectional. The immigrants do not simply
shed their heritage culture and take in the host culture. Acculturation, rather than assimilation,
more accurately describes the process of how immigrants adapt to the new country (Berry,
1980b, 1990; Berry et al, 1989; Kim & Berry, 1985).
The model of orthogonal cultural identification was developed to illustrate the
acculturation. The theory of orthogonal cultural identification holds that those who encounter
interactions between two cultures (heritage culture and host culture) inherit the home culture
while at the same time absorb culture from the new country (Johnson et al, 2002; Sayegh &
Lasry, 1993). Also, because the newcomers bring the home culture in which they have been
immersed to the host country, and through social interaction, people from the host country are
influenced by the introduced culture, which forms the bi-dimensionalization of the two
cultures.
In the case of the Post-85 Chinese students who come to study in Canada, cultural
identification is more complex than orthogonal. This is because neither the heritage culture
nor the host culture is easily defined. Not only do the two cultures function as two sides of a
contradiction, but within each culture there are contradictions as well. Thus the interactions of
the two cultures are complex and multi-dimensional, and the ways in which the Post-85s
react with the two cultures is contradictory as well.
206
One crucial reason related to how such cultural identification takes place is that the
long embedded values of West superiority has been playing in acculturating the Post-85s
before they came to Canada, and a significant agent in this acculturation is Christotainment.
Under the protection of culture, Christotainment has gone beyond religion and used media to
embed Western values into the Post-85s. Although this younger generation demonstrates a
negative attitude towards religious indoctrination, they consciously or unconsciously
accepted what Christotainment taught them about the built-up image of the West superiority.
Instead of seeing it as acculturation, they saw it as a resource of pleasure which is too normal
to be alerted to. Before they came to Canada, the so-called “heritage culture” had already
been invaded by the host culture, and is no longer what it was before the invasion.
On the other hand, similar to orthogonal cultural identification, after the Post-85s
entered Canada, they brought with them the culture they inherited from China, although this
culture is not simply Chinese traditional culture but rather a processed culture embedded with
the values of West superiority. Unlike immigrants, as the social networking for the Post-85
students remains in China, they are more effective in bringing the host culture’s influence to
people in China. The acculturation is multi-dimensional instead of bi-dimensional, as there is
a new direction towards the heritage culture. From the perspective of cultural embeddedness,
this multi-dimensional acculturation has successfully completed another spiral of cultural
embedding. As the conveyer of a “China-characterized” West superiority culture, as they
interacted with the local Western culture after they entered Canada, the Post-85s have
embedded a processed Western culture into their host culture. This new pattern of culture is
207
more complicated and multi-layered. Instead of deciding between a binary local Western
culture or China-characterized culture, it may be less confusing to view this as the “upgraded”
culture developed by the Post-85s.
Complex of the Complex: Contradictions, Multi-Layered Cultural Embeddedness and
Multi-Dimensional Cultural Identification
Throughout the interviews, and as a Post-85s myself, I have observed this special
group and found it full of contradictions in characteristics, ideologies and values, which have
formed a unique culture of contradictions. The Post-85s have been immersed within this
culture of contradictions, and the uncertainty of faith results in the inherent weakness of this
group. Although there have been moments when they struggled to be determined and to stand
up for justice, they were also aware that trapped in a paradigm of weakness, the strength of
one individual was unlikely to prompt a substantial change of culture and reality. They ignore,
however, the collective strength of individuals. It is no wonder, though, because the Post-85s
have been fighting for their own selves for too long to believe anyone other than themselves.
Due to those contradictions in nature, as they internalize an external culture, the process of
such internalization is complicated, and the cultural identification accordingly is
multi-dimensional. As this dissertation is about to end, the journey to explore and interpret
the cultural embeddedness and identification process is yet to continue. In this on-going
journey, there are constant cultural elements coming in, in which Christotainment is one
example, yet the mechanism behind it is far-reaching.
208
In The Mahaparinibbana Sutra, there is a parable about blind men and an elephant.
There are eight blind men who have never seen an elephant. One day they were brought in
front of an elephant. They were asked to touch the elephant and describe what an elephant
was like. One man touched the teeth of the elephant and said that an elephant is like a carrot;
one man touched the ears and said that an elephant is something similar to a dustpan; one
touched the tail and described the elephant as a rope. Each of the eight men only touched one
part of the elephant, and each decided that an elephant is what they have imagined in their
mind according to their experience. They were, undoubtedly, not creating a holistic
description of the elephant.
The cultural embeddedness and identification observed among the Post-85s can be
regarded as a giant elephant, and the mechanism of Christotainment gives only a hint for
interpreting this complex process. What makes it more complex is that this “elephant” keeps
changing as well. As it grows, it is hardly the same as it was previously. That is why the
interpretation and journey of exploration never ends. Because I am still in touch with the
participants of the interviews, I have had the chance to talk to them, and found that at other
times, they revealed different ideas that were contradictory to what they said in the interviews.
As their experiences in life here in Canada keep changing, their attitudes subtly shift as well;
however, the long embedded basic values of utilitarianism and the belief in survival of the
fittest constantly drive them towards what may work best for them. Although they may
struggle, they persevere; these struggles represent a positive deviation from merely chasing
benefits. It takes time, though, but it is worth the wait.
209
CHAPTER 9: AN OPEN-ENDED CONCLUSION
It has been four years since I started this study. As I explore the mechanism of cultural
embeddedness and the cultural identification of the Post-85s through the lens of
Christotainment, I have been exploring and endeavouring to understand myself as well. To
look back on the path I have taken, I am glad to see a change in my way of thinking. Before I
came to Canada, this land used to be my dream paradise, and I was willing to pay whatever it
takes to stay here. It was the wish of my family as well. In my social network, people see
Canada and the West in general as advanced, and they think highly of those who manage to
live abroad. I used to live in the eyes of people around me. I chose to leave my home country
and come to stay here because of all the benefits I thought I could get, both in the form of
material and psychological needs. I used to believe that those constituted the meaning of my
life.
As I conducted this study, especially when I explored deeply to interpret the life
stories of people who are like me, the Post-85s Chinese who are now living in Alberta, I
started to see the limitations of the values and ideology of the group, as well as the deficits of
the culture we formed. We are utilitarian, and we did not seem to worry about that. Hardly
did we see it problematic. We justified our pursuits towards benefits and considered it as a
natural and inevitable result of survival of the fittest. We have been making meaning of life
by measuring how successful we are as “the fittest.” We take in what may benefit us, no
matter if it is entertainment, religion, or culture. We do not bother to think what are
underneath the phenomenon, and we do not worry about the implicit internalizing effect it
210
may have on us. Christotainment is only one thing we take in. We choose to take it in so that
we can make use of it, the same way we make use of education and identity. In terms of
identity, we take on whatever benefits us most, like wearing masks. We shift from cultural
identities as we change masks to get the most out of various contexts. We have been doing
this since we were children, and we are not sure about our cultural identities. People say that
the generation of Post-85s lack faith, and they say that China is a nation without faith. I
would rather say we do have a faith in survival and benefits, although it is an unstable faith.
We love benefits much better than we love ourselves. We care more about how we are being
judged by other people than who we really are. What we lack is a cultural identity. It is
contradictory, as we have been shifting between various identities but never stayed in any of
them for too long. Our faith is not static, nor is our cultural identity.
In the years throughout my study, I have been reflecting on my way of thinking. Is the
meaning of my life those benefits? There will come a time when I have obtained those
benefits, and then what is the meaning of my life? As I talked to the participants in the
interview, I always wanted to ask them those questions, but I never asked those questions of
myself. Four years have passed, and I believe that I have gone far beyond a phenomenon of
Christotainment alone. What is behind Christotainment is worth further study. The embedded
basic assumptions and beliefs, and the long formed culture of utilitarianism has been
motivating the Post-85s to react to what has been given to them, and Christotianment is only
one slice of that big cake.
211
Before I came to Canada, the motivation for me to stay here is to fit into other
people’s assumptions. I used to live for other people. Over the years I have spent here,
however, I have met people who have been changing my life—my supervisor and my closest
friends—and I was willing to make a change as well. I started to enjoy life here for myself
and for my own wishes. I cherish the time I spent with people I love here in Canada, and I am
willing to fight to stay in this land because I want to be with them. My motivations have
changed significantly. I am clear about why I choose to stay. I choose to stay because I want
to, not because somebody else wants me to.
As the meaning of this research is beyond simply analyzing the phenomenon of
Christotainment, the meaning of conducting the research is beyond the research itself as well.
I have stepped outside of myself to see the limitation of that self, and I have stepped out to
make a change. What is most important is that this time I am willing to do this because of
myself. I love the person I am now, and as I start to love myself, I learn better how to love
other people. Instead of benefits, love has become a new motivation for me to move on in my
life.
212
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Appendix: List of Quotes
The following quotes are from Participant A:
Since the Opening-up policy was promulgated in 1978, China started to open her gate
towards the world, and the Western “advanced” culture was introduced together with
sciences and technology. There was a warming-up period. When I was a kid, it took
me time to gradually build the connection with the West, and that was limited as well.
What we had at that time from the West were no more than TV shows and movies,
NBA and some sports brands. Those were fresh to us, and everybody would see then
as advanced and high-end. People who pocess products from the West would be
considered fashionable.
I was brought up in an ordinary family in a city. People I know all have a similar
background as me. We didn’t have commercial housing at that time. We lived in the
apartment distributed by our parents’ work unit. People who worked for a same unit
lived together. The social network was small, and we were all from the same social
class. We were all the single child of the family, and would feel quite lonely when we
were young. We didn’t have adequate cualtural products at that time. We only had our
peers to play with. Also because we were single child, we always had to visit relatives
from both sides of our parents. If my peers were visiting their grandparents, for
example, I had to play by myself then. I felt bored.
I went to a public school, exam-oriented. I learned knowledge there. I followed the
instruction of the teachers. I never questioned what the teachers told me. I was a piece
of blank paper, and I became what the teachers drew on the paper. I wasn’t given the
chance to ask questions. Actually I didn’t even realize that I could have asked
questions.
The following quotes are from Participant B:
With the PR status and working experience in Canada, I will get a much better-paid
job in China than what I had before. I am West-plated now.
And one more thing, when Deng died, my mother was so sad and she was all in tears.
She said that Deng was a good leader . . . To them, good leadership should focus on
economic development, people’s well-being, and should have some democratic-biased
innovative ideas. Deng emphasized practice, and his policies helped with societal
improvement and economic development. My parents feel that they are beneficiaries
to those policies. That was the reforming and opening up policy . . . I got a blurred
impression from the stories my parents told me. Those are stories when my parents
were little children. They told me about how closed-up and uninformed the society
was at that time, how weak the economy was. For example, my aunt had to stand up
in very big lines to buy a TV, and that she had to go through Guan Xi (backhanders) to
get that position in the line. Now we have more kinds of commodities, and people’s
life is improved. That is what the market economy has done to benefit the people.
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Both my parents were born in the 50s. They must have been brainwashed. They
thought that the Party is the standard, and they should lead China. That thought
changed, and it changed significantly. I feel that that change happened because of me.
The reason is that I have not been brainwashed, and via me they see that there are lots
in the Party that are to be criticized.
My parents taught me a lot on that. Both of them are communist, and they have their
own way to break the federalism and superstition. They told me that all religions are
cheating people. They are tools to benefit something. For example in the past, the
propaganda of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism are all for serving politics. I
believe that. All religions were being made use of. It is the same as the 1989
movement. My mother warned me not to have any relation with politics. She warned
me that I would get used. I believe that like religions, ideologies are all tools created
by the authorities to shape your values. Some people might buy it and became “stupid
followers.” The main functions of that stuff are for maintaining societal stability and
to make people compliant to the dominating force.
About the Greek legends, there was no system, and no strong theoretical support. The
Bible stories are better, but I didn’t pay much attention to it after I finished reading.
So I talked to the people in charge in the church about it. I asked whether there is only
one God in your religion. He said yes. Then I asked whether the Holy Mother is God,
he said that she is human. I then questioned him, does God create humans or it was
human that created God? He couldn’t answer it. I believe that there must be an
explanation for it. He could not answer it simply because he is not professional. There
is no reason I will be converted. If one day I am, then I must be looking for comfort
from it. Religion is made up by humans, and everyone would know that. You are
cheating yourself and others if you believe in it. But it is good to get the sense of
belonging from it.
The indication regarding religion and the history are negative. My parents taught me a
lot on that. Both of them are communist, and they have their own way to break the
federalism and superstition. They told me that all religions are cheating people. They
are tools to benefit something…All religions were being made use of…like religions
and ideologies are all tools created by the authorities to shape your values. Some
people might buy it and become “stupid followers.” The main functions of that stuff
are for maintaining societal stability and to make people compliant to the dominating
force.
To be honest, if my home country was well developed and everybody would easily
find a job, who would choose to leave their home? It is the same with those going to
(bigger cities like) Beijing and Shanghai. Your family and friends are all back at your
hometown. Who would leave them and go out for no reason? If they were at the same
level I would choose to stay in my hometown. But the fact is that the gap is too big.
Therefore I gave it up. However my root is still in my hometown.
The following quotes are from participant C:
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Now for me there is nothing more important than getting the PR and finding a job. I
don’t want to waste time on anything else. I will buy you a big dinner after I succeed.
Although I had a great time in my old school, my experience in this elite school gave
me the chance to know the society. There was a comparison between the rich and
people who are not rich, just like me. They were not only rich, but also with power.
One of my classmates, for example, has a grandfather who was the Vice Provincial
Governor of Hunan. And there were many similar examples. When I first got in touch
with those people, my hands were tied up. I was lost. There was then this girl who
wanted to date me, and I couldn’t help, and that disturbed my study. It also disturbed
my study when I was trying to adapt to the new environment. It was not necessary
because of the emotional changes from being respected to overlooked. Whenever you
went to a new environment you have to spend time and energy to adapt to it.
My understanding was pretty shallow. I didn’t realize that the society can be that cruel,
that unfair. I hadn’t even thought about it.
I spent two years in China after I graduated from college. I didn’t have a job,
and didn’t have a decent place to stay. I was wandering around during that
time. I was all by myself in the big society. I had a real-life experience about
the society, and my understanding about the society was significantly different
from what I learned before. I realized that the society is cruel, unfair and
dark.I used to live off campus, and I signed a contract with the house owner.
However I was cheated by him. That was the first time I started to get in touch
with people from the society, and it left me with a really bad impression.
Those people were not as nice as people here in Canada. I don’t know what to
say about that experience. I just feel sad inside.
Although I had a great time in my old school, my experience in this elite
school gave me the chance to know the society. There was a comparison
between the rich and people who are not rich, just like me. They were not only
rich, but also with power. One of my classmates, for example, has a
grandfather who was the Vice Provincial Governor of Hunan. And there were
many similar examples. When I first got in touch with those people, my hands
were tied up. I was at lost.
When I first came here, I was pretty weak emotionally, and I would follow
others to go to the church. That includes churches of the English people,
Chinese and the Guang Dong group. I have been to all the churches around the
campus. I have no idea what denomination those churches belong to.
The reason for that is my talent. I was gifted and blessed when I was born.
I was lost. I didn’t make it. I didn’t handle it well.
The following quotes are from Participant D:
Another thing that impressed me most is when I was in the second year in high
school. Before I went to college, the only thing I would focus on was to enter
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one of the colleges. Everything I did was for the purpose of that. There was
this story about one of our alumnus who graduated in 1995. I could still
remember his name, and everyone in my high school at that time would
remember that big name. He went to high school in 1992, and was directly
recommended to Peking University after graduation. He made a report when
he was visiting our school and talked about his experience. He did really well
in high school, and our school at that time was among the best. We even had
that priority to recommend students to Peking University. His peers were all
the most excellent students from different provinces. He went for GRE and
TOEFL when he was in his senior year in college, and he talked about that. He
then talked about his experience of going abroad.
(In high school,) a girlfriend would be a distraction to some extent. Under that
circumstance where there was this huge pressure, everybody around you
would tell you that you must study hard, and so your psychological or
emotional conditions can be very unstable. If you add another unstable factor
(like a girlfriend) to that, it could be very dangerous. Nobody would risk that.
But as soon as you enter a college, things change. Nobody would regulate you
anymore, even your parents. They would give some simple advice such as “as
long as it doesn’t influence your study, you could go for a girlfriend”, but who
would bother to decide whether it would influence my study or not? In college,
study is no longer the primary task. Nobody would think seriously about that
advice. Instead we all go for girlfriends. That is the same for all people around
me. We are like soldiers who finally occupied a castle. Take a girlfriend first,
no matter what! Even for those who might have some feelings toward each
other, no couples would survive the first year in college. We are people with
real needs. We are in need of a real person who can stay by your side and can
accompany you. We need someone who would hangout with you. No matter
how the communication can be convenient thanks to new technology, no
matter how we could see people on the phone, it is still not the same as a real
person around you. That is why we would take finding a girlfriend as our
priority as soon as we entered college.
He once visited our school with his wife, and sent us a spaceship model which
is over ten meters high. Our school even built a building to commemorate this.
He also brought the most famous astronaut in China to our school. We all
thought that he was awesome . . . .
Cheng is different. He inspired me that I must study hard to go to a good
university, and if I work harder, I can go to a place just like paradise. When I
was in high school I already knew that Coke and Pepsi taste better than Jian Li
Bao. Those drinks from foreign countries are simply better.
He owned two buildings in Tsinghua. He is amazing. During the 2008
Olympic games, he served as the vice president of the anti-corruption group
that belongs to the Party. I have a deep impression of that person.
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Some would find it hard to deal with Guan Xi at work. I won’t reject that
though. I don’t mind handling Guan Xi and the like. I even like doing so.
However, I do find it exhausting. That is also a reason I chose to go abroad. I
no longer needed to train my skills regarding Guan Xi because I am confident
that I am already very skillful in that.
We are people with real needs. We are in need of a real person who can stay
by your side and can accompany you. We need someone who would hang out
with you. No matter how convenient communication can be thanks to new
technology, no matter how we can see people on the phone, it is still not the
same as a real person around you.
After five years of such torture (being blamed by family and teachers
regarding study life), you have been yearning for a woman, but you never got
one. So as soon as you entered college, you would become desperate for
getting one. Even if you find out at last that love is not what you thought about,
you would still want to have a girlfriend at the beginning no matter what. I
don’t give a damn. I will find a girlfriend first, no matter what. I did many
things for compensation of my past regrets. Many things.
We don’t have that much of social property. However, I want that, and I think
we should have that. That’s why I have to fight. I saw the difficulties and
challenges of life when I was young. I learned that it is very hard for my
parents to live a decent life in the society. I also realized that it is unlikely for
you to change the environment. You have to be a wolf and to hunt as much as
you can.
When talking about Western religions, I know that Christianity is the normal
one, and Catholic. Catholic is standard as well. I never heard of the words
fundamentalism or evangelicalism. It is just Christianity. The one that believes
Jesus is God. Of course it is a Western religion.
You should do good deeds without expecting to benefit from it. That is truth.
If you have the opportunity to help other people, you should do it. Those are
advocated in mainstream religions, at least on appearance. Even Islam would
never encourage people to commit murder. Some extremists may kill because
they think that they are protecting something, but that is not mainstream. That
is cult. That is making religion an excuse. That kind of religion is meaningless.
When talking about Christianity, there are two things I know about it: one is
indulgence, the other is the Crusades. The first one is about the Pope, and that
is Catholic. I cannot believe that they would tell people to believe in them
because they could communicate to God. For me that is cult. That is why I
hold prejudice about Christianity. Well, what I said about this religion might
bring me bad luck. I am still, however, repelling any religion that has reduced
to a controlling tool for the dominating party.
(Can you remember anything in popular culture that has religious elements in
it?) Of course, the movie Noah’s Ark. I am so impressed by the visual effects
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in that film and I love it! Of course I will pay to watch that. Other movies like
the Seven Sins, or the Da Vinci Code, the Fighting Club, there are cool things
in the movies. Those things may get you excited, same as sex. They are same
in essence, just to different extents.
You gain pleasure. You gain pleasure through drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, sex,
or reading. You do things to gain pleasure. I don’t think that stuff from mass
media is brain washing. They are not powerful tools to promote religion. Even
if there is something religious in the movies, it is nothing but general
knowledge. For example, the Seven Sins, it just tells people that you cannot
commit those sins. What impact those films may have depends on how the
audiences take it. For those serious Christians, what they get from the films
may be to be more committed to God, but for people like me, they are nothing
but films. It is nothing different than talk shows. How can talk shows educate
people?
Well, they just tell you that you cannot do bad things, and that is general,
nothing special. Also like the film Noah’s Ark, it is simply a story in which
many animals are sharing a boat in the sea. I watched it because of the visual
effect. I won’t reject those films as long as they are not simply promoting
religion.
The following quotes are from Participant E:
The PR is my top priority. As long as I can legally stay in Canada for as long as I want,
I don’t mind doing my current job which is way below what my skill sets can offer.
If you have ever been to western China you will know what I was talking about.
Nobody wants to spend a whole life there, only losers end up there. There is hardly
any decent university in the whole province.
I have a relative who is the daughter of my brother-in-law’s uncle. She stayed in the
U.S. for a long time. She was among the first group of people who went overseas after
the Opening-Up. She is now over forty. She was the first group of people who went
overseas to study computer sciences, and she did pretty well in the U.S. She, as well
as her husband, earns a salary of over 80,000 dollars, which made them among the
standard middle or even upper class. When I was a child I used to hear about them
from my aunt, and I found them awesome. I didn’t have any idea that I would follow
her steps and go out as well. During holidays the whole family would get together and
they would talk about her.
I grew up in the Da Yuan of my father’s school, in the western suburb of my city. I
lived there until high school. I could hardly have any understanding about the world
as a kid. I went to the kindergarten affiliated with my dad’s school. The western
suburban area is more like the fridge zone between urban and rural areas. I saw
different kinds of people when I was very young. The school I went to is pretty close
248
to the rural area, but I seldom went there. Most of my classmates were from the rural,
but none of them was my friend.
I just know that you wouldn’t be able to have a great future if you stay in the
Northwest. Any student from Tsing Hai province will have the same idea. That
explains why the admission requirement is very high for all the universities outside
this area. In our province, the best university is Lan Zhou University, but it is still
backward compared to other universities. I don’t want to go to that one either. Even
for Xi’an which does not belong to our province but is close, nobody wanted to go
there even if it has a famous university. We would rather go to the very south, which
is far from our home.
I worked for a foreign company, so I had frequent contact with foreigners. I am not
sure whether it was just those engineers (pretty old), but they came here to do projects,
and there would be a lot of young Chinese girls chasing them. I felt quite ashamed for
those girls because those engineers have families in their home countries. Although
they earned good money here in China, it wasn’t that good when exchanged to foreign
currency. They weren’t very competent. They got hired because they have resources.
We need those resources. Those girls went crazy for them only because they were
white. As a Chinese myself I felt quite ashamed. I would never do that. Those German
guys were too old for me, and they were bald. They were not even good-looking. I
don’t believe that those girls wanted to be with them because of true love. They
seemed to be richer, but they were not.
I simply believed that all those foreigners who believe in religion are noble, and that
they wouldn’t care much about money and benefits.
When I was a child I used to see those people standing on the street handing out
pamphlets, selling religion to people around. Elder people tend to be converted more
easily, especially old ladies. They would tell me how wonderful it would be if I
convert to religion. I felt they were insane and not making any sense. I wouldn’t buy
that. All my family members are atheists. We believe that what Confucius said was
right. He said that a noble person won’t talk about mysterious things. I would never
believe in that stuff.
Many Chinese people who go to church may find it boring. Are they serious? Are they
religious? Of course not. Those real religious people may not be so superficial and
earthly.
If you are from a poor family, you still have the chance to go to a good university as
long as you study hard enough. You are the only person to blame if you fail in the
entrance exam. You would fail because you didn’t work hard enough.
Think about those people who lived in the 1960s; they never even got the chance to
go to school because of the Cultural Revolution. They didn’t even have enough food
to eat. Ask yourself, what kind of youth was that? Why are you still not satisfied?
The following quotes are from Participant F:
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I think I was a lucky kid when I was young. My mom was a teacher and I was brought
up on campus. My mom has high self-esteem, but because my grandfather used to be
a landlord, my mom never got the chance to go to university. She invested a lot in my
education. I felt happy because both my parents treat me well, but they have marriage
problems. They seldom communicate with one another, and my dad is too shy to
communicate with other people either. He is rather self-centered sometimes. He got
married very late, around 38. At that time I lived with my mom in the suburban area
while my dad was in the city. He didn’t influence me too much when I was a kid until
my mom found another job and moved to live together with my dad. I had a lot of
friends and all of them were children of teachers. We used to play hide and seek, or
catching insects for fun. I was very naughty at that time. I remember once in a winter,
I was playing with a girl and tricked her to go into a pool to get some plants, and that
she fell in the waters and was scared to death. Luckily there was an uncle peeing
nearby who helped us and brought the girl out. At that time we love stealing the beans
from the farmers. We were never caught even when discovered. I was pretty romantic
as well, and I love going to the woods or in a tower after school to do homework. I
had a clear memory about a famous band at that time, and their songs were about
schools and love. I was a big fan. I was very sick once. I had a serious fever which I
believe it did affect my brain function, even till now. So you see it has been hard for
me to have obtained so much achievement. (Laugh). I can understand why my parents
had marriage problems. Both of them have very high self-esteem and would never
compromise. My relatives were never helping either. I remember once they had a
fierce fight, and my dad was throwing all the appliances like kettles and dishes
everywhere. It hurt me deeply. Luckily we didn’t have LCD TVs or Macs. (Laughs).
We used have nice neighbours though. They were a nice couple who were my dad’s
colleagues. I still remember once my mom was fighting with my dad’s sister, and that
aunt slammed the door and left. My mom then fought fiercely with my dad and was
smashing all the dishes, together with the food in them. I was begging them not to do
this, and I carefully carried the two expensive dishes with beef in them to our
neighbours’ home. Also sometimes my parents wouldn’t talk to one another for a long
time. Their relationship was never good. In my memory, I used to be addicted to
chocolates and candies, and so I lost my two front teeth at an early age. Other kids
used to call me “dog hole”. (Laughs). I had a “miserable life” and we spent over
$4,000 on dental. (Laughs).
That was my life before middle school. I couldn’t remember all. I was an OK student
at school. When I was in Grade 3, my mom got a job in the city and I moved with her.
That was when I started to experience the prosperous atmosphere of a city. The
country kid finally went to the city! (Laughs). Then I went to another school. I love
playing with other kids, and was quite naughty. I did pretty well in school. That has
eased the tense between my parents to some extent. I also have a clear memory that
my mom never learned how to ride a bicycle, and my dad told her that she had to
learn because she needed that to go to work, and cars were not popular in China at
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that time. My dad insisted, and my mom had no choice but to go out and practice with
him. I had to go with them as well. One night, it was raining, and I was sitting there
watching my parents practicing. I was only wearing a raincoat, and a young couple
went by and saw me. They said, “What a pretty boy, and what a poor baby!” (Laughs).
After my mom learned how to ride a bicycle, our life went into a new chapter. I was
studying in my mom’s school, and we had quite a nice time. We used to go camping a
lot, and I found it interesting. The environment in China was not that bad as it is now,
and we used to climb trees to pick berries. We used to play with fire cracks, (I guess
you must have played with those as well), and we would throw them into outdoor
toilets. (Laughs). When we see kids passing by we would do that and the kids would
end us with shit all over. I also remember that we used to dig herbs in spring, all kinds
of herbs. I really think that my life then was full of fun.
Once we were picking herbs in March when it was early spring. The weather was a
little chilly. That was when we saw a so-called “female badass”. Such girls were brave
enough to catch snakes! I remember the female badass was screaming to tell us that
she discovered a snake. Then she went straight to the snake and picked its tail. After
that she suddenly threw the snake towards us. Damn! I nearly pissed my pants!
(Laughs). All the kids ran off. That was impressive. We used to be very naughty. We
would go into pools to catch fish, and to pick lotus root in the mud. We did that a lot.
By the way, many of our chopsticks disappeared. Why? It was because we used to
steal stuff from farmers, corns, bean curds, etc., and then we would use the chopsticks
to do BBQ. That would burn the chopsticks because they were made of wood. I would
be scolded by my mom once she found that too many chopsticks would disappear in
one day. (Laughs). I also remember the time when I liked to wander along the railway,
yet not like what we do now in a romantic way. I did that only for fun, and you would
see even feminine pads as you walked. (Laughs). Wasn’t my life dramatic? OK now
let’s come to the point. The point is: I was a good student, both academically and
ethically. I was pretty even before I had my teeth work done. I had a lot of fans. That
is all for the chapter of my childhood.
I inherited from my mom her high self-esteem. She had high expectation towards
herself, and she believed that everyone should work hard to be successful, especially
at school. I agreed with her, and I made a lot of effort on my school work. My goal
was to study hard and then get admitted to Beijing University or Tsinghua University.
Nothing else. I was very happy because I didn’t have other goals thus no other
concerns, and the media at that time didn’t infuse too much information to us. When
talking about media, we only had cartoons from Japan and the West for kids. There
were quite a lot of Hollywood movies though, and there were scenes where people
kissed each other. I was very curious because I thought it would not be hygienic to do
so. The I thought maybe they would have some transparent materials to cover their
lips. Silly. When I was a kid, China was in the years of the early 1990s, and we didn’t
have so many cultural products from the West as we have now. There was one things
though, that I remembered clearly. I was once travelling to Beijing with my mom. I
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was exhausted because we walked for too long. My mom then said, “If you push a
little, I will reward you with a sip of Coca Cola”. I loved Coke! That was one thing
that had entered China at that time. That was the best travelling experience I had. We
visited the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and a lot more. We didn’t visit the Tian An
Men Square though, because of the 1989 event. I went with my mom, my auntie and
my cousin. In 2011 I revisited Beijing during Christmas. I was extremely excited
when I got to the Tian An Men Square. I was so excited because since we were kids,
what has been imposed on us used to be the communist theories and role modeling.
There have been too many brain washing. I used to buy that a lot. I worshipped those
role models like Lenin and Zhang Haidi. My mom used to let me read quotes from
Chairman Mao, but I wasn’t interested at all, because he was so over, luckily. I had a
deep impression towards Deng Xiaoping. My parents influenced me a lot on that. My
mom was very grateful because Deng stated the Opening-up policy and gave people
the chance to be educated, and our material life became better thanks to the policy. I
got more choices for clothing! Life was completely different.
To be educated to me means I could be a better man, but the ultimate goal is to get a
decent job. We didn’t have such a strong faith towards money pursuing as we did now,
because the communist way of living was still in people’s mind, and the rich-poor gap
wasn’t that big. Later, however, things started to change, and we started to see very
rich people, especially in the areas where we lived. I went to the best middle school in
my city, and I was very happy with that. I studied hard. I would ride a bicycle to go
back and forth to school, and would participated in those maths and physics contest. I
still remember that clearly. The teachers would visit your home and do tutorship. My
goal was to be accepted to the best high school in town, and that was the reason why I
worked so hard.
My high school life was the darkest. I extremely hate my high school. The
exam-oriented model sucks. You need to study non-stop, from Monday to Saturday.
You need to wake up at 5am everyday and can’t go to sleep until 11pm. You are a
studying machine. And the teachers were always telling you that only those who could
be admitted to a good university may have a future. You may feel like all your life is
about studying. You got that idea from your parents as well. They kept telling you that
only education could change your life. I strongly disagreed with that, and I was
extremely unhappy. I wanted to study hard to change my life, but people are different.
You can’t let them do things in a uniformed way. What is the worst about
exam-oriented model of education is that it killed people’s abilities to take initiatives.
It killed what is special in different person.
High school was the most cruel, inhumane period of life for me. I was always bullied
by my classmates because I was wearing teeth correctors and I was bad at physics.
They called me names and bullied me. The education only focused on exam results
and nobody was caring for my feelings. Nobody was thinking from my perspectives. I
didn’t have much memory about my high school, and I am not willing to keep any
memory about that period of life.
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