A Late Valentine’s Day Letter

It’s two weeks since Valentine’s Day. But I’ve just read Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman’s criticism of the holiday. And I think it deserves repeating.

“I have come tonight to warn all boys and girls about an extremely dangerous virus, which is about to attack the hearts of the nation’s youth…we must confront this Valentine virus!”, he says. Shuman has an important point to make. It’s just not the point he intended.

The export of Western culture to the Middle East has long been a potential source of social friction: this is well known. Less well known, however, is that China has a role to play.

I was reminded of this while visiting the Chinese coastal city of Yiwu a while ago. The city boasts the world’s largest small consumer goods market and produces most of the plastic gifts and toys that fill bargain stores from Atlanta to Manchester. On this trip I was struck by the number of heart-shaped red pillows with “Love Me” written across the front.

I saw the same pillows on a trip to Damascus a few months later. In a small street leading off Souq Al Hamidiyeh there are a series of shops that sell gifts and toys mainly purchased in Yiwu. The same “Love Me” pillows were on sale alongside other Valentine’s Day gifts. The holiday was only a few weeks away.

Now, if it wasn’t for China, those “Love Me” pillows mightn’t be so cheap and Hazem Shuman wouldn’t have to worry about Egyptian, or Syrian, youths buying them as gifts. It was the Europeans who created Valentine’s Day, and the Americans who commercialized it, but it was the Chinese who made it affordable.

Neither does it end with Valentine’s Day. I recall a close Syrian friend of mine once showing me a Minnie Mouse watch he had purchased for his daughter. “I don’t approve of buying her so many gifts. But these Chinese made toys are so cheap, how can I say no?”, he said.

A “Love Me” pillow could be from any country. A Minnie Mouse watch cannot: it’s a heavy-duty American cultural export.

So, a word of advice to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. I agree, there are good reasons to argue that the Chinese currency is undervalued. However, a stronger currency doesn’t mean that outsourced factories will return to the United States.

And, more importantly, a young Syrian’s girl Minnie Mouse watch might just have a positive effect on the way she thinks about America as she grows older. If so, it’s a small public diplomacy win.

It’s also a lot cheaper than America’s other public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East, such as running an Arabic-language television-station like Al Hurra. In fact, so long as the Chinese manufacturer is paying royalties to the Disney company, then the Minnie Mouse watch might just make America money.

I’m arguing slightly tongue-in-cheek. But I do have a serious point to make – it’s important not to view events in isolation. Hazem Shuman’s criticism of Valentine’s Day, China’s undervalued currency, a Minnie Mouse watch, and America’s public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East are all connected in often unexpected ways.

So apologies again for the late Valentine’s Day letter, but it’s a good example of the new Silk Road in action. The new Silk Road isn’t just about oil or what the policy planners in Beijing or Riyadh have to say. Instead, it’s about the way seemingly isolated events can collide and snowball into major social exchanges.

When viewed in this light, the new and old Silk Roads really aren’t all that different.