China Digital Times

China news tagged with: nationalism (165)

• Wang Xiaodong (王小东): It’s Up to the West to Face Why China is Unhappy

  

  A book released earlier this year, called Unhappy China: The Great Time, Grand Vision and Our Challenges (中国不高兴：大时代，大目标及我们的内忧外患), offered a pointed nationalist critique of Western countries and their media. When the book was released in March, an article in the Oriental Morning Post (translated by the Zhongnanhai blog), said:

  Unhappy China contains severe criticism of western countries, with the harshest words reserved for the United States. Zhang Xiaobo, who helped plan the book, said, ‘This is the revised and upgraded version of the book China Can Say No published in 1996. In the past 12 years, the situation inside and outside of China has changed dramatically, however, there is just one thing that hasn’t changed and never will change: that is we Chinese need to tell the western world we are not happy about what they did to us.’

  The full text of the book has not yet been translated into English, but Joseph McMullin has translated one chapter for CDT. Chapter Six, titled “It’s Up to the West to Face Why China is Unhappy,” takes on Westerners who support the Tibetan independence movement.

  Chapter Six: It’s Up to the West to Face Why China is Unhappy

  By Wang Xiaodong

  We Have Spoiled Westerners Into Thinking They are Always Right

  In April 2008, following the March 14th incident in Tibet, protesters around the world disrupted the Olympic torch relay. Young Chinese people reacted strongly to this disruption through such actions as boycotting Carrefour, a French hypermarket. The Chinese reaction, which had been some time in coming, was a landmark event that embodied the changed relationship between China’s youth and the West. After the Chinese protests against the disruption of the torch relay, an Australian diplomat whom I had known for several decades came to talk to me. She was very worried; how could things have gotten this way? Had the Chinese flip-flopped in their view of the West? She asked me about the overall significance of these events. I said, “Let me tell you frankly; the message of these events is that the West has ruined its relationship with the youth of China. This might be bad for China, but it is even worse for the West.” She said, “As an intellectual, you should work to mediate between the two sides.” To this I responded: “The work of mediation requires both sides’ participation. I can’t do it by myself; you [Westerners] must also participate.”

  There are some foreigners who really have not woken up to these events. They have not fully realized that the power dynamic between China and the West is changing.

  » Read more
  • December 10, 2009 12:16 PM

• Western Fenqing?

  

  ChinaGeeks has a post responding to a piece by Bob Page of Mercury Brief, which in turn is responding to the widely-cited talk by Kaiser Kuo at the University of Nebraska called “Shouting Across the Chasm: Chinese and American Netizens Clash in Cyberspace.” Kuo’s talk can be watched here:
  

  At the end of his post, C. Custer of ChinaGeeks poses a question, to which several commenters then respond:

  Do you think it’s important for regular people in China and the West to understand each other? What more can we do to stem the tide of extremism and raise the volume and visibility of some of the more moderate, sensible dialogue that’s happening in both places but rarely heard about outside their borders?

  » Read more
  • November 5, 2009 11:30 AM

• Tweets During the National Holidays (Updated)

  

  Chinese twitterers were busy during the National Day holiday, offering their opinions about the military parade and celebrations. Below are some examples from more politically-minded tweets:

  @wenshiyi:  The order of the three slogans yelled by Hu Jintao was very interesting.  Long Live the Great Chinese Communist Party! Long Live the Great People’s Republic of China! Long Live the Great Chinese People!  To use Mencius’s language: the ruler ranks the highest, the state comes next, and the people count the least.  [Mencius's original quote was "The people rank the highest, the state comes next, and the ruler counts the least."]

  胡錦濤喊的三個萬歲的次序很有意思：偉大的中國共產黨萬歲！偉大的中華人民共和國萬歲！偉大的中國人民萬歲！套用亞聖的名句，就是君為貴、社稷次之，民為輕。

  @ Gongminyaoyao: I only have one thing to say about the military parade: the government can drive tanks on the street to show off the nuclear missiles,  but ordinary citizens could not get kitchen knives in the supermarket.

  阅兵只有一点点看法，政府可以开着坦克在街上炫耀核导弹，老百姓在超市里菜刀都买不到。。。。

  @ anonymous: [Internet censorship instructions to website editors]：The following type of information is strictly forbidden to appear on all websites. If you see it, immediately delete it and report the posting IP  [to Internet police]
  1. Eulogy for sixty year anniversary of the Chinese nation. 中华六十年祭
  2.The Great Motherland is much older than sixty years. 伟大的祖国母亲岂止六十岁
  3.Demonstrate in black on October 1st. 十一黑衣游行
  4. Demonstration in Wuxi over illegal evictions. 无锡非法拆迁游行示威
  5. The explosion in the Xinjiang restaurant in Beijing is a deliberate human action. 北京新疆餐厅爆炸属于人为
  6.  Xi Jinping failed to be promoted to the vice-chairmanship of the Central Military Committee Xi接任军委副主席未遂
  7. The Rights Protection Group of Hong Kong Investors going up to Beijing to petition again.  港商内地投资权益维护小组再次上京请愿

  @hansenguy : If Lu Xun lived today: most people would say they have never heard of him, and a very small group of people would have heard of him after they climbed over the Great Firewall. And a tiny tiny group of people, exiled overseas, would protest in front of the PRC embassy, demanding his release. 

  鲁迅要是在今天：大大部分人会说不知道这个人，小小部分人翻墙有所耳闻，小小小部分流浪海外的在大使馆前举牌要求释放鲁迅。

  @wangpei: Han Han wrote: in our country, citizens have the freedom to publish, but the government also has the freedom to not let you publish, and the latter has the right to interpret [the Constitution].

  韩寒：在我们国家，公民虽然拥有出版的自由，但政府也拥有不让你出版的自由，并且后者拥有解释权。

  @try2feel: I asked two venture capitalists after a couple drinks during a banquet: Why do you guys care so much about politics? One said: to understand the CCP is my professional need.  The other said: therefore opposing the CCP became my personal hobby. 

  借着酒劲问俩做风投的：你们干吗这么关心政治？一个说：因为了解TG是出于工作需要。另一个接着话茬说：所以反对TG成了个人爱好。

  Twitterers are often not just tweeting short texts, they also share photo links in their networks as well. Here are some photos from the parade:
  
  
  

  And a cartoon: The Qin Shi Huang block in the parade 生果報馬龍漫畫：嬴政方陣 http://twitpic.com/kbutg

  

  The above comments and images represent one line of thinking that was apparent on Twitter in recent days. However, because Twitter is blocked in China, those who still using the service from China tend to be those netizens who make the effort to “jump over” the Great Firewall. Therefore, Chinese tweets tend to be more political and more critical of the government that other online forums. If readers surf Chinese BBS (online forums), they are far more likely to find more celebratory comments about the military parade during National Day. Here is a very popular music video, made by two Tsinghua graduates who are currently living in North America, which expresses such feelings:

  » Read more
  • October 6, 2009 10:00 PM

• Perry Link and Joshua Kurlantzick: China’s Modern Authoritarianism

  

  From the Wall Street Journal:

  In the wake of the 1989 crackdown on prodemocracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party seemed morally bankrupt. Average Chinese complained bitterly about graft and special privileges reserved for the Party’s elite, and few believed the Party’s sloganeering about socialism when officials practiced ruthless capitalism. The army, too, had lost face: The Tiananmen killings showed that the “people’s army” could open fire on the people themselves. The urban economy seemed locked within an inefficient and corrupt iron framework of the old work-unit system. No one either inside or outside China saw the country’s authoritarian system as a model to follow.

  Twenty years later, the Chinese Communist Party has built a new popularity by delivering staggering economic growth and cultivating a revived — and potentially dangerous — Han Chinese nationalism. China’s material successes, as seen in its gleaming city skylines and piles of foreign currency holdings, suggest the government’s top priority is economic growth. The increasing socioeconomic diversity in Chinese society suggests that the regime seeks liberalization and might one day throw open its political system.

  These are dangerous misconceptions. The Party’s top priority remains what it has always been: the maintenance of absolute political power. Economic growth has not sparked democratic change, as one-party rule persists. Through a sophisticated adaptation of its system — including leveraging the market to maintain political control — China’s Communist Party has modernized its authoritarianism to fit the times.

  » Read more
  • May 24, 2009 9:21 PM

• Contemporary Chinese Youth and the State

  

  In the new edition of the Journal of Asian Studies, Stanley Rosen writes about Chinese youth culture and politics:

  Reflecting the increasing pluralization of Chinese society after thirty years of reform, Chinese youth in 2009 are far from unified in their belief systems or behaviors. At the same time, a more general understanding of the attitudes and behaviors of Chinese youth has proved elusive for observers, both inside and outside China. Up until mid-2008, it was common to find youth under attack in the Chinese media, characterized as the “me generation” and criticized for being “reliant and rebellious, cynical and pragmatic, self-centered and equality-obsessed,” as well as “China’s first generation of couch potatoes, addicts of online games, patrons of fast food chains, and loyal audiences of Hollywood movies.”6 The Sichuan earthquake of May 12, 2008, however, seemingly changed everything: The same media outlets that had written off such youth now reversed themselves to extol their virtues, while noting, not just in passing, that their altruistic behavior was not surprising because they had learned the virtues of “great compassion, benevolence, and gallantness” from imbibing traditional Chinese culture, and that, after all, they had “fully enjoyed the achievements of China’s 30 years of reform and opening up.”7 Still, it is difficult to reconcile these compassionate youth with those who are angry. Indeed, reflecting the continuing influence of the recent past, some Chinese critics have referred to Internet-savvy nationalists as “online Red Guards” infected by a “populist virus.”8

  It seems clear that there are competing and often contradictory influences shaping the attitudes and values of young Chinese today, particularly in the wealthy coastal areas. They have become very internationalist in their outlook, and they are strongly affected by global trends. Likewise, they are very pragmatic and materialistic, largely concerned with living the good life and making money. The third competing influence, most often called nationalism in its more extreme form, represents a broader impulse and encompasses not only the defense of China against perceived enemies from abroad, but also the kind of love of country and self-sacrifice in support of those most in need that was evident in the volunteerism that followed the earthquake. Chinese youth have shown that they are capable of exhibiting all of these tendencies at different times, depending on the circumstances, or even at the same time.

  » Read more
  • May 14, 2009 9:14 PM

• 10 Year Anniversary: May 8, 1999

  

  While other historic dates are getting more press time this year, the ten-year anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by NATO missiles, and subsequent protests in China, passed relatively quietly last week. China Beat provides links to some readings on the incident:

  The events that began with the May 4th protests and the struggle that took place seventy years later during the lead-up to the June 4th Massacre loom largest in the history of Chinese youth activism in years ending with the numeral 9. But there were also protests involving university students in other years ending with that number, including 1999. These took place soon after the 80th anniversary of the may 4th Movement was marked, and they were triggered by NATO missiles hitting the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three PRC nationals. The Embassy was hit on May 7 European time, but by then it was already May 8 in China. So, following a time-honored tradition, the term “May 8th Tragedy” was used for the event. Here are links to five accounts of the protests of that year (some by people whose names will be familiar to many readers of China Beat). They remind readers of what happened ten years ago and offer differing interpretations of how the demonstrations of 1999 should be contrasted with and in some cases can be linked to the student-led actions of years such as 1919 and 1989

  On his blog 6, Alec Ash interviews a Chinese student about the meaning of that event ten years later:

  2. What do you believe has changed now in the attitude of young Chinese (like those who protested 10 years ago against the USA) towards America?

  Over the past decade, I think the young Chinese have gradually dropped their illusion of the U.S. and begun to view it more objectively.

  After reform and opening-up, to be more specific in the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese people began to know more about the outside world. The prosperity of the west attracted the young people so much that all of a sudden everybody wanted to go abroad. At that time, we had a popular saying, “Moon of the west is even more beautiful than that of China.” Experiencing the sharp contrast between China and the west, many Chinese people became critical of China, perhaps in a cynical way.

  However, when the Chinese embassy was bombed, many people began to think: is this the kind of democracy and human rights that we want to pursue?

  People’s Daily also published an editorial on the anniversary:

  Ten years later, US media has selectively forgotten this event, and re-examinations by US authorities are rare. “Mistaken Bombing” is the final explanation and attitude of the US.

  A member of the US president China-focused advisory group said that China has already risen 10 years after the event, and the relations between China and the US have been stable and developed a good momentum. The “Mistaken Bombing” has become a blip in history. Experts on China’s military issues believe however, that over the past 10 years, it is just because China has made such tremendous and sincere efforts that the cooperation between China and the US has expanded rather than stagnated. Taking into account that this event is a page already turned in history, the alertness and latent hostility that the US holds towards China seems not to have vanished. The best example to prove this issue is with the results from the monitoring of US troop ships in Chinese seas over the past two months.

  You can also read an article I wrote ten years ago from Beijing for The Nation.

  » Read more
  • May 10, 2009 4:10 PM

• China Marks 90th Anniversary of ‘May Fourth Movement’

  

  Danwei looks at domestic magazine coverage of the 90th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement:

  “Youth” is the day’s keyword. May 4 was designated National Youth Day in 1949 to commemorate the students in the street, but it is the “new youth” from the pages of the magazine who dominate retrospectives ninety years on.

  The April issue of Modern Media’s Life magazine included a supplement modeled on Chen’s magazine. The Modern Media La Jeunesse is printed vertically (in simplified characters) and includes advertisements for books and journals done up in the style of a Republican-era publication. The cover even bears an imprimatur from the PRC publishing authorities where New Youth has an authorization from the Republican post bureau.

  See also a Xinhua report on the official commemoration of the historic day:

  The “May Fourth Movement” started with mass student protests on May 4, 1919 against the government’s response to the Treaty of Versailles that imposed unfair treaties on China and undermined the country’s sovereignty.

  It then spearheaded a national campaign to overthrow the feudal society and promote scientific and democratic ideas.

  “We have seen many young people devoted themselves to the revival of great China since the ‘May Fourth Movement’,” said DengXiquan, an expert from China Juvenile Research Center. “The movement’s legacy is deeply rooted and powerful. China needs it now to unite people to work for a better country.”

  The past 90 years have shown that upholding the leadership of the CPC has always been the fundamental guarantee to drive forward all social undertakings of the country, Li said in the speech.

  See also an essay in People’s Daily comparing the youth protesters of 1919 to today’s “angry youth” (“奋青”).

  » Read more
  • May 4, 2009 12:04 PM

• It’s Just History: Patriotic Education in the PRC

  

  On China Beat, Julia Lovell looks at various explanations for the rampant nationalism in China over the past 20 years and argues that in fact the education system is to blame:

  Various explanations have been put forward for the surge in anti-Western nationalism since 1989. One is straightforwardly cyclical: as economic confidence grew, the reasoning goes, early post-Mao China’s love affair with the West was bound to founder at some point. Another is hormonal: the “angry youth” (fenqing) who dominate contemporary Chinese nationalism, some argue, need something to get mad at – they’ll grow out of it. Twenty years ago, today’s fenqing would have been protesting against rats in their dorms and lack of democracy; go back another twenty years, and they would have been Red Guards.

  But the most convincing gloss on today’s patriotic distemper presents it as a substantially state-engineered phenomenon, rooted in one of the Communist Party’s most successful post-Mao political crusades: Patriotic Education. Searching for a new state religion around which the country could rally after the bloodshed of 1989, the Party skilfully reinvented itself through the 1990s as defender of the national interest against Western attempts to contain a rising China. To dislodge the worship of the West that had helped foment much of the unrest leading up to 1989, successive Patriotic Education campaigns waged in textbooks, newspapers, films and monuments drew concerted attention to China’s “century of humiliation” (c. 1840-1949) inflicted by foreign imperialism, always beginning with the Opium Wars, always passing slickly over the CCP’s own acts of violence (most notably the manmade famine of the early 1960s; the Cultural Revolution; the 1989 crackdown).

  » Read more
  • April 23, 2009 12:11 PM

• A Satire That Caused an Uproar in Both China and The Philippines

  

  Hong Kong columnist Chip Tsao (陶杰 Tao Jie) wrote a satirical article recently commenting on the dispute over the Spratly Islands between China and the Philippines. Very few Chinese or Filipinos got his humor. Instead, so many Filipinos were infuriated by the “racism” displayed in the article that Manila barred Tsao’s entry. While Tsao received very different reactions from Chinese readers, his message was also misinterpreted. Tsao was trying to ridicule fanatic patriotism in the article. But tens of thousands Chinese thought he was defending China’s territory and are lauding him as a patriotic hero.

  Tsao is a seasoned newsman and a well-known columnist in Hong Kong. He got his college education in Britain, worked for BBC for some years, and now writes articles for Apple Daily and Hong Kong Magazine regularly.

  The article at issue, A War at Home, was published in Hong Kong Magazine on March 27, in which Tsao wrote about the Spratly Islands dispute from the perspective of fervent patriots among his countrymen.

  The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen onboard. We can live with that-—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem-—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

  But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: There are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as HK$3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

  As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell everyone of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China…

  The phrase “a nation of servants” together with other “racist” remarks — if they are taken literally — offended Filipino workers in Hong Kong and back home. They staged a protest, and the Bureau of Immigration in Manila barred Tsao from entering the Philippines. Tsao’s publisher, Hong Kong Magazine, has pulled the article off its website and replaced it with an apology.

  The story appeared in headlines on dozens of major news websites in Mainland China shortly afterward, getting a sea of responses from readers.

  The Chinese reporter who wrote the story didn’t bother to contact Tsao for comment, and he probably didn’t read Tsao’s original article. Instead, Fang Xiao at Dongfang Daily described the incident as follows:

  …Tsao said in the article that as a patriot, he could not stand the Filipino government’s claim of sovereignty over Spratly Islands, because there are more than 130,000 Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. He wrote, “as a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master.”

  The Dongfang Daily story was posted Monday on the top section at Sina.com, the most popular news portal in China, under the headline, “More than a thousand Filipino workers demonstrated in Hong Kong to protest racial discrimination.”

  Racial discrimination is usually not a hot topic among the Chinese public. The editors of Sina.com posted the story as a top one probably because it involves territorial disputes, which often catch the eyes of millions in China.

  The several thousand comments made by readers under the article are intriguing. They vividly exhibit how the general public in China view national sovereignty and racial equality. Below are a dozen comments representing diverse viewpoints selected and translated by CDT:

  —Domestic workers are human beings. They should be respected. This is a different matter from the territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands. On the other hand, overseas Filipino workers and their government should definitely respect history and respect China’s sacred territorial sovereignty, while their labor and dignity are respected.

  —I support Tao Jie (Chip Tsao). What’s wrong with racial discrimination? Who treated the Chinese as human beings when the Joint Forces of Eight Nations invaded Beijing and during the Nanjing Massacre?

  —The people in Hong Kong are very proud. They look down on mainland Chinese. Thus it’s not surprising that they look down on the Filipinos. In the 80s, the Hong Kong students in America never thought themselves as Chinese and never made friends with us mainland students.

  —The people in Hong Kong show their patriotism by discriminating against their domestic servants. How ridiculous!That’s extremely ridiculous!!!

  —Why do you employ Filipino workers if you are patriotic? Why can’t you look for mainland workers instead? Dispelling the Filipino domestic servants from Hong Kong and hiring mainland workers, you will create so many new jobs for us. That could be called real patriotism.

  —Do not impose on others something you dislike! Why have we Chinese become so selfish today? Can’t we put ourselves in other people’s shoes? If we were them (the Filipinos), wouldn’t we stand up to defend our motherland? Think about the relations between China and Japan in the past…What’s the difference between our current behavior and the old conduct of the Japanese?

  —We could just take them (the Filipino workers) as dogs which were barking in front of their masters. They don’t even deserve to be servants! I can’t help but feel superior when it comes to my mind that this country (the Philippines) was dependent on us during the Tang Dynasty!!

  —I didn’t like Tao Jie before and regarded him as a lackey of foreigners. I was surprised that he actually loves the nation. I completely agree with his points. I will fire the Filipino worker at my home today and show my support through action.

  —His patriotic remarks are too extreme! They don’t match with the mettle of a big power (as China).

  —It takes courage to make an apology. We can not disrespect any people from any country.

  —Tao Jie’s remarks are shameful. I can’t accept them! He inherited the tone of racist discrimination from the British colonists. We must criticize that.

  —Tao Jie should learn to be smarter. He could have just kept those thoughts to himself. Why did he have to say it?

  The above comments are selected from more 3,000 posted under the Sina.com article.

  Asiasentinel.com published an article on the incident, Satire Lost In A Foreign Language, by Alice Poon.

  A well-known Hong Kong journalist and blogger, Lv Qiu Lu Wei, also wrote a blog article A Patriotic Writer? commenting on the incident (in Chinese).

  » Read more
  • April 8, 2009 1:42 PM

• Book Stokes Nationalism in China

  

  Reviews of the new nationalist tome, Unhappy China, are coming in. From the Wall Street Journal:

  Several reviews in the Chinese media have ridiculed “Unhappy China” as an attempt to cash in on nationalistic sentiment. The book is a way to “fish money from the pockets of the angry youth and angry elderly,” wrote one critic in the China Youth Daily, a leading state-run newspaper.

  An English-language article by Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said the book had failed to hit a chord with average Chinese, and quoted blistering critiques from bloggers and academics calling its nationalism embarrassing and unconstructive.

  
  An article in Newsweek reports that the book is the product of a changing mood in China amid the global financial meltdown:

  The mood in china appears to be reaching a tipping point, as its normally bland leaders abandon cautious diplo-speak under the pressures of the global financial crisis. First, they blamed American capitalism for the crisis and Premier Wen Jiabao publicly pressed Washington to ensure the safety of some $2 trillion in U.S. debt held by Beijing. Then Central Bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan called for replacing the greenback with a new reserve currency controlled by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a move that would assure the long-term decline of the dollar. All this signals an increasingly assertive economic nationalism, and it is only the tip of the iceberg.

  » Read more
  • March 29, 2009 8:41 PM

• ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ in Chinese Cyber-Politics

  

  Ever since the Internet was popularized in the late 1990s, Chinese BBS sites and blogosphere have been politically quite polarized, divided into “left” and “right” camps. But these concepts are very different from ideas of “left” and “right” in Western politics.

  Here are two sample posts of how Chinese netizens themselves typically define “left” and “right”. The first post was written by netizen Minyue in a nationalistic (“leftist”) online forum Tiexue, in which someone posted a question asking others to define ‘leftist’ or ‘rightist’ in Chinese cyberspace. Translated by CDT:

  » Read more
  • March 22, 2009 10:41 PM

• Nationalism Rages in New Chinese Book

  

  One of China’s newest book releases is Unhappy China: The Great Time, Grand Vision and Our Challenges(《中国不高兴：大时代，大目标及我们的内忧外患》). A 2009 analog to the nationalist 1996 bestseller China Can Say No, the book is a stinging critique of Western countries and their media. The Zhongnanhai blog translates a Oriental Morning Post (东方早报) article:

  The book Unhappy China – The Great Time, Grand Vision and Our Challenges has been put on the shelves of Beijing bookstores. The book is authored by Song Xiaojun, Wang Xiaodong, Song Qiang, Huangjisong, and Liu Yang.

  Unhappy China contains severe criticism of western countries, with the harshest words reserved for the United States. Zhang Xiaobo, who helped plan the book, said, “This is the revised and upgraded version of the book China Can Say No published in 1996. In the past 12 years, the situation inside and outside of China has changed dramatically, however, there is just one thing that hasn’t changed and never will change: that is we Chinese need to tell the western world we are not happy about what they did to us.”

  One of the authors of this book, Song Qing, was also one of the authors of China Can Say No.

  Unhappy China has 340 thousand words, and is published by Jiang Su Renmin Publishing House. Zhang Xiaopo said, “What happened to us Chinese in 2008 made Chinese people really angry, depressed and annoyed. We finally had our Olympics and we finally made it to the center of the world stage, but look what we got! Boycotts from the western world; treated by them like we are different kind of animal in the world.”

  Oiwan Lam of Global Voices Online has also written about the new release and has translated portions of a book summary posted on Douban:

  Why is China unhappy?
  - There are ghosts behind the Lhasa 3.14 incident, the strategic encirclement of Western World towards China has become more concrete and obvious.
  - Sanlu milk power incident has result in a “psychological tear” among Chinese people. It threaten a strong nation’s core values.
  - People like Nicolas Sarkozy have been offensive to China out of nasty opportunism.
  - The so-called “knowledge elites” or “excellent Chinese people” are harmful to our national spirit.

  [...]What should China advocate?
  - China should become a country with heroic mission.
  - Hold our sword to protect our business, this is a way to build a strong nation.
  - The National Liberation Army should follow China’s core value.
  - We should not listen to the sweet talk of “finance warriors”, industrial upgrade is the fundamentals
  - Get to know the “Russian Roulette” nature of western diplomatic strategy, lower the concrete diplomatic relation with France.
  - China should be brave in protecting international security and clear our path towards a strong country.
  - Avoid high-art’s culture for affecting our social life or else we cannot actualized our political and economic goals.

  Lam has also translated some online reactions on Douban. Some readers heartily recommend the book, while others disdain the publication. From the user abing:

  The content of this book is very simple. It follows the old demagogic discourse of China can say No, reconfigures a number of contemporary social problems, and finds some entrance points in attacking Southern Weekend, Jian Zhong Shu, Wang Xiao Bo. It tells us, China is good enough, don’t be self-critical, don’t be caught in internal problem, the West is just a paper tiger. What else? There is nothing else.

  » Read more
  • March 13, 2009 10:50 PM

• A Chinese Pirate Unmasks

  

  On the New Yorker’s website, Evan Osnos writes about an essay, titled “All of China is a Knock-Off,” which first appeared on the Chinese online forum Douban and said it was the translated version of a piece by someone named Steven Zuckerberg. The piece provoked debate by arguing that, “China is racked by a culture of imitation that stifles genuine creativity.” Osnos reports:

  But the essay is a more subtle piece of work than you might think: A tip from a Chinese friend led me to contact Wang Hongzhe, a twenty-five-year-old graduate student in mass communication at Peking University, who acknowledged that he is the reputed Steven Zuckerberg. (He chose the initials S.Z. as a nod to shanzhai, the Chinese term for “imitation.”) His essay was an experiment: Would China respond differently to criticism from abroad than it would to criticism from home? It’s a long-running question that gets to the heart of China’s erratic appetite for dissent, and the same question that vexed Lu Xun, the famous social critic, who wrote seventy-five years ago: “Throughout the ages Chinese have had only one way of looking at foreigners. We either look up to them as gods or down on them as wild animals.”

  DAnwei interviews Osnos about reporting from China here.

  » Read more
  • March 5, 2009 3:10 PM

• Zhang Wen (章文): Continue to be a Clear-Minded Patriot in 2009

  

  Zhang Wen (章文), a thirty-something writer/editor and former head of the editorial department of Xinhua’s Globe magazine, makes the case for “clear-minded” patriotism in China in a recent blog post, translated by CDT’s Linjun Fan:

  As the new year approaches, I’d like to say a few words out of my heart, to boost the spirit of myself and my friends.

  To the Chinese people, the past year was one of great joy and great sorrow. It was also a year of heated debates on several major incidents. Fervent public opinions were aroused on the Tibet Independence incident, Carrefour boycott, the Olympic Games, etc. Among all the debates, the topic of patriotism and betrayal is the most conspicuous one in 2008.

  As we have seen, anyone that tried to keep a calm mind and to comment reasonably on the incidents was labeled as a traitor. The more passionately one spoke about the issues, the more patriotic he was regarded. The case of the Olympic torch bearer Jin Jing illustrated the phenomenon well. She was highly lauded as a patriot after she bravely defended the torch in France. However, shortly afterwards — surprisingly and almost incomprehensibly — she was belittled as a traitor after she said she didn’t support boycotting Carrefour.

  The dramatic change in public opinion toward Jin Jing vividly reflected the mentality of contemporary Chinese people. Narrow-minded patriotism is still the mainstream ideology. The mindset of people in a weak nation still dominates the general public. Whereas the attitudes of tolerance, magnanimity, and responsibility are being formed slowly and with great difficulty.

  I never doubt the sincerity of my fellow countrymen’s patriotism, just as I never doubt the patriotism of those who kept calm in the face of adversity. We all love this country and this land. We differ only in how we love it.

  In a civilized society, patriotism is not equal to the love of a government or a party. This point needs little explanation. Citizens need to monitor and often criticize the government and the ruling party — this is an act of patriotism. A nation is composed of its citizens. A government comes into being to serve the people, and its ultimate goal should be the development and happiness of the people.

  Therefore, we should love our nation, but not blindly. We should remain aware of China’s real status in the world, of the gap between China and other developed nations. We should not be arrogant and boast about ourselves. Being a clear-minded patriot will benefit the nation much more than being a narrow-minded nationalist.

  Times have changed, and our patriotism needs to change as well. Narrow-minded nationalism leads to an ignorant, extremist, and violent world view. People with such views fail to see how the world is getting increasingly more connected. They don’t know how to communicate with the outside world in a peaceful and reasonable way. Such attitudes bring China more harm than benefit. It’s time we throw them away.

  It angered and saddened me to see so many newspapers (with Global Times leading the pack) and opinion leaders blatantly advocating extremist nationalism. They ignored the trend of global development and trumpeted narrow-minded ideologies out of their own self interest.

  The media and people at large have been saying repeatedly that China’s current political system is superior and that democracy is not suitable to China. They have devised a vague concept of the “China Model”, and use it to resist accepting universal values. Since information does not disseminate freely in China currently, their assertions have negatively influenced public opinion. Many people have lost the opportunity to open themselves to different ideas. And China’s integration into the modern civilized world has been obstructed.

  To decrease this negative impact, a large number of “clear-minded” patriots must stand out and resist the pressure from those in power who try to manipulate public opinion. They must make public the common sens that has been distorted and covered: Every man is born equal. Every man is born free. He has natural rights (jus nafural). It is a universal principle. It is applicable in all countries and nations. Any excuse to go against these principle should be denounced, whether it’s history or China’s special conditions.

  I will continue to be a clear-minded patriot in 2009 instead of being a muddleheaded one.

  Read also: Democracy Must Win by Zhang Wen.

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  • February 2, 2009 12:29 AM

• New China Blog: Evan Osnos’ Letter from China

  

  Evan Osnos, the New Yorker’s China correspondent, has launched a new blog on the New Yorker’s website. Today’s dispatch from Beijing addresses the rise of China’s new new nationalism:

  It does not help that the first publicized words on China from the incoming U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, accuse China of manipulating its currency. In that atmosphere, the appeal of nationalism begins to reach far beyond young activists. (Predictably, Su Ning, a senior official at the People’s Bank of China, called Geithner’s remarks “out of keeping with the facts,”"and said they could become an obstacle in managing the economic crisis.) China shows no sign of changing course under pressure, which leaves Beijing University’s Michael Pettis, a reliable voice on how developing countries respond to economic crisis, especially concerned. “I am afraid that there is no way for this process to end. It will descend into trade war.” Whether or not it goes that far, we should brace for a new wave of economic nationalism in China. If unemployment continues to rise and enough new college graduates are left to idle in the street — or, more volatile perhaps, online — expect to see Chinese authorities do what they can to steer resentment in the direction of a target as far from home as possible.

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  • January 26, 2009 3:34 PM

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