Chongqing Dispatch. Just Because.

In 2011, entering the U.S. at San Francisco’s airport, I was held for a few extra moments (nahhh, hours) and questioned inside. I watches as my passport was handed to a different desk, apparently for further scrutiny (or was is “security”?)…found out I didn’t even have to write about any US-sensitive topics, no, just need to have the wrong skin color, even if the passport is European.
Dan, do you really want to take it there?

Riveting. Thanks for running this.

The author writes, “Economic success in the past two decades has caused nearly all my old friends, including those who participated in the 1989 student movement, to feel that the government’s actions at Tiananmen Square were justified.” Such a powerful statement – I contend that this article is not only cultural/political — rather it is deeply intertwined with authoritative decision making processes’ that perpetuate Chinese Law and Policy…
“Another new construction my father was proud of…the huge Opera House overlooking both rivers. For good or bad, the speed of Chongqing’s economic change has been breathless. Compared to this, my little troubles such as being blocked from my blog—even using a proxy server that had worked before—seem trivial.”
But why should fundamental rights of expression ever require submission or surrender to sensational economic growth?

When I lived in Manhattan’s West Village in the early 90′s there were lovely ginkgo trees on my street. One day I came home from class to find an elderly mainland Chinese woman talking up to a ginkgo tree. I looked up and saw her partner, an elderly Chinese man, in the branches picking the ginkgo nuts and throwing them down where she gathered them in a bag, no doubt to bring home and cook, or if they were enterprising, to sell. Being a native New Yorker, I was amazed that these foreign arrivals would know how to make use of something which we only know of as a smelly nuisance.
Although Ginkgos are one of the oldest trees in the world – prehistoric, actually – they for some reason died out everywhere in modern times except in one part of eastern China, where they survived, cultivated by monks. They were then found by Europeans and brought to Europe and North America as an ornamental tree in the eighteenth century. First introduced in the United States in 1784 in the gardens of William Hamilton, it is now found in hundreds of American cities. It is said to be one of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s favorite trees. The lovely tree-lined streets of Manhattan owe their beauty to some spiritual predecessors of Chongqing’s ginkgo planters who planted thousands of these trees; one of every ten trees in Manhattan is a ginkgo.
One of the reasons for this popularity is survivability and genetic tenacity: “They are long-lived trees, remarkably resistance to disease, pests, and fires. They also are extremely tolerant of air pollution, and are often planted in harsh city environments where most trees will not survive.” Two of the original trees planted by William Hamilton in 1784 survive to this day!
Another side benefit the use of the fruit in Chinese cooking and medicine, which gives it economic value. The best-selling phytomedicine on the European market is derived from ginkgo leaves. However the ripe fruit can get slippery, creating hazards to pedestrians and, in an ambulance-chasing, litigious environment, can lead to expensive slip-and-fall lawsuits.
This article from the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard gives a succinct history of the Ginkgo in America. It lauds the wisdom of America’s nineteenth century leaders in planting ginkgo. It is heartening to see that Chongqing’s leaders have the vision to do the same, despite Ms Eberlein’s concern about excess and the undemocratic nature of Chongqing’s development under the command style of Bo Xilai, which is no doubt disconcerting.
But stepping back, would Bo Xilai not be comparable to Robert Moses, the imperious “Power Broker” who from the 1920′s-60′s built New York City’s highways, bridges, tunnels, public housing, universities, cultural centers and parks. He displaced half a million people and tore down thousands of homes in a push for urban renewal. He accomplished much but embittered many. His fall from grace in the 1970′s was hailed with “good riddance” from his detractors. But the withdrawal of his building programs accompanied a collapse of the New York City economy and the city’s near bankruptcy, from which it only in recent years has recovered. Moses also planted thousands of trees all over the city – mostly plane and maple. There are now over 500,000 trees in New York, a vital part of its quality of life and economy.
In the U.S., some people long for the kind of forceful civic-minded leadership and vision from leaders like Robert Moses who built things and brought decent jobs and housing to working men and women. It seems what we have instead are state governments like Wisconsin’s leading the way to a more subdued future, one where we expect government to do less, and trust the market to decide and provide.

Unfortunately, I am in China and the government has deemed that I am too immature to read the blog.

@Richard,
Me polite. Nah. I just thought @Adam’s comment was so far off the mark that I didn’t deem
it worthy of any response.