I have a new post up at The China Beat on Chinese reactions to foreign criticism, “Prejudice Made Plausible: Foreign Criticism and Chinese Sensitivities.”
Why does concern about the Olympics, criticism of Chinese government policies, or even a news story about the effect of air pollution on athletes, provoke such a visceral response from many Chinese?
Obviously no one set of reasons can cover the gamut of reactions, everybody perceives issues in different ways, but in perusing the comments section of China blogs and the threads on Chinese BBSs, I sense three main themes: the close integration of state/nation/party in both PRC ideology and the minds of the Chinese people, genuine pride at China’s rise in the world and a belief that many countries in “the West” seek to undermine China’s development to satisfy their own selfish strategic goals, and finally, barely smoldering resentment born out of a history of foreign imperialism in China.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
10 responses so far ↓
1 MEEPS // Feb 27, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Hi JJ,
Good to see that you are still working so hard to understand the minds of the Chinese. You still got a long way to go. Keep up the good work.
2 Jeremiah // Feb 27, 2008 at 4:39 pm
…chimes the girl from Malaysia.
Wow, 好久不见…are you, in fact, still in M’sia?
How’s the family?
No argument there.
3 Sean // Feb 27, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Hi Jeremiah
really enjoy your article and can not believe you know China at this level, I think you know chinese people much more than many chinese ….
I think the point you made that most chinese can’t tell the differences between “state, nation, party and government” really make sense, they really think the CCP represent ” China” , and they’re doing a quite well job , and the westerners are always look at China with a biased view, thanks to our stupid education system.
another thing I need to say is that the reason Olympic is such a sensitive thing in China now is that most chinese take Olympic much more serious than you might think, because most people have no idea about ” Sport”, they think the more metals we can get ,the more “stronger” chinese are, and the more talented we chinese are at any kind of thing. frankly , I have to admit that we are really terrible in terms of “Sport”, there is no sport culture, no sport spirit, sport here is for metal but fun and working out. wining gold metal from sports no one cares like diving,pingpong, female weightlifting is something can be proud of to most chinese, even if they know how much money chinese government invested on this and how bad life many rural chinese are at the same time. chinese like 意淫, so by olympic the CCP officials can make so much money and make chinese people so happy, this is a “perfect” thing to china .
and another thing you need to notice is that chinese are naturally so sensitive to almost everything, most people are not used to think about something in a rational and independent way, some people just get angry when you show and kinds of different opinion on any kind of thing, thanks again to the education system.
4 Froog // Feb 28, 2008 at 12:25 am
It is some (very) slight consolation to me that the Chinese disparage their own people who thought too ‘Western-sympathetic’ or ‘anti-China’ as ‘hanjian’ (’traitors to their people’) rather than - as Plutarch said of Herodotus - ‘philobarbaros’ (in the unlovely British English of our times, “wog-lover”).
5 Leo // Feb 28, 2008 at 2:28 am
I witnessed a lot of American expats in Western Europe defended U.S. policies vehemently, basically dismissing any accusations as anti-Americanism.
I watched a few political talkshows in Western European TV in which the invited American scholars sounded like hired guns by White House /DoD.
So I have grown very reluctant to draw a conclusion that certain Chinese problems are due to CCP, censorship, or wrong history textbooks.
6 Jeremiah // Feb 28, 2008 at 6:39 am
Sean,
Thank you for reading the article and for writing such a long reply.
Your idea about ’sports’ and ’sportsmanship’ is quite interesting, and I ought to share your thoughts with Professor Susan Brownell, my co-writers The China Beat. She’s done a lot of research into China’s athletic culture.
It’s an interesting angle, thank you for stopping by.
7 Jeremiah // Feb 28, 2008 at 6:44 am
Froog,
Being neither British nor classically trained (though I could suss out the meaning of Philosbarbaros), I ought have a crib when reading some of your comments.
It would be interesting to look at a history of the term hanjian.
My understanding (and this is a guess, so somebody please correct me if I’m wrong) is that ‘hanjian’ is of–relatively–recent vintage. At the very least, it was a term used by late 19th-century and early-20th century ethnic nationalists (Zou Rong comes to mind.)
Interesting idea for a future post.
8 Jeremiah // Feb 28, 2008 at 6:46 am
I’m going to suggest that people wishing to comment on this article do so over on The China Beat where a discussion is already underway.*
(*But if you’re in the PRC and have trouble leaving comments on the other site, of course feel free to continue leaving them here
9 Sam G // Feb 28, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Jeremiah: Sorry for leaving a comment here, I live in China and as you say it’s difficult to leave comments on the China Beat site.
I appreciate your efforts to historicize contemporary Chinese nationalism in relation to the Olympics, and I’d like to make two brief comments.
First, in the first paragraph you mention that one reason you’re subjected to such strong opinions regarding the Olympics is because you live in Beijing. My sense is that the kind of sentiments you write about in your post grow weaker the farther away you get from the capital - or, if “weaker” is the wrong word, they change based on where you are. In Shanghai, a more cosmopolitan and less tense city than Beijing, they are less frequent; in Guangdong, such nationalist sentiments often seem to be changed in some way based on southern feelings of uniqueness.
Second, I couldn’t agree more that Chinese nationalism is informed by late 19th/early 20th century ideas of social darwinism, and later of the fierce combination of state and nation under the PRC. However, I feel the kind of civil society you talk about exists even more strongly in contemporary China than it did before the 1990s. The intellectual climate these days — for example, the “New Left” (though they don’t call themselves that) — appears to include fatigue with struggle, a willingness to work with those in power, and a desire to enact change slowly and carefully. In this way contemporary Chinese nationalism displays a profound kind of conservatism, and one that, with the traumas of modern Chinese history in mind, we should not automatically criticize.
10 Jeremiah // Feb 29, 2008 at 10:20 am
Sam,
You raise a very good point, the hothouse of Olympic fervor that is 2008 Beijing is likely to produce stronger opinions and reactions regarding the games. I also think that local pride and regional rivalries are also at play here, these Olympics mean a lot to many Chinese, but have a special meaning for Beijingers.
Your take on nationalism is quite interesting and I agree about the trend in political thought away from revolution/struggle and towards a more conservative reformist dynamic. I tried to avoid sounding critical of nationalism in this essay, which was really more of an analysis rather than an opinion piece.
That said, while the PRC government has–for the most part–tamped down on the rhetoric, I do believe that in recent years, a more outspoken, and even aggressive, nationalism has emerged among the younger generation. A casual perusal of the BBS and Chinese-language blogs will reveal strong statements of national pride using quite intense language and, as is often the case with nationalism, with those sentiments directed toward Others.
It’s a phenomenon hardly unique to China, and patriotism per se isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But–and this may just be me–I tend to have a bad reaction to knee-jerk jingoism no matter who it is or which country. Unfortunately, quite a lot of what I’ve seen and read and heard recently passing as the former sounds a little too much like the latter.
Thanks for stopping by and for your very thoughtful comment.
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