{"id":1065,"date":"2012-06-01T15:31:20","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T20:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2025-06-04T15:46:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T20:46:35","slug":"epilogue-on-returning-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2012\/06\/01\/epilogue-on-returning-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Epilogue on returning home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I arrived in Bloomington 24 hours ago, happily (using air miles) via First Class on American.\u00a0\u00a0It seemed a fitting way to end a First Class journey around the world\u2014after a 6 hour train from Datong to Beijing.<\/p>\n

There were two newsworthy articles this morning in the Wall Street Journal relevant to the trip.\u00a0\u00a0One was the slowdown in India (based partly on the slowdown elsewhere in the world), and the slowdown in China.\u00a0\u00a0You definitely have to read the non-Chinese press in particular to get that impression, though between the lines, you can tell there are some cracks in the picture of progress China presents.<\/p>\n

The Chinese government vocabulary emphasizes the need for social stability; its contract is continued power in return for generating continued prosperity\u2014even if that means stimulating the economy through an economic package that tends to favor domestic consumption.<\/p>\n

\"\" The emphasis on social stability was visible in at least two places where one might not have expected it. The first was in the Confucian temple in Beijing. We got there in time to see a dance performance based on the teachings of Confucius.\u00a0\u00a0Part of the message was about \u201csocial stability.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The Chinese phrase was, \u201cTian xia wei gong,\u201d one of the teachings of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, roughly translated as \u201cThe Earth Belongs to the People.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0You can find that on the gateway to almost every Chinatown in the United States (see Chicago\u2019s, if you\"\" doubt me).\u00a0\u00a0That Confucius is revered today is a remarkable change from the Mao past, when the \u201cNew China\u201d meant demolishing the old.<\/p>\n

\"\"The second clue is the \u201cBeijing Spirit\u201d motto: \u201cPatriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, and Virtue.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The last named is also part of the Confucian ethic.<\/p>\n

The \u201cNew New China\u201d with its emphasis on the \u201cNew Old\u201d indicates to me that Mao in remaking China missed some of the good in the old.\u00a0\u00a0What sounds like thunder in China, in other words, is really Mao turning in his grave.<\/p>\n

And so the adventure ends–and I’m ready for the next one!<\/p>\n

Reminiscence 2025.\u00a0 Hard to believe, but this was my last brush with Asia.\u00a0 I wonder how much has changed, especially after COVID.<\/p>\n

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I arrived in Bloomington 24 hours ago, happily (using air miles) via First Class on American.\u00a0\u00a0It seemed a fitting way to end a First Class journey around the world\u2014after a 6 hour train from Datong to Beijing. There were two newsworthy articles this morning in the Wall Street Journal relevant to the trip.\u00a0\u00a0One was the … Continue reading “Epilogue on returning home”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-last-trip-in-china-2012"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9432,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/9432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}