China Digital Times

SECTION: Culture

• China 2008: Nationalism, Internet Culture, and Identity

  

  This is a continuation of the series on CDT relating to relevant China issues in 2008. The next article deals with Chinese Nationalism and Internet Culture:

  Chinese nationalism was a hot topic this year, quite the opposite of the usual criticism directed at China, whether it be her food safety issues, human rights record, environmental policies, or the authoritarian regime’s repressive techniques and censorship. Indeed, China has strived to improve its image, culminating this year with the Beijing Olympics 2008, where nationalism played an integral role in expressing the pride and glory of China’s rise and achievements. However, as in the Belgrade embassy bombing in 1999 and the anti-Japanese protests in 2005, nationalistic citizens have an agenda of their own, sometimes promoting state agenda and ideology, but not always working in favor for the government. CDT has collected these stories over the past year. Here are some of highlight events that have sparked a wave of nationalism:

  In the months prior to the Olympics, the Lhasa riots in March that spurred a movement of by nationalistic netizens, termed “angry youth” or fenqing by the domestic press. With the dual images of China, the nationalists sided with the “left,” (conservative), creating websites like anti-CNN.com that became a leader against the perceived Western media bias. The effect was immediate, with responses from Western media after pressure from these netizens. No one was immune to their wrath. The elite “right,”(liberals) like Southern Metropolitan Weekly editor Chang Ping, made slight criticism on the rationality of these “angry youth” and was deemed a traitor, eventually stepping down from his role as editor.

  Indeed the nationalistic wave was soon shown to be fickle and quite polarized. During the Olympic Torch Relay in Paris, Jin Jing, was once glorified as a hero for her role, then vilified a week later as a traitor for her comments on the Carrefour boycotts. Grace Wang, a Duke University student trying to bridge the gap between Tibet protesters and Chinese citizens came under attack and showed the power of “human search engines” and netizens when they find their target. Even the official government was relatively quiet during all of this, only stepping in to direct the nationalistic energies to more “constructive” purposes and the police and universities’ trying to cancel student protests.

  During the Sichuan Earthquake, the nationalism was directed toward grieving and the rebuilding the nation.
  And even aggrieved parents stayed quiet for the Olympics.

  As for the Olympics, the promotion of athletes (e.g.Liu Xiang), even Olympic marketing and publicity had a nationalism spin.

  The reaction to the Tibetan riots, Carrefour boycotts have dwindled down while the Olympics were happening. After the Olympics, nationalism was still around, but no major event triggered as strong as the reaction prior to the Olympics.

  Sometimes, nationalism attacks were on a smaller cultural scale such as Gong Li changing her citizenship to Singapore or the film Kung Fu Panda. The refueling of between Japanese and Chinese students or manifesting in the Japan train controversy. Nationalism can also create mass movements such as Crazy English.

  Here are the highlights of how some have interpreted nationalism’s role in today’s China:

  As ethnicity discrimination

  Its impact on marketing

  Formation of a new nationalism

  How history has impacted the telling of Chinese nationalism

  The youth movement as similar to Tiananmen

  Why China is so touchy about tarnishing their image

  As pessimists/optimist

  Journalists on Tibet & Olympics

  Scholars defining nationalism

  Nationalism and how to avoid its dangers

  The danger in Chinese democracy with nationalism.

  Indeed the question about where nationalism stems from can be seen from many points of view, as xenophobic (seen in Shanghainese discrimination), specifically anti-West or pro-China. State propaganda certainly plays a role in the formation of a nationalistic identity, with some deeming nationalism as “soft power” for the state propaganda. Certainly in China’s first spacewalk after the Olympics not only diverted attention from the food safety issues and instilled legitimacy in the CCP’s rule, but created a sense of pride within the nation. State propaganda doesn’t just use nationalism as a tool, but also more broadly builds on ideology on a “harmonious society.” In reaction to individual stories, such as the teacher murders in October, the state stressed state ideology to focus more on moral education.

  The internet played a large role in spreading the nationalistic sentiment. With the spread of information through the internet, the state has even had to change their strategy of censorship, leaking the story out first and spinning the story to their favor.

  There are several debates on angry youth from Chinese media and Western media.

  
  2008! China Stand Up Video made on April 15, 2008

  The internet’s power in nationalism creates a cyber nationalism that can be seen as a threat as it breaks down physical boundaries. Already, the role of the internet not only mass mobilizes people in China, but overseas Chinese as well.

  The state acknowledges that the internet is powerful and can be a tool, as in nationalism, as well as a threat. There has been limits to the internet including censorship, crack downs on internet cafes, and deeming too much online time as an addiction. Chinese bloggers have also noted the power of the internet. And Chinese netizens in response to censorship have been creative.

  The role of nationalism has certainly had an affect on the events of this year, but where nationalism’s future lies, is another question. Certainly, democracy is constantly being questioned in China. However, the internet will play an integral role in how nationalism will fare. Especially if the state is unable to contain the Internet and the spread of information and opinions, whether the polarizing affect of nationalism will occur in the future is another question and the rise of more moderate voices. Already, the internet has been shown to be the site of critiques of the government, questioning corruption and mismanagement as in the “Changzhi New Deal” in response to the Shanxi mining and landslide accidents, with individual bloggers getting their voices heard, like Wuyeusanren and Woeser on Tibet. The 4th Annual Blogger Conference just wrapped up and as tech blogger Gang Lu pointed out, the internet in China is diverse and expanding with censorship only being a part of the Chinese blogosphere.

  On the other side, the state is also hitting back, with more people being harassed, even arrested for blogging and online or off-line commentary, as Chen Daojun for his comments on the Lhasa riots and Yang Shiqun, a professor for his criticisms of the government.

  Read more of CDT’s tags on Internet culture and Online Culture to find out more about the Netizen Role and Culture in Nationalism.

  See CDT’s Nationalism and Chinese Nationalism tags for the full collection of stories relating to this topic.

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  • December 4, 2008 2:17 AM

• China’s Economy, In Need Of Jump Start, Waits For Citizens’ Fists To Loosen

  

  The International Herald Tribune writes a feature on how the Chinese government may need to convince individuals to open their pockets up to spending. Many parts of Asia have high savings rates, but the Chinese “propensity to save is rooted in deep-seated memories of scarcity and a tattered social safety net that forces people to save up for education, retirement and medical costs”. The recent government stimulus package is helping to alleviate some of these concerns and encourage citizens to spend more to help boost their economy.

  As the nation’s export driven economy slows down over the next year, the government fears unemployment and social instability could threaten the hold of the Communist Party. Although the growth rate has only slowed to an estimated 9 percent, projects place the growth at 7.7 for 2009, and some as low as 5.5 percent. The Chinese economy needs an 8 percent growth rate to sustain job requirements for the estimated 20 million people that enter the workforce each year

  Now government analysts are looking to consumers, especially “the country’s hundreds of millions of high-saving peasants, to pick up much of the slack”. In a country where consumer spending makes up 35 percent of the G.D.P, down from 50 percent during the 1980s, it may be more difficult than the government assumes. To pick up this “slack” some western economists believe Chinese consumers would need to increase their spending by one third.

  The Chinese government’s recent $586 billion stimulus package gives incentive for homeowners to fill their places with furniture, help provide power to rural farmers, and subsidies for individuals to buy cellphones, washing machines and flat-screen televisions. The government also cut interest rates by more than a percent.

  Speaking with local countryman, Dang Fu, he explains that he saves two-thirds of his family’s $2,200 annual income. His wife Zhang Fengxia, does not use banks, saying it’s “better to keep money at home” and their biggest purchase was a tractor for $1,200 bought several years ago. The rest of their funds are set aside for retirement and potential medical costs. Compare Dang and his wife to Li Xiuqing, a secretary in a Beijing accounting firm. Li makes less than $600 a month, saves half and spends the rest on stylish clothing, meals and her cellphone. She teases her mother about her miserly ways, to which her mom responds “Old people just need one outfit,” she said, “You should save everything for your kids.”

  There is speculation that urban Chinese may have different habits than the rural Chinese.

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  • December 2, 2008 11:36 PM

• Liu Bolin: Urban Camouflage (Photo Series)

  

  Currently based in Beijing, Liu Bolin was born in Shandong in 1973. He graduated from Shandong Art College in 1995 and later received an M.F.A. from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. His work has been widely exhibited in Europe, the U.S. and China. In his most recent series of photographs, called Urban Camouflage, he paints his subjects so that they blend into their surroundings, raising questions about how our environment defines who we are. Liu has written about his work: “In my photography, historical statues, costumes and architecture become symbols of that which confines us. I am expressing the desire to break through these structures. I portray subjects that seem to disappear into these structures and become transparent. The subject is released from social constructs and he is free.”

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  These photos of Urban Camouflage are from Paris-Beijing Gallery:

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  • December 2, 2008 9:59 PM

• China’s Six-To-One Advantage Over The US

  

  Spengler writes in the Asia Times Online:

  America outspends China on defense by a margin of more than six to one, the Pentagon estimates. In another strategic dimension, though, China already holds a six-to-one advantage over the United States. Thirty-six million Chinese children study piano today, compared to only 6 million in the United States. The numbers understate the difference, for musical study in China is more demanding.

  It must be a conspiracy. Chinese parents are selling plasma-screen TVs to America, and saving their wages to buy their kids pianos - making American kids stupider and Chinese kids smarter. Watch out, Americans - a generation from now, your kid is going to fetch coffee for a Chinese boss. That is a bit of an exaggeration, of course - some of the bosses will be Indian. Americans really, really don’t have a clue what is coming down the pike. The present shift in intellectual capital in favor of the East has no precedent in world history.

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  • December 2, 2008 3:08 PM

• Do Chinese Web Users Have More Fun?

  

  From the Wall Street Journal blog:

  Yes, according to research firm TNS, which recently surveyed roughly 2500 Web users in each of 16 countries around the world, including the U.S., U.K., China, Japan, Korea and Australia.

  According to survey results, China’s Internet users are more likely than their counterparts anywhere else to describe as “fun” a whole array of Web-based activities, including blogs, message boards, forums, online video and wikis.

  Chinese Web users are also very active in their online participation, especially when compared to Westerners.

  “Web 2.0 is far more advanced in Asia, and in China, than in the U.S. and Europe,” says Bernice Klaassen, head of interactive research at TNS Singapore. In Western countries, about 1% of users create online content, about 10% participate through methods like comments or discussions and the rest are lurkers,” he says. Meanwhile, in China, Mr. Klaassen says the proportion of active participants is closer to 50%, with a significantly greater share of Web users blogging regularly, participating in online forums, and sharing video and music.

  On a related topic, please also read blogger elliottng’s CNBloggerCon 2008 In Review: Transforming China’s Civil Society From The Inside Out:

  Social media, and the blogosphere, are playing a historic role in the transformation of China. Because mainstream media in China continues to be regulated and controlled, social media will step in to play the role that free press has played in the positive (and mostly stable) development of Western liberal democracies. China’s ruling party did not choose social media, but China’s people did. And now, social media promises to play a big part in the progressive development of the country.

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  • December 1, 2008 4:07 PM

• Elliot Sperling: Don’t Know Much About Tibetan History

  

  Elliot Sperling writes the following OP-ED in the New York Times:

  For many Tibetans, the case for the historical independence of their land is unequivocal. They assert that Tibet has always been and by rights now ought to be an independent country. China’s assertions are equally unequivocal: Tibet became a part of China during Mongol rule and its status as a part of China has never changed. Both of these assertions are at odds with Tibet’s history.

  The Tibetan view holds that Tibet was never subject to foreign rule after it emerged in the mid-seventh century as a dynamic power holding sway over an Inner Asian empire. These Tibetans say the appearance of subjugation to the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries, and to the Manchu rulers of China’s Qing Dynasty from the 18th century until the 20th century, is due to a modern, largely Western misunderstanding of the personal relations among the Yuan and Qing emperors and the pre-eminent lamas of Tibet. In this view, the lamas simply served as spiritual mentors to the emperors, with no compromise of Tibet’s independent status.

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  • December 1, 2008 3:13 PM

• China Urges Practical Steps To Help Developing Countries In Confronting Crisis

  

  From Xinhua:

  On Saturday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei called for efforts to support global development partnerships and for the global community to help developing nations with the global financial crisis. He was quoted as saying:

  The spreading international financial crisis, coupled with the complicated and grave international economic situation, is posing a challenge to efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals…...Special attention should be given to efforts to minimize the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, so as to maintain a good balance between stabilizing the financial market and helping vulnerable countries and communities.

  He also commented that developed nations should provide aid to developing countries and offer debt forgiveness and technology transfers.

  For more information on China’s involvement with developing nations, please see the following China Digital Times articles:

  China Helps Fight Cholera in Zimbabawe

  China Concerned Over Situation in DR Congo

  China has been heavily involved in the international response to the global financial crisis, as the video above discusses.

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  • November 30, 2008 10:16 PM

• Ultraman’s Ideological Crusade

  

  A junior high composite was posted by this Chinese blogger, translated by the Danwei blog:

  If I Were Ultraman

  If I were Ultraman, the best would be Ultraman Ace. I’d keep peace in the universe. I wouldn’t be like my brothers, fighting monsters in Japan all day. I’d universalize “peace-keeping.” I’d set up reporting hotlines in all the major countries of all the continents in the world, so that I’d be able to there as soon as any incidents happened. And I’d fight the aliens who invaded Earth, and I’d also take the initiative and defeat the strongest Baltans who have their eye on Earth. And I’d patrol all throughout the galaxy, rooting out everything that would harm Earth. Of course, I couldn’t simply rely on myself, a single Ultraman, to accomplish such a large-scale monster destruction. I’d have to unite the world of Ultra and start up a military service, and then bring the fine suggestions of Earth’s Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Jiang Zemin Theory to the world of Ultra so that they can excel at both thought and combat. And build a harmonious universe, which needs to start from the very young. So bring up good “little Ultras.”*

  To be able to unite the universe and keep peace is my greatest desire.

  (Some translated language revised by CDT)

  

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  • November 27, 2008 2:36 PM

• American Rock Band Releases “Chinese Democracy” (Video Added)

  

  Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American rock band Guns N’ Roses. It was released on November 23, 2008, worldwide and in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2008. CDT had a previous post on this story here.

  Here is a review in Rolling Stone magazine:

  Let’s get right to it: The first Guns n’ Roses album of new, original songs since the first Bush administration is a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record. In other words, it sounds a lot like the Guns n’ Roses you know. At times, it’s the clenched-fist five that made 1987’s perfect storm, Appetite for Destruction; more often, it’s the one sprawled across the maxed-out CDs of 1991’s Use Your Illusion I and II, but here compressed into a convulsive single disc of supershred guitars, orchestral fanfares, hip-hop electronics, metallic tabernacle choirs and Axl Rose’s still-virile, rusted-siren singing.

  If Rose ever had a moment’s doubt or repentance over what Chinese Democracy has cost him in time (13 years), money (14 studios are listed in the credits) and body count — including the exit of every other founding member of the band — he left no room for it in these 14 songs. “I bet you think I’m doin’ this all for my health,” Rose cracks through the saturation-bombing guitars in “I.R.S.,” one of several glancing references on the album to what he knows a lot of people think of him: that Rose, now 46, has spent the last third of his life running off the rails, in half-light. But when he snaps, “All things are possible/I am unstoppable,” in the thumper “Scraped,” that’s not loony hubris — just a good old rock & roll “fuck you,” the kind that made him and the old band hot and famous in the first place.

  On the official Chinese media, this new album is also being mentioned. The following article is from Beijing-based Global Times, translated by the Foreign Expert blog:

  On the 23rd, American rock band “Guns and Roses” plans to release what should be the band’s first new album in 17 years; this album, called “Chinese Style Democracy,” turns its spear point at China, immediately becoming the object of much Western media publicity. This also aroused much of the Chinese population’s and fan’s indignation. Some Internet users say that those Western stars who are entwined in scandles involving violence, sex, and drugs rarely come to China; moreover they are unable to talk about how to understand Chinese democracy, so their shows like this can only demonstrate that some Westerners say “democracy” but it is only their attempt to control and impress upon the pawns of the world.

  An article from “The Wall Street Journal” online edition on November 22 said, this new “Guns N’ Roses” album has run into China’s wall, its title greatly offended the Chinese government, and also made many Chinese music fans angry. Reportedly, many Chinese people hope to have a larger voice, but many people think too much democracy, too quickly, will create chaos, and are unhappy about foreign influences coming in and getting mixed up. A Chinese singer said, from the album’s title it can be seen that “they do not understand China,” it’s nothing more than for the sake of stirring up a large group of people’s excitement.

  Here are the lyrics from GUNS N’ ROSES:

  Chinese Democracy

  It don’t really matter
  You’ll find out for yourself
  No it don’t really matter
  You’re gonna leave these thing to
  Somebody else

  If they missionaries
  Real time visionaries
  Sitting in a Chinese stew
  To view my dis-infatu-ation
  I know that I’m a classic case
  Watch my disenchanted face
  Blame it on the Falun Gong*
  They’ve seen the end and you can’t hold on now

  Cause it would take a lot more hate than you
  To stop the fascination
  Even with an iron fist
  Our baby got to rule the nation
  But all I got is precious time

  It don’t really matter
  You’re gonna find out for yourself
  No it don’t really matter
  So you can hear now from
  Somebody else

  Cause it would take a lot more time than you
  I’ve got more masturbation
  Even with your iron fist
  Our baby got to rule the nation but all I got is
  Precious time
  Our baby got to rule the nation but all I got is
  Precious time

  It don’t really matter
  Gonna keep it to myself
  No it don’t really matter
  So you can hear it now from
  Somebody else

  You think you got it all locked up inside
  And if you beat them all up they’ll die
  Then you’ll walk them home for the cells
  Then now you’ll dig for your road back to hell
  And with your ? makes you stop
  As if your eyes were their eyes you can tell
  In your lack of time

  Read also here, Chinese Foreign Affair Ministry spokesman Qin Gang answered the following question from a western journalist at press conference:

  Question: An American rock band releases a new album called “Chinese Democracy,” what is the Chinese government response to this event?

  Qin Gang：According to my understanding, many people do not like such music, because it is too noisy. I believe you should be a mature adult, aren’t you?

  “据我了解，很多人不喜欢这类音乐，因为它太嘈杂，噪音太大。我想你应该是一个成熟的成年人了吧？”

  

  And, the following music video has been posted on many Chinese blogs, this one with the title “Be an immature adult”

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  • November 27, 2008 2:28 PM

• Naming the CCTV Tower (or Why “Big Underpants” is Better Than “Hemorrhoids”) (Updated)

  

  

  With all the building going on in Beijing, the CCTV (China Central Television) station also has a new structure and a new nickname to go with it. Time’s The China Blog reports:

  Names, especially nicknames, pet names and the like, can be incredibly literal things in China. If you are fat, there’s a good chance people will call you “fatty.” If you have a big beard, people will call you “big beard.”

  The same goes for iconic structures. The Great Wall (or literally, the “long wall”) doesn’t leave a lot of doubt as to what it is. Many of the famous new buildings that have gone up in Beijing recently have been given their own tags by the people. The National Center for the Performing Arts is known as the “Duck Egg.” The National Stadium is known as the “Bird’s Nest.” They’re both humble yet fitting names for these grand edifices.

  The people at China Central Television are apparently not so happy with the public’s nickname for their gleaming new headquarters. The building, which was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, consists of two slanting towers that are joined by sections on the ground and two horizontal sections at the top to form a continuous loop. It is an architectural and engineering marvel. To the people of Beijing it is simply, “Big Underpants.”

  The name has yet to permanently stick. See the Top Ten Great Buildings on People’s Daily for more structures and their nicknames.

  Update: One blogger’s creative interpretation of the CCTV building is here.

  Update 2: Danwei also translated a post from Shanghai Times (申江服务导报) via Xinmin Evening News originally from this blogger.

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  • November 27, 2008 11:32 AM

• China Bans Democracy, Declares War on Guns N’ Roses

  
  

  Guns N' Roses Album Cover, Photo Courtesy Flumesday.com

  Guns N’ Roses long-awaited new album, titled “Chinese Democracy” is banned in China, and falls in line with other foreign artists that have come up against the CCP’s censorship. David Flumenbaum from the Huffington Post writes:

  According to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday, Chinese authorities have outlawed sales of the new GN’R release, citing the title of the album, “Chinese Democracy,” as the principal reason. The title, thought up by Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose because he “liked the sound of it,” violates rules established by China’s Ministry of Culture that prohibit the word “democracy” to be used in the title of any music, book or film within mainland China. One can only assume that if the word “Chinese” precedes “Democracy” in a title, Chinese censors would become even more frightened.

  The Global Times, a newspaper run by China’s Communist Party, published an article Monday with the headline “American band releases album venomously attacking China,” that labels the album part of a Western plot to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn” and that the album “turns its spear point on China.” Other than the story in the state newspaper, no Ministry of Culture spokesman has commented on the album.

  Stores in China that carry new albums will not be allowed to offer Chinese Democracy and fans expect that they will be forbidden to purchase the album on iTunes. China’s biggest internet portal, Baidu.com has blocked all internet searches for “Chinese Democracy” and access to the website ChineseDemocracy.com has been blocked within mainland China, according to an AFP report Monday. However, Axl’s new album was not completely unobtainable for Chinese GN’R fans. Sunday, Internet users there were able to listen to the album’s 14 tracks on MySpace, which was granted permission to release the songs on the Internet one day before Monday’s wide release. Furthermore, a search for “Chinese Democracy” on both Google and YouTube within Mainland China returned search results for the new album, according to a source in Shanghai.

  Music, particularly rock n’ roll, has a history of subversion within culture. The Wall Street Journal details how Guns N’ Roses have influenced the Chinese rock scene as well as how music fans are getting around the ban:

  For fans, the response is more complicated. GN’R developed a major following in China in the late 1980s, when the young Mr. Rose was recording early hit songs like “Welcome to the Jungle.” China was in the throes of its own rebellious era, and heavy metal was its protest music. GN’R’s popularity soared in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. Learning the band’s 1991 ballad “Don’t Cry” was a rite of passage for a generation of Chinese guitarists…GN’R nostalgia remains strong. A program on state-run China Central Television last year ranked “Qiang Hua” (literally, “Guns Flowers”), as the group is known in Chinese, at No. 8 on a list of top rock bands of all time.

  Chinese fans eager for news on the Web about the new album sidestep censors by using coded language. Many deliberately scramble the name, typing “Chinese Democraxy” or “Chi Dem.” They say they fear that typing the Chinese characters for the title will draw government scrutiny. Still, it’s not much challenge to find news about the record on the Web, where even the site www.chinesedemocracy.com is a discussion of GN’R, not politics.

  

  Guns N' Roses Alternate Cover, Art by Liu Zheng, Photo Courtesy Flumesday.com

  Some Chinese artists, loath to be branded as democracy campaigners, declined valuable offers to help illustrate the album. “I listened to their music when I was little,” says Beijing visual artist Chen Zhuo . He was “very glad” when GN’R asked to buy rights to use his picture of Tiananmen Square rendered as an amusement park — with Mao Zedong’s head near a roller coaster. Then, Mr. Chen looked at lyrics of the album’s title song and, after consulting with his lawyer and partner, declined the band’s $18,000 offer. “We have to take political risks into account as artists in China,” says the 30-year-old.

  Album artist Liu Zheng is a contemporary Chinese artist in Beijing. See more of Liu Zheng’s work on Pekin Fine Arts. Cover art shown above is from his series of photographs titled “Peking Opera.”

  Read more about art censorship and Chinese rock music on CDT.

  Update: Read the full translation of the Global Times article titled, “American Rock Band Releases an Album Visciously Attacking China” plus some user comments posted on The Foreign Expert.

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  • November 25, 2008 5:22 PM

• Lian Yue: Keep the Pessimism In Your Heart

  

  

  Lian Yue, a well-known social critic and blogger, attended the fourth Chinese Bloggers Conference in Guangzhou this year. The following are excerpts from the talk he gave during the conference, translated by Lucy Lin:

  … I think the themes presented in today’s forum in the “Southern Metropolis Daily” on the creation, changes and transformation of a citizen society is very close-fitting to the agenda of our Annual Bloggers Conference. I feel that blogs are used for such purposes as well, so today in the afternoon when a lot of people asked questions, one person replied, “I am pessimistic.” What he meant by that is, “All that I have said and done and what others have done is useless.” At that time, the topic I was discussing was that it’s immoral for us to say that we’re pessimistic at the present stage; however, if you are a pessimist, you must keep it in your heart. To build a citizen society, the stage we are in right now is really very nascent. We only have a few blogs interlinked with each other trying to promote social progress. This effort seems so young, nonsensical, and far-fetched. In these moments, are you going to discourage him and set him back? Or are you going to tell him that his blogging is useless? If you say that this website is useless, then how will it even develop? The sprouts of citizen society will then be entangled. So at this time, I believe that at the present stage in China, a pessimistic outlook is immoral. (Audience applause)

  Why should we write blogs? Why should we participate in this Annual Bloggers Conference? Why should everyone convene to communicate? This shows that we believe in ourselves, and we believe that we can change this society. If we can believe in ourselves, then we must also believe in others. I do not believe anyone present today is more brilliant than another. The skills that other people have are not weaker than ours, not by one bit. How many of the actions or words of the approximately one hundred people at this Annual Bloggers Conference are going to change this society? Truthfully speaking, there’s a possibility that this society cannot ever change. However, what use does a citizen society have then? Its use is that everyone is a seed in society. You have to pretend like you’re a seed, and perhaps a year later, each person can influence forty other people, and another year later, each person can influence ten thousand people. Society will change when this happens.

  …:I used to frequently say that China is hopeless; I would say China is hopeless, and whatever we do is useless. Before 2007, I would say such things, but after 2007, I realized that I cannot say these kinds of words again. We can never say these kinds of words. We need to always encourage those in action and never set them back. …I am actually naturally a pessimistic person, but I should leave pessimism in my heart, never express those sentiments, and just let those sentiments become a memory.

  Secondly, how should we prevent ourselves from becoming mad and delusional after persecution? (Applause) In other words, maybe those of you who are present today have experienced persecution to some extent. How should we maintain a normal mentality and normal state of mind when we are under persecution? This is also something that I have thought through last year.

  Last year, whenever I picked up my phone, I would panic and worry whether someone was listening into my phone conversations. I kept on thinking about this problem at that, and after much thought, I reached an epiphany. If the power knows that someone is constantly criticizing and denying it, then it’s be abnormal for it not to utilize such surveillance methods. Since this is a method that is beyond my control, I will just say what I want to say on the phone, and I won’t let it affect my life. I will continue to banter with my wife on the phone as if these people do not exist.

  The following are video clips from his talk:

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  • November 24, 2008 11:18 PM

• Garden of Contentment

  

  In the New Yorker, Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, writes about a restauranteur in Hangzhou who is trying to supply only locally-sourced organic ingredients:

  Dai is the owner of the Dragon Well Manor, a restaurant in Hangzhou, the provincial capital. In an age of industrialization, dire pollution, and frequent food scares, the Dragon Well Manor is committed to offering its guests a kind of prelapsarian Chinese cuisine. Dai assures them that everything he serves will be made from natural ingredients, untainted by pesticides or melamine, and with no added MSG. Each morning, his buyers drive out into the countryside to collect the best of the season’s produce. Often they make several trips in a day: a quick dash to a nearby farm to pick up freshly harvested vegetables; a longer journey to inspect a pig or collect a consignment of eggs; an evening excursion for freshwater fish, shrimp, and eels. At other times, they will drive into the mountains, hike for hours, and then stay overnight before returning to Hangzhou with, say, a batch of wild shiitake mushrooms. Dai accompanies them when he feels like it, partly because he enjoys the outing and partly, as he told me with a mischievous grin, to make sure they don’t cheat him by buying produce in a supermarket.

  The Manor has never advertised and steers clear of media attention, but it has a devoted following among Zhejiang’s public figures and wealthy businessmen, who come to unwind on the secluded terraces of its landscaped garden before retiring to a private room for a dinner of seasonal delicacies. Guests can look through the “purchase diary,” a large leather-bound volume containing copies of each day’s contracts with the farmers and artisans who supply the kitchens, along with photographs of them picking vegetables, making rice wine, and slaughtering pigs. Dai has never heard of Chez Panisse or Stone Barns, but he is engaged in a similar mission: to guarantee the integrity of his food supplies while shoring up a dying culinary and agricultural heritage.

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  • November 24, 2008 10:46 PM

• You Just Want Us To Look Bad

  

  Why do the Chinese get so touchy about their country’s image? After a series of difficult conversations outside Beijing cinemas, Dan Edwards has a few ideas:

  China’s leaders contend that their rigorous suppression of a critical popular arts sector is in the interests of a “harmonious society”, to use current party parlance, an argument that carries considerable weight in a vast nation with a history of internecine conflict. Recent decades have seen China come a long way in terms of economic and social progress under policies of tight control. However, given the many issues faced by the People’s Republic as it moves into the 21st century, China’s rulers are ultimately doing their people a gross disservice by muzzling creative and critical interrogations of the nation’s history and contemporary situation.

  It will take more than putting a mindlessly positive spin on every issue for the nation to come to terms with its history and face up to its current challenges.

  Blocking, silencing and blacklisting alternative voices might make party cadres and young nationalists feel less insecure, but problems and contradictions don’t disappear simply because they’re not on television.

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  • November 24, 2008 10:00 PM

• Lin Jiaxiang and the China Web Vigilantes

  

  L. A. Times’ Mark Magnier reporting from Beijing:

  The private eyes in China’s most famous detective agency rarely sleep, are relentless in pursuing their prey and can put Interpol and Homeland Security to shame. Oh, and they work for free.

  But before you think about hiring them, there’s a catch. The detectives are all online: millions of people working together as a “human flesh search engine,” a bizarre term meant to capture the mix of cutting-edge and old-as-the-hills tactics used in a growing number of Internet vigilante campaigns here.

  And once again they have found their target, fueling a scandal that has captivated millions while underscoring the anger and lack of trust many feel toward officials, police and the law.

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  • November 22, 2008 10:23 PM