It seems that Barack Obama might be able to save the world. This is unexpected. Rambly personal story follows.

Background: after having failed to find a decent gym within walking distance, I’ve spent the past two months on a more holistic exercise regimen (involving lots of sprinting, and probably ineffectual-but-time-intensive stretches and pulls on gymnastics bars). There are lots of these places in Chinese cities, probably holdovers from state-directed morning exercises?

Such places also happen to filled with lots of middle-aged guys early in the morning. If you ever want to feel special, it’s simply a matter of walking out to such a place and demonstrating that you can speak some Chinese.

They say the funniest things.

A group of five or so immediately began inquiring, and discovered that I was being supported by a U.S. government scholarship. Having already said, ‘well, the U.S. has lots of problems’ (in reference to the speed of development within China vis-a-vis the U.S.) Within two minutes of meeting them, the conversation had switched to: ‘Look at him, he can say whatever he wants about his country - it sucks that China doesn’t have a more open political environment.’

‘Sure we do, progress has been great’ another replied - ‘Oh really!? Why don’t you march down the police station and denounce the governor!’

This continued for a bit, and then moved into: ‘in other countries, the Olympics are a way to make money’ (I dissented) ‘but in Beijing, they spent so much. That would never happen in America or England; people would resist. We can’t.’

Someone then brought up America’s problems: ‘Well, the U.S. spends much more money on Iraq. What good has come from that?’ Assenting, I noted that it cost more every year than the Olympics did. ‘And black people aren’t equal in the U.S.! They weren’t even able to vote for a long time.’ Again I agreed, pointing out there are still massive problems with integration among Latin-American immigrants in addition to African-American race issues.

Someone else then mentioned that, ‘Well, Obama is black, and he might be their president. That’s the most powerful man in the world. Obviously things are changing.’ (I neglected to explain the active debate about whether or not Obama is in fact genuine ‘domestic black,’ or merely of the imported variety.) This however, was a welcome change from the typical commentary here about Africans / African-Americans as of late, which is typically: why are they such good athletes!?

Takeaways:

1. When discussing such topics, it is extremely useful to be self-critical. You can convince them much more quickly than through any amount of belligerence.
2. Zhou-everyman is very willing to engage in discussion about fascinating, sensitive topics. They are aware of common criticisms of China; share several, and are opposed to other aspects as well (property law, household registration.)
3. Whatever issues he may with accidentally promoting a messiah complex, Obama’s mere existence serves as a very strong signal to the rest of the world that the U.S. can integrate / function as an agglomerate. This is concept that fascinates the racially homogenous Chinese; as national identity is linked to ethnicity (there are obvious political benefits from constantly promoting this).