WRITTEN ON October 15th, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized
Well, that’s cleared that up, I think. I asked in the pre-meeting forum how non-conformist British awkward squad can speak frankly about the culture in which social innovation is rooted with sensitivity to the role of criticism in our hosts’ country. This prompted some long answ4rs in Chinese with copious smiles and interesting talk about e-governance and feedback systems (which I’dlike to follow up). Then a senior figure in the China Centre for Comparative Politics and Economics, the President’s favourite think tank which is co-hosting this event, said bluntly
It’s OK to criticise in China today. But we ask that you do it in a positive way
Well, that’s how we operate on Ideal Government. I spoke to him after and explained how most comment and input is driven by frustration but our rule is that it’s expressed with a “wouldn’t it be better if…” (Wibbi).
I think we’re on the same wavelength.
That’s not to say a such an attitude is the norm here in political circles- I think we’re engaging with the brightest sparks and leading innovators, and they have the mother of all tasks on their hands. Meanwhile the Europeans Ive met so far are a terrific bunch. More anon, freedom of expression and hotel broadband permitting.
I was in China recently – for a holiday, not anything official – and got the sense that amongst “ordinary” (well, middle-class English-speaking) people it is OK to criticise, up to a point. For instance, more than one person said to us that Mao was a great man, but he wasn’t a god – he made some mistakes. (They didn’t specify what they were).
One interesting experience while we were there. We found (slightly to our surprise) that CNN was generally available in the hotels, and one evening they trailed an item about the impending 30th anniversary of Mao’s death and why it wasn’t getting big treatment in China. Well, we had to watch that – and it started, making predictably critical introductory comments – and then the screen blacked out. It came back once, briefly, in the middle of the item, and then again just before the end.
So there are limits. Or perhaps it’s also that loyalty to the nation, and to authority, does run much deeper in the Chinese culture than in ours – negative comment is not so much politically incorrect as tasteless.