Page 50 - April-May 2020 Neat

50 Coronavirus Ushering in a Chinese Future

Is Coronavirus Ushering

in a Chinese Future?

Continued from Page 45

Other nations, Maçães says, may find
themselves refashioned in less profound ways
— but nevertheless emerge from the pandemic
much more dependent on China than they
entered. But while that world may seem alien
from the vantage of today — or, more to the
point, six months ago — it is, indeed, a quite
familiar model, as all those invocations of the
Marshall Plan suggest. As much as Americans
like to believe otherwise, Maçães told me,
“American power was not based on a pristine
reputation, but on hard power.”

And opportunism. “There was always an
argument that the existing world order cannot
change because only a momentous war has done 'Celebrity Ghost Stories' The melodramatic music doesn't help, either,
and it could stand to be more subtle.
that in the past and world wars have become bores instead of scares
impossible,” Maçães wrote in his National
All that said, the stories themselves are well
Review essay. “But in pandemics — and soon in
climate change — we may have found two By David Hinckley edited and move along effectively.
functional equivalents of war.” China, he says,
Donna D'Errico from "Baywatch" recounts a
sees the opportunity clearly. “They are
tale from her childhood that may seem spookier
following the American model: we don’t have to
now than it apparently did at the time. Corey
be loved, we just have to be respected and Celebrities, it turns out, aren't especially skilled
Feldman also goes back in time to find his ghost,
feared,” he told me. And in a crisis of this scale at telling the kind of haunting stories that make
and no, it doesn't involve his late pal Corey
and scope, a nation doesn’t have to thrive by any you afraid to go to sleep because of the
Haim. That would be just too weird.
absolute standard to improve its global standing, nightmares you know they'll induce.
only endure the human suffering and political
Joan Collins has the most elaborate and
turbulence relatively better than others. “China Nothing on "Celebrity Ghost Stories" tonight
extensive tale, recounting an experience she
will pay a price, but if it pays a lower price than rivals a classic like, say, the car with the hook
says she had while visiting Venice.
the E.U. and the U.S., it will come out on top.” dangling from the door handle.
Wang is even more declarative in Foreign
Seems she and guests were celebrating
Affairs: “Few can deny that China is fast Still, if we have learned nothing else about
someone's 18th birthday in the dining room of
becoming the safest place on Earth,” he writes. media in the 21st century, it's the fact that a
an extravagant old home when an uneasy feeling
“History will be written by the victors of the routine ghost story becomes instantly more
swept across the room and it was revealed that
COVID-19 crisis. And Xi looks like a winner, at fascinating and marketable when a famous
least for now.” person tells it. perhaps they were not alone.

Celebrities who will drop in and tell their tales
It is always hard to know precisely what to make "Celebrity Ghost Stories," for those who missed
this season include Haylie Duff, Tempest
of particular predictions for Chinese dominion previous editions, has famous folks recount a
Bledsoe, Kathryn Erbe, Carol Alt, Paulina
over the world, given how many of them have paranormal experience they say has stayed with
Porizkova, Connie Stevens, Alice Cooper,
been offered over the last couple of decades, and them.
Jermaine Jackson and Marilyn Manson.
how few have yet to come precisely true. The
pandemic is a cloud through which it is hard to Things start off with Michael Imperioli, who
You could cast a reasonably good horror movie
see much beyond the next week, if that far, induced a few nightmares when he was
with those folks, truth be told. In this
though that’s in part because dysfunctional Christopher on "The Sopranos."
governments like ours seem incapable of production, however, they will presumably all
tell different stories.
planning anything longer term at the moment. Imperioli says his strange encounter happened
And there are many reasons for skepticism that 14 years ago at the Chelsea Hotel.
Some of which, no doubt, will be entertaining.
China will emerge stronger from an epidemic
that killed many thousands and shut down as We won't spoil the story. Suffice it to say it's
If you're serious about getting scared by chilling
much as a quarter of its economy. See, for deeply steeped in New York history and that by
stories, however, rent some old radio programs.
instance, Minxin Pei’s “Competition, the Imperioli's recollection, he's not the only
[]
Coronavirus, and the Weakness of Xi Jingping,” Chelsea Hotel resident who had a similar
also in Foreign Affairs, or Gideon Rachman’s experience.
more measured “Coronavirus and the Threat to THANK YOU
U.S. Supremacy,” in the Financial Times. But In this case, as with others, however, the show TO ALL
the chorus of COVID hawks reminds us, at the stumbles when it creates visual illustrations to FIRST RESPONDERS
very least, that the endgame and the aftermath of accompany the narration.
AND
the coronavirus crisis will be laced through with
geopolitics — as we know it will be with Simulating the situations our celebrities claim to ESSENTIAL WORKERS
FOR ALL YOU DO
existing inequities and injustices. We probably have witnessed most often looks just silly. It
shouldn’t have needed reminding. Crises always makes the viewer want to giggle, rather than DURING THE
are. [] gasp. COVID-19 PANDEMIC
OF 2020