The recent posts in the Far Eastern blogosphere on the ‘Taiwanization’ of Mainland China sparked a lot of healthy argument. In what is sure to be a less controversial statement, AsiaPundit argues that the Mainland authorities are seeking a ‘Singaporization’ of China. Richard Willmsen notes with some distress that China’s image-building exercises aren’t particularly modern.:

Meanwhile on an international level the Miss World contest allows a carefully constructed Chinese message to be broadcast to an audience of two billion across the globe. Over the past 10 years the Chinese have worked hard to dispel once ubiquitous images of China, the bicycling factory state, and glamorous events like Miss World are a tonic. Not only that - the contest sends a strong message to the world about China’s changing values and internationalisation, that the days of the Red Guards are over. “This sort of programming helps build an international image that is unthreatening and somehow reassuring,” says Crane. “After all, beauty pageants were once considered as American as apple pie.”

Unfortunately, what these witless and seemingly profoundly vapid Communist Party dullards, whose apparent ambition is to transform China into somewhere as bland and unthreatening as a Disney theme park, are incapable of realising is that it also portrays China as a country which is utterly, utterly naff.

I suspect that the Shanghai government in particular wants to transform the city into something “as bland and unthreatening as a Disney theme park.” While I agree with Richard that this can be utterly naff, it’s easy to see where they are getting their inspiration.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, singapore