First person

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INFOCUS|INDIA-CHINA|OpINION INFOCUS|INDIA-CHINA|FIRST PERSON

signature software company Infosys makes quite the cut on Chinese shores. The challenges of measuring perceptions are subject to subjectivity howsoever objectively done. It becomes more in a society that is inherently busy in its own chores and is disciplined to the point of determination to better the next day. This is what I figured out along the corridors of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and across the Zhejiang province – one of China’s richest provinces that borders Shanghai and Yiwu – the world’s biggest small commodities market that trades millions worth of goods with India. Political Perceptions For the first time in nearly two decades, Transparency International in its annual survey of corruption, ranked India lower at 85th position than China’s 100th. Interestingly, it came despite

China’s much publicised and ongoing multi-level crackdown against corruption up to the highest level. Few in India would bother about their country beating China on the global corruption index. As mixed election results in recent weeks and various opinions in Indian newspapers suggest, many Indians are yet to believe that the watershed 2014 Loksabha elections brought a real change in India. However, India

For common chinese, issues oF TibeT-india complexiTies or border dispuTes are immaTerial since Their coverage in chinese media is nexT To none. censorship and propaganda are norms noT excepTions

under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being keenly watched in China by intellectuals and policymakers alike. Talks of India’s resurgence abounds and India gets a serious attention on topics far and wide. For the common Chinese, issues of Tibet-India complexities or border dispute are immaterial since their coverage in Chinese media is next to none. Even when they are published, it matters little for the Chinese since few of them read newspapers in detail like those in India. The news to the public here mostly comes from Weibo (Chinese Twitter) and at times TV. This means that the news they often read is primarily updates and that too the most popular ones. This turns out into a situation where the political worldview of the Chinese is tilted in favour of economics and not really politics. The controlled and limited student politics in Chinese

Tilak Jha at Zhejiang University

India’s Perception Among Common Chinese U Tilak Jha

What perceptions do common Chinese hold of India? Are diplomatic efforts capable of enhancing India’s image among the Chinese vox poupli? Or does Soft power of ‘Bollywood’ hold more sway? Tilak Jha explores China through his eyes

|56| India-China Chronicle  January–February 2015

ntil the Loksabha elections of 2014, for common Chinese, India was ‘tied power’, grappling with poor situation of law and order, infrastructure bottlenecks, red tape and apathetic work culture. The only two exits amid these gloomy perceptions of India were the city of Bangalore and the Hindi film industry ‘Bollywood’. Neither, though, fully projects India’s real image. While ‘Bollywood’ provides enough space to oscillate between a ‘3 Idiots’ and a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, Bangalore’s

A monastery wall talking about India-China January–February 2015  India-China Chronicle |57|


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