exporting traditions

This morning I read several articles on the BBC's news website. They have a slightly different perspective on the latest news compared to MSN and Yahoo, and being British, they also have some fairly obscure topics which are worth a read.

The first article I read was about China's new wealth and old failings. It talked about China's new found status as a vibrant, economic superpower and this threw a fairly positive spin on things, but the article went on to talk about some very negative aspects of life in the new China which have remainded due to the Chinese Communist Party's refusal to introduce any form of political liberalisation. I also saw a program on the Discovery Channel recently about changes in China which talked about its rapid change from an ancient culture to a modern society and the loss of old traditions, beliefs and skills, many of which were banned under the Communist regime, and there is now a movement to try to reintroduce some of these lost traditions.

The second, very different article was about the new Tongan king, and the funeral of his father, who was actually listed in the Guiness Book of Records as the world's heaviest monarch, weighing in at 31 stones (434 lbs)! His funeral was a mix of Polynesian pageantry and British imperial pomp, as Tonga was a British protectorate until 1970. His son, the new king, is apparently a staunch Anglophile, who was educated at Sandhurst and Oxford University, and his official car is actually a London taxi cab!

This started me thinking about cultures and traditions and why after a long period of time, some skills and customs which were once commonplace in a society, simply disappear, and others stand the test of time. Having lived in England most of my life and now living in California, I am constantly amazed at how much of Britain's influence remains in other parts of the world, even after the British were kicked out!

At the turn of the century, Britain was a place steeped in the class system, and at any point in time, the lower classes were striving to step up to the middle class, and the middle classes would aspire to becoming one of the gentry, and it wasn't just a case of having money. You needed to know what was appropriate behavior in different situations, and this is how your true "breeding" could be ascertained. So how did one obtain this illusive status? Well, I guess they had money, so they could be seen at the right places such as Ascot, Henley, the Opera at Covent Garden, and extravagant house parties, and then they could freely mingle with the aristocracy, the old landed families or 'country set'. These people became known as the beautiful people, who were always in style and seen in the right places with the right people. They watched, copied, listened and read until they were 99.99 percent assimilated into the group.

I guess this marketing concept has been transported from England to other parts of the world and wherever you travel you will find beautiful people aspiring to become part of another illusive set. They take on board whatever is trendy and stylish about their new-found group, and reject anything to do with their old lifestyle. Eventually what was their normal, everyday behavior becomes unfashionable and finally obsolete. Hopefully, China will be able to establish its own new identity by retaining enough of its traditions and mixing them with the new, instead of becoming a reflection of America or Britain's best and worst aspects.