Freedom and Patriotism: Feeling as Conflicted as ObaMao
I left the United States for the first time when I was fourteen years old. I almost immediately became addicted to the exhilarating feeling of traveling abroad: the swooping in my stomach as I lifted into the air and knew that adventures awaited in new and exciting places amongst different, yet extremely similar people. However, arguably one of my favorite parts of travel became my insatiable desire to see as much of the world, contrasted with my deepening appreciation for my own culture and the place I was raised. The more I fall in love with various cultures, customs, and people, the more I feel connected to my roots and develop my own cultural identity. I never truly appreciated my hometown, Jacksonville, until I started traveling and loved having a place to return home. I never truly appreciated my American identity until I experienced life in different places and found myself having to defend the people of my country and the decisions of my government in front of complete strangers from around the world, people who would never truly understand my intense feelings of patriotism and love for America. Americans are instilled with a deep pride for their country, from reciting the pledge of allegiance before classes to singing the national anthem before sporting events to watching dazzling fireworks displays on the Fourth of July. Before leaving the United States, I never realized that many people around the world couldn’t relate to these feelings, as patriotism and nationalism are not nearly as inseparable from other cultures as they are from American cultural identity. Many aspects of American culture foster the mentality that the United States is the greatest country in the world, and whether or not this assertion is valid, many Americans believe it and refuse to hear differently.
In all of my travels, I had never experienced a country with a culture as patriotic and nationalistic as the United States. Yet, after living in China for a year, my mind was changed and my eyes were opened, as I finally experienced life in a place where the patriotic mentality was almost entirely similar to what I was used to. Ironically enough, I had spent my years at the University of South Carolina learning about China as a dictatorship legitimized by its political censorship and sustained by its rampant human rights abuses. I had heard that China was not free, that the people longed for democracy, and that tensions between China and the United States were inevitable as the two countries competed for power. What I experienced firsthand was much different, and challenged my deeply held notions, enforced by my learning at the University of South Carolina, of patriotism, freedom, and the relationship between the United States and China.
In my freshman year, I took a special topics course offered by the Political Science Department called POLI 391: Dictatorships. One of the main typologies we studied in the class was the distinction between democratic and dictatorial, or authoritarian, types of government systems. We learned that all governments could be classified as democracies or dictatorships, with dictatorships including monarchies, military dictatorships, one-party states, and other types of governments in which citizens are not afforded the freedom to elect their leaders. We also learned that democracies afford their citizens freedoms, namely the freedom to select their political leaders, and protect their civil liberties. Over the course of the semester, as we studied multiple dictatorial regimes around the world, we adapted our definitions and understanding of democracy, freedom, and dictatorship. When we studied China, we specifically focused on human rights abuses committed by he government against the people, including Internet censorship, the restriction of speech and freedoms to organize and associate, and arbitrary imprisonment of citizens. Throughout our lectures on the Chinese case, the Chinese Communist Party rule was portrayed as absolute, oppressive, and, at times, cruel. Our professor familiarized us with Freedom in the World rankings by Freedom House, an independent organization aiming to measure promotion of civil liberties and protection of human rights around the world. Our professor enshrined the United States as the “Free” ideal, while dictatorships like China, ranked as “Not Free,” were always depicted more negatively. I began to find myself associating China with "Unfree," and thinking subconsciously that its citizens must all long for a better, more free life. I never questioned my understanding of freedom, and never doubted this interpretation as anything less than a simple reality.
The next semester, the spring semester of my freshman year, I enrolled in an Honors College course SCHC 334: The United States and China. This class was devoted to examining the bilateral relationship between the United States and China: how the relationship came about, defining moments for the two countries, the present situation, and future predictions. The lessons and lectures in this class reinforced everything I had learned in my dictatorships class. One of the main themes of the class was exploring how the nature of the relationship between the two countries became competitive and a “zero-sum game.” In pushing their ideals onto each other, the United States started to perceive China’s gains as its own losses, and vice versa. In my final paper for the course, I examined how the United States applies pressure to China, and how this pressure to respect Western notions of human rights, adhere to its own notions of preventing climate change and promoting green energy in industrialization, combined with United States support of controversial Chinese political figures, leads China to view cooperation with the United States as against its own patriotic ideals. In return, China has increasingly perceived the United States as a superpower in decline, leaving room for China to rise to the top. Overall, in my studies at South Carolina, I have always learned the nature of the relationship between the two countries to be ideologically incompatible. From the American perspective, the United States hails as a beacon of freedom meant to lead the world in promoting democracy, and China threatens this noble task by refusing to adopt a democratic system and curbing its citizen’s freedoms. From the Chinese perspective, the United States applies unfair standards meant to stifle China's development and growth, lest China emerge as a potential threat to challenge American hegemony.
When I finally had the opportunity to go to China and learn for myself from my Chinese friends, coworkers, and peers, I discovered that the situation is not nearly so simple to distinguish. A small part of me expected the Chinese people I met to automatically assume that I was the one who was freer, as I was American and our government is radically different from theirs. However, I soon learned this was not the case. My roommate, Junru, challenged many of my preconceptions and beliefs. I remember asking Junru if she ever felt stifled living in a place like China. Her response surprised me: “Lizzie, whose definition of freedom are we talking about, yours or mine?” Junru proceeded to explain that she felt free not having to worry about being shot every time she walked alone at night, and she felt a sense of freedom in her anonymity among a sea of people. Her response fueled my curiosity, and in response, I started asking all of my Chinese friends how they felt about freedom. The answers I received were strikingly similar, among many different kinds of people in various stages of life. Sure, they couldn’t access Facebook and couldn’t vote for their leader, but neither of these things defined their feelings of “freedom.” China had a plethora of its own social media networks that Americans could not access, and the Chinese people I talked to all trusted their leaders to make better decisions about selecting the head of government than they could personally. Many people cited the gaokao, or the college entrance exam, as an inhibitor of their freedom, rather than the government or Xi Jinping. I might not have agreed with all of their opinions; however, hearing their drastically different understanding of freedom forced me to consider my own perspective, as someone who has lived a lifetime hearing the words: “You should be proud to be an American! America is the freest country on earth!”
Being in China also led me to realize that before coming to China, I did not truly understand just how at odds American and Chinese ideals of nationalism can be with one another. Yet, I also never truly realized how similar Chinese patriotism looked to American patriotism. As much as I hate to admit, I never considered that the United States could play the antagonizing role of the bully in the relationship between the two countries, as I aligned more with the American ideology. However, one day that will always stick with me is July 12th, the day a Hague international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines against China in the South China Sea territorial dispute. As someone who had always learned that China’s foreign policy actions were aggressive, that China was a bully in the region, and that China had no historical claims to the territories in the Spratly and Paracel Islands, I did not find this ruling to be particularly surprising. However, I soon experienced my WeChat pengyouquan, or the “News Feed,” blow up with enraged, nationalistic posts about Western aggression and the need to remain “One China,” a China that encompassed all of the territories claimed by the nine-dash line. My friends were furious, my coworkers were furious, the news reports were furious. When my Chinese friends confronted me about my reaction to the news, I tried to defend my opinions, but my stances were attacked over and over again. I finally experienced what it meant to consider the relationship between the United States and China as the “zero-sum game” I had studied in SCHC 334. The Chinese people I talked to could not envision a powerful China emerging in the future unless their country stood up to these belligerent American behaviors. Even though these opinions were extremely different than what I was used to hearing in my classes, the tone of the response felt extremely similar. On that day, Chinese people stood up together and voiced their opinions on what they felt to be unjust, and connected over a mutual love for their country. For the first time in all of my travels, I experienced a deep sense of patriotism ingrained in another culture, and it was, ironically enough, extremely reminiscent of life in America.
Overall, living in China as an American with many deeply held beliefs about democracy, freedom, and the nature of the US-China relationship was extremely difficult. I often found myself in situations that challenged many of my beliefs and opinions, and forced me to come to terms with the fact that I have always been taught about history and politics from a single perspective. Now that I have begun to challenge my perspectives, I want to continue pushing myself to be more open-minded in my everyday life as American living in China. I will move to China one month after I graduate for as little as two years and three months. Since I will be living in a smaller city and I will likely be one of the only Americans living there, I want to be the best cultural ambassador for the United States that I can possibly be, as I will truly represent the only access to the United States that many people in my community will ever experience. While it will be extremely important for me to retain a deep appreciation for my American identity, part of this responsibility will also force me to become a better listener, and someone who can appreciate Chinese culture and everyday life as just as fulfilling and full of promise and room for growth as my life in America has been.
In all of my travels, I had never experienced a country with a culture as patriotic and nationalistic as the United States. Yet, after living in China for a year, my mind was changed and my eyes were opened, as I finally experienced life in a place where the patriotic mentality was almost entirely similar to what I was used to. Ironically enough, I had spent my years at the University of South Carolina learning about China as a dictatorship legitimized by its political censorship and sustained by its rampant human rights abuses. I had heard that China was not free, that the people longed for democracy, and that tensions between China and the United States were inevitable as the two countries competed for power. What I experienced firsthand was much different, and challenged my deeply held notions, enforced by my learning at the University of South Carolina, of patriotism, freedom, and the relationship between the United States and China.
In my freshman year, I took a special topics course offered by the Political Science Department called POLI 391: Dictatorships. One of the main typologies we studied in the class was the distinction between democratic and dictatorial, or authoritarian, types of government systems. We learned that all governments could be classified as democracies or dictatorships, with dictatorships including monarchies, military dictatorships, one-party states, and other types of governments in which citizens are not afforded the freedom to elect their leaders. We also learned that democracies afford their citizens freedoms, namely the freedom to select their political leaders, and protect their civil liberties. Over the course of the semester, as we studied multiple dictatorial regimes around the world, we adapted our definitions and understanding of democracy, freedom, and dictatorship. When we studied China, we specifically focused on human rights abuses committed by he government against the people, including Internet censorship, the restriction of speech and freedoms to organize and associate, and arbitrary imprisonment of citizens. Throughout our lectures on the Chinese case, the Chinese Communist Party rule was portrayed as absolute, oppressive, and, at times, cruel. Our professor familiarized us with Freedom in the World rankings by Freedom House, an independent organization aiming to measure promotion of civil liberties and protection of human rights around the world. Our professor enshrined the United States as the “Free” ideal, while dictatorships like China, ranked as “Not Free,” were always depicted more negatively. I began to find myself associating China with "Unfree," and thinking subconsciously that its citizens must all long for a better, more free life. I never questioned my understanding of freedom, and never doubted this interpretation as anything less than a simple reality.
The next semester, the spring semester of my freshman year, I enrolled in an Honors College course SCHC 334: The United States and China. This class was devoted to examining the bilateral relationship between the United States and China: how the relationship came about, defining moments for the two countries, the present situation, and future predictions. The lessons and lectures in this class reinforced everything I had learned in my dictatorships class. One of the main themes of the class was exploring how the nature of the relationship between the two countries became competitive and a “zero-sum game.” In pushing their ideals onto each other, the United States started to perceive China’s gains as its own losses, and vice versa. In my final paper for the course, I examined how the United States applies pressure to China, and how this pressure to respect Western notions of human rights, adhere to its own notions of preventing climate change and promoting green energy in industrialization, combined with United States support of controversial Chinese political figures, leads China to view cooperation with the United States as against its own patriotic ideals. In return, China has increasingly perceived the United States as a superpower in decline, leaving room for China to rise to the top. Overall, in my studies at South Carolina, I have always learned the nature of the relationship between the two countries to be ideologically incompatible. From the American perspective, the United States hails as a beacon of freedom meant to lead the world in promoting democracy, and China threatens this noble task by refusing to adopt a democratic system and curbing its citizen’s freedoms. From the Chinese perspective, the United States applies unfair standards meant to stifle China's development and growth, lest China emerge as a potential threat to challenge American hegemony.
When I finally had the opportunity to go to China and learn for myself from my Chinese friends, coworkers, and peers, I discovered that the situation is not nearly so simple to distinguish. A small part of me expected the Chinese people I met to automatically assume that I was the one who was freer, as I was American and our government is radically different from theirs. However, I soon learned this was not the case. My roommate, Junru, challenged many of my preconceptions and beliefs. I remember asking Junru if she ever felt stifled living in a place like China. Her response surprised me: “Lizzie, whose definition of freedom are we talking about, yours or mine?” Junru proceeded to explain that she felt free not having to worry about being shot every time she walked alone at night, and she felt a sense of freedom in her anonymity among a sea of people. Her response fueled my curiosity, and in response, I started asking all of my Chinese friends how they felt about freedom. The answers I received were strikingly similar, among many different kinds of people in various stages of life. Sure, they couldn’t access Facebook and couldn’t vote for their leader, but neither of these things defined their feelings of “freedom.” China had a plethora of its own social media networks that Americans could not access, and the Chinese people I talked to all trusted their leaders to make better decisions about selecting the head of government than they could personally. Many people cited the gaokao, or the college entrance exam, as an inhibitor of their freedom, rather than the government or Xi Jinping. I might not have agreed with all of their opinions; however, hearing their drastically different understanding of freedom forced me to consider my own perspective, as someone who has lived a lifetime hearing the words: “You should be proud to be an American! America is the freest country on earth!”
Being in China also led me to realize that before coming to China, I did not truly understand just how at odds American and Chinese ideals of nationalism can be with one another. Yet, I also never truly realized how similar Chinese patriotism looked to American patriotism. As much as I hate to admit, I never considered that the United States could play the antagonizing role of the bully in the relationship between the two countries, as I aligned more with the American ideology. However, one day that will always stick with me is July 12th, the day a Hague international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines against China in the South China Sea territorial dispute. As someone who had always learned that China’s foreign policy actions were aggressive, that China was a bully in the region, and that China had no historical claims to the territories in the Spratly and Paracel Islands, I did not find this ruling to be particularly surprising. However, I soon experienced my WeChat pengyouquan, or the “News Feed,” blow up with enraged, nationalistic posts about Western aggression and the need to remain “One China,” a China that encompassed all of the territories claimed by the nine-dash line. My friends were furious, my coworkers were furious, the news reports were furious. When my Chinese friends confronted me about my reaction to the news, I tried to defend my opinions, but my stances were attacked over and over again. I finally experienced what it meant to consider the relationship between the United States and China as the “zero-sum game” I had studied in SCHC 334. The Chinese people I talked to could not envision a powerful China emerging in the future unless their country stood up to these belligerent American behaviors. Even though these opinions were extremely different than what I was used to hearing in my classes, the tone of the response felt extremely similar. On that day, Chinese people stood up together and voiced their opinions on what they felt to be unjust, and connected over a mutual love for their country. For the first time in all of my travels, I experienced a deep sense of patriotism ingrained in another culture, and it was, ironically enough, extremely reminiscent of life in America.
Overall, living in China as an American with many deeply held beliefs about democracy, freedom, and the nature of the US-China relationship was extremely difficult. I often found myself in situations that challenged many of my beliefs and opinions, and forced me to come to terms with the fact that I have always been taught about history and politics from a single perspective. Now that I have begun to challenge my perspectives, I want to continue pushing myself to be more open-minded in my everyday life as American living in China. I will move to China one month after I graduate for as little as two years and three months. Since I will be living in a smaller city and I will likely be one of the only Americans living there, I want to be the best cultural ambassador for the United States that I can possibly be, as I will truly represent the only access to the United States that many people in my community will ever experience. While it will be extremely important for me to retain a deep appreciation for my American identity, part of this responsibility will also force me to become a better listener, and someone who can appreciate Chinese culture and everyday life as just as fulfilling and full of promise and room for growth as my life in America has been.
Using the link above, you can view some of my class notes for my POLI 391: Dictatorships class. This section of notes is from the class in which we specifically discussed China as a dictatorship in terms of the freedoms the citizens lack and the human rights abuses against the population.
Using the link above, you can view my term paper for SCHC 334: The U.S. and China. In this paper, I investigate the historical strategic distrust between the United States and China, which has led to the emergence of a relationship that is "zero-sum" in nature.
"奥巴毛" or "ObaMao" was an image that dominated a huge amount of posters, souvenirs, and other assorted paraphernalia in shops and fake markets across China. Confused about the meaning? I am, too. For me, it represented the many conflicting feelings I felt as an American challenging competing conceptions of freedom, patriotism, and democracy in an unlikely, confusing setting.