Out with the old, in with modernity
China's mighty Yangtze River has been tamed. At 2.25km, the wall that now spans the river marks the beginning of the end of the Three Gorges Dam project. It is the largest construction undertaken by mankind since the Great Wall of China. But instead of being lauded, this achievement has been dogged by criticism.
The original western charge that the dam was an extravagant indulgence in national ostentation that would cause untold damage to humans and nature has yielded to the allegation that a poor country like China is incapable of managing modern technology and the cultural changes it engenders. That view, as demonstrated by anthropological-historian Frank Dikotter, belies China's record of endless local acts of creative appropriation that melded the new to more established ways.
First proposed in 1919 by nationalist leader Sun Yat-sen, the project gripped China's imagination, catered to aspirations of a modern future and cut through the political divide.
Western criticism centres on the giant 632sqkm lake that will form the dam's basin and displace nearly 2 million people, submerge 19 counties, 153 towns and 4,500 villages. The western imagination boggles at these vast figures. Human misery might be compounded by anticipated environmental damage. Located downstream from the industrial giant Chongqing , the artificial lake might trap waste and be converted into a giant cesspool threatening endangered species like the Yangtze dolphin, Chinese sturgeon and giant panda.
Ultimately, the question is: Will it work? Designed to generate as much electricity as a dozen nuclear reactors, the dam will power Shanghai and other cities. That is, if silting does not clog its giant turbines.
Undoubtedly, physical and cultural changes will be massive. But it is fallacious to assume that the Chinese are unused to, and incapable of, managing modernity. Or that China's poor are trapped by a tradition that thwarts adaptation. History shows that this group was the first to pragmatically harness modern technology to everyday life.
They have demonstrated remarkable innovativeness by appropriating foreign goods to local tastes in myriad ways. They bought the new and discarded the old. Since the last decades of the 18th century, China's material landscape has been inextricably interlinked with global trends. To buy foreign was not just exotic, it was to be modern. Staple foods like rice, wheat and sugar changed in taste as they were increasingly produced industrially, white being the preferred colour.
Culinary possibilities expanded massively in the 20th century with the introduction of tinned foods, which allowed the transportation of products that were not traditionally available to the poor. A sense of enchantment characterised the combination of tradition with modernity as ordinary people adapted new inventions to old practices. Thus, mass-produced mirrors were hung outside homes to ward off evil spirits.
The Three Gorges project is just the latest in the selective appropriation and innovative application of modern technology. It is, of course, on a completely new scale, but the historical record shows that China's material landscape is marked by 150 years of successfully combining tradition with modernity. Ordinary Chinese have demonstrated the ability to absorb the modern to improve their lives.
They have done this so well that the question is not whether China will successfully manage and adapt to the changes engendered by the Three Gorges project. It will. The real question is: If to be modern is to be able to change, adapt and innovate, are the Chinese more modern than the westerner?
Deep Kisor Datta-Ray is reading for a doctor of philosophy postgraduate degree at Sussex University in England
