PEOPLE AND CULTURE - Living Abroad in Beijing - page 51

from time to time full-pomp military displays demonstrate the party's might and rouse the
national spirit. Even uniforms of anything from a hairdresser to a security guard can be
confusingly military looking. Red banners hung from walls or railings by party community
groups impel people with Communist slogans of social unity, and Mao's portrait forever
hangs imperiously over the entrance to the Forbidden City. Businesses will also readily feel
the hand of the government at work. Bureaucracy is an art form here—you'll need to stand
in more queues, sign more pieces of flimsy paper, and go to more separate government of-
fices to have something approved than you've ever experienced elsewhere, and then at the
government's whim, you may need to do it all again because of a change in policy. Locals
can wake up one day to find a red 拆 ( ch ā i, demolition) character painted on their door and,
no matter how passionate their resistance, be relocated the next, all in the name of progress.
From a more day-to-day perspective, however, Communism, especially in its funda-
mental concepts of comradeship and equality of wealth and power, seems to be more of
a veneer. In reality, Beijing is fiercely capitalistic and competitive. The government's “so-
cialism with Chinese characteristics” ideology has allowed them to pursue capitalist ideals
while maintaining socialist control, without loss of face. Money is both the worshipped idol
and the all-powerful motivator of society, and there is a flagrant, increasing gap between
the haves and have-nots. Where once the motto of life was “the nail that sticks out gets
hammered down,” ever more people fight tooth and nail to be the shiniest star on the stage.
Luxury items become badges of status, and success in life is measured not by love or con-
tribution to society, but by ticks on a socially mandated checklist: car, apartment, spouse,
secure job with potential to climb—even fashionable furniture is starting to become man-
datory. While the poor remain vulnerable, the rich are threateningly powerful. The luxury
goods market in Beijing is flourishing, and the wealthy segregate themselves ever farther
away from the stragglers, secluding themselves in private clubs, in VIP rooms at bars, or in
simulacra of Western-style gated communities, such as the notorious Orange County devel-
opment near the airport.
Not everyone is consumed by desire for money and possessions, but with the media de-
vouring and regurgitating an image of opulence, and with stories of bribery and corruption
arising in close succession, your collective image can get a little tainted.
According to the 2012 Hurun Report, Beijing is now home to most of China's wealthy,
with 179,000 millionaires (defined as those with RMB10 million/US$1.6 million or more)
and 10,500 super-rich (those with RMB100 million/US$16 million or more). Yet, breathing
the same air are workers who get by on a few dollars a day, making a living by collecting
used boxes, carting coal, or manufacturing the goods that have made the rich rich. Migrant