Portrait of an LBX

By Evan

黃昏我站在高高的山岡
At dusk I stand on a tall mountain
看那鐵路修到我家鄉
And see the railroad that has been built to my homeland
一條條巨龍翻山越嶺
Huge dragon after huge dragon cross the mountains
為雪域高原送來安康
Bringing peace and health to the snowy plateau
那是一條神奇的天路哎
It is a miraculous heavenly road
把人間的溫暖送到邊疆
Bringing the warmth of the human world to the frontier
從此山不再高路不再漫長
From now on, the mountains are no longer high, and the road is no longer endless
各族兒女歡聚一堂
The sons and daughters of every race joyously assemble under the same roof

The plateau, a place not easily forgotten, by Andy

The preceding is an excerpt from the song Heavenly Road (天路), a song sung in Chinese set to Tibetan style music about the Beijing-Lhasa railway. It is likely the current most popular propaganda song in China (by far surpassing Dao Lang’s “Salaam Chairman Mao”), and also the single song I hate most in the world. I hate it so because unfortunately I used to be pretty into it, owing to the frequency with which I heard it, until the one day I bothered to pay attention to the lyrics, which I’ve pasted in totality at the bottom of this post for the curious. Aside from the fact that it’s hilariously ridiculous to think that prop-pop is actually an acceptable art form in China, the song’s popularity highlights the attitudes most Chinese have toward Tibetans: that they are griping benefactors of the goodness of the Han. I’ll go into this topic in depth in the post that continues this one.

Aside the hundreds of times I’ve heard the first lines of this song as a ring tone on this trip, I was graced to hear a group of vacationing cyclists from Liaoning wearing matching red long spandex uniforms singing it boisterously within eyesight of the miraculous railroad on the northern bank of Lake Qinghai. Beside the fact that these were some real chumps (like most of the vacationers making a circuit of the lake), their shameless rendition reminded me that we were on our way out of traditional Tibet and headed back into the hard world of Northern China. (more…)

By Andy

The government seeks “leap-frog” development of Tibet by raising infrastructure quality and agricultural incomes to national levels by 2020, Xinhua news agency said, citing comments from senior Chinese leaders at a meeting earlier in the week. (Reuters)

Admirable enough, right?

The CCP sees development as a cure-all for stability and unchallenged rule in China — after all, most people are concerned with how much is in their wallets, not who is ruling them. For most of the country this has worked like a charm. Despite a rapidly widening gap between urban and rural income levels in China, almost everyone we have run into is perfectly content just to be doing a little better this year than last and is certain things will only get better (as if it is a constant of the universe).

The Jokhang Temple at the heart of traditional Lhasa.

But throughout this trip we have seen what rapid development has done to a beautiful and diverse country and culture. There is little awareness of the value of cultural preservation among the peasants occupying many of China’s most beautiful and historic areas. As some of our readers have commented, their current homes are cold and leaky, and they are envious of newly constructed concrete boxes with running water and sealed roofs. Aesthetics is the last thing on their minds. But that doesn’t mean there is no case for preservation. Once the majority of Chinese are well enough off to worry about quality of life in addition to a paycheck, I believe the country will come to the realization that it was a mistake to destroy so much of their own culture and history in the name of development, just as citizens of other countries have realized the same about their own homelands. This is already happening on a small scale in China’s major urban centers, but for the most part it is already too late there. (more…)