Op-Ed Contributors

Entering a Chinese zeitgeist

By David Gosset (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-31 08:13

In viewing a traditional Chinese painting, the eyes do not have to follow a linear perspective from a fixed and external position to a vanishing point; they move within a scroll and, like a movie camera, capture a shifting focus. In a sense, the connoisseur is not facing a representation that has to be interpreted but enters a scene, a landscape or even a mood animated by a fundamental energy, the qi, which has to be appreciated. Similarly, in order to comprehend China's dynamics, one should not be concerned by theoretical constructions or grand systematic designs. Instead, one should try to empathize with an experience.

China's praxis can baffle an analyst, but in a time of permanent crises when the ability to constantly unlearn, rethink and redefine is required, the Chinese mode of action is more conducive to success than the strict implementation of any hypothetical Chinese model. Laozi's Tao Te Ching already prepared the Chinese mind to a world of paradoxes: "The sage relying on actionless activity (wu wei) carries on wordless teaching."

Following Deng Xiaoping's policy of opening-up, the increasing economic, political and cultural weight of China in world affairs is widely recognized as one of the main features of our times. According to the Global Language Monitor, an organization which tracks trends in word usage, "the emergence of China" has been the top story of the last decade.

As a result of China's re-emergence, some elements of Chinese culture are becoming more visible - gradual increase of Beijing's soft power - but what is more significant is the objective correspondence between the fluidity of the Chinese worldview and a new air du temps - the making of a Chinese zeitgeist.

The co-existence of a gigantic bureaucratic state with an overall social elasticity and transformation whose scale has no equivalent in world history is an apparent paradox that puzzles the observer of Chinese society. Why is China so comfortable with change while Western democracies are dangerously lacking in the capacity to question their assumptions and could, in the long term, be threatened by inertia and complacency?

As the Chinese renaissance gradually reshapes the 21st century and takes the global system to another level, understanding China has become a practical necessity.

By considering the weiqi board game (known in the West by its Japanese name of go), one of the most significant symbols in the Chinese mental geography, one can develop a better understanding of Chinese dynamics in politics, in business, and even in more trivial social interactions. The tao of weiqi envelops an aesthetic and an intellectual experience that takes us closer to Chinese psychology and gives us insights into Chinese strategic thinking. It is also, to a certain extent, a way to approach the fundamental patterns of China's collective success.

In imperial China, weiqi had the status of an art whose practice had educational, moral and intellectual purposes. In a Chinese version of the scholastic quadrivium, the mandarins had to master four arts, known as qin, qi, shu and hua. It was expected of the gentlemen to be able to play the guqin (qin), a seven-stringed zither, and also to write calligraphy (shu) and demonstrate their talent at brush painting (hua).