I came across an article in yesterday’s Cankao Xiaoxi, and found the full text online: http://business.sohu.com/20060206/n241679830.shtml
This passage is quite thought-provoking:
For a long time, there have been statements internationally such as “Chinese are born knowing how to make money,” “Chinese are economic animals,” and “Overseas Chinese are the Jews of the East.” A recently released global public opinion survey seems to have, to some extent, confirmed these claims.
The University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes and the polling organization “Global Scan” jointly conducted a sampled public opinion survey in 20 countries around the world. The results found that Chinese people are even more enthusiastic about the free market economy than Americans, ranking first in the world: 74% of Chinese respondents agreed that market economy is the best and most promising economic system in the world, followed by the Philippines (73%), the United States (71%), and India (70%); but in Europe, the birthplace of capitalism, the proportion approving of the free market was much lower: Spain at 63%, Italy at 59%, and France the lowest, at only 36%.
(According to my check, this survey was conducted between June and August 2005, with 20,791 people surveyed. The question was: Do you believe that “a system of free enterprise and a free market economy is the best foundation for the world’s future system”?)
Of course, the reliability of this survey is not necessarily high, because I do not know how its sampling of Chinese respondents was carried out. But in any case, it can explain some things. The general phenomenon of Chinese people’s fervor for the market economy is not, on the whole, born of rational thought and reflection, but rather, like superstition about science and technology, is merely shocked into being by the power displayed by the market economy. This 74% “trust” in the market economy can often only be said to rest on a kind of “superstitious” mentality. “Market economy,” like Western science and technology, freedom and democracy, and so on, is often something Chinese people do not really understand in its substance, do not know what it truly means, but only see the power it manifests, and then go mad over it. The predicament this produces is: Chinese people understand least what technology is, yet trust technology most; understand least what free market economy signifies, yet are most fanatical about it… In short, China’s “keyword fever” is also among the highest anywhere.
I have never meant to deny science and technology, or to deny liberal democracy or the market economy. But I do want to point out: “trust” should not become “superstition,” and “support” does not necessarily have to be “fanaticism.” When we see this figure of 74%, we can ask ourselves: how much of it is genuine trust and support, and how much is merely blind fan behavior?
February 7, 2006
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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