Today\u2019s quote is a rumination on the fatal stabbing of a delivery man in Qingdao. In early December, a neighborhood security guard stabbed a food delivery man<\/a> during a conflict about whether the latter could park his moped inside an apartment complex while making deliveries. Subsequent reporting revealed that the delivery driver, Li Yuekai, had studied abroad in Australia and then returned to China. In some corners of the internet<\/a>, Li became an object of mockery for his perceived \u201cfailure\u201d to convert an international degree into a prestigious job. Li\u2019s violent demise and the posthumous mockery he endured prompted others to point out that he was a textbook example of a modern-day \u201cKong Yiji,\u201d<\/a> a viral 2023 term for overeducated and under-employed youth who feel spurned by society.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others took a different approach. On the WeChat blog New New Mocun (@\u65b0\u65b0\u9ed8\u5b58, @x\u012bnx\u012bnm\u00f2c\u00fan<\/em>), a \u201creincarnated<\/a>\u201d version of a twice-shuttered blog, the writer Zou Sicong reflected on the increasingly systemized yet \u201ccapricious, unsupervised, and unscrutinized” violence neighborhood security guards inflict on other workers<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cYou thought the travails of the past few years had nothing to do with \u2018underclass security guards.\u2019 But what you didn\u2019t realize is that their outsourced violence has become systemic. It\u2019s a more capricious, unsupervised, and unscrutinized form of violence. Their systemization has allowed them to appear only when necessary, for the rest hiding amidst the humdrum of your daily life, only resurfacing to \u2018protect your safety\u2019 by murdering a delivery man, yet another person servicing your needs.\u201d\u00a0 \u2013 Zou Sicong in \u201cWhy Do We Mock That Unfortunate Delivery Man\u201d published to\u00a0 the New New Mocun Blog [Chinese<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
For more on \u201creincarnated\u201d blogs see the entry \u201cReincarnation Party\u201d in CDT\u2019s newly launched ebook, \u201cChina Digital Times Lexicon: 20th Anniversary Edition.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"