Caveat : I was never and still am not a communist party sympathizer nor a pro-Communist bugger. No Sir, not in the past nor likely in the future! I must admit though that I was somewhat impressed by the structural workings (or, machinations, if you wish) of a 'Command Economy' as compared to a free-market system's ... in poverty-stricken countries.
My thumbs up for a command economy stemmed from some secondary but 'broad' research into select areas of comparative economics. This was undertaken pursuant to my part-time teaching in the early through mid-80's. Be that as it was, I must unequivocally confess that I have always been into Adam Smith's, Maynard Keynes', Milton Friedman's et al.
Mind you, I read - albeit not too passionately into and about Karl Marx's, V. Lenin's and G.Hegel's too whilst in college.
By the way, I named my son after the monetarist's.
Here goes my long winded musings about the PRC's :
For years, I have been predisposed to many things favorable to, of, from and about the People's Republic of China (PRC). I must admit, however, that at the same time, I held no idolistic regards for or about nor was ever awe-inspired by the Beijing Central Government nor its functionaries. My positive regards for PRC as a nation has been shaped in the main by my personal encounters with, observations of and experiences gained through three past personal visits to the PRC. These visits spanned a good 30 years and more.
My first visit was in late 1988 to my late father's ancestral village. The village is on the outskirt of the city of Xinyi. Present day's Xinyi is one of the administrative county under the prefecture of the greater Maoming city's region in the province of Guangdong. That made my dad a Cantonese. That made me, of course, a Cantonese too - by birth.
That first visit was in fact a "side trip". Up until the mid-1990's, the average younger-than-60-years-old Joe-Malaysian was not allowed to visit the PRC unless prior official permissions were obtained. Such OK's would be from the Immigration Department under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Permissions would only be granted after a couple or more of months' waiting and only where application was underpinned by a strong, valid reason.
My first trip to the PRC was as a member of a Malaysian government sanctioned trade mission to the Guangdong Autumn Trade Fair in late 1988. This 'mission' was comprised of some ten local businessmen and/or manufacturers. They were led by two mid-level trade officials from the Malaysian Ministry of Industry and International Trade (MITI),
It was an eye opener for me. In this Autumn Fair, one particular range of PRC's products caught my dedicated attention : Aero-model Engines.
I recalled these model engines were tagged cheaply ranging from US$5 to US$30 apiece, depending on the displacements or cubic capacities of the models. The cast-aluminium bodies were coarse though polished. Even the main component's mould's residual drainage lines were visible. The assembled components attached or affixed and parts married were crude in finishings too despite evidence of heavy buffings.
Packagings for all the model engines on display were rough brownish cardboard boxes with bare minimum number of printed Chinese characters. The printed characters included only the model-numbers and the names of the state-owned enterprise. There were no individual catalogs nor user manual for each model. Instead, a generalized printed brochure describing the enterprise's endeavors and its 'business addresses and fax numbers' were distributed to trade visitors. Such on-the-spot promotional literature and brochures were generally common for other on-display, big-ticket engineering products. Examples were articulated agricultural three-wheeled tractors, hand-operated small agricultural mechanized ploughs. They also exhibited electric rice-cookers, noodles making machines, weighing scales and weighbridges, automatic packaging conveyors, and I think even one or two semi-automatic weaving looms.
My interest in aero model engines began in junior high school where I signed up and joined the Aero Modelling Club together with another classmate, Mr. Y.S. Kong. As an extension of interests in aeroplnes, I also signed up and joined my school's Air Training Corp (ATC). Rookies of the ATC had their weekly 'do' at the KL RMAF Base located off Jalan Sungei Besi. I attended two drill-sessions there and decided it was a no-go for me. You see, I was more into the Boy Scouts activities as a result of me having much earlier earn the then coveted 'Scout Cord' award.
So, I chose not to continue with the ATC. Consequently, my interests in things 'aero' took a backseat and was by no means lost. Nay, just remained latent!
The PRC now produced their own stealth aircraft after having earlier successfully flew to the moon.
My wife, Kay has over the last few months purchased and used almost daily her many beautifully designed and very sleek-looking Made-In-China electric/electronic and pressure cookers, air fryers, breadmaking machine, hot water dispensers, etc.
HEREINABOVE READ MY FIRST "A+" IMPRESSION OF THE PRC.
More in my next posting. Cheers!👴
(Oh, by the way, I learnt years ago that my classmate Mr. Y.S. Kong was flying as a Captain with the Singapore Airlines. On the other hand, I obtained my Private Pilot's License in the early 1970's while still doing my post graduate studies.)
