The Portrait of an "Olympic Host" -- CULTURAL REVOLUTION, ROUND 2: Zhang
Ziyi vs. Confucius

International Herald Tribune

Zhang Ziyi vs. Confucius

By Peter Kwong

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

NEW YORK:

Zhang Ziyi became internationally known for her role in the
Oscar-winning film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Chinese audiences
recognized her as the ultimate Chinese diva, bringing pride and respect
to China.

The status has also brought criticism. Many Chinese have faulted her for
accepting the role of a lowly Japanese geisha falling for a Japanese
business tycoon in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha." And even more accuse
her of selling out by dating Vivi Nevo, an Israeli venture capitalist
who is one of the largest shareholders of Time Warner.

That last behavior would not have raised an eyebrow back in 1980, when I
taught in China right after Deng Xiaoping inaugurated the new policy of
liberalization. Every Chinese I knew then wanted to leave the country -
including girls from respectable families who had no qualms about
finding foreigners to marry just to get out.

It was a time when Chinese leaders decided to stop seeing China as a
victim of Western colonialism and became determined to entice former
enemies to its shores to help the country modernize.

Thus began China's real cultural revolution: modeling everything after
the West. Western businessmen, books, ideas and investment were welcomed
with opened arms. China's best brains were sent West to study business
management and corporate law. Old hutongs were torn down to make way for
high-rises with names like Manhattan Court and New Wellington Gardens.

After three decades of double-digit economic growth, the Chinese sense
of self-pity has evaporated. The leaders eagerly await next year's
Olympic Games to showcase the country's progress based on Western
standards of excellence.

At the same time, the headlong race to catch up to the West has left
many Chinese feeling spiritually empty. An intense soul-searching
process is under way, with attempts at regaining lost "Chinese-ness" at
times veering into hotheaded nationalism.

A government official recently returning from an "information tour" in
the West publicly cautioned Chinese parents not to send their daughters
to study there, because every good-looking Chinese girl he had met was
married to a foreigner. It is this sense of wounded masculine pride that
drives the criticism of Zhang Ziyi's betrayal.

It is true that the 20th century zeal to modernize post-imperial China,
especially by the Communist regime, has left much of Chinese culture
shattered and forgotten. Yet it is almost exclusively Confucianism that
is getting state-supported promotion.

New Confucian study programs are springing up throughout the Chinese
school system: in kindergarten classes where children recite the
classics, as well as in philosophy departments at universities.

The Chinese government has declared September, the month of Confucius's
birthday, "Confucius Culture Month," and every year since 2002
quasi-religious rituals have been held in Shandong Province, in Qufu,
his hometown.

Confucian teachings, emphasizing respect for authority, were used for
centuries by Chinese rulers to control the people. Their strict codes
defined everyone's proper roles of dependence and subordination: son to
father, wife to husband, servant to master and, above all, everyone to
the ruler.

Confucianism has in fact taught Chinese people to behave like obedient
sheep, accepting subordination in the interest of social harmony and
national stability. The Chinese Communist Party has now taken it on as a
ready-made ideology that teaches people to accept their place and not
challenge its rule - to achieve what party chairman Hu Jintao promotes
as "harmonious society."

The wished-for Confucian harmony will not be able to cover up the
problems of party corruption and extreme inequality plaguing China
today. Nor will Chinese women accept the return to traditions
responsible for instituting bound feet to keep them in a subordinate
place. It would only drive increasing numbers into the embrace of
foreigners - and turn Zhang Ziyi into a martyr and a symbol of
enlightened China.

Peter Kwong, professor of Asian-American studies at Hunter College, is
co-author of "Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's Oldest New
Community." Distributed by Agence Global.

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