60

today, china celebrates.

china celebrates the last 60 years of change, china celebrates the last few decades of relative peace and unprecedented development.

i feel a strange mix of pride and shame.

my grandmother anticipates this day more so than her own birthday, in fact shes not even sure when her real birthday is. i vaguely recall my mother telling me that my grandmother lied about her age at one point in her life to register for something and ever since the revolution shes forgotten her real birthday.

"if the communist party did not exist, my life would not be so comfortable right now"- my grandmother

my grandma belongs to a special de-facto club of elderly party members whose membership dates prior to the revolution. the government of china does indeed take special care of these members and thus they are ever so grateful. its true that the pension rate for these elderly members exceed the average wages, sometimes by a lot. if my grandpa was still alive, apparently he would get roughly 4-5 times the average wage.

but then i think to myself, whats the average wage in taiwan like? and whats the average pension there? theres no doubt that the average wage in taiwan is higher than that of the mainland, and there is no doubt the average living standard is higher. but its unfair to compare the entire mainland with that of one developed island. but then even if i compare shanghai, the flagship city of china's economic development to taipei, i still think taipei's average numbers are probably higher (i could be wrong).

so i was watching the parade and it seemed that blatant inconsistencies and doublethink contradictions were the theme...

the first float for the leaders was for mao, a tribute paid to him standing on tiananmen and pronouncing the birth of new china to the the people of china and the world. a tribute was also laid to the establishment of mao's school of thought otherwise known as maosim. statements were made about his benevolence and god-like decision making skills and then the next float was for deng, the successor of mao.

statements were also made about deng's endeavours and his pioneering decisions to open china to the rest of the world and how great he is for starting the revolutionary market changes that has made china the economic power it is today...

theres the contradiction.

i'm going to avoid giving everyone a history lesson so i'll just simplify it for everyone.

mao didnt like deng very much, infact, he didnt like him enough to spread propaganda against him which eventually lead him into exile.

maoism included self dependency, if maoism continued, china would be just like DPRK. infact juche was formed under heavy influence from mao.

deng introduced market reforms that opened up china's boarders to FDI's and Macdonalds etc.

polar opposites it seems.

yet they're both praised openly with no question...