On Aug 1, Shenzhen will implement China's first good Samaritan law, technically called the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Good Samaritans' Right Protection Regulation but more popularly nicknamed the "Good Person's Law". What does this have to do with President Xi Jinping's Chinese dream? In a word: "everything"!
In 700 Chinese characters, the Good Person's Law brings China back to some of its ancient core values, although — at this point — it is limited to upwards of 15 million people in one metropolis that ironically did not exist a generation ago.
I've asked many Chinese people, especially those born in the '90s, what the Chinese Dream means to them. Because Chinese people are generally patriotic, I expected them to define it along the lines that President Xi did: "realizing a prosperous and strong country, the rejuvenation of the nation and the well-being of the people".
So I was surprised that nearly all of those I asked cast the dream on personal terms such as an apartment, a car or an attractive significant other. It reminded me more of the American dream of one of our most maligned American Presidents, who presided over the early years of the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover. His campaign slogan was "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage."
I believe that this materialistic view represents neither traditional values nor what China's new president had in mind. Starting with the humiliation suffered by China in the 1840s and for some of the 20th century, traditional bedrock values dating at least from the time of Confucius, such as being ready to help others in need and fighting for a just cause, have suffered severe erosion. It's one thing to see them on a daily basis on TV in historical dramas and quite another to observe them in practice today.
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