The sky is high, and the Emperor is far away.
This is an old Chinese proverb that tells us about the vastness of China and its unique system of government.
Our guest speaker last evening was Paul Wah, a prominent member of the Chinese community in Wellington. He is a fourth generation migrant, former Principal at Taita College, teacher of President Euon, and long-time friend of Michael Parker.
It seems you can’t take China out of the Chinese. Paul has vigorously kept up his connections with China, visiting often and teaching English there for a year. His talk ranged over the China-NZ relationship and how he sees it developing.
He is ambivalent about modern China. Its growth has been spectacular, and is now of critical importance to us for trade and investment. It will be the world’s biggest economy by 2030.
China’s resurgence has caused friction with the USA, which complains, rightly, about product dumping and intellectual property theft. However, some of the blame lies with American corporates, who outsourced manufacturing and made joint venture deals which went sour.
The USA wants to slow down China’s growth and believes China’s system should incline towards the West, in terms of openness and democracy.
So now there is a trade war, which threatens our own position. Paul believes the NZ government’s neutral stance is correct, although we may become the meat in the sandwich. Our values and traditions are firmly with the west, but we should respect and learn from China. To do this we must know what makes China tick.
Paul gave us some useful insights into this. China is not a ‘nation state’ in the western sense, but a ‘civilisation state’ with a strong sense of unity and respect for its long history. These feelings stay alive in migrants, no matter how long ago they left their homeland.
The state in China is seen as the protector of the Han civilisation, and the power of the state has been in the hands of many dynasties over thousands of years, of which the Communist party is merely the latest example. As long as the Chinese government continues to raise living standards, there will be no real challenge to the power of the state and it will not be threatened by democratic pressures.
This all may seem rather odd to us, but our grandchildren should look north as well as west. If only the language was not so difficult….
Live Q&A: Garden maintenance with Crewcut
This Wednesday, we are having another Neighbourly Q&A session. This time with John Bracewell from Crewcut.
John Bracewell, former Black Caps coach turned Franchisee Development Manager and currently the face of Crewcut’s #Movember campaign, knows a thing or two about keeping the grass looking sharp—whether it’s on a cricket pitch or in your backyard!
As a seasoned Crewcut franchisee, John is excited to answer your lawn and gardening questions. After years of perfecting the greens on the field, he's ready to share tips on how to knock your garden out of the park. Let's just say he’s as passionate about lush lawns as he is about a good game of cricket!
John is happy to answer questions about lawn mowing, tree/hedge trimming, tidying your garden, ride on mowing, you name it! He'll be online on Wednesday, 27th of November to answer them all.
Share your question below now ⬇️
Poll: Should all neighbours have to contribute to improvements?
An Auckland court has ruled a woman doesn’t have to contribute towards the cost of fixing a driveway she shares with 10 neighbours.
When thinking about fences, driveways or tree felling, for example, do you think all neighbours should have to pay if the improvements directly benefit them?
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82.2% Yes
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15.1% No
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2.7% Other - I'll share below
Calling All Puzzle Masters! Can You Solve This?
When John was six years old he hammered a nail into his favorite tree to mark his height.
Ten years later at age sixteen, John returned to see how much higher the nail was.
If the tree grew by five centimetres each year, how much higher would the nail be?
Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.
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Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.
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