Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
China's privileged urban youths are increasingly obese from fast food
and their own excesses of “screen” time. h e China I saw then, populated by
the monochromatic masses, is now the world's economic powerhouse. h e
title of one popular business topic warns that the United States will become
“China's Bitch,” shocking in its profane title but not in sentiment. My own
relationship to these national and global transformations is complicated. As
an American consumer, I can't help but notice that almost everything I buy
is from China. It's virtually impossible to consume otherwise.
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I can also
track social and economic change through “stuff .” h ose early trips meant
my parents bringing large suitcases full of consumer goods then unavailable
in China to friends and family. Recent trips in the past decade have com-
pletely fl ipped the equation. Now my parents start with empty suitcases,
which when they return are fi lled with stuff : towels, socks, and cheaper
clothes with strange English phrases randomly printed on them, and the
higher-end clothes for the global export market, complete with well-known
brand names and expensive price tags, that they buy at a fraction of the o' -
cial “price.”
h e growth of Chinese manufacturing and other global economic
changes have been well documented, as have their environmental impacts.
h e
New York Times
columnist h omas Friedman, in his
Hot, Flat, and Crowded:
Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America,
explicitly calls
on nationalism—driven by fear of China as our main competitor—in arguing
for greater American investments in green technology. He writes: “as an
American I want to make sure that my country is in the lead. . . . America
wins! America wins! America wins! If Only.”
2
I envy Friedman's enthusiasm
and boosterism; if only I could share it. Friedman admires China's can-do
spirit while writing of the State Council ban on plastic bags in 2008 (the
Council is the highest level of state power, composed of the premier, state
councilors, ministers, and so on):
