There’s been a bit of discussion among China watchers on whether the anti-government protests in Tunisia and Egypt could happen here.
Count me among the skeptics.
So long as the economy keeps growing and there is a general feeling that urban standards of living are continuing to improve, then I think it is highly unlikely we would see anything like the Tunisia/Egyptian protests in China.
I think too that the kind of vertical (class) and horizontal (geographic) linkages of discontent which make the North African protests so worrisome to those governments are exactly the kinds of linkages the CCP goes to great lengths to prevent.
Anything can happen, but I think the effects of these events on China will simply be to confirm the fears of the Chinese government that a lack of control over information and dissent will only lead to trouble. If anything, I expect to see greater restrictions on Internet access (Freedur VPN, RIP) and perhaps a stepping up of efforts to monitor potentially troublesome activists and those with grievances to share.
See also:
The Peking Duck, “Could it Happen in China?”
ChinaGeeks, “Egypt, China, and Revolution“
Reading about a new book by Stefan Collini: That’s Offensive! Criticism, Identity, Respect.
Professor Collini is a professor of intellectual history and English literature at Cambridge University, and in this, his latest book, he looks at the very meaning of criticism, what it means to criticize, and distinguishes the most common understanding of the term (“fault-finding”) with it’s more academic usage, that is the close analysis of a particular subject or text.
Scott McLemee’s short review for Inside Higher Education notes, quite correctly, that in an increasingly poisonous and rancorous atmosphere for the public debate of important topics, understanding the goals and rhetoric of criticism is an important first step to overcoming the resistance to listening to a critical analysis of our own cherished ideas and views. (In the Levensonian language of Modern China, not to let ideas about “what is mine” prevent me from hearing “what might be true.”)
Of course, thinking of this through Levenson, it’s hard not to recall the rather prickly response on the part of the Modern Chinese state (and their supporters and advocates) to recent criticism of their handling of the Nobel Prize. In a recent Global Times masterpiece with the whimsical title of
I got a fuller report of the Confucius Prize presser this morning from Yajun…she’s under the impression that the organizers and the judges had no earthly idea what they were in for when they decided to cobble this thing together and invite 200 or so representatives of the foreign media — all desperate for column inches/bytes to fill — to attend.
Seriously…the committee might have been better off bathing in duck blood and telling a pack of sex-crazed wolverines to “bring it, bitches.”
Even the use of a small child as an improvised human shield was apparently insufficient to keep the imperialist savagery at bay.*
Tan Changliu, the mastermind of this PR fiasco, closed the ceremony by scolding the visibly amused throng of journos that, “In 500 years we will see who is right.”
It probably won’t take that long. Historians are often poor predictors of what is yet to be, knowledge of the past does not guarantee a clear view of the future, but one thing studying history does do is give you a sense of how the present is likely to be remembered. It doesn’t take the wisdom of Thucydides to guess that in a decade or
It’s summer and that usually means catching up on important things like “dissertation research,” “World Cup,” and, of course, “television.” One of the undeniable pleasures of Beijing is exchanging a few kuai with the local DVD salesman and walking away with two or three complete seasons of trash television.
Of late, I’ve been really into a show called “Sons of Anarchy.” It’s a kind of evolutionary “Sopranos.” Both deal with organized crime (Mafia/outlaw motorcycle gangs) mixed with suburban banality and a fair dose of very dark humor. (The Sons’ ‘Paulie Walnuts’ is an out of control psychopath who waxes lyrical about necrophilia while removing the teeth from a soon to be identified corpse in the local morgue.) As you might imagine, it’s a tough show to watch and while it is a well-written and brilliantly acted series, the violence is enough to make the boys from the Bada Bing seem like Carmelite nuns. (Check out a video clip here.)
For example, in the third episode of season one a former member returns to town and is seen still sporting a tatoo with the club’s emblem. The solution? You guessed it, a ten-minute musical montage showing the club pouring whiskey down the
I want to come clean: I am a Red Sox fenqing. Mao may have had his Red Guards but I’m a card-carrying armband-wearing brainless slogan-chanting member of the 红袜兵.* Hey, we’ve got our catchy songs and marching anthem too.
You have a problem with that? Didn’t think so, because there’s a bleacher full of guys behind me who will find your ass, pull you out of your seat and get all Dropkick Murphys on you…
You can hold me down, prop open my eyelids with rusty nails and make me watch video of David Ortiz plunging needles into his body like he’s filming the last 15 seconds of Kurt Cobain: The Movie and I still won’t believe that Papi was juiced on steroids even though he went from hitting 20 home runs a year with Twins to bashing 50 home runs only after joining the Red Sox and making the acquaintance of one Manuel Ramirez.
The cover of Sports Illustrated with Nomar Garciaparra that caused every red blooded New England male to question their sexuality for .000001 seconds? Yeah, nothing going on there. Oh sure…right AFTER steroids became a big deal Nomar started breaking down like a decade-old Xiali, but
|
|
Criticism, Critical Analysis, and Hurt Feelings
Reading about a new book by Stefan Collini: That’s Offensive! Criticism, Identity, Respect.
Professor Collini is a professor of intellectual history and English literature at Cambridge University, and in this, his latest book, he looks at the very meaning of criticism, what it means to criticize, and distinguishes the most common understanding of the term (“fault-finding”) with it’s more academic usage, that is the close analysis of a particular subject or text.
Scott McLemee’s short review for Inside Higher Education notes, quite correctly, that in an increasingly poisonous and rancorous atmosphere for the public debate of important topics, understanding the goals and rhetoric of criticism is an important first step to overcoming the resistance to listening to a critical analysis of our own cherished ideas and views. (In the Levensonian language of Modern China, not to let ideas about “what is mine” prevent me from hearing “what might be true.”)
Of course, thinking of this through Levenson, it’s hard not to recall the rather prickly response on the part of the Modern Chinese state (and their supporters and advocates) to recent criticism of their handling of the Nobel Prize. In a recent Global Times masterpiece with the whimsical title of