The Westernizing of China is Now Complete
Time for a Chinese Revival

It's small at the moment,  and probably will be gone as soon as the cleaners see it.  But it's a sign of things to come.  Sadly.	Some things are better left in the west,  though this does make me feel even more at home in China.

     Ruth pointed this out to me near the entrance to Classroom Building One yesterday.  Well,  what was I expecting?  Did I think that the Chinese culture would adopt only those things from the west that I think are admirable?  No,  our increasingly tiny globe is becoming unified.  One world,  one culture.  That means that the ugly comes in with the beautiful,  the foolish with the wise.
     This little reminder of our cultural imperialism was a shock.  It's not the first English language graffiti I've seen in China,  but it's the first on a pristine wall of a new and very upscale university.  I suppose I was hoping that the Chinese students would be more.... enlightened and responsible?  Patriotic? Nationalistic?  A silly hope.

          I would hope that Chinese students would look at this graffiti as a desecration and an insult to their country.  I would hope that any student writing "Fuck" on the walls in imitation of Los Angeles ghetto disaffected and disenfranchised youth would be severely criticized by his fellow students.  It's so un-Chinese.  And so ugly.  But then,  I must ask myself what I was expecting,  and why.

"And the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls,  and tenement halls."
-Simon and Garfunkle "Sound of Silence"

     I'm reminded of a billboard I saw while driving down La Cienega Boulevard in Lost Angeles.  The wide road at that point was lined with two and three story buildings,  most with walls covered in graphic ads or large billboards.  There were ads for the Wells Fargo Bank,   for medical insurance,  for retirement savings funds,  for alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, all manner of commercialism offering the American dream for sale.  A sixty foot long Nadia Komenich was lounging in Levi's underwear.  Two smiling young men,  arms over each others shoulders in azure water,  invited us to take a gay cruise.   And one billboard showed a stern faced cop in front of a spray painted wall with the caption: "Stamp Out Graffiti".  The irony was overwhelming.  Obviously the only people who are allowed to give us visual pollution in America are those with money.  If you have no money,  if what you are selling is your anger and frustration, you must not display your message.
     Since seeing this,  I've had a soft spot in my heart for graffiti.  And I personally have no problem with taboo words.  In fact the F word is probably my most used English expletive.  It's rather fun,  and adds a rhythmic quality to vulgar speech.  But somehow I hoped graffiti wouldn't come to China.  Because what it means is that the perpetrator feels no ownership for the environment.  They don't feel that this university belongs to them.  They feel controlled and helpless.  Powerless.  Not responsible at all for the visual look of their university.  And so they make their statements.  They get in our face.  They protest with the only tools they have,  in this case a magic marker felt pen.  Fuck.