China and their Blissful Ignorance

By: Frank Yunker

Date: 2016-07-07

If ignorance is bliss, then perhaps China is the most blissful place on Earth. The college professionals I met in China, Administrators and Professors, all knew that their government blocked Google. Blocked Facebook. Blocked Twitter and Instagram. Blocked Snapchat. And for the most part, they all seemed okay with that.


Instead of Google, Chinese people use Baidu. It seems like a fine website and friendly to use for Chinese people, so in that sense it is a good choice. Maybe better for Chinese people because of the user-friendliness. They type in pinyin, a latin-alphabet based approximation of Chinese, and the suggestion list shows the range od likely Chinese words. They then pick from that list and they can do it quite rapidly. But the quality of the search engine is not the same. Google results are phenomenal compared to the lackluster search results from Baidu. Better than going to the County Library to use their Reference section, for sure, but even on non-political issues, Baidu is lacking. I observed students and gave them topics to search. It's just not as good.


And then there is WeChat. Again, this is meant for Chinese people to communicate with each other and foreigners who wish to have Chinese friends. It's not better than Facebook. You can make video calls and instant messaging on FaceBook or GooglePlus. WeChat may be better in the sense that it handles Chinese characters well, but so does FaceBook. I have FaceBook friends from all over the world and Facebook translates most of their comments. WeChat, being a Chinese App, likely does a better job with Mandarin.


One woman dismissed my question with “Well, Chinese people do not mind because they don't know what they are missing.”


Exactly my point. The government is actively hiding knowledge from you and yet it does not bother you. Human nature, represented by Adam and Eve eating apples in the Garden of Eden, is to want to know. A search for knowledge. To want to know what is being hidden from us.


Not China. They see the economic activity all around. Neighborhoods are springing up overnight. Starbucks are everywhere. New job opportunities from retail to high-tech. It is an economic miracle, yet no one has thought about why the miracle? Why China? Why now?


Tienanmen Square is an integral part of the story of China, yet they know nothing of it. China cracked down with martial law and has been controlling and filtering the news with gusto ever since. Searching on bing.com for “Tank Man” will give a search result, including a thumbnail image and an opening sentence, but a click to the link will hang forever. Dead links are a common everyday occurrence.


Of course, a walk down any street in China will reveal the ever-present truth about China. The military and the police are everywhere. Soldiers stand at attention on city streets with as much solemn pomp as the guards at Buckingham Palace. Alert and standing tall, they do not move a muscle... unless they need to. There are police booths at every major intersection.


The police I met were friendly. Between the traffic cops, whom no one seemed to acknowledge, the police, who were friendly, and the military, who were solemn, there was always someone nearby ready to control your life. In fact, the friendly police are currently going door-to-door in Hangzhou, a city of over 2 million, in preparation for the upcoming G20 summit this fall. They don't want any problems and so they are making sure they know where everyone is. Every one of the 2 million. But why worry. The 2 million are all blissful.