New York Travel Notes

Published: 2019-02-15

New York, a continuing great melting pot of last century's prosperity.

This article contains some reflections after a short study trip in New York. The material mainly comes from my own observations while traveling and from conversations with friends I met there, including former classmates working locally, my host family, and classmates from language classes.

Silhouettes

In 1620, the Mayflower, carrying a group of Separatist Puritans, landed on the North American continent and began the recorded civilization of this New World. This established the United States from the start as a nation shaped by colonization, immigration, and religion. American history has also been, inevitably, a story of pursuing liberty and self-governance and resolving conflicts among diverse cultures. Even today, walking the streets of New York you can still see the traces and outcomes of that history.

Manhattan is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the United States. In 1640, the Dutch built a high wall there to defend against British colonists; it was later torn down by the British and named Wall Street. Today Manhattan is densely built, with sturdy, historic buildings and modern architecture responding to each other. From time to time an elegant Gothic church or a classical museum inspires a sense of reverence. From the Empire State Building you can take in Manhattan’s orderly, carefully planned layout; the flowing yellow taxis carve the brick-colored building blocks into neighborhoods. Walking from the southern to the northern end of the Brooklyn Bridge, you can admire New York’s balanced skyline. Built in 1883, the bridge showcases steel’s visual presence; its bold lines face the distant, sacred Statue of Liberty across the river, expressing a solid, inviolable ambition. In New York, century-old buildings and long-established commercial brands are everywhere, testifying to the deep history of the city’s modernization.

Differences

Regarding differences between China and the U.S., most can be traced to history, systems, religion, and so on. Of course New York represents only a part of America — for example, public transit is well developed in New York, whereas in most other parts of the U.S. people mainly drive. Also, in New York you can go out late and party and still go home safely, but in many other cities safety is a major concern; even if you do go out at night, years of labor struggles for social benefits have made avoiding overtime a common value, so most shops close at night. Consequently, television becomes the main entertainment device in many American homes — an impression I strongly felt in my host family.

Systems

Many public facilities in New York are very old and show no signs of repair. For example, compared to China the subway can be described as dirty and chaotic: exposed wiring, almost no interior finishes (except for flagship stations like Wall Street), and because the New York subway runs 24 hours a day you often see several homeless people sleeping across half a car each morning; the air is stale and acrid. In the core city of a developed country, such conditions are hard to understand.

First, the subway repair issue relates to the country's system. Representative democracy means government policies must wait for votes and budget approvals before action; the term taxpayer carries weight in the U.S. Moreover, subway riders are largely foreigners and lower-income people, so many believe if it works there is no need to spend huge sums on refurbishment or rebuilding. By contrast, China's infrastructure capabilities win global praise for being fast, precise, and decisive — a clear institutional advantage.

Democracy is a good thing, but its weakness is internal consumption of social resources; it challenges policy focus, sustainability, and execution efficiency and can easily cause a country to lose its center of gravity. That is why almost every country that professes democracy combines it with religion to govern.Plato believed the prerequisite for realizing universal democracy is for everyone to become a philosopher, which is almost impossible; at best one can approach it infinitely. Compared with Europe, the United States is not necessarily the most democratic country, yet it has the most robust legal system and is highly competitive in globalization, thanks in part to political skill and vested interests. Democracy exists to prevent personal rights from being violated by state power; it is a mechanism for a system to correct itself.Any country is actually balancing between democracy and centralization, and China's development has not relied entirely on a single key role.

Culture

What’s good about the United States is that it combines democratic tolerance with centralized strength. This brings us to the limits of its tolerance and also helps explain why there are so many homeless people in New York. Lee Kuan Yew said:

Europe’s high-welfare policies can sap a society’s vitality, while the U.S. is not a high-welfare country and thus has been able to remain competitive. After becoming developed, Singapore has been vigilant against becoming a high-welfare state like Europe.

In fact, in the U.S. a homeless person who is willing to accept assistance can gradually receive aid, housing, medical treatment, free job training, and live a stable life. But due to personal reasons — for example, not wanting to work, preferring idleness, or drug addiction — such social assistance cannot save them. Even so, society remains tolerant: at least they are not expelled. I once read an interesting comment on Zhihu that captures this well.

In the U.S., those willing to be supported like pigs can receive welfare and be taken care of; those with basic ability can move up into the second tier. (The very top tier is out of reach.) Everyone gets what they need and, overall, people are fairly satisfied. You don’t get situations like in China where those who want to be idle are forced into the same arena to fight with those who want to climb, while the capable look on enviously at the elite circle.

The United States is an immigrant country, which fosters a culture of tolerance. So you needn’t be too surprised by the people you encounter on the street, unlike in China where someone singing while walking might get a sidelong glance — something I appreciate. The U.S. affords extra protections to vulnerable groups: child sexual exploitation is a serious crime, age checks are common at bar entrances, laws protect divorced women and workers, and pedestrians often have priority. For ordinary adults, you are an independent individual: free, expected to look after yourself, and required to follow the rules. Thus there is no security screening in the New York subway, no barriers, emergency doors are easily accessible, and museum entrances often only briefly check tickets — so fare evasion is actually quite easy. In this respect I agree with a popular nickname given to our citizens — “giant babies.”

Free speech is truly a direct contrast to domestic culture. Classmates from other countries don’t download a bunch of apps they used at home just because they are in the U.S. The internet has turned the world into a massive market, with Google, Instagram, Spotify, and YouTube as its oligopolists. But that model doesn’t apply to our country: we have a complete set of domestic apps that target the same functions, built for a market of 1.3 billion, often offering excellent experiences. In a way, our internet’s closure has helped fuel our prosperity and can be seen as a form of trade protection.

Business

In the U.S., if you apply the logic of the Chinese market, you may think many blue oceans exist — but that’s not necessarily true. For example, Americans living in houses rarely wash clothes at home; they usually take them to laundromats. If that were our domestic market, not washing at home would be a user habit many companies could capitalize on, sparing the need for market education and letting laundry O2O services compete fiercely. Another example: fresh grocery supermarkets are a must-win offline battleground for Chinese retail giants, but not so in the U.S. The Bible even says, “If you see your neighbor working on Sunday, stone him.” So many American shops and restaurants (many run by Chinese immigrants) are closed or close early on Sundays. In fact, Americans often don’t cook on Sundays and just enjoy the day — though younger believers tend to be more open-minded, the habit persists. Therefore Americans prefer canned foods, which are more shelf-stable than fresh vegetables while still nutritious.

America’s long modernization history carries historical baggage that can make transitions less urgent and agile, particularly in commercializing mobile internet innovations. China’s acceleration of urbanization, industrialization, and informatization has taken place over roughly the past 40 years, so we skipped many transitional stages in development. For example, 1G and 2G-era devices like brick phones and pagers disappeared without much of our awareness; we jumped from 3G directly into the global competition of the information industry. Likewise, mobile payment in Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou allows you to get around a city with just a phone, whereas in New York you still need a wallet with a metro card, credit cards, membership cards, and some change. In my view,credit cards in China are no longer primarily a payment tool; they are a form of consumer credit, and similarly you can think of services like Huabei and Baitiao. To some extent, our advanced mobile payments and the thorough excavation of payment scenarios are due to the fact that when we had not yet formed a habit of credit-card payment, an even more convenient alternative was available. So at least in payment methods, we pressed the fast-forward button on evolution.

We are in an era of technological upheaval. Technological change inevitably triggers cultural change, especially in how we work and live. Americans have many established habits that allow them to maintain relatively convenient lives for a time; they selectively adopt technology to address the most pressing needs. Ultimately, inertia and path dependence mean they will lag behind China in commercial implementation before the next wave of technological revolution arrives.

Conclusion

Finally, a question I derived for myself: which do you prefer — self-comfort under swaddling or self-reliance under freedom?

My current label for New York is: multicultural, with industrial-era architectural style, where fashion and depth coexist, but lacking a sense of technology and future-forward vision. So my impression of New York is:New York, a continuing great melting pot of last century's prosperity.

What is your impression of New York?

Last updated