Images and Studies of China in Argentina

Images and Studies of China in Argentina¹

 

In this article I refer to some of the many diverse images of China that can be found throughout our history, in our past, since 19th century and in our present days. I will also finally refer to the need of building new future images.

 

Images of China in Argentina

 

I. Past images

 

As far as the past images, it must be first said that we have grown up with the Eurocentric views of universal history. For us, our history began with Greece, cradle of our civilization, which, on its way to the West, accomplished spiritual and material tasks. We have considered ourselves the heirs of western history, and Europeans and north American people have been models and examples to be followed, and to whom we looked upon in an ambiguous mix of love and hate. All the rest was barbarianism.

But, as Axel Gasket puts it, not only westerners have been our cultural interlocutors, though they were (and still are) the privileged ones. Orient has also been a strong though neglected presence in the shaping of our own culture. Following European visions and patterns, at the beginning of XIX centuries, the first Latin American travellers in Orient built, what Hernán Taboada has called “a peripheric orientalism”2. But, as George Schade points, our travellers had a very superficial knowledge of the lands they visited and were not as good observers as Europeans, who described a negative vision of Orient, but at the same time, and very romantically, were fascinated by their culture.3

At the very beginning of our independent life, early in the 19th century, our intellectuals adopted the predominant negative European visions of Orient, particularly those concerned to their passiveness in accepting despotic forms of government. This idea of oriental despotism was the framework throughout were explained the habits and customs of our inhabitants, specially our idiosyncratic dependence to leaders and ´caudillos´. In short, our barbarians followed the description of oriental barbarianism. But, as Altamirano says,4 this orientalism does not send us to the area of knowledge but to the “orientalist archive” which was constitutive of European identity and which in the 19th century was intertwined with modern orientalism. Thus, it must be highlighted that in the core of the representations and images of our nationality, defined as native barbarianism, we find the oriental barbarianism. (Certainly, to rediscover these neglected aspects of our own culture helps us to look critically upon the myths and prejudices of Eurocentric universal history and to move to more objective historiographic narratives).

However, this negative view began to change gradually along XXth century. Axel Gasket5 sums up its reasons as follows:

 

a)         A real interest in Orient, grounded in the publication of important oriental works which showed an unknown –up to that moment- oriental “universality”.

b)      The increasing attraction of oriental philosophy, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism.

c)       The decline of intellectual European supremacy, as a consequence of the First World War and the need to look for new vital horizons inspired in pacifist ideas.

d)      The exploration of new mystic trends which contested European rationalism and positivism and which led to the loss of trust in progress.

 

Thus, Argentine orientalism renewed its interest in Orient, particularly in China and India as two different and opposite paths of national emancipation. In those times and particularly around the 50ths, Latin America discussed how to break with neo-colonialism and how to build its own way to national development and modernization. On one side, oriental cultures were seen as a source of spiritual existence according to democratic values; on the other, Maoist revolution had a great impact in intellectual culture in the 50`s and 60`s.

Many people of my generation experienced these two paths as a continuum, which shaped in a very decisive way their personal, social and political lives. Even more, these cultural and political experiences were not seen as an encounter with the “other”, as it was put furtherly, but as a normal part of our intellectual and political development. Thus, we went from our readings of Rabindranath Tagore and Lin Yutang to the fascination for Mao and Third-Worldism. Both experiences had, for us, a strong sense of universalism.

In the 80´s and at the beginning of economic reforms, China reappeared in our images. Under the premises of postmodern and poststructuralist critiques, we had to deconstruct both orientalist and revolutionary images of China. China was now seen as the “other”, in terms of “cultural difference”, which meant a different legitimation to its own path to development and to its own interpretation of human rights. Though this last issue was quite difficult to be argued in Argentina at that moment, given the need to sustain their unrestricted universality.

This new image of China was neither exotic nor revolutionary. But it combined some of both views: from orientalism, it rescued the figure of the “other” but this time positively valued; from the revolutionary view and the Third-Worldism, the own Chinese path to development, though this time without revolution. It has to be said that these last views were mainly culturally oriented and they lacked of economic, social and political considerations.

In the 90´s, with the definitive rise of China as a global actor, China surprised the world (we included) with its capacity to lead peacefully deep changes, and to combine a market economy, one –party-based politics and socialist principles. With the result of an extraordinary economic success.

All these different images of China talk as much of China as of ourselves: a traditional China, a modern and revolutionary China, a postmodern and a neomodern China.

 

II. Present images

 

What was true of the first travellers of the 19th century, it is also true today of most of our countrymen. We know very little about China and this is shared both by non-educated and educated people. The exceptions are the experts in international relations, particularly in the area of international economy and members of corporations who have to care their interests.

We can distinguish at least three areas in which images of China are displayed: economy, politics and culture.

 

1)   Economic and international relations

 

Since 1972, year in which the Argentine Republic and the Popular Republic of China established diplomatic relations, both countries have developed a rich relation in economy, politics and culture.

Sergio Cesarín points that these relations have been guided by pragmatic considerations, in spite of the fact that USA was still imposing restrictions to Latin American international relations and that it was the decade of the military regimes opposed ideologically to the communist world. Ideology irrelevance and changes in USA politics towards China, paved the way to a bilateral agenda characterized by cooperation.

China and Argentina are strategic partners and the general idea is that both have profited from trade and investments. And that these opportunities will be strengthened in the future, due to Chinese trends to export high-tech products, the rise of its salaries and the orientation to internal consumption. It is part of the positive picture that it will help to the re-composition of competitivity in our country and in the region. Though for the time being, we still fear the invasion of low-cost manufactures and dumping, and we do not trust sufficiently our capacity to compete with other more developed countries in relation to industrialized products.

In the building of a positive image of China have been particularly important the visits of President Hu Jintao to Argentina and of President Nestor Kirchner to China in 2004. These two visits increased our expectations of mutual relations, which have been since then developed at national and local levels, in ´town to town´ relations.

On the whole, Argentina is very well aware that China means a great opportunity as well as a great challenge, as any product that China consumes produces variations on the international prices which have immediate effects on our economy, whose exports are mainly primary products. And it will be probably more affected in the future considering that China is beginning to bring its own enterprises to the country, to make joint ventures with local and transnational enterprises which operate in our country, and to invest in natural resources. Our businessmen and political leaders consider this go-out politics also a real challenge for China, due both to its lack of experience in this kind of enterprises and its difficulties in adapting to other cultures.

According to many Argentine experts, China should be seen at municipal levels and not as a whole, particularly in reference to exchanges, such as in the field of education and tourism. They also remark the difficulties that small and medium enterprises still have at the hour to get to China with their products due to financial difficulties.

As far as international relations, China support on Malvinas Islands is part of our positive image of the country, as well as its presence in many regional intergovernmental organisms, such as the Interamerican Bank of Development Bank (BID), the Organization of American States (OEA), the Caribbean Bank of Development and the regular contacts between political parties, particularly with Justicialist Party and with Radical Party, and with local governments.

The image of a big actor which benefits economy is complemented in many Latin America countries, Argentina included, with the expectation that its presence could erode United States´ influence in the area.

While some politicians and scholars still dream with a recreation of 70´s Third-Worldism, others provide an updated version in terms of south-south cooperation. This last perspective replaces the old north-south pattern and opens a wide array of possibilities, including the participation of a multiplicity of governmental and non-governmental actors.

From this perspective this kind of cooperation will promote the integration and regionalization of Latin America, and China is viewed as an alternative pole of development which could replace USA´s role in the region. At the same time, China could benefit with the support of the main States of the area which would contribute to consolidate itself as a big global actor.

Economic needs based on pragmatic considerations and a certain nostalgia for the still romanticized Chinese revolutionary past work together to view in a very positive way the present development of China.

Though some less enthusiastic and more realistic views consider that Beijing would keep a prudential distance from Latin America in order to avoid conflicts with USA. To this prudence have contributed the difficulties that the different actors in the region have to coordinate politics, which reaffirmed Chinese preferences for bilateral relations. As a consequence, big actors (Brazil, Venezuela) and countries of the Pacific coast (Chile and Peru) have been privileged.

But images are not white or black, they have its nuances and many times their boundaries are blurred. The rise of China can be seen either in terms of a future new hegemon or as the development of a very big actor with no hegemonic purposes.

In the first case, cooperation could turn into menace and give birth to renewed fears. Images of China as a new superpower were originated in Europe and EEUU in the 90´s, under the belief that Chinese economic growth would have, sooner or later, a military counterpart which could create international instability and, from our perspective, a kind of neo-colonialism. Anyway, this view is very far from those past popular views which predicted Chinese invasions and China overruling the world. The second image (that of a non-hegemonic big actor) is two-folded, both from Argentine and Latin American perspectives. On one side, playing as a ´big brother´, China could help to remove old north-south international dependence. On the other, it would play a decisive and active role in the reshaping of world order. These last ones are not necessarily contradictory.

These images coexist: that of neo-colonialism, that of a new South-South cooperation and that of China as a big and responsible country, benevolent and respectful of the others, in seek of cooperation and global harmony which would eventually lead to a new global order paradigm.

All of them are under discussion. The phantom of neo-colonialism is part of our own history and part of our cultural and political understanding of the world. South-south relations are linked to our more recent history and to our utopias of emancipation and Third-Worldism. The image of a benevolent power, either conceived as a big brother or as an actor decided to contribute to create a new international paradigm is new and it has a great amount of uncertainty. This leads to the need of discussing the meaning of concepts like

´harmony´ and ´respect´, ´cooperation´ and ´cultural differences´ and how they are going to play in the reshaping of global order.

Though nobody could have the answers for these questions, it is of the greatest importance to improve our knowledge of China and its goals in Latin America. As Cesarín remarks, this knowledge should be incorporated in political decisions, not only on the premises of bilateral relations but also to redefine Argentina´s place in the world.

 

2)        Politics

 

Images of Chinese politics have to deal with the delicate question of democracy. I have to say, when I am asked about the object of my present research (“Current Debates on Modernity and Democracy in China”, that people look at me quite sceptically. Due to the overarching image that there is no democracy in China and/or that there is no debate about it.

Briefly, current images of Chinese politics can be broadly divided between universalist and relativist points of view. The first ones claim that there is no democracy in China, as long as there are no general elections, pluripartidism and division of powers. The second ones sustain that there is not only one way of understanding democracy, and that it depends on the particular history, experiences and idiosyncrasy of each culture. The need to solve basic needs of millions of people and, at the same time, to control the process of economic growing and to guarantee social inclusion are strong arguments which usually legitimate the Chinese way to democracy.

On the other side, it must be said that widespread views on the lack of democracy in China usually ignore both Latin American difficulties with democracy in the past and in the present, and contemporary crisis of democracy all over the world. To face the new challenges of global society it is urgent to revisit and sincerely rethink our present ideas of democracy.

Legal and juridical studies and human rights is another area of research which has to be reinforced. As I said before, this last area is a very controversial one. Argentina political thought looks with sympathy the ideas of China own path to development, the so called “Chinese way”. That is a point of view shared by many intellectuals, sociologists and political thinkers, particularly in the last decade, when the revival of the 70´s includes a mix of critiques to eurocentrism, neoliberalism, revision of dependence theories, strong nationalism and neo-populism. But, although universalist positions are not very popular among the intellectual and academic establishment, the universality of human rights is out of question.

On the whole, it must be said that scientific research in the area of contemporary political, juridical and legal studies is an area of Chinese studies that has not yet been developed in Argentina and that it is very much behind the studies in the area of political and economic international relations.

 

3)   Social Studies

 

Social studies are also quite underdeveloped. Mainly focused on migrations, particularly on the integration of migrants to the host society, their relation to their own home culture and the very important issue of discrimination, these studies are still few in comparison with the study of Japanese, Korean and Indian migrations.

Chinese migrants are viewed as hard workers and very competitive in providing services to middle- and low-income sectors. Very well organized in the defence of their economic interests, they have built community and commercial associations. Till now Argentine sociology has not developed significative studies in the area of Chinese social structure, demography, internal migrations, civil society, media, public spheres, ecological issues.

Although a gradual disappearance of the orientalist archive can be observed, it does not mean that Argentine images of Chinese values, attitudes, beliefs and thought are objective and accurate. Much research has to be done in this area and in the dialogue between contemporary developments of social and human sciences, philosophy, religion and cultural studies.

 

4) Culture

 

The image of China as a whole is still very vague and quite unreal in Argentina, although it includes the recognition of its past history and its contributions to mankind.

 

a)     Language.

 

 Politicians, functionaries, businessmen, members of corporations, tradesmen, scholars and students agree that the main obstacle in mutual communication is the linguistic barrier. Not for being this an obvious statement, should it be left under considered. Future cooperation must take very seriously the real difficulties that the linguistic barrier brings at the moment of real encounters.

In spite of all these difficulties, many efforts have been done in the last years. China as well as many Argentine institutions are trying hard to overcome these drawbacks and it can be said that we have a boom of learning mandarin. We have two Confucius Institutes and there is a great quantity of private and public institutions dedicated to the teaching of the language.

At the end of 2013, another important further step has been taken by the government of the City of Buenos Aires, with the incorporation of the study of mandarin in an elementary school of the City of Buenos Aires, which will be followed by more in the next months. But it will take long to narrow the linguistic gap.

 

b)  Cultural representation.

 

Another difficulty is that not always the study of language implies an approach to other dimensions of Chinese culture. It has to be highlighted that businessmen and members of corporations are very well aware of the need to pay the greatest attention to cultural codes. They know that Chinese people are very good planners, that they plan for the long run, and that they know how to take advantage of our anxiety and hurries. Our businessmen know that trust, time, respect for codes and patience is of the most importance.

One of the main traits in the image of China in Argentina is its overwhelming scale and speed of changes. This image is much more impressive when contrasted to our difficulties to do things and produce changes.

 

c)   Art: literature, dance, music, theatre, painting, films.

 

We have a tradition of sinologists and among these experts circulate translated versions of Chinese books in Spanish (from Spain and from other Spanish speaking countries).

But as far as Chinese contemporary literature very few Chinese authors have been translated into Spanish and some of these translations have been indirect ones. Chinese authors read in Argentina are very few: some of Mo Yan and Qiu Xialong books can be found, but not beyond centric bookstores of Buenos Aires. Three Wild Swans by Jung Chang and Lisa See´s Snow Flowers and the secret fan are exceptions, but it has to be noted that they come from Chinese families who live abroad and write in English. That is also the case of Qiu Xialong.

Zhang Zimou and Ang Lee are the best-known film makers, specially their commercial films. Also, some films by Chen Kaige and Wong Kar Wai have been shown in cinemas. Less frequent are painting exhibitions and music concerts, except for some traditional Chinese dances and songs.

 

III. Future images

 

Overcoming the orientalist or the revolutionary archive has been good. Now it is time to deepen mutual knowledge, not only for strategic or utilitarian purposes but to start an intercultural dialogue. This means to overcome looking at the other as ´other´, to go beyond the exchange of already made and fixed images and identities. This stage requires to develop intersubjective communication. The challenge now is about mutual learning and the construction of new paradigms. It is about innovation and creation of new ways of conceiving a new global order.

New global order needs more politics than ever, and this includes local, national, regional and global levels. And knowledge about them.

In the task of innovating the future all of us must participate: big and small countries, national governments and international organizations, individual citizens and social movements, civil associations, scholars, intellectuals, journalists, media, social networks. It requires debates and discussions, exchange of arguments, making decisions. And the need and hope to live in a better world.

 

Studies of China in Argentina

 

Chinese studies in Argentina have been developed in the area of ancient and classical Chinese studies and have been focused mainly in history, literature, religious and philosophical thought.

Although at present the area of international politics and economy is increasingly developing through the research of many outstanding researchers and scholars, much has to be done in contemporary Chinese studies, particularly in the area of social, political and juridical sciences, humanities, arts and cultural studies.

First, the lack of Spanish translations and the difficulties to get English versions (though Internet has changed this situation quite a lot), added to the lack of knowledge of Chinese language, make it difficult to be acquainted with contemporary Chinese productions in this area.

Second, to this difficulty it must be added that in most cases we are limited both to the mediation of north Atlantic translations of Chinese authors based out of China. This thick net of cultural intermediations makes it difficult to know what is being produced in China and it is an obstacle in the construction of accurate images and well-founded knowledge.

A third difficulty is the generational gap. As major scholars interested or who eventually could be interested in Chinese studies do not know the language and probably are not going to learn it, most of our critical mass of knowledge remains out of this area of studies. On the other side, young people quickly realize that to start any link with Chinese studies, they must learn the language and they are doing so. This means a change of the greatest importance, as learning Chinese, studying and researching about China and in China was completely out of the academic agenda a few years ago.

A fourth difficulty is not exclusive of Chinese studies, but an epistemological one, and is that of viewing Chinese studies as an area study. According to Western institutional organization of knowledge and our academic ways of thinking, Chinese Studies, as African studies, other Asian studies and even Latin American Studies, are areas of study which do not belong to the mainstream knowledge. That means that they are not producers of theory but just application fields. This has to do with a very old division of knowledge based on coloniality. Though, it has to be said that China has constituted and will constitute each day more, if not an exception, at least a problematic example of this Eurocentric division of knowledge.

Fifth, to this difficulty in the production of knowledge we must add that of its circulation and diffusion. Current images of China in the big national media are neither a product of their own independent research as journalists but reproductions of the big international agencies. There is some presence of local experts in Chinese international politics and economy in the media, but other dimensions of Chinese life are scarcely covered by experts. With the exceptions of Reviews or Bulletins of associations linked to Chinese interests which invite experts to give their opinion about particular subjects.

As I have already said, this situation is beginning to be reversed. Many students learn Chinese and many scholars and intellectuals are increasingly interested to know about China and to include Chinese studies in their own academic interests. China is beginning to be something more than an area study.

 

Notes

 

1 This article has been presented at the Center of Latinamerican Studies Seminar, University of Cambridge, 2015.

2 Taboada, Hernán, “Un orientalismo periférico. Viajeros latinoamericanos (1786-1920)”.

3 Schade, George, “Los viajeros argentinos del 80”.

4 Altamirano, Carlos, “El orientalismo y la idea del despotismo en Facundo de Sarmiento”.

5 Gasket, Axel, “El orientalismo argentino (1900-1940).De la Revista Nosotros al Grupo Sur”.

 

Bibliographical References

 

Altamirano,Carlos, “El orientalismo y el ideal del despotismo en Facundo”, Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana “Dr. Emilio Ravignani”, Tercera Serie, Nº 9, 1º semestre; 1998, pp.7-18.

Gasket, Axel, “El orientalismo argentino (1900-1940).De la Revista Nosotros al Grupo Sur”, Working Paper 22, Latin American Studies Center, The University of Maryland, College Park, 2008, 34 pp.

Schade, George, “Los viajeros argentinos del 80”, Investigaciones Lingüístico-literarias, Universidad Veracruzana, enero-febrero 1984, Nº 28, 1984, pp.82-103.

Taboada, Hernán G.H., “Un orientalismo periférico. Viajeros latinoamericanos” (1786-1920)”, Estudios de Asia y Africa, Cuadernos Americanos, XXXIII: 2, 1998, pp.285-305

Cesarín, Sergio, “China y Argentina: mirando el futuro. Enfoques y recomendaciones de política para potenciar la relación bilateral”, CONICET, CEPES, Observatorio de Política Exterior Argentina, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Buenos Aires, marzo de 2010, pp. 36.