Musings Report #29 7-21-13 Enter the Dragon--China Since 1973
You are receiving this email because you are one of the 400+ subscribers/major contributors to www.oftwominds.com.
For those who are new to the Musings reports: they are basically a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Enter the Dragon--China Since 1973
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee's untimely death on July 20, 1973, from an allergic reaction to an ingredient in a painkiller. Six days later, his first Hollywood film, Enter the Dragon, premiered (the film was the first Hollywood/Hong Kong co-production).
Enter the Dragon electrified audiences worldwide with its depiction of realistic martial arts combat, and introduced elements of Chinese culture to the West that are familiar now but which were obscure in the early 1970s, when China was still in the throes of the Cultural Revolution and essentially closed to the world: kung fu (a.k.a. gung fu, properly called wu-shu), the Shaolin temple, and the merging of spiritual attainment and the martial arts.
Unbeknownst to many of his Asian fans, Bruce was one-quarter Caucasian (his mother Grace Ho was half Chinese and half Caucasian). Nonetheless, his on-screen victories over those claiming superiority over China (the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945 and Westerners in general) galvanized a nationalistic pride among Chinese, both in China and in the global diaspora of ethnic Chinese.
His intensity on screen and remarkable physical skills had an enormous impact, even though three of his four completed films were extremely low-budget and Enter the Dragon was made for less than $1 million, a mere $4.5 million in today's dollars. I vividly recall seeing two of his films in Honolulu as a double-feature in 1973; I was transfixed despite the conventional plot (revenge) and often-cheesy dialog.
It is difficult to grasp how different the China of 1972 was from the China we know today. Since we have numerous Chinese friends who experienced the Cultural Revolution first-hand, we have personal accounts to aid our understanding. Here are a few such stories:
1. One friend who was a child at the time recalls her parents dividing a single egg into four parts, one for each family member, as the sole addition to rice and vegetables.
2. Another friend's father was a low-ranking officer in the People's Liberation Army (PLA); he was arrested and jailed.
3. Another friend's father taught Chinese acrobatics; he was imprisoned for almost two years.
Many innocent people suffered worse fates (being beaten to death, for example), and China essentially lost an entire generation of promising youth to the "re-education" process and generalized repudiation of higher education.
Nixon's opening of diplomatic relations with China cracked open the closed door for both Americans and Chinese. It would be another decade before independent travelers were allowed to enter China, two decades before development became widespread and three decades before China assumed a key role in the global economy.
Many of China's problems in 1973 were self-inflicted, and that remains true to some degree (we can say the same of every nation-state, of course). The nationalistic pride that Bruce Lee expressed in his films (ironically, perhaps, Lee had dual citizenship, American and Hong Kong, due to his birth in San Francisco) is both a balm to the humiliation China suffered in the 19th and 20th centuries and the source of an unhelpful chip on the shoulder, as the Chinese government is adept at sparking nationalistic outrage against other governments and foreigners in public opinion.
It is hard for non-Chinese to fully appreciate the humiliation and loss of face China experienced in the early 20th century, just as it is hard for us to understand the pride Chinese people feel for their civilization, which can be traced back in an unbroken line roughly 3,500 years to the Shang Dynasty, which possessed a fully formed writing system, urban centers, etc.
On the other hand, it is difficult for Chinese people to understand the rest of us find their easily aroused nationalism and paranoia (i.e. everyone is "trying to keep China down") an unrealistic and unhelpful over-reaction.
I have a poster on my office wall with a quote by Bruce Lee: "Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."
I think Bruce would have approved of Emerson's dictum: "Do the thing and you shall have the power." He certainly lived it.
Market Musings
Many commentators are drawing parallels between the present and 1929 and 2008, when the wheels of the real economy were visibly falling off even as the stock market ascended to new heights.
This phenomenal rise certainly seems long in tooth to many analysts, with good reason. Nonetheless a monthly chart of the S&P 500 does not reveal much weakness; rather, the magnet of a round number (1700) and bullish crosses suggest the market could push higher, perhaps to the 1720-30 level in a typical overshoot of a round number.
In other news, The New York Times recently published an expose of the way in which investment banks have jacked up the price of commodities: A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold which provides support for my thesis presented last week that financial speculation is sufficient to push commodity prices higher, regardless of weaker physical demand. I continue to believe this is a key driver of higher oil costs globally, and that these higher energy costs are the primary risk to the stumbling global economy. JPMorgan in Talks to Settle Energy Manipulation Case for $500 Million (via Joel M.)
The best thing that happened to me this week
I found out that the irregular patch on my upper back was not melanoma (an aggressive form of skin cancer), a previous chunk of which was cut out of my lower back a few years ago. No melanoma is excellent news. All people with red hair have a mutated copy of the MC1R gene and are two to four times more likely to develop melanoma. (You can't tell now, but I once had a head of thick red hair.)
From Left Field
An outcry followed the death of a vendor in a squabble with urban management agents, who for many Chinese are the most visible face of the authoritarian impulses of the government.
The Federal Reserve is "reviewing" a landmark 2003 decision that first allowed bank holding companies to trade in physical commodity markets, it said on Friday, a move that may send new shudders through Wall Street.
How will a slowing China cope with rapidly aging buildings? -- This is a huge, poorly recognized issue: building maintenance is a lost art in China, where people have become accustomed to buildings being torn down and replaced every 20 years. Once the credit runs dry, the rebuilding of every structure will cease and China will be left with the buildings it has....
A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent (via Joel M.) Simulated wind, provided by an electric fan, is good at both discouraging insect flight and dissipating the mosquito-attracting emanations that humans emit.
A Radical Approach to the Climate Crisis (via John D.) Even if you reject climate change, this article is an excellent overview of the problem of reducing energy consumption and related issues such as shadow socialism: "Government procurement is one of the hidden tools of American capitalism’s shadow socialism.”
Japan: "Silver" Shoplifters Steal Bowls of Rice as Abe Cuts Welfare (via Joel M.)-- a must-read -- "Fumio Kageyama was 67 when he first turned to crime, making an unsuccessful attempt to rob a drunk passenger on a train in March 2008. Given a suspended jail sentence, Kageyama was caught two months later stealing a bowl of rice and pork from a supermarket. This time, he went to prison for two years."
"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again." Andre Gide (via Scott S.)
Thanks for reading--
charles
