Let's talk about money, not politics

My friend told me that my blog was banned in China. "No long accessible", he said.
That's kind of funny actually. Does that mean I can now write whatever I want? Good timing, because June 4th is coming. The 20th anniversary of the student movement on TianAnMen square .
The other day, I read an article about an autobiography by the former prime minister of China, Zhaoziyang. Zhao died 4 years ago after more than 15 years of house arrest in Beijing since the summer of 1989. He secretly taped his own biography on top of Peking operas. The records were later smuggled out of the country and is now published. The book comes timely to reveal the inner political struggles within the communist party. Zhao's pro-democratic stand was crashed along with the students on the square.
Then two days later, two simultaneous articles in NYtimes and Financial times reported a recent pool from interviewing students in major universities in Beijing. The Result: the memory of TianAnMen is distant and blurry if there is anything at all. What students care, after 20 years, is no longer politics, but personal development, that is, what's good for ME.
Maybe this is a good sign of individualism in an otherwise long-time totalitarian society. But we must remember that they are university students in Beijing, the front runners of the intellectual. If anyone cares about politics, it would be them. Can you imagine what the common people care?
One thing clear now is that the government succeeded in getting people's mind completely off politics. Big time. For what else would be more interesting than thinking and talking about money! Maybe I haven't been back for a long time, my three-week stay in China was full of over the top money talks.
First off, money has never been a taboo in Chinese culture. Friends and family openly discuss salaries, bonuses, numbers in the bank accounts, gain and loss in stock market. It is like the national pass-time. In general, money talk seems also to be a good way to break the ice and start off a conversation between strangers. I had many taxi drivers asking me how much I make after they found out that I am from US. Then one taxi driver proceeded to tell me exactly how much he lost in his investment in a restaurant business. I didn't even know his name.
My friends, some of whom I haven't seen for years, would call me up and wanted to meet for a meal. We would talk about many things yet the conversation would eventually turned toward economy before heading straight to personal salaries and asset. And at the same time it all felt strangely nonchalant and benign, if conspicuously nosy. After a while, I dreaded for such meeting to catch up because I found that I took pleasure in it myself by telling them about our newly acquired mountain house, including how much we had to pay for it.
Money money and money. Kevin and I spent a good deal of time talking about money too. When I got a little fed up and pointed it out to him, he got defensive, saying that I looked down on him and his vulgar talks of money. The truth was that I'd want to talk about something else, like some books, or a movie we saw, even celebrity gossips. He promised not to talk about money with me anymore and his promise was kept exactly for 12 hours.
Finally, I think I understood. The money talk is part of the social fiber now in China so we must face it. It is largely a reflection of the politics that focused on getting wealthy, aka, making money, for the past three decades. At the same time, deep down, the Chinese attitude toward money is nothing but practical. Credit card debt is a rare thing there and saving is still a fortunate national virtue given how much allures out there in that huge bedazzling commercial market. It may be a natural step of the so called market economy, a term coined by the government. Where is it heading? I am not so sure, but hopefully not to a place where money is speculated and air-castled, like in this country.