Suixuan

标签：politics

  • Solving Problems and Institutional Reform

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Solving Problems and Institutional Reform

    The previous article mentioned that a despotic system constantly needs imminent crises to overcome, with hatred and struggle as its basic posture. Of course, a democratic system too must keep solving immediate problems; “solving problems” is the normal state of governance. However, the basic paradigms for solving problems differ under different systems. This is not merely a matter of keeping pace with the times or adapting measures to local conditions—for example, Chinese people solving China’s special problems, Americans solving America’s problems, and so on. The difference in paradigms is not limited to that kind of distinction; it also includes differences in standards of judgment, such as what counts as a…

    philosophycultureChinahistory of science
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  • Disasters and Despotism

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Disasters and Despotism

    A few days ago Beijing was hit by torrential rain. Unfortunately, I had just returned to Shanghai and missed this rare spectacle. Once a rainstorm turns into a disaster, there is inevitably all sorts of praise for skillful command and unity of purpose, and then a call for donations appears, something we have long since grown accustomed to. Calls for donations are of course met with a flood of abuse online, but the reality is that they will still work. Setting aside the many uninformed people who are only too happy to donate, just think of how much can be wrung out by those “progressive” Party-state organs, enterprises, and schools…

    cultureChinapoliticsdemocracy
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  • Youth and Politics

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Youth and Politics

    Today Huanqiu Times published a good commentary, “Young Students Should Not Be Encouraged to Rush to the Front Line of Conflict,” which says: Middle school students are minors. Their minds are not yet mature enough, but they are full of enthusiasm and highly sensitive. They have few worries and little social pressure, so they fear nothing and have strong explosive force and impact. They have no clear political interests to demand, nor any stable beliefs, so they are easily pushed along by adults, either becoming an expression of the correct social psychology or being led in the wrong direction. Since the founding of New China, the most striking eruption of…

    cultureChinacommentaryeducation
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  • Patriotism and Hatred of Enemies

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Patriotism and Hatred of Enemies

    In an earlier article about the left and the right, I mentioned that the spiritual driving force of the so-called left is in fact narrow nationalism, and that although this nationalism flies under the banner of “patriotism,” it is in fact not proclaiming “love” at all, but rather preaching hatred: We might notice the contexts in which those people extol and emphasize the word “patriotism”: how many of them are gentle, affirmative scenes full of love, and how many are destructive scenes of brave struggle, courageous sacrifice, pressing forward wave after wave, and dying together with the enemy? The essence of the left-wing nationalism is resentment—xenophobia and enemy-hatred, hatred toward…

    philosophycultureChinapolitics
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  • The Left and Right, Chinese Style

    Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom

    The Left and Right, Chinese Style

    Recently I’ve been mentioning the left and the right quite often, but always rather cautiously, always wanting to add a couple of lines: I don’t like taking sides, I only use labels because I have no choice, and so on. To keep on like that is not really a solution, so I might as well write an article and talk through my understanding of the so-called left and right. My first acquaintance with the concepts of left and right probably came in middle school political class, where the teacher explained that the left was progressive and reformist, while the right was backward and conservative. We children, brainwashed by China’s rote-learning…

    Chinafreedomautobiographytradition
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  • Brazenly Shameless

    Life & Notes

    Brazenly Shameless

    That’s right, they’ve come again to meddle in our internal affairs and put on a political performance. But how exactly is a person able to do that? If we hadn’t imposed so much “internal affairs” on a mere private citizen, how could he interfere? If we weren’t trying to ban him and block him, how could he possibly stage a show? And what exactly do you want him to apologize for? “Sorry, I punctured your fig leaf”?

    everyday lifepoliticssociologypower
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  • In Praise of “Rumors”

    Culture & Public Commentary

    In Praise of “Rumors”

    Recently the word “rumor” has once again become a hot topic, and a full-scale “war” against “rumors” is plainly about to break out. At a time like this, it is all the more necessary to reflect on what “rumor” really means. On Weibo, I saw Sun Haifeng repost Deng Wenchu’s “Nine Theses on Rumor,” written several years ago, and applauded it enthusiastically (you can find it among some of the earliest posts on his blog, though it seems a few of the theses have been harmonized?). Later I read Kapferer’s Rumor: The World’s Oldest Media, and found it quite rewarding as well. So let me offer a few casual remarks…

    book readingChinatraditionpolitics
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  • Night Reading Mencius: The Traitor Faction

    Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese

    Night Reading Mencius: The Traitor Faction

    This article arose from the explanation in the previous post. Of course, apart from taking issue with one particular junior classmate, my more important intention is to emphasize that interpretations of the Confucian classics are plural, and the Mao left can forget about monopolizing the right to interpret the Confucian classics. When I was a freshman, under Yang Zi’s influence, I read some chapters of the Mencius. Though I have little recollection of them now, I did come away with a rough impression: even though the Mencius is not as invigorating to read as the Analects, it still felt pretty good. The night before last I dug it out and…

    philosophycultureChinafreedom
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  • Democracy Against the People-as-the-Basis: A Debate on Weibo

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Democracy Against the People-as-the-Basis: A Debate on Weibo

    Some days ago, I had a rather spirited debate on Weibo with a left-leaning junior fellow. I’m not very fond of slapping labels like “right-wing” and “left-wing” on people, but this argument was indeed representative in a certain sense, so I need to note this junior fellow’s left-wing background. As for me, who sparked the argument, I was not aiming my dissatisfaction specifically at him; rather, I took the opportunity to express my long-standing opposition to the rhetoric of the so-called Mao left. I once stated my personal position in the essay “Liberty vs. Equality—I Am a Right-Wing Socialist,” but that was mainly constructive rather than refutational. Still, I’m willing…

    cultureChinafreedomtradition
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  • Bottom-Up Reform

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Bottom-Up Reform

    During the “onlookers biting Han” incident (see my previous two articles), I took the opportunity to skim through the legendary “Han Three Essays.” I have to say, Han Han really is better suited to snark than to building arguments… But on the basic attitude toward these three big concepts, I completely support Han Han: oppose revolution, be cautiously skeptical of democracy, and emphasize and fight for freedom. Why am I “anti-revolutionary”? In middle school, I did indeed hold some sort of “quality theory” position: the civic quality of the Chinese people was still far too low, there was a lack of self-discipline, and once things got chaotic they would be…

    cultureChinafreedompolitics
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