Wandering the global village
At different stages of life, a person can be affected in different ways by the same city.
A veteran journalist we’ll call “YS,” who was born in the 1970s and has traveled all over the world in the course of her work, decided in 2012 to quit her well-paid but frantic-paced job and recharge her batteries for a half year in New York.
Renting an apartment in New York and blessed with time and a bicycle, YS switched to the slow lane of life to explore the city, where she made countless delightful discoveries. In Brooklyn, for example, abandoned factories had become home to a creative cluster, while the long-unused elevated tracks had been remade into a popular park. Even in the area where she lived on the edge of Harlem, long notorious as a den of crime, the streets were full of life and charming little shops. The New York Times wrote glowingly of it as the most cosmopolitan neighborhood in New York.
“I discovered that New York had been changing continually over the preceding decade, and the changes were for the better.”
She had studied for a master’s degree 12 years before at Columbia University, and now she was back as a visiting professional (similar to the status of a visiting scholar). It was a happy return.
This time around, she was at the university to study “the effect of new media upon Chinese news.” This topic had become a matter of urgent concern to her in the preceding years, but because people were always busy, it had been difficult to engage in systematic discussion with peers or on university campuses in Taiwan. “Working in Taiwan, it’s easy to get stuck doing things you’ve become proficient at. Unaware, you stop developing, and cannot sense your own blind spots.”
Leaving everything behind may have seemed like a desperate move that derailed her career, but it afforded her an opportunity to see herself more clearly and think about which direction she should move next. And Columbia University provided the sustenance she needed at that point in time.
You can sit in on regular courses, says YS, but in addition, because Columbia has so many graduate departments and has long attracted visits from the leading lights of industry, government, and academia when they pass through New York, there are lots of interesting lectures on campus every day, which makes it an excellent place to exchange ideas and debate.
When the General Assembly of the United Nations was in session at the UN’s New York headquarters this past October, for example, things got very busy at Columbia. “The most interesting thing was seeing people from all over the world with all different ways of thinking, both at the podium and in the audience, challenge each other’s ideas. I really got a feeling that in the global village, all things are interconnected.”
Quo vadis, American dream?
So what exactly is America? A giant melting pot that irresistably attracts people from across the globe and assimilates them into a homogenous mass? Or a cultural salad capable of retaining great diversity? The verdict is still out on this question.
Shen Yuncong, the head of Good Morning Press, feels that going to the US has always been a big deal, both for individuals and families. In the past, lack of work experience, or the need to provide proof of sufficient financial resources, added to the difficulty of going there. But Taiwan’s recent admission to the US Visa Waiver Program has afforded more young people an opportunity to see the world. This will make them bolder, and directly change the youth culture of the next generation.
And there is the eternal question: As globalization proceeds and pop culture becomes more and more influential, will American culture become even more dominant around the world? In Shen’s opinion, prior to the 1980s, there were indeed legitimate worries that the US might establish cultural hegemony on the strength of its powerful economy and its dominant position in the mass media. Now, however, he sees no need for such concern, because information and values are growing increasingly diversified.
Ye Meiyao, the chief editor at ThinKingDom, feels that the US, having been through the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the financial tsunami, has a diverse society that is capable of tremendous introspection, and while the unblemished American dream of yesteryear is a bit faded and torn, it now has a more open and realistic social dialogue that still offers lessons for us.
As an example she points to the recently published Chinese translation of The Corrections by American novelist Jonathan Franzen. It is a satirical family drama that critiques the high cost of American materialism, touches on the economy and culture, and comments on everything from superficial beauty to the pockmarked aftermath of the bursting of the bubble. In the end, Franzen argues that a rebuilding is needed, and that it must proceed in tandem at the level of both the individual and society.
The social critic James Howard Kunstler, who boldly addresses the subject—taboo in America—of a post-petroleum age, continually warns of a traumatized future marred by terrorist attacks, a shortage of petroleum and electricity, and a decline of science and technology. At the same time, however, he attempts to describe a different sort of utopia where community festivals replace electronic entertainment, and the smell of grass and leaves replaces the stench of vehicle exhaust. He feels that America has a glorious tradition of people helping people, and the future lies not in the cities, with their soaring skyscrapers; rather, he says, we must develop local economies and agriculture, and strengthen the linkages between small towns and the countryside.
Regardless whether your attitude toward America is admiring or critical, and no matter whether you just want to enjoy it or intend to undertake a serious study of the place, one basic approach works for all: go boldly forward and fulfill your dream!