China: Three Steps Forward...Two Steps Back

Dr. Tsu Yao was born in Beijing right before Japan invaded, and before WWII got going. His family moved around numerous times to avoid bombs and food scarcity and lack of schools. (See posts one, two, three.)
After the war ended, and another war began (the Communists vs. the Nationalists), they moved yet again: this time from Shanghai to New York. (See post four.)
Dr. Yao finally had a chance to return to China in 1995, 46 years later. He was impressed that despite so much change, his old house in Shanghai was still standing. He continues to be impressed by all the changes each time he visits. ( See post five.)
One big change is our access to information. Forty years ago nobody was there to report. China wasn't talked about much. Even U.S. Ivy league history professors dismissed the place as unimportant. (See post six.)
Now there is an open channel of information flowing both ways, and thus everyone should be well-informed. This is not the case, though, says Dr. Yao.

“The man on the street—in both countries-- have incomplete and mistaken ideas about what the other country is like.  Because the media reporting is slanted, not complete. Let’s talk about America’s view of China. which is probably no better than the Chinese view of America—although I don’t live there and don’t know, even though I have been back many times.

"The citizens need a better understanding of each other. In China, you can say that the leadership can ignore the popular opinion of the citizens (because citizens don’t vote.) But in the U.S. it’s different because it’s a democracy. The elections are by the people, in general. And I would say a very large number of people, even though those who are relatively well-educated with a college education, their understanding of China, especially the contemporary China is extremely limited and slanted. It’s not their fault. I would blame it on the media.

“What’s going on in China in the last 30 years? I would use the description of, ‘Three steps forward, two steps back.’ But at least it’s one step forward net.  

"The problem with the American media is that they tend to concentrate on the two steps back and ignore the three steps forward and the net of one step.”

(...to be continued. Next: Different Ideologies May Spell Tension But Not Disaster.