China in my eyes
China is a developing country with more than 1.3 billion people, representing a fifth of the world’s population.
The country is endowed with abundant human and natural resources which enable the advancement of its culture, science and technology, making China one of the strongest developing economies in the world.
Their political structure starts with the central government, two administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau, four municipalities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tinjin and ChongQuing. Elected officials into any position serve a four-year term.
China is today a success story, considering the feat achieved in the various fields of life such as agriculture, transport, marine and space engineering, energy development, environment, medicine, as well as commerce and industry, to make the world a better place for all. This is in line with the Chinese Dream that embodies the people’s hope and sets expectations for the nation for a better life, world and the future.
The rapid, sustainable social and economic development recorded by China within a short period of time has led to many questions: How did China manage to achieve so much on its own without foreign aid?
In an attempt to define China’s scientific, technological and economic development, we need to understand their culture and tradition which is a catalyst to building their nation.
Culture
Culture and tradition is the foundation of Chinese development. The Chinese go about their daily routine using their local language; and during our stay in China we understood that they talked, ate, dressed and related based on their culture.
Arts go with cultural heritage of the people. The Chinese refused to give up their identity and resisted attempts to be colonised or assimilate western culture. They maintain their cultural heritage as an important factor for development. For example, China operates two types of hospitals: the modern and traditional.
Culture is important as they look at where they came from and where they want to go. Cultural dynamics are employed to make people behave in a particular way to attain sustainable development. This starts from infrastructure, education, science and technology.
Children are given ample time to stay with their parents after school hours to enable them to learn their mother tongue and culture.
Nationalism
The Chinese society is conservative. Every important decision regarding social and economic life starts from the grass roots and is determined by the people. They understand their origin as the source of their strength.
The society follows a top-to-bottom approach, unlike the situation in other democratic societies.
Chinese philosophers interpret communist ideologies in tandem with their culture, promote it above capitalism to encourage agricultural productivity to feed its citizens and achieve self-sufficiency in food production.
Nationalism is paramount in developing the country without foreign intervention and influence while promoting national unity.
The Chinese flag has five stars, each signifying a different meaning.
The flag design features one major star and four smaller ones, representing the unity of the country and leadership under the communist party.
The four smaller stars that surround the big star symbolise the four social classes (the working class, the peasantry, the urban petite bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie) of the Chinese.
Industrial history
China’s industrial history has "four bases" in manufacturing: basic materials, basic technology, basic process and basic parts.
Now we have the new “four bases – hardware, software, internet and cloud platform”.
1800
Products in mechanical and value chain activities were performed manually using analogue information through paper processes and verbal communications.
1949
Chairman Mao led the communists to victory against the nationalists after more than 20 years of civil war; and proclaimed the founding of The People’s Republic of China.
1960s
Information Technology (IT) was used to automate information collection and processing in activities across the value chain.
1980s
With the coming of the World Trade Order (WTO), China began the coordination and integration across the value-chain with customers and business partners across the globe.
Now and beyond, China is on the verge of smart IT connectivity embedded in products themselves, transforming value creation through triggering a new wave of shifts in the value chain, as well as paving the way for new innovations.
Conclusion
I have learned and shared so much information about China after 21 days of experiencing traditional and new media with its culture and tradition while making new friends from 15 countries during the All-Media Reporters Seminar in Beijing.
Now I am able to tell a story about China from my own eyes and as the saying goes: “Been There, Done That.”
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