A couple days ago Danwei and Imagethief both had good posts that gave a couple varying opinions on the recent increase in attention to the Starbucks in the Forbidden City. The issue has been recently stirred up by CCTV anchorman Rui Chenggang and his call for Starbucks to get out and stay out of one of China’s best-known cultural heritage sites (in Chinese @ Rui’s blog, in translation via ESWN).
“The Chinese people did not have the taste or tradition for drinking coffee, but Starbucks has turned China into its second largest global market. This is an admirable commercial success. But there is something that is disappointing: there is a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City.
I and numerous Chinese and foreign friends believe that it is incongruous to have a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City, because it is ‘obscene.’ I don’t know if Starbucks has any plans to be present at the Taj Mahal Palace in India, or the Pyramids of Egypt, the Buckingham Palace in England and other world cultural treasure and miracle sites, but I ask you to get out of the Forbidden City.” – Rui Chenggang @ Yale CEO Summit Conference.
I generally agree with Rui, but don’t see it as Starbucks’ responsibility to stay out of the Forbidden City, but rather the Forbidden City’s responsibility to not whore out their land.
It wasn’t Rui’s Starbucks position that I found particularly enlightening, but rather an earlier post at his blog that ESWN translated recently. The entry, entitled “An essay about Japan that every Chinese person ought to read“, should indeed be required reading by every Chinese for its poignant and critical analysis of Nationalistic pride and misguided views about Japan. It should also be read by foreigners to de-jade them of the opinion that all Chinese think using a sliver of the perspective that the world at large holds.
That bitter part of Sino-Japanese history is just one shadow cast in the two-thousand-year history of Sino-Japanese relationship. It is not everything. The future will be even longer.
We cannot keep repeating that the Chinese language is the ancestor of the Japanese language, wanting the Japanese people to be the descendants of the 3,000 boys and girls that could not find the magical eternal-life potion for the First Emperor of Qin, or forgetting (or even being totally ignorant) of the contributions that Japan has made towards China.
Admitting someone else’s good points does not mean that you are deprecating yourself. On the contrary, it is an expression of self-confidence.
His post has led me to discover something rather remarkable – a CCTV anchor with a brain. Admittedly, the amount of CCTV I watch is inversely proportional to the amount of time I stay in China, but not once have I watched and been inspired by anything that’s been said on the station.
Rui, through the advent of mainstream media personalities blogging in non-mainstream mediums, has changed my opinion and I’ll be watching BizChina with renewed vigor. Well, probably not. I will, however, wait patiently for him to start an English-language blog (or for my Chinese to improve) so that after a long day of hearing the same mindless school-book propaganda repeated again and again, I can be reminded that this country doesn’t solely operate on dollars and Party lines.
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As an American that has been living in Beijing for 5 years I fully support Rui Chenggang’s drive to evict Starbucks from this most important of Chinese imperial sites. However, there are other commercial operations inside the Forbidden City that are far more disrespectful to China’s history. Foreign tourists are consistently approached by young men and women claiming to be art students who have painting exhibition inside the palace. The tourists are offered a free viewing and are then taken to a shop where knock off reproductions of classic Chinese paintings are passed off as the “students” work. The price for these paintings can be up to ten times what they would normally cost in a market and the sales pressure is high. Although the location of Starbucks is highly distasteful they do sale a fairly priced and honestly marketed product. Rui Chenggang should expand his campaign to include the fake student exhibitions thereby making his campaign a true affirmation of Chinese heritage and not just a jingoistic attack on a foreign enterprise.
Well said.
The rip-off art student gig is an integral part of Chinese culture. Without lying, stealing, ingorance, rudeness, loud talking, spitting, pay-offs, killing babies after birth, it just would not be China. Those things are absolutely a must and welcomed here-not a cup of coffee!!
I’ve been to the Forbidden City, and several other wonderful sites such as the Great Wall, and Summer Palace, when I was in Beijing in late 2006.
I don’t know that I’m for or against the notion of a Starbucks inside a cultural icon such as the Forbidden City. What I will say is that I was appalled that the Chinese let their local merchants get away with far worse. The general atmosphere around the the entrance of most attractions is akin to a flea market or cheap town fair. Merchants shouting at you with bullhorns at the entrance to the one of the Badaling Great Wall site is a common occurrence, as are the merchants who litter the top of the Wall itself with their little shops selling everything from ‘take a picture with my camel’ or ‘take a picture with my horse’ (yes they have real animals), or ‘let me inscribe your name on this grain of sand’…
The atmosphere inside the Forbidden City is at least better than the circus which occurs outside, but you still can’t escape harrassment by any number of people trying to sell you crap masquerading as tourist trinkets.
That said, these are wonderful cultural sites. If Mr Rui is using Starbucks as a way to start the conversation to boot the other hucksters, then go right ahead. But, let’s not make Starbucks out to be a villain. On the other hand, I suppose it might be less than politically correct to criticize the bureaucrats who sell franchises to hawk stuff to anyone on the street 🙂
I didn’t actually go to the Starbucks in the Forbidden City itself, but if it’s anything like any Starbucks I’ve seen in Beijing, then it’s run with the usual levels of efficiency and cleanliness – plus no sales pressure 🙂 The story Mr Rui also ought to be telling is how the Chinese are trampling on their own cultural history – without help from anyone else.
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Mr. Rui Chenggang’s campaign against the Starbucks outlet at the Forbidden City is totally unbecoming of a TV news anchor.
The job of any journalist worth his salt is to maintain impartiality on news stories and not to take a stand–especially in such an impassioned manner. Mr. Rui clearly let his emotions get the better of him, and he took a stand on an issue which he should have avoided as a journalist.
I’m not sure if he understands the nature of being a journalist, and where he acquired his journalism training–if you can call it as such. But what also strikes me is that CCTV allowed him to editorialize. This episode also bolsters international perception–especially in countries where journalism is by and large independent and committed to the truth–that the news media in China in general is far from free and credible. Mr. Rui apparently had the tacit approval from higher-ups to start such a crusade, so that the Chinese government cannot be blamed for interfering in private enterprise.
Compared to many countries I know, China has a long way to go in attaining moral ascendancy and respectability.
And Mr. Rui Chenggang, though he may hold important positions in China and elsewhere, is not a true and credible news anchor.
Hey Tom, I disagree. Journalists, like anyone else, are more than welcome to be partial to their own views and opinions.
You’re right that when reporting a journalist needs to be impartial and attack an issue from all sides with no presumptions, however, personally journalists can believe whatever they wish.
Rui’s campaign, best I know, wasn’t being broadcast in his BizChina slot, or any other bit that he’s a member (work-wise) of. It was all off-time, so to speak.
I think that Rui’s campaign is more tolerated than encouraged by the high-ups. The issue doesn’t have much to do with politics, and so, they’ll let it go until it becomes a bigger problem.
Mr Rui, it is noted, works for a state-run broadcaster. His campaign was widely reported–and supported–by official media outlets. I believe we should campaign in SF that Chinatown be removed. It is clearly walking on our American tradition and culture.
If Chinatown is to be removed from San Francisco, we first have to remove White Americans from America for which it had contaminated the Native cultures for over 500 years. If you are not ready to remove the White Americans from the Continents of Americas, Every ethic group, thus, have every rights to establish their identities and community in every part of Americas. Not just in San Francisco.
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