Carl Johnson
BANNED
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
- Messages
- 205
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
BEIJING: "The furthest distance in the world/ Is not %between life and death/ But when I stand in front of you/ Yet you don't know that I %love you."
Reciting these immortal lines from Rabindranath Tagore is the suave and charming You Jianhua. He is the director general of coordination in the international department of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) - a pretty senior position. He is urging the point that China loves everybody, with a hint of emphasis towards India. During a luncheon banquet, he says that he has a Ganesha in his drawing room because he has great respect for India.
This is the kind of reaction India evokes - mostly, among the sophisticated elite. They talk of ancient cultures and shared histories, and of another more recent commonality, high GDP growth rates. "We are both strong, emerging economies" is a constant refrain.
But as you leave the rarified circles and mingle with commoners, more color gets painted in. And, one gets a sense of barely concealed curiosity. "Ah, India! 'Slumdog Millionnaire'!" exclaims Hao Yuenan, a former soldier and currently working in the information office of Sichuan, a province in south central China, right next to Tibet.
Across the vast nation, everybody seems to have seen this Oscar-winning film because it was shown on CCTV, China's official telecaster. Even in a remote village of the Qiang ethnic group, a shopkeeper beams and says something excitedly to the local interpreter. He is saying that he loved 'Slumdog', she translates with a knowing grin.
Knowledge about India is curiously limited to images from television. In several places, people ask whether it is true that Indians normally eat straight with their hands. There is a hint of suspicion that perhaps the TV programme on Indian cuisine and eating habits was not really representative.
In Haimen, Jiangsu province, on the eastern seaboard, Fen Chien who has adopted the Western name Henry for convenience of visiting foreigners, is transparently aghast at the confirmation of this habit. When asked whether he finds it embarrassing, Henry displays quick thinking.
"You eat with your hands because your food must be very delicious, isn't it?" he says.
Another slice of India that most people have enjoyed is Bollywood dances. Not whole films, not actors but the heavy-duty dance numbers, which seem to be aired sometimes on TV shows.
"I love the energy and the movements," says Xu Zhou, a young university student from Beijing. "And the ...freedom," she adds after struggling for a proper word. %What she probably means is "abandon".
In a gigantic eating house, halfway between Beijing and the Great Wall, 2000 tourists can eat at a time in a vast hall on the first floor (called the second floor in China; their first floor is what we call the ground floor). In the equally big washrooms, piped music is playing. It sounds vaguely familiar. Then it suddenly clicks: it's an instrumental version of SRK's Chaiyya Chaiyya.
In Mianyang city in Sichuan, a local journalist who calls himself Ray raises the population question. "On TV they showed an image of a train with people sitting on the roofs and hanging from the sides," he says. There is no criticism - China after all has a larger population and one never hears any complaint about that. Ray is just worried that why do they have to travel on dangerous rooftops.
But the one running theme - sometimes brazenly stated, sometimes politely implied - is trade relations. China is %a nation obsessed with economic growth. So everything is explored for its economic opportunity.
In the Tianfu Software Park of Chengdu, Sichuan province's capital, officials delicately talk about making efforts to catch up with India's outsourcing industry.
Sometimes, the approach is direct, as in Haimen. Fen Chien is on the municipality's Board of Commerce. So he is just doing his job when he asks whether there is any market for carbon brushes in India. "There are many manufacturers of high quality carbon brushes here. They are looking for overseas markets," he says expectantly. He also offers bed textiles, of which the suburb of Dieshiquiao is an international hub with an annual turnover of over about $8 billion.
On an off-chance he also recommends that Indian investors can find Haimen very profitable.
China loves everybody, India a little more - The Times of India
Reciting these immortal lines from Rabindranath Tagore is the suave and charming You Jianhua. He is the director general of coordination in the international department of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) - a pretty senior position. He is urging the point that China loves everybody, with a hint of emphasis towards India. During a luncheon banquet, he says that he has a Ganesha in his drawing room because he has great respect for India.
This is the kind of reaction India evokes - mostly, among the sophisticated elite. They talk of ancient cultures and shared histories, and of another more recent commonality, high GDP growth rates. "We are both strong, emerging economies" is a constant refrain.
But as you leave the rarified circles and mingle with commoners, more color gets painted in. And, one gets a sense of barely concealed curiosity. "Ah, India! 'Slumdog Millionnaire'!" exclaims Hao Yuenan, a former soldier and currently working in the information office of Sichuan, a province in south central China, right next to Tibet.
Across the vast nation, everybody seems to have seen this Oscar-winning film because it was shown on CCTV, China's official telecaster. Even in a remote village of the Qiang ethnic group, a shopkeeper beams and says something excitedly to the local interpreter. He is saying that he loved 'Slumdog', she translates with a knowing grin.
Knowledge about India is curiously limited to images from television. In several places, people ask whether it is true that Indians normally eat straight with their hands. There is a hint of suspicion that perhaps the TV programme on Indian cuisine and eating habits was not really representative.
In Haimen, Jiangsu province, on the eastern seaboard, Fen Chien who has adopted the Western name Henry for convenience of visiting foreigners, is transparently aghast at the confirmation of this habit. When asked whether he finds it embarrassing, Henry displays quick thinking.
"You eat with your hands because your food must be very delicious, isn't it?" he says.
Another slice of India that most people have enjoyed is Bollywood dances. Not whole films, not actors but the heavy-duty dance numbers, which seem to be aired sometimes on TV shows.
"I love the energy and the movements," says Xu Zhou, a young university student from Beijing. "And the ...freedom," she adds after struggling for a proper word. %What she probably means is "abandon".
In a gigantic eating house, halfway between Beijing and the Great Wall, 2000 tourists can eat at a time in a vast hall on the first floor (called the second floor in China; their first floor is what we call the ground floor). In the equally big washrooms, piped music is playing. It sounds vaguely familiar. Then it suddenly clicks: it's an instrumental version of SRK's Chaiyya Chaiyya.
In Mianyang city in Sichuan, a local journalist who calls himself Ray raises the population question. "On TV they showed an image of a train with people sitting on the roofs and hanging from the sides," he says. There is no criticism - China after all has a larger population and one never hears any complaint about that. Ray is just worried that why do they have to travel on dangerous rooftops.
But the one running theme - sometimes brazenly stated, sometimes politely implied - is trade relations. China is %a nation obsessed with economic growth. So everything is explored for its economic opportunity.
In the Tianfu Software Park of Chengdu, Sichuan province's capital, officials delicately talk about making efforts to catch up with India's outsourcing industry.
Sometimes, the approach is direct, as in Haimen. Fen Chien is on the municipality's Board of Commerce. So he is just doing his job when he asks whether there is any market for carbon brushes in India. "There are many manufacturers of high quality carbon brushes here. They are looking for overseas markets," he says expectantly. He also offers bed textiles, of which the suburb of Dieshiquiao is an international hub with an annual turnover of over about $8 billion.
On an off-chance he also recommends that Indian investors can find Haimen very profitable.
China loves everybody, India a little more - The Times of India
