Memo on Mardi Gras: Made in China, Nathan and Ross and Hunt

How does one come to understand and know more about China? Mardi Gras:
Made in China, Nathan and Ross as well as Hunt demonstrate, there are two
disparate, yet dominant dominating how Americans view China. Mardi Gras: Made
in China focuses on an unquestioned object of American consumption, the beaded
necklace made famous by Mardi Gras celebrations, and makes its viewers aware of
how they are made and where they come from. While in New Orleans during Mardi
Gras, the filmmaker interviews those celebrating the holiday, asking them if they
know where their necklaces come from. Most are unaware that they are
manufactured in China at very low cost. All, however, do not care after being
informed of this fact. This first view of China is one espoused most by average
Americans. The second view is demonstrated by Nathan and Ross as well as Hunt:
this takes upon a more historical, although rigid understanding of China. Nathan and
Ross as well as Hunt attempt to explain Chinese foreign policy and behavior in
international politics by providing historical context. Unsurprisingly, this view of
China is most utilized by professional China watchers, such as those in foreign
service and international business.
While it is near impossible to reach an objective view of China, it is important
to dispel some of current depictions of China. To educate most Americans who
uphold the first dominant view: China is a rising power in the international arena,
accumulating material and non-material wealth. It manufactures, and then exports
many of the things it exports to Western and non-Western countries alike, though
the United States is unique its relationship to China because it has incurred a trade
deficit with it. Simple, taken-for-granted things in the United States require grueling
labor in deplorable working condition, as revealed in the movie, to be manufactured
in China. Which has, ironically, been mistaken as a communist nation for too long.
The second dominant view of China, or the historical one, is predominant in
academic and international circles. History, no doubt, is crucial when understanding
the evolution of states but it is by no means a process with a definite beginning and
end. States, even China, are ever engaged in evolution and transformation with
regards to identity formation and activities in the international arena-writ large.
History is by no means destiny. History has shaped the international system to what
it has become today, but the phrase writing history is very telling: China is in the
process of writing a Chinese century, informed by the past while simultaneously
looking to the future.