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Tale of two hosts



A pensive Barack Obama walking alone on the Great Wall of China in November 2009. Barack and Michelle dancing with school children in Mumbai in November 2010.

The front-page snapshots of Obama in India and China capture the difference in the political cultures of the two nations, flavours as contrast as spicy kebabs compared to chicken soup. The India photographs show a relaxed US President being spontaneous, hugging his host, grinning a lot and speaking freely. Obama in Beijing struck the pose of a lonely figure outside his comfort zone, his words censored in the Chinese media. The first lady did not accompany Obama to Beijing.

While the Indians went all out with an exuberant display of hospitality on the visiting President and first lady, the Chinese hosts made measured, understated gestures nuanced with the power play of a challenger.

In his address to the media in Beijing, Obama stood tense next to an unsmiling President Hu Jintao, with no questions allowed. In New Delhi, Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hugged, answered a few questions and Obama joked with the media.

In Beijing, Obama was under pressure not to press China on human rights and Tibet, but he did raise both issues. In Delhi, he hailed India for succeeding because of democracy but also criticised India’s Myanmar policy while addressing the Parliament.

Obama’s chat with college students in Mumbai was broadcast nationwide and made front-page headlines. Obama’s chats with Shanghai students asking reportedly rehearsed questions was not broadcast live on national television. Official Chinese news reports scrubbed Obama’s references to Internet freedom and freedom of expression. Propaganda officials reportedly targeted his interview to the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly and delayed the edition from reaching the stands. Obama’s declaration that India has emerged was also downplayed in the Chinese media.

Manmohan Singh hosted an Awadhi dinner for the Obamas, with soups, seafood, meat, kebabs, dal, pulao, vegetables and traditional desserts. The ITC Maurya created an Obama Platter of tandoori Mughlai cuisine. At his White House state dinner last year, Obama served Singh a banquet including coconut aged basmati, red lentil soup with cheese, green curry prawns, potato dumplings with chutney, chickpeas and okra, potato and eggplant salad, pear tatin, pumpkin pie tart and chocolate dipped fruits.

In Beijing, President Hu served Obama a cold dish, chicken soup, and three mains of beefsteak, sautéed wild rice shoots and roast sea grouper. Some read the menu as a subtle snub, while the Chinese media said Hu had set an example of austerity.

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Posted by Reshma Patil on Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 2:54 pm 
Filed under China, Rest of Asia · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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  • Jay

    When it comes to signaling, Chinese are the champions at the game. Its a spinoff from a rigidly hierarchical Confucianistic culture. Forget about singing and dancing, Xi Jinping’s wife is a leading Diva in China and she is being blacked out from the media.

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    hg Reply:
    November 15th, 2010 at 5:00 am

    Xi Jinping’s wife is not a leading Diva in China as you are spoonfed by Westmedia. She is just popular for folk songs among hundred of famous singers.

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    Jay Reply:
    November 22nd, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    Peng liyuan is supposed to be more well known than Xi Jinping and is also a Major General in the PLA. How else do you qualify to be a major Diva?

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  • Anu

    Well.. we can write derogatorily about China all we want..

    At the end of day China is all business. They talk less work more..

    We might sing and dance and eat.. at the end of day not much gets done.

    Yes it is difference in culture but none better than other. In the end in materialistic power playing world China will win.

    and I have to ask Jay.. do you think only China is hierarchial..Do you not see all the old men in parliament being there because they “deserve” to be

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    Jay Reply:
    November 22nd, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    Anu, firstly I have no intention of being derogatory about China. India has had a very long history of cultural exchanges with China and if you exclude the Mao years then there is a lot we have shared and can share. Maybe you are unaware that in the past, with near open borders, many North Indians have ancestors from what is now China and there has been continous intermingling of people.

    I don’t want to caricaturize people, but the hard working Chinese and the lazy Indians reminds me of the 80’s when the Japanese were supposed to take over the world because the Americans were over fed and overpaid. That did not happen…and since then we have seen other caricatures of hardworking Koreans, Thai’s, Malaysians.
    Having lived with the Chinese and worked with them, let me tell you they are no different than anybody else. I am not the first person in the world who has said that the Chinese are hierarchical, this is well established and no body in China, even its leading scholars, ever deny it.
    The old men in Indian, have been chosen by the people of that country to be there. That is a very crucial difference. So yes they do “deserve” to be there.

    Incidently you will be surprized to know that to produce one unit of output, the Chinese economy is ten times less efficient than the American and three times less efficient than the Indian economy according to Yasheng Huang (MIT Sloan School). You can now deduce who talks more, you would find out the answer if China stopped controlling its newsmedia.

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  • Anu

    I have worked with lots of chinese people. When they work they work.. No pressure to show off who you are, who you are loyal to, no northi-southi white skin-black skin nonsense.. not much gossip and yes not lots of fun

    But many projects were completed with relationships as intact and same as they were when the projects began..

    I think Indians should learn from that instead of saying only we are great because we know how to sing and dance and have tandoor.

    Yes.. chinese can learn to loosen up once in a while

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    Rajeev Reply:
    November 15th, 2010 at 9:31 pm

    Do you have chinese boyfriend? Just curious.

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    shan Reply:
    November 19th, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    @Anu , if you like Khichdi, like me you will like India, if you like tiger’s penis, or fried cockroach (solitary on its own on other ingridients) then china is for you.

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    Jay Reply:
    November 22nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    If you had really worked with Chinese people, you would have discovered that they are humans, with all the problems associated with humans. They are slightly xenophobic so they dont share easily with foreigners, but like everybody else, there is an internal politics in the social groups.

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  • AsiaInvincible

    A Tale of Two Hosts: China hosting the Asian Games and India hosting the Common Wealth Games. End of story.

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    Kiva Reply:
    November 15th, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    Yeah right..we also remember the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing…grimy city trying to wash off the stains of Tiananmen….

    You started 15 years before us..and manage to organise games, where you ask girls to lip synch…we have started 15 years late…just wait and see what we do by 2020 !!!

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    yi Reply:
    November 23rd, 2010 at 11:28 am

    15-20 years means one generation! when you reach the level of others today, they are already far away from you and have used up most of the resources and you have to spend more to get the same amount of resources you need to development. But you can always say that development is not needed in our country, be cause we believe in god and god will help us.

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  • hg

    By openly instigating and sowing dissenstion among Asian countries, Obama’s goal to double export in 5 years can be definitely met, by arms sale which is the only thing US economy could be saved with. Bravo to Obama’s successful Asian trip, since we Asia should willingly donate our blood to down down Uncle Sam’s dying economy and Americans’ lazybones way of life.

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    Anmol Reply:
    November 16th, 2010 at 8:20 am

    Interesting View ..

    I think Indians and Chinese can learn from each other and work together .. There can be a lot of synergies that we can develop ..

    West needs us to distance from each other .. and they are striving hard … More tensions between India and China means more defense orders .. more favorable terms for trade etc etc …

    India and China have to work together .. the services based economy of one can compliment the manufacturing based economy of other ..

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  • Sonu

    So you recon that Indians are perfect hosts? just by dancing and singing and having lavish dinner parties to guests makes us great?

    China is far ahead of India, they have learned it hard way how to deal with west. China of her own can handle west , where as we know were india stands.

    I don’t care about freedom of free speach and free society. I want a job, healh care, education, clean drinking water , infrastuture, security…..

    800 mil indians live on $2 a day… they don’t give a heck about what Obama eats and first lady dancing! , they want what I have listed above.

    China on other hand is providing /trying to provide all this to her people!

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    shan Reply:
    November 19th, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    @Sonu , utter bollocks, the apple I phone that is assembled in china , sells for 500 dollars , china makes 20 cents out of it.

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    yi Reply:
    December 16th, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    How about the jobs created!

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  • http://dawnblog reality bites

    they have him by his ….. and they do not care if he dances or doesn’t. We can make him sing and dance all we want. The chinese are walking away with all the money and resources of the world. I just wish our government was more clued in on our needs rather than wake up sing and dance and then sleep till elections!! What a waste of print this article is!

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  • http://- Rajeev

    I think we should look beyond Obama’s visit to China and India. In coming years we will see an OVERT alliance between China and despotic muslim countries. This alliance is currently covert but you can see it come out in open once in a while (China-pakistan, china-iran).
    This is the alliance that free world should be worried about. It is time west and others should move their business interests out of china and distribute it among friendly countries (who offer cheap labor) such as east european countries, christian africa, India etc.

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  • http://techcentral.in Kunal

    I like the comparison, but one has to see this objectively. China has a different kind of relations with the USA. Not only that, they have a different governance system as well, which is at odds with democracy. We are democratic and consider to be USA’s ally so we treat USA as family. For China, US is not only just business – it is also a threat in many instances.

    However, one should note that even if a Pakistani delegation comes to India, we won’t serve them cold food. That is hospitality shown to guests in India.

    Also, I see the Chinese people as separate from their government. Their government could act arrogantly but I know for certain that Chinese people are very kind and great hosts just like the Indians are.

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    Paritosh Reply:
    November 19th, 2010 at 11:34 pm

    this ‘atithi devo bhava’ cultural attitude of ours is a bull sh*t

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  • http://www.rediff.com Paritosh

    @ Anmol

    right , India and China should work together and India should open its eyes only when China would have captured the Arunachal.

    you are a new generation of deludeds , just like the India -Pakistan bhai bhai types

    [Reply]

    Anmol Reply:
    November 23rd, 2010 at 6:14 am

    Paritosh

    Dude .. Check out the daily news on Arunachal Pradesh , LAC is the border and all the land beyond it is ours
    Its easy to shout at roof tops but difficult to give solutions ..

    Give Solutions .. not idle talk .. which adds to tension ..
    World is moving at a much faster rate .. u need to change ur thinking process .. People who dont add value are Left behind …

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  • roshni

    just because we sang and danced and threw lavish parties to the US prez doesn’t mean that we r a bunch of idiots who like 2 waste precious time n money on such ‘frivolous’ things. In fact, this just shows how mature our approach is when it comes to diplomacy. Both india and china r a bit wary of the US. China chose 2 b open about it while we adopted a more restrained approach. And anyway, it’s not something 2 moan about, really, because at the end of the day, we got our point across 2 the US that no matter what they say, pak remains a terror hub 4 us and we r nt interested in kowtowing 2 US demands. In fact, to b frank, no one was really interested to have obama here; he just dropped himself on our shores so that he could have that 10bn dollar deal signed which would help revive the sagging economy back in the US. I think we just did him a favour and got more avenues opened up in the US for our businesses in return.

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  • Ramesh Talwani

    WHY NOT FDI IN MEDIA?HT WILL BE WIPED OUT?

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  • Anonymous

    Ha ha! Well written sir! The movie was a throwback to the 90’s, all bluster and no substance. After Kahaani, I was hoping that this one would be a step forward, but I guess Kahaani was a one-off wonder :(

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  • http://twitter.com/rajeshdipti Rajesh thakkar

    How Far Can Politicos go….The day is not far when the Army take cudgels in their hand and cleanse the political system…shall b a sad day but befitting in present environment…

    [Reply]