The passage of time has a way of making things much more surreal than they were initially. This is especially true in China, where change is especially rapid. Above, a statue of Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of the Chinese republic, regarded by most Chinese as the father of modern China. Oh, and Haagen Dazs, of course.
I think it was Zhou En-Lai who wrote, "One day, the Masses will rise to claim their right to consume overpriced high-fat frozen dairy desert products." And wasn't it Mao himself who said, "Justice is best served in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone. With Sprinkles."
Not that this, um - revolutionary fizzling, can we call it? - is exclusive to China. After all, we Americans wouldn't think twice about seeing one of our country's radical forefathers enshrined in a shopping complex somewhere. How many Jefferson Malls are out there, anyway?
The global spread of all things branded may have Marx and company spinning in their graves, but I suspect they're not the only ones. I can hear Abe Lincoln now: "Hey guys? Guys? Um, thanks for naming this line of luxury cars after me, but when I signed the Emancipation Proclamation, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind..."
What makes the experience in China more surreal (in addition to my perspective as an outsider) is again the speed and scale at which all this has taken place. Sun Yat-Sen died in 1925, which means there must be at least a few retirees in my neighborhood who were born while he was still alive - a time when the Chinese Empire was still busy collapsing. From then until now, China went from food binding through the Japanese occupation, to Mao and the Cultural Revolution and all of the reforms and counter reforms of the Communist party to ... Haagen Dasz ice cream. Which, by the way, costs 40 RMB per serving here - what a typical pensioner may receive for a week.
On the way to classes, or dropping the kids off to kindergarten, I often walk by a group of retirees on their way to buy vegetables at the market. "Dang, the changes they must have gone through," I think. And, "Man, my life has been easy." And, "Wow, I reeeaally wish my Chinese was a whole lot better."
I wonder what Sun Yat-Sen would think of how it's all turned out so far? Or Lincoln or Gandhi or any of the other tireless reformers that have brought us rights and freedoms that we now take for granted? The desire for justice and equality is universal. Unfortunately, it's also quite common for us as a society to forget (or at least conveniently ignore) the notion of universal justice once the basic needs of the majority have been met.
Especially when there's ice cream involved.
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