{"id":696991,"date":"2024-01-29T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T03:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=696991"},"modified":"2024-02-01T21:18:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T05:18:43","slug":"quote-of-the-day-my-rights-are-those-of-a-pedestrian-in-an-automobile-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2024\/01\/quote-of-the-day-my-rights-are-those-of-a-pedestrian-in-an-automobile-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Quote of the Day: “My Rights \u2014 Are Those of a Pedestrian in an Automobile Age”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our latest <\/span>quote of the day<\/strong><\/a> is taken from a viral poem scrawled on a wall in Xi\u2019an titled \u201cMy Rights\u201d by the anonymous poet \u201cSowing Seeds Alone.\u201d The poem is a call to protect the rights of \u201cpedestrians\u201d against the domination of \u201cdrivers.\u201d While not spelled out specifically in the poem, references to the National People\u2019s Congress and political leadership indicate the drivers and pedestrians motif is likely an allegory for the Party-state and average citizens. As such, the poem\u2014which calls for pedestrians to \u201cwake up and fight\u201d\u2014is a rather extraordinary public challenge to the Party-state\u2019s legitimacy:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My Rights<\/span><\/p>\n

I have the right not to buy a car
\n<\/span>I have the right not to learn how to drive
\n<\/span>I have the right to take only the bus and the subway <\/span><\/p>\n

I have the right to walk
\n<\/span>I have the right to rely on and enjoy walking!
\n<\/span>I have the right not to be intimidated by cars
\n<\/span>What\u2019s more, I have the right not to be rammed, crushed, dragged, or thrown by cars.
\n<\/span>When walking at night, I have the right not to be blinded or bothered by headlights<\/span><\/p>\n

If I\u2019m bullied or agitated by a car,
\n<\/span>I have the right to smash it!
\n<\/span>If I can\u2019t find, remember, or catch the car in question,
\n<\/span>I have the right to smash any other car, just to vent my rage!<\/span><\/p>\n

I have the right to demand that drivers not constitute more than 40% of the National People\u2019s Congress,
\n<\/span>I have the right to unobstructed pedestrian zones,
\n<\/span>I have the right to demand that drivers be forbidden to lead the nation
\n<\/span>I have the right to not be injured by objects hurled from on high! <\/span><\/p>\n

My rights\u2014
\n<\/span>are those of a pedestrian in an automobile age,
\n<\/span>In this automobile age, the pedestrian seeking to protect
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0life and limb
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0must wake up and fight for their due legal rights!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014 Sowing Seeds Alone (a Xi\u2019an poet) [Chinese<\/strong>]<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The X (formerly Twitter) account @whyyoutouzhele,<\/span> the first to share the poem publicly<\/span><\/a>, later posted another work attributed to Sowing Seeds Alone that had been graffitied elsewhere in Xi\u2019an. In <\/span>the second photograph<\/span><\/a> shared to X, Sowing Seeds Alone wrote: \u201cOpposing a driver-dominated society is a movement to wake up pedestrians. It is a glorious movement of national salvation!\u201d The writing also referenced a \u201cWise Chinese Society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Graffiti and poetry were major political flashpoints in 2023. In August, <\/span>the painting of the 12 Core Socialist Values on a London street famous for its graffiti<\/span><\/a> inspired a wave of anti-Party counter-graffiti\u2014and a burst of debate on Weibo\u2014until both the London wall and all Weibo comments were whitewashed. Soon after, <\/span>a poem graffitied under a bridge in Zhengzhou<\/span><\/a> titled \u201cMomma\u201d went massively viral and then was also whitewashed both literally and figuratively, despite having no overt or implied political meaning. It is unclear if Sowing Seeds Alone\u2019s poetry was at all inspired by the two incidents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our latest quote of the day is taken from a viral poem scrawled on a wall in Xi\u2019an titled \u201cMy Rights\u201d by the anonymous poet \u201cSowing Seeds Alone.\u201d The poem is a call to protect the rights of \u201cpedestrians\u201d against the domination of \u201cdrivers.\u201d While not spelled out specifically in the poem, references to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1093,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[99,20,14744,100,5],"tags":[16851,2175,1743,3920,16469,14058,6244,2825,2518],"class_list":["post-696991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cdt-highlights","category-culture","category-level-2-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-communist-party","tag-dissent","tag-dissidents","tag-graffiti","tag-national-peoples-congress","tag-party","tag-poet","tag-poetry","tag-xian","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nQuote of the Day: "My Rights \u2014 Are Those of a Pedestrian in an Automobile Age"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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