The Year of the Rat

An English tourist in Moscow, being chased by the Soviet authorities over some misunderstanding, runs into the British embassy to escape the police. He's surprised to find that the embassy is full of Chinese with posters of Mao hanging on the walls. But he's assured he got the right building. In confusion he asks to see the ambassador and they take him to an elderly Asian gentleman who speaks English with a strong Chinese accent but claims to be British, born in Cornwall and raised in Oxford.

It's hard to remember how that episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus ended but many people in Belgrade recall that absurd show as something they're taking part in now, but not of their own free will. The curtain was raised on Thursday, February 15 in the Politika building at a promotion of the idea to build a Chinese quarter in Belgrade.

The promotion was attended by China's Belgrade Ambassador Chu Ankang, Mira Markovic as chairman of the Yugoslav fund for European integration, Slobodan Unkovic, the FRY Ambassador to China, Zoran Todorovic, a Milosevic loyalist, Dojcilo Maslovaric, Serbian government foreign relations secretary, Politika Director Hadzi Dragan Antic and editorial board members Nebojsa Curcic, Djordje Martic, Zarko rakic and Milenko Pesic.

The next day, February 15, surprised Politika readers found out that the Yugoslav capital needs a China town which would include shops and restaurants, a Chinese medical facility and pharmacy, school of traditional Chinese medicine and something that is going to be called Silk Street (no explanation). The inspired article over a quarter of the front page and all of page 16 answered three whys: Why China town, why in Belgrade and why Politika. The answers (in that order): "because the ancient culture and traditions of China, its reputation in the world and indisputable fact that relations between our countries have been rising for years impose a project of this kind as something natural and logical"; "because this open city on the crossroads between East and West and its ability to survive and grow despite everything, deserves it"; "because Politika is one of the Serb institutions that has spent almost a century trying and managing to promote every worthy idea which brings people closer and helps their cooperation".

Convinced that they had explained everything, the authors then started drawing up more details for their idea. Antic, a member of Markovic's fund like Todorovic, said the initiative "is condemned to success". The Ambassador spoke of the many Chinese "interested in opening shops and restaurants in Yugoslavia but haven't found suitable partners because they don't know who to turn to". Markovic spoke tenderly of the freedom loving and cosmopolitan tradition of the city which she said would become "one of the world capitals in the most beautiful sense of the word not just formally but in reality". The others spoke in the same tone including Unkovic who has too many party obligations to even visit Beijing.

That was just the start of the campaign which is ongoing with undiminished ferocity.

Politika polls told us that Belgrade residents, regardless of sex, generation and other differences, unreservedly and in exhilaration, support the initiative; we learned that Mayor Nebojsa Covic, heroically battling bureaucracy in the form of urban planning, building permits and similar, is working feverishly to find the best site in central Belgrade. Politika's correspondents informed us that there isn't a city in Europe that doesn't have a China town (or at least market or restaurants).

We didn't learn some other things: what does the European integration fund have to do with China and is that link ideological will our main trade with China be Beijing duck; silkworm or acupuncture and what do we have to offer in return; and finally why do we need a China town when we don't have enough Chinese to fill a small building (the Chinese embassy couldn't tell us how many of their people live in Belgrade).

Despite the concentrated and obviously expensive propaganda, Belgrade residents haven't taken the initiative seriously. They're pressed by everyday problems, such as the breakdown of public transport, electricity bills, and some tend to joke. In that sense there have been suggestions that Chinese should be taught in elementary schools, that Cuban, North Korean quarters should be built and that Republic Square should be renamed Heavenly Peace. Miljenko Dereta of the Serbian Civil Alliance (GSS) sarcastically suggested China town should be built and populated by refugees. Few people are seriously asking how much this comedy is costing us and what the final bill is going to amount to if the idea is implemented. And most importantly: what other whims are we going to have to go through and how long will important institutions in Serbia be headed by people whose fear or greed make them ready to support every whim?