In my last Yonder, I mentioned the gigantic yet inelegant Nanjing Bridge, finished in 1968, at the peak of Maoism in China and abroad. Regardless of its remarkable 1576m length, the double-deck truss bridge was a political construction. Paradoxically, without the Soviet-China split in the late fifties, the Nanjing Bridge would have been built much later without a railway deck. This, at least, was what we were told by our Chinese mentors when, in the early autumn of 1977, we, the group of international students, were loaded on the bus and driven to the ramp of the bridge where we were to be illuminated about the first authentic Chinese construction. As of today, the words of our Chinese 负责人 (“fuzeren”person in charge) were prophetic: they were telling us that the bridge we were admiring was the first sight of a China that, half a century later, may lead the world. Mao’s calligraphy on the right side of the bridge (see the photo in the previous posting) was even more visionary and direct; it was a request for the Chinese people to catch up and surpass the most developed countries. In Mao’s mind, the Soviet Union was undoubtedly the one to catch up to. Our guides and teachers were in tune with the same Mao thought. It was over a year since the great helmsman was deposited in the newly built mausoleum on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. But Mao thought he was still very much alive. The Chinese believed now that they had built the double-sized bridge without the help of the Soviets, they were capable of doing more wonders. I remember that period of transition when the mindset of the Deng Xiaoping reforms started to prevail across the country. It was one Sunday, sometime in 1977, that People’s Daily published a drawing over the entire back page illustrating the future appearance of Beijing, packed with skyscrapers, helicopters, airplanes, bridges, and highways; in short, it was a vision that became carved in every Chinese mind. The drawing looked surreal, as a child’s hand would draw an imaginary Blade Runner megalopolis.
Russia and China
Putin’s Bomb Under the Negotiation Table
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