The People’s Republic of Desire

17 Attention Whores

When I returned to China from the United States, the huge changes that the country has gone through were immediately clear. Most people used to take pride in their humbleness and conformity. Not only was attracting attention something that didn't interest them, it was something that people were genuinely afraid of. There is an old Chinese saying: "The bird that flies ahead of the flock is the first to be shot down." Now, with the opening up of the country and the new market economy, it seems as though everyone I meet is a braggart and an attention-seeker. Being different from the crowd is actually encouraged. These ambitious birds have no fear of being shot down.

Fifteen years ago, if you were a performer, you were guaranteed to become a household name by showing your face at the annual Spring Festival gala produced by CCTV. Nowadays you have to be not only creative but also shameless to become famous because everybody realizes that attention can bring money.

In cultural circles, there are four popular ways of seeking fame.

First, create controversy. For example, claim you are gay or bisexual. Publicize your love triangle stories, your affairs with married people, or even make them up. Pay a foreign stud to write a book about your wild sex life entitled My Sexy Chinese Doll. The whole point is to invite criticism and create shock. If people start to bad-mouth you, ding! Your mission is accomplished: you are known and fame sells.

Second, fake your credentials and background. For example, if your mother is a shop clerk, you would tell people that she owns several chain stores. A Danish tourist says hi to you in Chinese on a bus? You tell the media that you dated the cousin of the Danish prince. You took some open university courses at Yale? Claim you got an M.B.A. degree there.

Third, beg the government to ban you. Find connections in the Ministry of Propaganda and talk them into including your movies or your books in their blacklist. It's free advertising and attracts the attention of a worldwide audience.

Fourth, insult the establishment. You're a little potato, but by insulting famous people, you can become famous. For example, sling mud at the hottest movie star, or claim Lu Xun's books and Zhang Yimo's movies are trash.

Colorful Clouds got her first fifteen minutes of fame by being a sex expert in the online beauty forum, then she got her second fifteen minutes of fame by telling the Chinese media that she married her former husband's grandson. Now she is back in Columbia, Missouri, once again just an average housewife. She feels lonely and misses her fleeting fame in China. I'm on a business trip in St. Louis, covering the talk of China 's best-known wandering poet Sing. The University of Missouri literature department has invited Sing to give a reading at the university. It's his first reading since winning a major book award.

"I've got to drive to St. Louis for this event! It's a good chance to get noticed!" Colorful Clouds tells me excitedly on the phone.

As Colorful Clouds expects, the poetry reading attracts a big crowd. She comes, dragging her fair-haired Eurasian kids.

Sing has lived in exile since 1989, and his political poetry has gained him the reputation of being China 's Aleksandr Solzhen-itsyn. After the poetry reading, Colorful Clouds stands up and, cradling her sleeping child, let fly at the wandering poet.

"Sing, before I left China, in 1984, I heard you speak at the Guangxi Art Institute. At the time, I was a university student, just arrived in Nanning from the country. I didn't know much of the world, and I adored you. Now more than ten years have passed, and I've been in the United States for over ten years. Why is everything you say still the same old stuff? Are you that fond of the good old days? If not, why hasn't your style evolved at all? And your English isn't even as good as those of us who are just housewives here in America!"

It's clear that Colorful Clouds is trying to insult Sing at this refined poetry-reading event in order to get attention. Sing is so angry he can't speak. His American translator is also scratching his head and doesn't know how to translate Colorful Clouds' words for the American audience.

Colorful Clouds decides to go whole hog and translates her own words into English. Turning to face the audience, she relates what she has just accused Sing of. As she speaks in her sloppy English to the shocked crowd, her eyes are wide and her face is flushed with emotion. Her arms wave vigorously and violently from side to side, as if accusing the audience of the same shortcomings merely for attending the event.

Some members of the audience are unhappy with Colorful Clouds. "How can someone be so rude to our crusader for democracy?" they say. Others just enjoy the show.

Sing controls his temper and replies with a sort of calm pity in his voice. "Chinese like you who have come to the United States are just like many of the Chinese literati. You jealously attack me, a Chinese poet with international standing." Getting visibly angrier as he goes on, Sing contends, "Of course, you have an ulterior motive. You are in cahoots with the Chinese government! It's obvious you received a Communist Party education from a young age!"

"True," Colorful Clouds rebuts, as if she is a lawyer who has just found a crack in her opponent's case. "I did receive a Communist Party education from a young age. And what about you? You grew up in America, did you? Graduated from Harvard, did you? Did you receive that kind of education? From what I hear, no university in the States would take you because your English is so poor."

At this point, Sing loses all composure and yells at Colorful Clouds. "Chinese literati are just like you. When it comes down to it, you are all just jealous of my international reputation!"

"Your reputation? What reputation? I heard you moved your family to Sweden. How come you haven't won a Nobel Prize yet? I've heard that fifteen years ago, in order to stop Gao Xingjian from winning the prize, you gave him the wrong address of the Swedish Embassy in Beijing and made him miss his appointment. Oh, and by the way, you really do flatter me. Since when have I been one of the literati. I've always just been an ignorant housewife."

"You have obviously been put up to this by some jealous Chinese who wanted you to come here to make trouble!"

"No one put me up to this, and I couldn't be bothered being jealous of you. My husband makes enough money. I live in a rich neighborhood. Why would I be jealous of you? I ask a couple of questions you don't like, and suddenly I'm making trouble?"

Sing whispers something to his translator, and the translator turns to the security guards. They escort Colorful Clouds and her children out of the auditorium. Some people say to one another, "This woman is crazy. Thank God, she is leaving." Some stand up to protest: "A crusader for democracy in a democratic country who can't even tolerate different opinions. There's no point being here." They leave the auditorium.

Colorful Clouds doesn't mind being escorted out of the poetry reading. She is an opportunist. "I got the attention I need," she tells me afterward. "Maybe I should call the Peoples Daily and tell them how I defended China 's pride by debating with a traitor! If they write about me, I might get a role in the TV series From Beijing to San Francisco! "

MAREN: To criticize or insult people.

ZHENGYI: Fight and discuss; controversy.

TOUJIZHE: An opportunist. Prior to the opening of the market economy, there was no room or need for opportunists in Chinese society. Today the culture has changed, and opportunists, seeking both money and attention, have sprouted up all over the country.