The other day I was watching a teleseries. It was the story of two families related to each other via marriage. The boy and the girl married to each other are the lone child of their respective parents. The son's parents feels proud, fortunate and privileged, exhibiting supremacy over the girl's family.
The son-in-law perpetually torments his wife's family. The guy's parents are proud of their son making extra bucks by greasing a few palms, although still dissatisfied with the amount of dowry provided by the girl's parents. They blatantly boast in front of the girl's parents that how lucky she is to have their son as her husband. Obviously the girl and her parents are unhappy with this liason. Sounds familiar, just like an episode from any typical Indian family, straight out of a SAAS-BAHU (Mother-in-law, Daughter-in-aw) soap opera.
No, you are wrong. It's not Indian, rather a Chinese teleseries with English subtitles I stumbled upon while flipping through channels on my TV. It provided a rare view into the Manchurian menu, as the curious me watched the Chinese milieu to have a peek into the reclusive society of a country which in 1978 was at par with India, now 5 times India's GDP, an aspiring Superpower flexing its economic and military muscle. But I was surprised that their social fabric and fraca aren't so different from us.
A friend of mine is married to a Chinese girl. Having made multiple trips to his SASURAL (in-law's house) in China, he has shared some fascinating anecdotes and provided me many interesting inputs about the country and its society. Wrapped in a cloak of secrecy, the Middle Kingdom and its citizens are incredibly inscrutable to the rest of the world, which now takes a keen interest in a nation out of curiosity and fascination for its tremendous economic and military strides made in last 40 years.
Per him, unlike the Japanese the Chinese aren't a whole lot different from us. Cynical and insecure like India for long ruled by outside forces, they carry the burden of similar social issues including dowry. However the Chinese are more hard working and disciplined, a trait they have inculcated in recent time which has been forced upon them by their authoritarian government and now has become their habit. Like India many are critical of America but are great fans of Hollywood movies and hankering for a US Visa was quite conspicuous. Your worst critic could be your secret admirer.
My friend went on - in China you can feel the state breathing down your neck, as if the big brother is watching you all the time. However, there is lot less crime in the society, so much so that the girls commute by buses and trains late in night and roam free without fear wearing mini scots. In his most recent trip to China just prior to the Covid outbreak, he saw signs of bad economy as many workers had left Beijing, going back to their hinterland due to massive job losses. The vacant satellite townships in Beijing looked like ghost towns.
In one of his trips his wife took him to her original small town in the hinterland of China from where her parents came from, migrating to Beijing to work in one of myriad factories churning out manufactured goods to cater to the voracious western consumers, especially in Americans. Her native place, a small town, was located some 4 hours by Bullet train from Beijing.
Inside the small Chinese town all looked at him expanding their tiny eyes, as if they saw an alien just parachuted from another planet. Even his in-law's pet dog went into hiding, gaping at him from a safe distance, baffled by the looks of an Indian with brown skin. My friend went around the town, savoring local Chinese dishes which tasted totally different from the Chinese food he ate in India or USA.
Though he saw some sporadic signs of poverty, the streets were litter free. He saw no one was peeing or defecating in open. My friend heard many stories of corruption in interior China and people complaining of bribes forced upon them by the government officials in return of favors. Though every year hundreds are hanged in China on corruption charges, the disease is still rampant, unlike in India where corruption is in epidemic proportion.
Facebook is banned though Internet was available. His wife's girlfriends were jealous of her, as they were infatuated with the large eyes and sharp nose of my tall, dark, handsome friend. The Chinese men were envious of him as the local belles ogled at him, giggled and poked fun at him in a coquettish manner which my friend cherishes till today.
The Chinese government has recently relaxed their one child norm by extending it to two. The strictly implemented one child principle in China has contributed to a skewed male - female ratio in the society, heavily favored to the former. It has landed the Chinese in not so sweet, but sour soup. The result - per a recent report there at least 50 million males in China who simply cannot marry because demand vastly exceeds supply.
Human mind always has a fascination for the unknown, until the intrigue aspect wears off in due course of time. The life within countries like China and North Korea raises interest for now, but it may recede at some point when the countries implode as the Iron curtain falls down. Familiarity breeds contempt, the curiosity will web when the country's ugly underbelly gets exposed. Till then it's not bad to take a peek inside the society of our powerful northern neighbor who will a perpetual thorn on India's flesh for unforseen future.
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