China today is skyscrapers, limousines, fast trains, science fiction airports; in the evening, the colors of the neon lights explode, no more fireworks. The Chinese are changing, they are now unrecognizable. And this change happened so fast that not even they can perceive it, just like a being that is transforming.
Francis Sisci, who has lived and worked in Beijing for over 20 years, takes us into the midst of this massive transformation with the new essay China Changes. A short cultural anthropology of the great changes in Beijing, published by the goWare publishing house.
Researcher at the Center for European Studies of China Renmin University, columnist and expert on international affairs, Francesco Sisci analyzes the Chinese metamorphosis and observes: «The People's Republic of China is no longer the "old China", but it is transforming into something completely new and the result of its evolution will be particularly linked to America. It all happened within a generation or so, but it was only the culmination of a much larger phenomenon, which over the past 150 years has subjected China's complex value system to systematic attack and forced overhaul. ».
The change – explains Sisci – started from the family, the basis of society and the state. In the 2000th century, the structure of the ideal Chinese family was unchanged since the time of Confucius, i.e. for about 4 years. It was an intricate web of relationships in which each individual occupied a specific place and in which the patriarch had many wives and as many children. After the May 1919th Student Movement in 80, monogamy began to permeate Chinese society and culture, presented as a symbol of progress and modernity. It was a remarkable leap, but things changed even more in the XNUMXs, when the one-child rule completely upended the pyramid of family relationships.
How do the Chinese see themselves, the world and the challenges of the future? Where is China going and what is it today? Where have the traditional pigtails of ancient mandarins, bicycles and Mao's clothes gone? Where are the large families and the many concubines? Francesco Sisci answers these and many other questions about China today, leading us through the greatest world revolution since the times of the Roman Empire.
