Now that I'm out of China, I feel completely safe writing this. Before we went to China, I was curious as to how it would feel living in a Communist country. At first, it was totally no big deal. Slowly, small things got really annoying. Certain websites were blocked. There were several news articles that I couldn't read or they were censored. Though these weren't life and death situations, it was still very annoying and I realized how much I have been taking for granted these little freedoms.
I never asked my co-workers about topics such as religion, politics, etc. When we went out with our boss and the other principals, we were asked about religion and what we believe but it was a very short conversation.
However, on our last weekend in China, we went to a co-worker's home. She started talking about life when she was a little girl. Her family was very poor. Her father drank a lot because (she says) life was very hard and they didn't have a lot of money. She will never forget that her father hit her twice when she was little. By the way she was talking, I think her father was abusive toward her mother as well. She was telling us that they didn't even have enough money to buy rice. She said she doesn't like thinking about her childhood because it was so terrible.
From her perspective, the people do not rebel against the government because of the quality of life right now. She said that she (and many, many other people) does not like the Chinese government but will not rebel because her life is so much better than it was just 20-30 years ago. People have more money to spend on non-essentials. Food is more abundant. People are happier (her father has quit drinking because life is better now). They are afraid to rebel because they are afraid the quality of life will go back to they way it was. That was a real eye-opener for me.
As an American, I am so happy for my freedom! And, being back in Korea, I am super excited to have Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, etc. without using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and for being able to read the news without being censored.
Thank you for this post, Samantha. I have been trying to wrap my head around how we're going to deal with these types of things once in China. I know it's going to be difficult for me to put up with, and I'm pretty bad at holding my tongue. Even just thinking about it all makes me grateful for our country and constitution, no matter how many problems it seems to have too! =) Enjoy Korea!!!
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