When to fold them
Wednesday afternoon Myles and I went to one of the import-bookstores. Among our purchases was for Randy, Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. Right now he cannot put it down.
The book is based upon Ballard's experiences living as a an expatriate child in Shanghai during World War II. Ballard himself spent three years interred in a Japanese camp, though unlike his book character Jim, Ballard was with his parents and younger sister. Not that being with his family made conditions any better for him, but as he has explained in interviews, if Jim weren't an orphan in the book, contemporary audiences might not understand how his parents couldn't protect him from anything.
In one of the afterwards, Ballard addresses a very important question. Why on earth did the expatriates stay in Shanghai when they could have retreated for safer ports or even their home countries before the Japanese arrived in Shanghai? China was already ravaged by its civil war, the Rape of Nanking had already happened......why had the Ballards and many of their friends and neighbors remained in Shanghai when from our vantage point there were so many more signs to evacuate? Ballard reminds us, the contemporary confused readers, that shortly after many expatriates departed for Singapore or Hong Kong, those cities were no longer safe. And as for returning to England, the country was entirely economically depressed, Dunkirk had already happened, and the Germans were advancing. Remaining in Shanghai, believing their drivers and nannies and private clubs would keep them separate, believing British and American power would prevail, those that remained were as surprised as anyone after Pearl Harbor. There was no more opportunity to leave after that.
It is hard to read about Ballard's expat world and not compare it to today. One thing that for some reason that jarred me was when he mentions (again, just in one of the afterwards) the foreign families being carted around in their Packards and Buicks. If an expat family is provided a car and driver for their personal needs here in Shenzhen, it is almost always a dark blue Buick mini-van. They are so conspicuous in all parts of Shenzhen because it isn't the sort of car a Chinese person would own, nor even many expats themselves that buy vehicles here. Anyway, for some reason, when Ballard mentions Buicks, I suddenly start to parallel 1941 Shanghai with 2008 China.
Far to the west of here, nothing is calming down. I read that in the South China Morning Post this morning. I asked Randy last night if this is something that, years from now, people would have pointed to these past several weeks as the clue that we foreigners should have been getting out of China. Are these events something that, while we are personally safe right now, should be a warning to us? It's no Rape of Nanking, but are these events a foreshadowing of more to come? Come closer?
Randy's approach to this is, of course, to wait. We are not in any danger nor do we feel unsafe. HOWEVER, Randy has said that if Olympic-boycott (either in whole or in part) talk progresses beyond talk, that will be a time for us to leave, if even only for a few months. We have friends that were here during other times of rising anti-American sentiment, and it wasn't fun or even safe to be an American in China at those times. How frightening it would be, to be here and one day still have the constant "Hello, hello" greetings from schoolkids and workmen alike, to be photographed constantly, to be a curiosity, and then the next day to be considered an enemy of the Chinese people. Of course, the anti-American sentiment (so I've heard) calms almost as quickly as it erupts, but we are talking about the Beijing Olympics here. They've been preparing for this for years.
The book is based upon Ballard's experiences living as a an expatriate child in Shanghai during World War II. Ballard himself spent three years interred in a Japanese camp, though unlike his book character Jim, Ballard was with his parents and younger sister. Not that being with his family made conditions any better for him, but as he has explained in interviews, if Jim weren't an orphan in the book, contemporary audiences might not understand how his parents couldn't protect him from anything.
In one of the afterwards, Ballard addresses a very important question. Why on earth did the expatriates stay in Shanghai when they could have retreated for safer ports or even their home countries before the Japanese arrived in Shanghai? China was already ravaged by its civil war, the Rape of Nanking had already happened......why had the Ballards and many of their friends and neighbors remained in Shanghai when from our vantage point there were so many more signs to evacuate? Ballard reminds us, the contemporary confused readers, that shortly after many expatriates departed for Singapore or Hong Kong, those cities were no longer safe. And as for returning to England, the country was entirely economically depressed, Dunkirk had already happened, and the Germans were advancing. Remaining in Shanghai, believing their drivers and nannies and private clubs would keep them separate, believing British and American power would prevail, those that remained were as surprised as anyone after Pearl Harbor. There was no more opportunity to leave after that.
It is hard to read about Ballard's expat world and not compare it to today. One thing that for some reason that jarred me was when he mentions (again, just in one of the afterwards) the foreign families being carted around in their Packards and Buicks. If an expat family is provided a car and driver for their personal needs here in Shenzhen, it is almost always a dark blue Buick mini-van. They are so conspicuous in all parts of Shenzhen because it isn't the sort of car a Chinese person would own, nor even many expats themselves that buy vehicles here. Anyway, for some reason, when Ballard mentions Buicks, I suddenly start to parallel 1941 Shanghai with 2008 China.
Far to the west of here, nothing is calming down. I read that in the South China Morning Post this morning. I asked Randy last night if this is something that, years from now, people would have pointed to these past several weeks as the clue that we foreigners should have been getting out of China. Are these events something that, while we are personally safe right now, should be a warning to us? It's no Rape of Nanking, but are these events a foreshadowing of more to come? Come closer?
Randy's approach to this is, of course, to wait. We are not in any danger nor do we feel unsafe. HOWEVER, Randy has said that if Olympic-boycott (either in whole or in part) talk progresses beyond talk, that will be a time for us to leave, if even only for a few months. We have friends that were here during other times of rising anti-American sentiment, and it wasn't fun or even safe to be an American in China at those times. How frightening it would be, to be here and one day still have the constant "Hello, hello" greetings from schoolkids and workmen alike, to be photographed constantly, to be a curiosity, and then the next day to be considered an enemy of the Chinese people. Of course, the anti-American sentiment (so I've heard) calms almost as quickly as it erupts, but we are talking about the Beijing Olympics here. They've been preparing for this for years.
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TX., USA.