IN TIMES OF CHANGE, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CHINESE

Major survey sheds light on qualities of citizens behind the country's rapid development and achievements over the past decades

When Dutchman Dimitri de Boer arrived in Beijing nearly two decades ago, the skies were hazy but locals did not seem to believe it had anything to do with air pollution.

People "definitely didn't think about the environment", said De Boer, 42, who is based in the Chinese capital and heads the China program of the environmental law charity ClientEarth.

But Chinese attitudes and understanding of the environment "changed dramatically" in the years that followed, when concerns about the air and other green issues affecting their country were raised, he said.

"I don't think many foreign people knew that Chinese people would be as environmentally friendly as they are," De Boer said.

"Usually, they would think Chinese people were the polluters. But within the international community, China is actually more pro-climate than other countries. The world sees China playing a bigger role in climate issues," said De Boer, adding that there have since been "many innovations in environmental governance and technologies in China".

The greater stake that Chinese people take in major issues that affect their lives at home are part of the evolving attitudes and views that foreigners have of them - and those that Chinese hold of themselves - in the seminal past decades that saw China's rapid rise to become a leading player on the international stage.

To track the latest developments and better understand the changes, China Daily carried out an extensive survey in May using various multimedia channels, including the Sina Weibo micro-blogging platform and other major social media networks. Nearly 10,000 respondents were interviewed about various aspects and attitudes related to the Chinese - with Chinese and foreign interviewees asked to pick the top qualities that best described the people making up the world's second-largest economy.

More than 40 percent of about 7,300 of those polled via Sina Weibo chose "patriotic" and "family minded" as the main Chinese attributes, which also emerged as one of the top terms picked by respondents on other popular platforms.

More than one-third of those polled used "industrious" and "innovative" as the other defining traits of Chinese people, according to the survey.

Interviewees also picked "virtuous" and "frugal" as some of the characteristics of Chinese people, the polled showed. Similarly, Chinese adherence to "discipline" and "collectivism" were cited as some of their main features.

Out of about 2,000 respondents on social networking portal Twitter, about one-third of those polled picked "industrious" and "innovative" as the foremost Chinese qualities.

"Patriotic" and "family minded" came a close second, followed by "collectivist, disciplined" and "virtuous, frugal".

Jon Taylor, professor of political science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, United States, said that while "every nation changes with the times, I think that there are certain qualities about Chinese people that are timeless: Patriotic, family-minded, industrious, innovative, disciplined, virtuous, friendly, humorous, loyal, easy-going, realistic, considerate, strong, and pragmatic".

Taylor cited the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the forming of New China as crucial events that bring to mind "qualities such as patriotism, fierceness, tenaciousness, and resilience. During the period of reform and opening-up, qualities such as entrepreneurial, patient, serious, hardworking, enthusiastic, practical, fair-minded, diligent, and self-sacrificing stand out".

"But what is important to understand is that these qualities are all timeless descriptors of Chinese people ... . So, in this respect, I wouldn't say that the qualities of Chinese people have necessarily changed over the previous decades as much as some of these qualities have gained more notice as the times have changed," Taylor said.

Building on fundamentals

Bernard Dewit, chairman of the Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said most foreign businesspeople, "having worked in China with local entrepreneurs would fully agree with the fact that their counterpart's most important quality is to be industrious and innovative".

"I also personally notice that most of the Chinese people I meet are proud of their country, which is understandable when you see the progress made in the last 40 years. Family also plays an important role in the Chinese culture and it can explain the success of family-run businesses," he said.

"The quality of being industrious and innovative has not changed fundamentally, but what has changed in these last 40 years is the fact that the government has allowed enterprises to develop and businesspeople to undertake new businesses in all kinds of sectors."

Interestingly, riding on the back of economic growth, including the drive for more consumption and improvement in living standards, the notion of the Chinese people as "frugal" has actually "diminished", Dewit said.

"On the other hand, their "main characteristics of being industrious, innovative, patriotic and family minded will not change much. We hope that China will continue with further opening up to the outside world and continue to promote economic and cultural exchanges with Europe", he said.

New Zealander Sharon Fraser, who is general manager of the Crown Plaza Chongqing Jiefangbei hotel in Chongqing, said that while she did not know much about her hosts before arriving in the country seven years ago, she had always thought that they were "very hardworking, very industrious, and very dedicated to their work".

"When I came to China, it was lovely that people were so kind, so welcoming and so helpful. They really care and are quite inquisitive about foreigners. They want to know about things we like, the food we eat and what we like to do. So it's great to share so many experiences with them," Fraser said.

Jan Willem Blankert, senior associate of the Europe Asia Analysis group and a former European Commission diplomat in Asia, said what struck him, as a European, were the words "industrious", "patriotic", "frugal" and "disciplined" that cropped up in the survey.

Those terms seemed" un-European" to him and demonstrated "a considerable difference in culture", said Blankert, who in his book China Rising: Will the West Be Able to Cope? addressed the emergence of China vis-a-vis the West, Asia and other nations.

Taylor from the University of St. Thomas said, as China's influence grows, some foreigners will also "likely see virtues such as discipline, patriotism, innovativeness, diligence, and pragmatism among Chinese people as a negative, wrongly assuming that these qualities can only have an adverse impact."

"That is a challenge for China going forward, understanding that global preeminence will likely foster cooperation and collegiality among some and resentment and skepticism among others," he said.

Gearing up for next stage

Many ordinary Chinese themselves show that the terms "industrious" and "innovative" are perhaps the most representative of what it means to be Chinese today, amid their country's unprecedented development in recent decades.

"The journey of the Chinese people in recent times is based on hard work and the unrelenting spirit of innovation," said Fang Dongxu, 34, a professional photographer from Jiangsu province.

Sheryl Wang, 22, a Malaysian student at Zhejiang University in Zhejiang province, cited the purchases made via e-commerce portal Taobao seamlessly arriving on her doorstep even during weekends as an example of how industrious the Chinese are. Similar delivery services would not be available on weekends in her home country, said the student, who has been in China for three years.

People in China "live at a really fast pace ... here everything is so modern and the technology is very good and convenient", she said.

Ammar Hawbani, an associate professor of wireless network technology at the University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui province, said that, through his observations of Chinese students in his laboratory, many young Chinese exhibit innovative and productive traits. Many of his Chinese college classmates started their own businesses, said Hawbani, 34, who is from Yemen and has spent 14 years in China.

"Chinese people will be more innovative for the following reasons. The first reason is the young generation, they receive better education, especially in science and mathematics," he said.

"The second reason is, because of international competition, the government will push the young generation to be more and more innovative."

Yan Xiaofeng, a professor at Tianjin University who formerly held the rank of major general at the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army, said an acute awareness of China's limited resources and related conditions when compared with other countries may push many Chinese to be more industrious, which in turn cannot be separated from traditional notions of hard work.

Those are also ideals that are "necessarily needed at this stage of our country's development", he said.

Zhejiang University student Wu Wanyun, 21, from Guangdong province, said the "spirit of innovation" was definitely representative of her generation. She cited an "Internet Plus" innovation and entrepreneurship competition in her school, where novel proposals ranging from digital portals producing music to platforms selling cat food were presented.

"With more ideas and creativity, not limited to any one path or direction, you'll find yourself wanting to try new things and forging a new way for yourself," Wu said.

Ties to country and family

As a child, Li Yong remembers his father taking him into the mountains nearby to cut firewood. Surrounded by remnants of the Great Wall, Li Fengming would delight his son with stories about the defensive ramparts making up one of humankind's most monumental achievements.

When the elder Li, a former Party chief of Tangzigou village in Baoding, Hebei province, later heard that parts of the wall were being chipped away for building material, he decided to make it his life's work to patrol and guard the wall from any further "injury", according to local media.

In 2015, Li Yong also returned to his hometown, giving up lucrative job opportunities to help his father's two-decade-long quest to help protect the wall.

Li, 42, and his father, 63, now run a "protection station" that helps coordinate measures to preserve the ramparts. Their campaign to guard one of their country's historic symbols continues to draw widespread admiration and interest from media and other groups nationwide, with the village hosting a Great Wall of China Association meeting last year.

The story of the Lis is one of the latest examples of Chinese citizens' efforts to take a personal stake in what they believe to be important aspects of their country and its heritage; actions affirmed by many of their compatriots who consider those necessary for a nation on the rise.

Yan from Tianjin University said that being "patriotic" as such may not be unique to any one country and foreigners will not think that the trait is solely Chinese, but for many Chinese citizens patriotism will rank first among the attributes used to describe themselves, Yan said.

The recent resurgence of patriotism among Chinese has been reflected across diverse sectors. In 2017, the success of homegrown action movie Wolf Warrior 2, which became the top-grossing Chinese film by raking in nearly $900 million that year alone, was attributed to a "spirit of patriotism" that resonated with domestic moviegoers as it was based on the evacuation of Chinese citizens from conflict areas overseas in 2015.

Fang, the photographer from Jiangsu, said the idea of "Chineseness" comprised many aspects but patriotism is certainly one of the major traits.

The millennia of Chinese history are made up of countless stories of dedication and devotion to one's homeland, including that of the poet-patriot Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), whose sacrifice for his country is still commemorated during the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month of the traditional Chinese calendar, he said.

For Aaron Cedillo, who has lived in China for more than two years and teaches at an elementary school in Beijing, traditional Chinese values that also focus on family ties are "definitive" of his hosts, compared to his life back in the US.

"My Chinese friends get married and have babies when they turn a certain age and Chinese friends think about their family first when they choose a job or quit one," the 28-year-said.

Beyond the traditional ties to country and family, examples of personal achievement are also inspiring more Chinese to pursue their individual aspirations in an increasingly interconnected world as people continue to reap the benefits of reform and opening-up.

Septuagenarian Xia Boyu recently made the headlines when he scaled Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West, on his fifth attempt.

Xia became China's first lower-limb amputee to conquer the world's highest peak. In 1975, his group of climbers encountered a snowstorm just 200 meters below the summit and was forced to descend.

Nine climbers eventually reached the top, but Xia suffered severe frostbite and lost both his legs below the knee.

He did not give up on his dream of scaling Qomolangma. With artificial limbs, Xia continued training and exercising in the following decades.

"Although I stayed on the summit for less than 10 minutes, it took me more than 40 years to achieve my ambition," Xia said of his successful climb last year.

"I wasn't expecting anything, with all that attention. I did it for myself."

With the Qomolangma accomplishment under his belt, Xia said he has the peaks of other continents in his sights.

"I want to achieve more life. I still have lots of energy."

Zhang Yu in Shijiazhuang, Du Juan and Zheng Jinran in Beijing, Chen Weihua in Brussels, Zhao Huanxin in Washington, Zhu Lixin in Hefei, Ma Zhenhuan in Hangzhou, Cang Wei in Nanjing, Tan Yingzi in Chongqing, Xing Yi in Shanghai, Li Wenfang and Xie Jiamin in Guangzhou contributed to this story.

alexishooi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Global 07/01/2019 page2)