This has been something that’s been on my mind a lot of late. I recently met up with an old pal of mine who has been living in Switzerland for the past few years and I was really surprised when he told about the extent that Switzerland has had to adapt its tourist market for wealthy Chinese. He told me of little “China villages” spotted around the major cities, which were full of Mandarin speaking shop staff, restaurants, theaters, and everything a Chinese tourist needs to make them feel like they’ve never even left the walls of Beijing. Strange I thought, as I was always under the impression that the whole point of travelling is to immerse yourself into the local culture and try new things and all that. Anyway, the fact this is occurring (and I’m sure it’s not only Switzerland that’s had to adjust its tourist industry for the Chinese market) made me wonder whether with China’s increasing wealth and global influence, will the world have to adapt in order to accommodate it?

It seems that to an extent Phillip K Dick had it right; particularly if this is going to be the way of things in the future. In many of his works he envisioned a world with two dominant languages, cultures, and cuisines – English and Chinese. I recently watched Looper which also depicted a from-the-future Jeff Daniels telling the main character (played by Joseph Gordon Levitt) that he had to learn Mandarin for future survival.  

The current of many needy Western economies encouraging a larger influx of overseas Chinese students and investors will also surely see a growing influence of everything Chinese on the make-ups of the Western world. It seems also that the so-called morally righteous democratic economies may have to compromize their values in favor of economic gain, again with China being the main reason. We can already see that China has invested billions in Africa and is using its “soft power” technique to gain favor from various developing economies who, despite claims by some that they are being prostituted by China, seem to accept and be grateful for the money, development, and added infrastructure that is coming their way. Aside from the economical gain that China also gets from this, what we’re seeing is little Chinese villages being built in many areas, Chinese signposts, restaurants, and even Baidu recently opened a server for African internet users. Are we going to see this pattern slowly spread across the rest of the world? How long will it be before Western powers break and eventually compromize thus allowing China to assert its power in the financial/political sphere?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against China’s rise or anything and I think it’s great that certain aspects of its culture such as its language and history are being further introduced to the rest of the world. My main concern is that with China’s environmental record and ruthless tendency to often purely think about profit regardless of any stain that might be left as a result, it may not necessarily make the world a better place to live in.