Ravi S. Narasimhan

What's tame about gay marriages and enthanasia?

By Ravi s. narasimhan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-15 05:45

Will gay marriages be made legal in China? Will euthanasia be allowed? Will there be a "go slow" in the "go out" campaign?

Maybe not, they sound too radical. But that's what some of the members of the nation's top advisory body have proposed.

When the National People's Congress (NPC) the lawmaking body and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) the advisory body met in the past two weeks, the foreign media, as usual, described their annual sessions as "tame" and "choreographed."

True, there were no filibusters or fisticuffs to entertain TV audiences, but there was plenty on offer to exercise the mind on the agenda apart from the next five-year plan.

Let's take the politics first. The tabling of the law on property rights was postponed because it was a matter which concerns the interests of almost everyone in China and there were differences over some issues, the director of the law committee of the NPC told China Daily.

Doesn't sound like a pliant bunch of legislators, does it?

Politics aside, some of the more interesting proposals came from members of the CPPCC; and I'll list just five to make my point.

In a country where Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain is not being screened, here's a woman who wants to confer the right of marriage on the love that dares to mutter its name albeit incomprehensively, in the movie.

Li Yinhe, a professor at the Institute of Sociology, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "I know that the proposal won't be adopted at present, but I want to help those people.

"The time is not ripe yet for the law on gay marriage to be passed in China. In countries where gays can get married happily, they struggled a long time for the right. Every citizen has the right to get married. The request of gays and lesbians to get married should be respected as much as that of anyone else."

Talk about breaking taboos.

And talking about taboos, there's the proposal by Zhao Gongmin, professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on trying out euthanasia in some cities.

"The Chinese are still not ready for a euthanasia law, but some cities can well accept regulations and standards of euthanasia. Experiments can be carried out in those cities, until people have a better understanding of their rights and responsibilities, and the traditional ideas of life and death are challenged more. By that time, the foundation of an euthanasia law would have been laid."

Not everything, of course, was a matter of literally life and death. There was also a little matter of money some US$60 billion.

Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University of China and a top economist, warned of the "blind rush" by the country's large State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to be listed on overseas stock markets which he said had led to a huge loss of State assets and jeopardized the mainland's economic security.

He claimed that initial public offerings of SOEs, on average, priced their overseas listings 20 per cent below the domestic figure and urged the government to regulate, or curb, the trend.

And then, there were the key issues of today's life: work and play.

You would have thought that in a country where the State Council the cabinet is packed with engineers in different disciplines, the goal of becoming an "innovative society" would be achievable.

Wang Yusheng, director of the China Science and Technology Museum, has a different spin.

He told Sina.com: "I used to teach government officials at the National School of Administration. I once gave the officials a quiz, which included a choice: A. The sun circles the moon; and B. The moon circles the sun."

"Sadly many officials chose A. I felt so bad about it. Many officials are lacking in basic scientific knowledge, and how can they make scientific decisions to build an innovative society?"

So, no one said it was easy. But there was another member who wants to make our lives easier.

Peng Zhenqui, a professor at Shanghai Political Institute, wants five more days added to the already-long list of holidays so that we can celebrate traditional festivals such as Double Ninth Festival the ninth day of the ninth month on the lunar calendar and the Lantern Festival.

If I could vote, I would vote for that. As for the others, the debate still rages.

Who said it is tame? Or choreographed?

Email: ravi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/15/2006 page4)