by Anne Teoh for the Saker blog
From the depths of despair, one can climb out to see blue sky and fields of flowers, hear birdsongs and the rivers flowing, breathe pure air and find a road with people and their goods. The year 2016 can be viewed, for me, as a watershed in which the line was drawn between good and evil. I, like many, caught up in the churning out of so much farce; woke up from a chest of buried discomforting glimpses of the past (bombing of Cambodia, Iran ) to confront a reality check for being a ‘forgetful pacifist,’ sleep walking through the endless bombings, not suspecting the dubious role played by some mainstream media and doubting if any change can be for the better; even as I’m not American and don’t live there.
But, we’re all part of the world, as evident to me from the 60s – a time of revolutions in both the eastern and western hemispheres. As an interested observer, on the surface, events in China and the US were complex and different; yet the underpinning cause in both revolutions was the fight against imperialism. Nostalgia aside, those were innocent days, for, by 2016, one can no longer ignore the necessity cross the rubicon; decisively to never to participate in wars even at mind games, but to bear in mind about being the eternal peacemaker.
More and more, I view the forces shaping our world events – from the Middle East to the Kim – Trump crisis like unknown forces from the subterranean, stunning us into the underworld of killing beasts and nightmares; yet, simultaneously, more reassuring forces for reason, peace and progress drifted in from the Eurasian vastness: creating altogether, a global whirl, whipping up the undercurrents that can take us towards either a complementary history or a battleground of divisions and contradictions.
I have always believed that a handful of great good guys can make a difference. In the throes of propaganda and counter propaganda, I was determined to stick to the path of peace and neutralize all arguments; despite the facts of military movements and preparations to strike or defend. The idea is that vis-à-vis whatever confrontations, one can always find a solution; an idea that formed when I read Mao’s Thoughts in my undergrad days and understanding just this point.
If we take the Daoist symbol as prima facie, in the Yin – Yang, the light – dark, masculine – feminine, heaven – hell, capitalist – communist polar opposites, the ironic elements would psyche us for expectations of ominous endings, an eventual catharsis as inevitable in our tragic mindsets as most operas, like Armageddon. As 2016 was a water shed year – of a declining west and an emerging east, we shouldn’t make dire conclusions too soon, for going by the Daoist sign, the east – west movements can either be interpreted as complementary or contradictory. For those in empathy with the history and culture of east and west, the inner tensions during the popular uprisings of the revolutionary spirit in China’s Cultural Revolution and the USA’s Love and Peace Flower Power Revolution shared the underpinning struggle for universal humanity. The difference between them is in the degree and scale of their political history, bearing in mind the evolutionary paths of an ancient empire seeped in the art of warfare, tradition and scientific innovations and an arriviste empowered with a new world, militant technology, and liberal education; also bearing in mind that China and the US were both fighting against the oppression of colonization some time in their history and in the 60s too. Throughout the 60s, there were solid Americans working with Mao’s revolutionaries and Nixon’s visit was testimony of US and China verging on the complementary axis, however the various circles might spin their many contradictions about the historic meeting between Nixon and Mao. We’re not doomed to the contradictions when the deeds of the good folks complement louder than words and are in fact, indelible iconic images in our hearts and minds.
From all my prying into the history of modern China, I can imagine a totally oppressed Chinese race led by a librarian revolutionary. He’s armed with Marxism and the Communist Manifesto and nothing else – not a gun, a doctor, a soldier or an ill-will but an underground mobilization of dedicated, oppressed and noble- minded students, peasants and the dispossessed. Somehow they weren’t alone. They were joined by noble, dedicated and determined fellow humans from the US, like Israel Epstein, Edward Snow, Helen Snow, Anna Louise Armstrong , Norman Bethune, Sidney Rittenberg and many more worthy fellowmen, giving their lives to struggle alongside Mao’s revolutionaries to their final victory in October 1949.
Sure as the unfolding epic road from revolution to BRI ( belt of the cosmos, below as above ), the comradeship between the good Americans and China, Mao and Nixon can never be forgotten, just as there are many young Americans working and travelling all over China today as well as the positive presence of strong, high-calibre voices from a great diversity of sources in reliable left wing and academic outlets today. There’s hope yet for Trump’s complementary visit to meet Xi in China; and this is a double complementary ( following Xi’s previous visit to the US ). Fingers crossed three complementaries will herald in an Age of Peace.
Hence, I would call for a new approach to zoom in on the study of history under our microscopic critical rationalism rather than the traditional reading of history – in the sense of being an investigative participant rather than as a passive student of a skewered history manipulated for propaganda. The ancient empirical recording of history as events found in Chinese and Roman antiquities, have long gone with their sell-by-dates. Nowadays, our complex world history need to be synthesized, as in the case of modern China, mainly so that we don’t vaporize the essence while distracted by disparate causes and effects per se – as we found ourselves doing so in the chaos of contradictions throughout the awakening year 2016. We need to view how our history move as a cohesive force for a unique universal humanity rather than as a competition dominated by basic instincts involving conquering, appropriation, violence and destruction.
In this light, then, one’s inspired to draw out the maturation of Xi Jin Ping’s philosophy of Win-Win deals for all countries involved in the BRI ( Belt Road Initiative –cosmologically speaking, above as below).
Modern China started with Mao’s liberation of the Chinese people from the oppressive feudal and imperialistic forces – both internally (Qing Dynasty and Chiang’s Nationalists ) and from foreign invasions and from that, to set about the creation of complete equality and communality. From my questioning of a number of young and usually western influenced (materially so) mainland Chinese, Mao was a supreme leader but he kept the people poor, so he could be said to be a Win some – Lose some; Deng Xiao Ping was an economic genius who unleashed the gates to wealth but also opened the doors to corruption so he was also a Win some- lose some. Xi Jin Ping’s Dream is the waxing of Mao’s Thoughts and Deng’s Theory into Xi’s Dream. Hence, as Xi himself so poignantly stated at the current 19th CPC ( Communist Party Congress ), the CCP ( Chinese Communist Party) is about Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in this Modern Era.
President Xi had uplifted 600 milion people out of poverty from the Mao era and pledges to have a rich and powerful socialist nation by 2050. Similarly, he will root out the corruption set in during the Deng period. Xi has succeeded in changing the negatives of Maoist poverty and Dengist corruption into a Win-Win. With far-sighted vision, thoroughness and dedication to socialism, he wants to share his formula for win-win with the ‘community of shared destiny.’ Let’s hope Trump and Xi will hold long and meaningful discourses about the meaning of universal humanity and ‘a community of shared destiny,’ in their coming talks when Trump visits China in November. It would be sensational if they make their dialogue transparent to the world. The translators have a highly important task in bridging the linguistic gap.
I remember reading ‘China Today’ in the 80s which showed Mao already building roads in parts of Africa. Xi’s BRI and the setting up of the AIIB ( Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank) is puuting down roots of his vision for ‘ a community of shared destiny and globalization; what Pepe Escobar described as a ” Do it together that raises everybody.,” similar to Xi’s own words, expressed during his visit to London, which is “universal humanity.” Let’s hope they read the amazing Michael Hudon’s article, “
In the bigger world, one can find endless streams of complementaries, from east and west down the rivers of their histories up to this day. The good have complementaries for they’re basically working to achieve the same shared humanist goal ( hence also, a win-win). The bad, and evil only have contradictions for they need to conjure up differences and lies; their intention being competitive and exclusive.
In a nutshell, since Xi’s dream is of a community of shared destiny and globalization, it’s opened up a very big world we can call our world and work together for the benefit of all. The magic is, there’s more to infinite wealth and joys in sharing the whole world than colonizing bits and pieces to ourselves; besides, the colonized never want to share and will never forgive thee colonialists.
Today, many internationals are already exploring the depths and heights along the Silk Road (view them on Youtube), having great adventures and making new discoveries, enriching our world with investigations into how cities vanished, making people to people connections and growing wealthy with trade and all kinds of educational, scientific, cultural, agricultural and business exchanges.
Finally and needless to say, if I were to be part of the ‘ community of shared destiny and globalization,’ my dream is for the tech giants, Google, Facebook, Youtube and others to cooperate with the Chinese techies so we can choose freely to use what we have here or subscribe to Wechat, Weibao , Alibaba etc. That way, we can access into any of these giant cyber portals anywhere freely to connect east and west. This can only uplift our universal humanity and shared destiny – that of peace, love and prosperity for all. I hope for undiminished effort between Xi, Putin, Trump et al and the tech giants to hold meetings and discussions to bridge this coming cyber gap and make our shared destiny a reality.
For details of the epic work of Xi Jin Ping’s BRI and AIIB, you might like to read Pepe Escobar’s, “Xi’s Road Map to The Chinese Dream,” From The Saker of the Vineyard and watch Discovery channel China’s Time of Xi Episodes 1-3, All Abroad,” on Youtube.
Anne Teoh @ eanpengmas292@gmail.com
Anne Teoh was born in Penang, Malaysia. She was convent-educated and graduated from The University of Malaya in1969 majoring in English Literature. Married to a Malaysian ambassador, educator and thinker, she left to travel India in search of enlightenment in 1973. She put down roots in England in 1975, had a daughter and continued pursuing her professional studies in PGCE, TESL, Multicultural Studies and MA in Sociolinguistics simultaneously working as an English teacher in London, with stints in Singapore and China. Her published works include – first piece published in the 60s inThe Readers’ Digest; reading of her poem at The Peace Festival 1973, MU, KL; a review for SACU magazine; children’s story, The Long Trek’ for BBC Radio 2 in 1995; 3 follow-up articles on the mystery of ‘The Missing Timothy Mo,” for Ciriaco Offendu of ‘Beyond Thirty-Nine.’ and self-published debut book, “The Call of Love,” in 2015. Her 2nd novel is left hibernating till her book is scouted by a traditional agent/publisher; or something else that compels completion.
Insightful comments though my gut reaction … it’s like trying to teach algebra to Kindergarten children. Your intuition is correct … the challenge we all face is reducing intuition to words … a formidable task.
A natural tendency is to ascribe success/failure to individuals … though … in ascribing success/failure to individuals one introduces a yuge “mental block” in the minds of most readers.
For example … I’ve heard/read the claim that this individual or that individual lifted 600 million Chinese people out of poverty … a false claim. Western greed unwittingly lifted 600 million Chinese people out of poverty.
One needs to watch the ebb and flow of the tide to get a sense of human life and human destiny.
http://ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=193575
Its a process, not a task. Attributing the multiple causations and contributory elements solely to the most prominent mover is shorthand–we all do it because our language (and thus thinking) is structured that way: subject-verb-object.
Mao gained massive collective support and had an ability to think in far more flexible and expansive ways than the restrictive terms of subject-verb-object.
Interesting and worthwhile article, Thanks Ms Teoh. I’ll look out for more of your writing.
Excellent comment. Let me try to paint a picture with words that reflect my understanding of Ms Teoh’s intuition. A short time ago … let’s say 10,000 years ago … the human family was like a scatter graph … small tribes and clans of people scattered around the globe with little or no contact/communications between/among them.
Fast forward to today … the human family is really struggling to manage the momentous changes in our aggregation and inter-connectivity. We are in the advanced stages of child birth … the birth canal has dilated,the contractions are severe and the time between them is short. There are only two possible outcomes … the child (human family) will die in the womb or the child will birth and start a new life with infinite potential..
Well, potential is always infinite until it is made concrete, realised–then other, disparate forces come into play.
I would say ‘start a new life with different choices/opportunities’ (or a re-shuffled deck, but that is just my particular, personal metaphor as term of reference)
A much better metaphor … my meta short hand is under developed. :-). Infinite potential has always existed. If decisions continue to be made by people on the ground … based on facts on the ground … the outlook is ???. Ms Teoh’s article illustrates the fact that certain power centres are simply too myopic and short sighted. OTH if there is any Truth in the notion of Noosphere we have more hope … humanity may be moving from “Collective Unconscious(ness) to Collective Conscious(ness) to Collective Will. Who knows eh!
Do you know any Chinese people? Those I know tell of infinite corruption, irresolvable in its immensity,Removed. Mod a black market in foetuses to cure cancer, the squandering of money in a misguided desire to lead (rule) the world, big mistakes in foreign aid. Historic cities ruined and environment destroyed. At the bottom of this – the Chinese peasant as always, exploited for his and her capacity to work hard and long for low pay.
one minion, many thanks. I absolutely agree. Mao had massive collective support for the people were pushed beyond the edge in the China of his time; Maos’ own character and fine sense of humanity, brain and wit all added up ; I now see that as a quantum revolution. Grateful for your encouragement. I will, indeed, spend more time to writing again.
China, under Mao, saw life expectancy grow from less than forty to nearly seventy, illiteracy was eliminated, women emancipated for the first time in Chinese history, the Tibetans liberated from a brutal theocracy, and the foundations of the greatest industrial base in history created. All despite constant US aggression and subversion. Indeed China grew, from a very low base, at about 10% pa throughout those years. Mostly through their own resources.
Indisputable facts … though … could the success attributed to Deng Xiaoping have materialized without the foundation you described? Yet another illustration of the inherent weakness in ascribing success/failure to names and faces. We must look beyond these trivial facts to ‘see’ what has happened and what will happen to humanity. We must transcend the baseness of our physical reality. BTW ,,, nooscopes are on sale a Walmart. :-) Just kidding.
Bruce Morley, thanks for the Saker’s phenomenal vision and I appreciate your apt metaphors ; as Zen is both simple and impossible to attain.
I do believe individuals have the power to make real changes… even as a child, I was inspired by individuals. Mao’s revolution also proved the total unreliability of the masses. It’s China they refer to when mentioning the ‘lifting of 700 million’ out of abject poverty – that it’s a continual process from struggle, sacrifice, making changes and planning ahead… and the three individuals – Mao, Deng and Xi stand out as they develop the means by which the masses can achieve the ends – of universal humanity.
For the very many living below the poverty line, theirs is not the luxury to watch but the need for education, housing, food and leisure; I guess the great leaders have such needs ( and overwhelmingly more than such needs where corruption and evil have touched the roots ) to eradicate in their minds before endowing the luxury of free time for watchers?
Hence , XJP ‘s Win-Win, to me, is a master stroke. I wouldn’t mind being a part of this’ community of shared destiny and globalisation.’ The real test is yet to be set.
The chance of the trumpster doing any heavy thinking on the subject is 0 sadly. Then again China’s real partner in both of their futures is Russia. These 2 countries are playing the long game and Amerika is playing with itself.
Amerika will slowly die off and that’s not what want for my country but todays liberal-neo-conns have only one mind set.
Thanks and welcome aboard and see again I hope;-)
” I remember reading ‘China Today’ in the 80s which showed Mao already building roads in parts of Africa.”
Mao died in 1976.
Probably a typo by Anna. China’s involvement with Africa started in the 1960s.
https://synglobe.net/2017/05/09/tanzania-the-african-country-where-a-mao-zedongs-portrait-hangs-in-a-railway-station/
A portrait of Mao still hangs in one of Tanzania’s railway stations.
I have read through all your comments and truly grateful for sensitive your contributions. Indeed, I believe there’s a kind of meta-conscious-adaptation, if I may coin a new thought phrase. CoggDiss, Cyril and Larchmonter 445, I knew Mao’s time and the construction of roads to be in the 1960s as I’d read in the ‘China Today’ magazine, which I started reading in the 1980s. Personally, I was a school kid in the 60s, hence my dating of China’s construction works in Africa in the 1980s.
Thanks so much for all your encouragement too. Indeed, I agree with Bruce; one’s intuition is divinely ordained with the collective consciousness – it’s like listening to Mozart with the Dao. Thank you, TNY, and my apology for having the names wrong – I remembered them off hand; from what I read in the 80s but there’s no excuse and I should’ve googled for the correct names. I will take my writing more seriously from now on. Thanks to The Saker for allowing human imperfections.
I find all your comments interrelated to the topic. Jo6pac, and Lance, I do understand your reservation about the neocons, the awful events up to 2016 and ongoing… it’s difficult to shut out the horrendous acts wars have on human frailties, but I know my human limitations and have decided to put all my energy into peaceful words and deeds.
The ancient Silk Road was a global route for trade and travellers. Everyone one on the trail and it wasn’t dominated by any one race ; as we know this is based on historical records and facts – camels, horses, silk, spices, tea … so nature is inherently true.
TNY, juliana and all who commented, indeed, the world’s incomplete without having Asian perspectives from free individuals with original minds and not those towing the line or paid for their political stand, is so important. I hope to send in more articles and I will even rewrite a past article which I think has great relevance, to the Saker soon.
Meanwhile, if you’re interested to know more about me, you might like to read my self-published debut book, ‘The Call of Love,’ available from Amazon and major book retailers.
Cyril, thanks so much for the references and engagement. Cheers.
She read it in the ’80s. The road building was earlier.
It’s how you read, not what she wrote.
Language is tricky and clarity is difficult work, sometimes.
Larchmonter, many thanks. True indeed, yet language is the key to our understanding in its deconstruction.
But precision rules in good writing and reading… I reread my article and happy to be the conscientious writer not fudging dates. As they said, ” In the beginning was the word…” so let’s drain fake news to the antidote lab.
CoggDiss It’s a sentence with differentiated time and events. I read China Today in the 80s, which showed Mao’s team building roads/rails tracks etc (in the implied 60s).
Btw. most of the traders on route of silk road between 200Bc to 700AD.were Indians or had Indo aryan names.
Maybe the silk route (sea route), not the silk road. India mainly traded in spices with the arabs, that too from south india. One can than also argue that most of the traders on the silk route were arabs.
Kyo New research traced back 5000 years ago to the Romans, possibly Greeks too.
“Google, Facebook, Youtube and others to cooperate with the Chinese techies so we can choose freely to use what we have here or subscribe to Wechat, Weibao , Alibaba etc. That way, we can access into any of these giant cyber portals anywhere freely to connect east and west. This can only uplift our universal humanity and shared destiny” . . .
Bad idea. Every time, globalism has meant imprinting the most fanatic liberal, the American, on everyone else. Every time. Stop worshipping the American logos. Invent your own shit. Be proud of it. Stop lusting to be other. You better believe, the other (the American) doesn’t want to be you. It wants to eat you. and it will, if you’re not careful. Communism is dead. But so is captialism. Beware, the liberal.
Besides, only a child looks up to things. Be a man.
I like what you have written.:-) Most people no longer warship the west.
lance, and J… one can also say a man’s a corrupted child; but I guess you’re referring to the learned man. You’re right and wrong about communism, capitalism and the liberal… it’s all a far more complex world but the main point is to uplift us or we get out of the muddle and lead the leaders.
Thank you for the article. I hope the Saker will continue to bring us articles written from the Asian perspective.
I’d like to point out a few errors that Ms Teoh made in the following sentence:
They were joined by noble, dedicated and determined fellow humans from the US, like Israel Epstein, Edward Snow, Helen Snow, Anna Louise Armstrong, Norman Bethune, Sidney Rittenberg and many more . . .
Israel Epstein wasn’t from the US, although he did live there from 1945 to 1951. He was born in Warsaw in 1915, came to China in 1917 and lived here until the 1940s.
“Edward Snow” should read “Edgar Snow”. In the 1930s he told the world about the Chinese communists in his book Red Star Over China.
“Anna Louise Armstrong” should read “Anna Louise Strong”.
Norman Bethune was Canadian.
TNY, many thanks for your appreciation and correction. Indeed, I should’ve added ” from the US and elsewhere,” for I definitely knew the noble saint Norman Bethune was Canadian. I checked with Google and was assured it was Anna Louise Armstrong by name? You’re right, I checked Helen Snow’s ‘My China Years,’a and it’s Edgar – which sounds more American than Edward. Much honoured.
I wrote this article on the spur of an inspiration when Xi’s ” Win Win and Socialism with Chinese characteristics” concept was made clear to me about context in a flash. I should’ve added more details regarding the typical western media spit out that Xi’s win win proposal was only meant to ‘ transport Chinese goods to the world,’ in their typical slant against China; but I wanted to focus on the main gist about the complementary path for peace.
I am grateful to The Saker for posting my article and for providing the space for feedback and interactions. This is especially salient as it seems the mainstream media, or the governments have shut down the Comments from the public on MSN online news. There are true human values like truth, integrity and conscience pushed aside by those who subscribed to ‘standards,’ yet are sold out too easily, to political affiliations and propaganda.
Finally, yes, Asia needs original thinking writers with high calibre to come forth in more numbers. I was disappointed with the many noted Asian writers ( that I know about anyway) who were not affected by the crisis in the ME and what the bombs left behind today.
Thanks to Ms. Teoh for her reflections. I liked very much her positive approach In a time when we are all facing so many negatives.
A.strong point to consider is her observation and hope for the unlikely threesome. Xi, Putin, and Trump. Individually each, being human, has weak aspects to their personalities as far as leadership is concerned. I wouldnt want to be led exclusively by any one of them. And one might say from what we learn so far that Trump is the weakest in that regard, he being the least experienced political leader.
Yet if they can truly just simply hit it off personally speaking, and treat one another with respect trusting that each tries to deal fairly with the other two, something truly unique in international relations could yet occur.
I pray for it to happen.
Juliana, may thanks for your support and analysis. Yes, Trump’s visit to the Asian countries bring out the positive outcomes of cross-cultural interactions and the trio can lead the world out of the clutches of fake news, war and waste. Let’s all keep working to support everyone pointing the path to peace in the world.