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Inheritance
The roots of China’s recent boom extend deep into its imperial and communist past. But tradition’s legacy is a complicated one. To achieve modern development, China had to throw off the “yoke” of traditional society. Yet the long traditions of centralized government administration, kin-based entrepreneurism, and value placed on education and diligence prepared the Chinese well for capitalism. Despite catastrophes like the Great Leap Forward and the famine in its wake, Mao Zedong’s nation building efforts between the founding of the PRC in 1949 and the unleashing of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 laid socialist foundations for the subsequent boom. Even the disastrous, decade-long Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution contributed to the boom: By eroding public support for radical politics, the ground was cleared for a transition from revolution to reform—for new policies that were gradualist, internationalist and capitalist. |
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An Opportunity to Question the Whole Existing SystemPeriod: Inheritance (Pre-1978)
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Click to expand I think that changed the entire generation. It also changed the thinking mode. It changed the way you think, the way you look at life, the way you look at doing things, everything has changed. Also, because of their background, because these people had been blocked out for a long time, they desperately wanted to learn, they observe things very quickly and they apply it immediately and they work very hard because there had been a terrible lack of opportunity. If you look at the class of '77 until '80, these three years of students now occupy all the major positions in China. Anywhere, in government, private enterprise, they all occupied the key positions in China. I've discussed the effectiveness of the Cultural Revolution with my friend many times. I would say what happened with the Cultural Revolution is that it smashed down all the existing system or at least gave us an opportunity to question the whole existing system. Then, you are making your own judgment and since we observed so much information, different way of treating life, different way of looking, different way of doing, you try to figure out what’s the best for yourself, for your country, or whatever. So, that somehow related to today's economic boom. I would say that the Chinese people have never been as free thinking in the entire history as today. Before, you followed the king, you followed the authority. You have never questioned authority because the system made you that way.
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