A spread in Southern Metropolis Weekly features writers recalling their childhoods in China, from the ’60s through the ’80s. These brief essays follow the thread of China’s modernization and opening up, from the simple, hopeful lives of the Cultural Revolution to the first big influx of products and ideas two decades later. Here’s the translation…

NOTES:
1 yuan = 1 RMB
1 mao = .1 RMB
1 fen = .01 RMB

Candies
Chopstick Candy (筷子糖 Kuaizi tang)
Chopstick-shaped candy in different colors, sizes and flavors, which kids like to suck and chew. Very popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Red Fruit Skin (果丹皮 Guodanpi)
A popular snack with kids, sweet and sour, made of a dry, bright red fruit like hawthorn, or produced from apples and pears. Still can be found in shops today.

Sour Plum Powder (酸梅粉 Suanmei fen)
A very sour, salty powder made from preserved plum.

Big Big Bubblegum (大大泡泡糖 Dada Paopao Tang)
A roll of bubblegum similar to “Bubble Tape” in the United States.

“Jumpy” Candy (跳跳糖 Tiaotiao Tang)
A candy that pops in the mouth, like “Pop Rocks” in the United States.

Pocket Comics

Original Story: 三代儿童消费体验

A photo story at Voc.com.cn shows a foreigner being surrounded and confronted in the street of an unnamed Chinese town. Apparently, he’s paid for time on his phone’s SIM card, but the shopkeeper has added more than the man wanted and is demanding full payment. No witnesses saw the initial transaction, but plenty gathered for the ensuing argument…

街头男女追赶围堵老外
In the Street, Men and Women Chase After and Surround a Foreigner

When I was passing by Youdian Street, I saw a man and a woman bringing somebody to help a foreigner who was being chased. It’s said that the foreigner had charged his cell phone with 50 yuan of talk-time, but the shopkeeper added 100 yuan; the problem was that nobody knows if the shopkeeper was trying to exploit the foreigner, or if the foreigner was trying to swindle the shopkeeper?

ORIGINAL STORY:
街头男女追赶围堵老外

An article at YWeekend looks at a trend many find annoying: speaking in local dialect at the office. A similar opinion came last month from Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who came out against learning Chinese dialects of any kind while promoting his country’s Speak Mandarin campaign. YWeekend’s writer doesn’t go so far, but still gets a little miffed.

为公司，闭上方言嘴
For the company, shut your dialect mouths!

People in offices who speak loudly in dialect may feel they are very cool and very fashionable, but other uncomprehending people see them as very backward.

Recently, a small, privately held enterprise in Wuhan issued a “prohibition against dialects” to its workers, stipulating that “speaking one sentence in Wuhan dialect will be penalized 10 yuan,” which immediately caused a heated debate on the Internet. Some people said everybody is a local person, so what is the problem with speaking dialects in the office? Is it worth it to make such a big deal out of it?

A fine for speaking in dialect — maybe this is actually going too far, but companies have issued this kind of ruthless scam, assuming that it is beyond bearable. Offices are full of a wide variety of dialects — it is a stage for dialects and they show in turns. It is not fashionable for workers to answer the telephone in Mandarin: companies greatly water-down their public image. Local coworkers are in dialect cliques, and the cost to outsider coworkers is that, even if they do their best, it is impossible for them to blend in… can these problems be resolved with ten yuan?

It seems that the most popular cities in China for working are only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and some others. These developed cities are full of strife and myriad young people’s dreams, and struggling workers who cannot speak Mandarin find it very difficult to find their place. But according to current trends, only being able to speak Mandarin and foreign languages is not enough to dive into the heart of the “enemy;” outsiders still must take on a “fourth language” to be able to have a clear shot — doesn’t this make things difficult for people?

A woman who used to work at a Fortune 500 company was sought out by a Shanghai company to receive a high salary as a project manager; in just three days she just put in her resignation. Her reason was that two-thirds of the people in the office all like to use Shanghai dialect to talk to each other; lunch time is even more so, “everywhere a potpourri of bird languages” — this is a language barrier that she never expected before coming to work for this company. She did not want to spend her after-business hours enrolled in Shanghai dialect classes, so she had no choice but to change her environment and start over again.

Of course, some people may say that this woman worker’s worldview is not open enough; if she were struggling in Guangzhou, it is very possible that she would be compelled by her boss to learn Cantonese within half a year, otherwise she should not even try. I also have a close friend who sells things and has a developed sense of dialects: he talks to Beijing people with a thick Beijing accent; with Shanghai people he comes out with some Shanghai Rap; he discusses the serenity in San Gege’s books with Guangzhou people; and when he bumps into Shanxi people looking for sex, he comes out with an “Oh my God!” Being this way was made necessary by the realities of work, the reason being that it cuts the distance between people when they interact, creating a favorable first impression. When there is an office meeting, this person absolutely speaks standard Mandarin, seeming like an announcer.

Actually, using Mandarin to communicate is basic respect for other coworkers: if two coworkers in an office persist in using dialect to communicate, people next to them have a difficult time not being confused, and indeed they will think about whether or not they are talking behind their backs. Even more people say that people who speak loudly, in dialect, in an office may feel very cool and very fashionable, but other people who do not know the dialect will look on them as very backward.

There is nothing wrong with dialects. Actions which protect dialects are good things; local television stations that broadcast some programs in dialect are also very interesting. But, no matter how good a dialect sounds, work spaces are not one’s own backyard. If a company wants to go national, or has the desire to go international, then from the beginning workers must be made to understand one thing — for the company, please shut your dialect mouths.

ORIGINAL STORY:
为公司，闭上方言嘴

Jackie Chan’s comments last week received a lot of criticism, both in Western media and on Chinese forums, but there have been few English-language essays or translations supporting him. Two days ago, a Chinese blogger wrote a fiery piece on a sina.com blog that defended Jackie Chan while condemning his Chinese critics. It adds up to an odd but absorbing blend of nationalism and muckraking…

成龙的一句实话，触怒了哪些中国人？
Jackie Chan’s sentence of truth, which Chinese people did it offend?

At the Boao Asia Forum, Jackie Chan said that Taiwan and Hong Kong are both too free, so they have become very chaotic: “Chinese people still need to be controlled.” One stone stirs up a thousand waves, and once again the media all of a sudden had material it could use for propaganda. Thinking that Jackie Chan condemns the freedom of Chinese people, one after another “protests” were put forward. Indeed there are still some people who feel Jackie Chan’s act of “hurting the feelings of Chinese people” is no different from America’s Sharon Stone*, so Jackie Chan should apologize to Chinese people. These opinions seem to have some justice on their side, but upon reflection, there are more and more questions, and it is simply talk without inquiry, a traveler’s tale.

First of all, the premise of Jackie Chan’s sentence is “Taiwan and Hong Kong are both too free, so they have become chaotic.” The conclusion is “Chinese people still need to be controlled.” It includes a three-part rationale: [1] Taiwan and Hong Kong are chaotic because of freedom. [2] Taiwan and Hong Kong are a part of China. [3] So, “Chinese people still need to be controlled.” From a logical perspective this is a perfectly sound rationale, it does not anywhere display “harm toward Chinese people,” and furthermore does not anywhere resemble America’s Sharon Stone. There is basically nothing wrong with this sentence, it is just a true sentence, but it suffered the anger of “Chinese people,” and in reality it was treated too unfairly. As far as making Jackie Chan come out with an apology for “Chinese people,” this is a joke!

Jackie Chan’s “mistake” is, you are an international superstar, you cannot just say what you wish; you just want to blurt out a sentence, but no matter your intentions, people in this world can comment on them in a totally different way. The fact of the matter is that it is not Jackie Chan’s mistake, instead it is the mistake of our country people who are eager to cause disturbances! Some of our brethren, crazy about publicizing the affairs of stars, are using this to increase the degree of their own fame. This is totally a kind of greed-driven act, and wrapped in a beautiful coat: it makes use of Chinese people’s nationalist sentiment, it stirs up a nationalistic mood, and expects to prop up selfish goals. The majority of “Chinese people” screaming “make Jackie Chan apologize” — actually this has become a minority — were used by people and kept in the dark. This is completely a trap and snare. But our brethren just rose up without regard for themselves or their land; filled with indignation they clamored a battle cry, but what on earth was there to cry about? I am afraid that many people are still confused. Jackie Chan did nothing wrong, how can he apologize?

Presuming that he should apologize, who should he apologize to? To Chinese people? Which Chinese people is it, or is it all Chinese people? This question must be clearly thought out. It cannot be denied that Jackie Chan’s words certainly offended some Chinese people. Just think of the tens of millions in China’s bureaucratic ranks, bound under strict party discipline and state law, and breeding corrupt officials like Chen Liangyu, Cheng Kejie, Zheng Xiaoyu, every year requiring that more than 2,000 department- and bureau-level officials be investigated and dealt with. And there is an over-abundance of petty officials below the bureau level who commit crimes. Try and ask, don’t these “Chinese people” need to be controlled? In every walk of life, those in control of power, using industry monopolies, exploiting the common people, pocketing profits. Don’t these “Chinese people” need to be controlled? Those who are blinded by profits, petty city people obsessed with getting rich — tigers waiting for the opportunity to grab their brethren’s and nation’s private and public property. Don’t those “Chinese people” need to be controlled? Those loitering in streets and alleys, lazing about, don’t “Chinese people” who specialize in vandalism need to be controlled?

If somebody feels that Jackie Chan’s words are wrong, and then the proposition “Chinese people do not need to be controlled” is accurate — we’ll suspend our disbelief for a moment. If “Chinese people” do not have any restrictions, our army of tens of millions of officers will just become tens of millions of He Shens (和珅)**. Specialists in embezzling money do not serve to govern our country, especially those current officials who make up more than a few per thousand of the crime rate; the profession has gotten rid of inhibition, they will just levy exorbitant taxes, resulting in a vision of people living in dire poverty; if we get rid of legal deterrents, those jackals, tigers, and leopards will just run amok, exploiting the common people; out of our China will appear countless Wang Jingweis who betray the country for personal gain. There will be more “Dalai Lamas” throwing themselves in the laps of Western leaders and selling their bodies as slaves; there will be more “Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movements” and “Free Tibets” threatening the country and people’s security; also there will certainly be a trend to destruction. Don’t the people who scream in loud voices to make “Jackie Chan apologize” know that they harbor bad intentions?

Our fatherland has become strong, its international standing has increased, and many of the previously Great Powers have had to look up at us Chinese when we have spoken. But, humility is the kind of national blood which should always flow through our veins. In terms of the kind of speeches similar to Sharon Stone which harm Chinese people’s feelings, we should put our feet down and protest. But when it comes to ignoring critical words that come from different, well-intentioned points of view and are based on solid evidence, narrowly speaking this is a question of an individual’s character; broadly speaking it is a question of ethnic character. We really abhor the incident when the Japanese leader “paid respect to Yasukuni Shrine,” which simply owes to the Japanese race’s blood flowing with a narrow-minded, selfish, unscrupulous vital fluid. Could it be that we Chinese people also want to learn from the Japanese and this kind of mindset?

It can be seen from much of the media that, by make a loud uproar for Jackie Chan’s speech — except for some unknown, confused Chinese people who follow foreigners — these sounds best reflect the inner heart of opposition that comes from the Democratic Progressive Party. The Democratic Progressive Party’s opposition is based on two points: first, Jackie Chan should not put Taiwan in the category of “China;” second, it is because the Democratic Progressive Party “must be controlled” that they do not dare to help themselves!

Friends, do we still want Jackie Chan to apologize? Please do not forget Jackie Chan who donated so much money to last year’s Sichuan earthquake region! We should cheer on Jackie Chan’s true sentence!

ORIGINAL STORY:
成龙的一句实话，触怒了哪些中国人？

NOTES:
* After her comments following the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Sharon Stone has become a shorthand among Chinese bloggers for a person voicing a generalized anti-Chinese sentiment.

**He Shen was a Manchu official of the Qing dynasty, arrested for corruption and condemned to “slow slicing.”

A UFO spotting in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, is covered on TV news.

ORIGINAL LINK:
YouTube

Peasants have been a hot topic lately in China. An article that appeared earlier this month in New Weekly took a long look at China’s largest group of citizens and their place in modern society. The piece offers a fascinating glimpse into the language that defines them, the pop culture and the folklore that can stigmatize or celebrate them, as it builds to a passionate conclusion: “In our hearts, we all are the offspring of peasants, we are all a species spawned from the earth of China.” The original article is in five parts. Here is the first section…

都是农民！30年来城市与农民的纠葛
All are Peasants! 30 Years Since the Mixing of City and Peasantry

1949 — 112 in every 1,000 Chinese people lived in cities.

1978 — 180 in every 1,000.

2008 — 456 in every 1,000.

Today, 606 million Chinese people live in 655 cities and 20,000 towns; basically these are the progeny of the peasantry, they are the offspring of China’s industrialization and urbanization processes.

Today, 720 million Chinese people live in the countryside – among them, every year 226 million of the countryside’s labor force enter rural and small town enterprises and enter cities to obtain employment, turning into migrant workers.

The “three farming” problem [1] hangs in doubt; Chinese cities and peasantry are tangled up as one body, but with sides clearly drawn – Chinese society’s surface is city, and underneath it is the peasantry, but the peasantry in the cities lack equal treatment. In some cities, the government and people’s vested interest as city people, reaffirmed by making “class origin theory” a precondition of residency, stands in the way of migrant workers identifying themselves as such, thus depriving them of their opportunity. They discriminate against peasants, but forget that the peasantry is the root of Chinese society.

The group most worthy of tribute and commendation during the 30 years of opening up, the ignored pride of China, is that of the peasant workers. Without their rough hands, the so-called sudden rise of a great nation, the so-called China miracle, the so-called world factory, and so-called urbanization, could never have come into existence.

We who live in cities, we must thank and help peasants and migrant workers – they are where we come from, and are our brothers to whom we have been indebted for many years.

Peasants and city folk’s thirty year entanglement

What people are peasants?

Modernization will cut China’s traditional society into two halves: one half is the bright focus, the other is downcast with no light; one half progresses with each day, the other half is stagnant. If you are not lucky to be born into one half, I am sorry, you drew the lower lot. To be born as a peasant, you must spend more effort than city people to be able to live an honorable life.

The mixture of two worlds goes along with the magnificent theme of Chinese urbanization. In spite of the other world, this world is also predicted to stop once it has begun.

Smash the city-country duality, awaken Chinese peasants’ immense potential, economists please consider it, it should increase China’s GDP how many hundreds of percent?

Looking back on the 30 years of opening up, it seems to be missing one important theme: gratitude. Today, we again take up this theme, thanking peasants, especially thanking the two million migrant workers. Without their rough hands, the so-called sudden rise of a great nation, the so-called China miracle, the so-called world factory, would not have been able to come into existence.

Except for society’s entrepreneurs who feel their responsibility, aside from the wealth of enterprising officials and conscientious intellectuals, the largest group to contribute to the 30 years of opening up is peasant workers. They are the number one meritorious reformers; they ought to receive good treatment. Presently, the economic crisis is moving deeper; again they become the first casualties.

Any setting straight of the balance between peasants and city people, is a problem confronted by all previous Chinese leaders and also every city person. Give a gift back to the peasantry, city people must transfer their advantage; it is not based on a temporary conscientious discovery, it is designed in the system. Conceptually disentangle the dead knot of the title “peasant,” even more necessary is the force of bravery and long-lost traditional morality.

How did “peasant” become an adjective?

Behind the stigmatization of the peasantry, there is the establishment of some kind of identity superiority complex

According to guard Li Yinqiao’s memory, after entering the city Mao Zedong still had a liking for red braised meat, and so unable to avoid provoking Jiang Qing’s nagging, said it is just the custom of the peasantry. One time when he was annoyed by the nagging, Mao Zedong said in a loud voice: “What’s wrong with the peasantry? I am a peasant!”

Jiang Qing’s nagging was not wrong on the grounds of health, the incorrectness was with the association of the petty bourgeoisie with the peasantry. It isn’t too hard to find an example of one’s breeding in the old picture of Mao’s wife scratching her head on the beach, an expensive trip for a red “revolutionary pathbreaker.”

Petty bourgeoisie sentimentality regards the peasantry as provincial. “Real peasant!” is an oft said sneer of the petty bourgeoisie. “Peasant” becomes an adjective. Actually, petty bourgeoisie is also an adjective: “you are just petty bourgeoisie!”

Sociologists call this stigmatization, namely one group emphasizing human inferiorities to achieve some kind of superiority complex over another group. Stigmatization reflects a kind of unilateral power to create nomenclature. Even if it’s in Zhao Benshan, Xiao Gangfen’s style of humor real peasants are still the “silent majority,” actually that humor is all still the joke of city people.

In the media of city people, it is not difficult to find that stigmatization of workers has become normal, it seems this is the nature of the peasantry. As a result whenever a crime occurs, city people first associate it with workers who just entered the city.

A migrant workers’ song promoted by local governments for “care” and “education” says: petty farmers mentality must drop off, saying rude things makes people unable to accept; decorations are in the owner’s home, unclean hands and feet will offend… urinating everywhere is not permitted, shave your beard cut your hair everyday wash your feet; do not watch pornographic movies and read tabloids, study to enhance cultural qualities… (Migrant Brothers’ Three Main Rules and Eight Points of Attention).

“Blind influx” is a term which was earliest used in the 1953 National Government Affairs’ publication Prescription against Peasants’ Blind Influx into Cities. Initially, “blind influx” was an abbreviated verb form of the noun “blind stream from outside,” indicating those peasants blindly pouring into cities. And following society’s trends, the meaning of this term has been added to by many colorful moral judgments (some scholars have pointed out, the pronunciation of “blind influx” reversed is “hooligan”), allowing for the rationalization of brutal arrests of the “blind influx.” [2] Sun Zhigang’s tragedy finally led to the abolition of the Prescription.

From “blind influx” to “peasant worker,” within these words is incorporated a stigmatizing tendency, as well as a kind of demotion: peasants should not have the rights and treatment of city people, and in order to establish some kind of moral superiority complex, peasants are cultural retards.

Nanjing academics established study groups on the media image of migrant workers, from statistics on Yangzi Evening News it was discovered: in 2001 the image of migrant workers occupied 10% of their reports, 66.7% of which were negative. Embodying filth, spitting everywhere, stealing, misbehaving, barbarianism and other forms of stigmatization, as well as speaking rudely, unclean hands and feet, urinating everywhere, watching pornographic movies and tabloids

The media and internet forums belong to city people, they make a powerful semiotic field, denouncing and demonizing some people, flattering and canonizing some other people. Today, whichever city people dare admit, “what is the matter with peasants! I am a peasant!” require bravery and the ability to examine their own morality.

Does disdaining the peasantry make them “foreign?”

The story of native and foreign, busy “changing” in order to enter the city.

In 1949, China’s urban population made up 10% of the total, nine in every ten were peasants; in 1980, China’s urban population did not pass 19%, four in every five were peasants, this kind of low growth was related to “go and work in the countryside or mountain areas” and other ideas contrary to the policy of urbanization. In 2008, China’s urban population achieved 45% of the total (international average is 50%).

In this way, the majority of today’s city people have come from the countryside during the past 60 years. The majority of people in cities wearing bright clothes, their predecessors were all peasants.

The interesting thing is that most of them do not recognize or purposefully forget this ancestry. This causes people to remember the story of “changes” in the early days of liberation. What was the first problem of individualism cadres entering cities wanted to address? It was “change,” country girls becoming city girls. A Passionate Life is the television version, the real life version’s Shi Guanrong should have a country wife. Most cadres did not date, their parents already arranged marriage in the countryside. This country girl does not wear makeup, is not highly cultured, but can have children to honor her parents. She cannot seem like the city girl type and is easily cynical toward her impoverished marital situation.

The story of “changing” endlessly repeats throughout history, the difference is only in the protagonist and version. Modern university students say “first year is native, second year is foreign, third year one does not know father and mother;” after opening up, youth educated in the countryside have a ballad, Small Virtue.

The girl in Small Virtue is beautiful and kind, with a thick and long braid, but she is not the match of other girls, she is flirtatious but cannot become the object of attention, “modernization” is dangerous. This “modernized” beautiful person still desires what is called “fashionable.” It is not only cadres, educated youth, college students, but every city person flirts with “fashionable girls,” everything breaks down. Those who represent “fashion” are the first to move forward, and then all advance with the times. And advancing with the times is not wrong, only one cannot forget who one is. Real life city people, they do not have much obligation and conscious guilt in the style of the singer Li Chunbo. This is not a meaningless argument.

Modernization will cut China’s traditional society into two halves: one half is the bright focus, the other is downcast with no light; one half progresses with each day, the other half is stagnant. If you are not lucky to be born into one half, I am sorry, you drew the lower lot. To be born as a peasant, you must spend more effort than city people to be able to live an honorable life. People in the world of country villages must expend double or more than double the effort to be able to surpass the graceful life of city people. The internet article I struggled 18 years just to drink a cup of coffee with you expresses the bitterness of peasant children. The chances for peasant children to achieve success like aerospace elite Zhai Zhigang are too few. The peasant woman who exclaims “mistresses are preferable, do not marry poor people,” is an accurate portrait. [3] Modernization enabled the media to construct an excessively strong language space, everything “foreign” could arbitrarily ravage everything “native.”

A Western saying goes, three generations produce nobility. Before three generations all are peasants, three generations is enough to produce a city person: pocketed pants, goggles, dyed hair, a cockeyed expression, it really is a new person. But in our hearts, we all are the offspring of peasants, we are all a species spawned from the earth of China.

Chinese society is in itself rural; Fei Xiaotong’s thesis from 80 years ago is still applicable today, it can still be applied to a society interlaced with native and foreign. When we hesitate to discard “native,” when we open our hearts to accept “foreign,” we examine our conscience and our manner of thinking is that behavior and customs are not that person, that guileless and intelligent peasant. Do you think that if you change your vest I do not know you?

ORIGINAL STORY:
都是农民！30年来城市与农民的纠葛

NOTES:
[1] The “three farming” problem refers to problems related to agriculture, the countryside, and the peasantry. In Chinese, these terms all begin with the character 农, indicating a relation to farming. China sees these three areas as essential to their national character, economic progress, social stabilization, and national might.

[2] 盲流 is “blind influx,” while 流氓 is “hooligan.”

[3] http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/free/1/1421865.shtml. An example of the many populist articles on the Chinese Internet that express the hardships and virtue of Chinese peasants.

A blogger at Supesite takes a dim view of today’s Chinese Internet users, but also sees some encouraging signs…

“人肉搜索”凸显中国网民易被诱导
‘Human flesh searches’ underscore how easily Chinese netizens are swayed

Presently, China has about 253 million Internet users; it is the country with the world’s largest Internet population, and of them 70% are not yet 30 years old. Despite Internet users not amounting to even 19% of the total Chinese population, Western news reporters, academics, even foreign public relation firms all pay attention to Chinese Internet forums, searching among comments and feedback on everything from contemporary politics to the stock market to corporate mergers and acquisitions.

But how much do Internet users understand these things? Do they really have profound knowledge? There are conditions under which Chinese youth go online, and it is not presumed that they have sufficient information to make important judgments and evaluations of things. Presently, there is this kind of risk: comments on Chinese forums are taken by people to be the result of independent free thinking. Actually, the condition is better stated as the opposite, Chinese Internet users are easily guided.

For example, the famous Chinese blogger Wang Xiaofeng does not encourage visitors on his blog to write comments*. Maybe Wang Xiaofeng does not want to allow his blog to be messed up, but he is very clear; visitors usually do not have anything very interesting to say. Comments on Chinese forums often only need one word, require simplicity, and very rarely can they express people’s ideas, often they are “props,” or “great.”

For a better explanation of this state of ignorance, maybe we can look at a strange phenomena to recently emerge in China: “human flesh search engines.” This [term] indicates the online stalking of people’s actual circumstances, then using speech to humiliate them, as well as the act of publishing their personal information online. In 2007, after a husband had an affair, a Beijing woman Jiang Yan jumped from a building killing herself, and left behind her blog. Her blog was quickly circulated around the Internet. For the sake of a “grievance” on her behalf, a family member created a website called “migrant bird flies north.” After reading that website’s posts, maybe Internet users would slander her husband to death. Subsequently, they found out where Jiang Yan’s husband’s family lives and other personal information, and harassed them. Following this, Jiang Yan’s husband filed a lawsuit against a few websites that republished Jiang Yan’s blog.

This kind of mob domino effect reappears on the Chinese Internet; it shows how easily Internet users are induced, as anybody can become a target.

Luckily, so far human flesh search engines have still not created serious damage. But participants’ blindness cannot be ignored or excused.

Chinese bloggers are often well-informed, so their statements are sometimes more readable. But there are many people who comment unreasonably. In China, opinions very easily tend towards extremes and verbal abuse. Most appear to be of the same opinion, but it is also possible to find many independent, carefully thought out ideas. The problem for foreign observers is that these opinions sometimes are written in Chinese; they must be translated to be understood, but exerting this kind of hard work is worth it. ❑

Translated by Jason Weinberg

*On his blog entries, Wang calls commenters “chimps.” When describing the intent of his blog, he writes, “This blog welcomes visitors, but does not recommend leaving comments; this blog’s contents just express my own viewpoint, they do not represent my unit’s or other organization’s viewpoints, please do not make careless associations; commercial websites and paper media reprints require my approval and must pay royalties. Non-commercial websites and media can freely reprint and do not have to pay royalties, but must give credit or trackbacks…” Wang Xiaofeng’s blog can be read here: http://www.wangxiaofeng.net/.

ORIGINAL STORY:
“人肉搜索”凸显中国网民易被诱导

Much has been made recently of China’s “human flesh search engines” (人肉搜索), the Web 2.0 courts of public opinion unique to this country, which strip people of their anonymity and open them to mob justice. CS Monitor, Forbes, and the LA Times have each recently given their take on the tactics, as did writer Xujun Eberlein, who cited “marital affairs, sex scandals and violence” as the topics likeliest to stir the pot, though political statements can just as often set off the manhunt.

A month ago, 4-year-old Wang Huxun went missing, and now he is splashed across the forums. His case demonstrates the other side of the human flesh hunt, the attempt to cast a net and rein in the nuclear unit, instead of winding up and unleashing the brunt of modern Chinese anger.

A website called Baobei Huijia (宝贝回家), or Baby Come Home, has sprung up around cases like Wang’s. The Chinese Internet fixation may treble a lot of righteous indignation, but it also raises the voices of the disenfranchised, the displaced, or simply the broken-hearted.

An earlier article about Wang Wenxiao, another missing child, quoted the mother thanking individuals and TV stations for responding to her post. She writes to her child in the third person: “Mama posted on the Internet that she was looking for her son, Mama went to every possible place looking for her son… too many, too many good-hearted people, Mama doesn’t even know their names, they also helped Mama look for her son.”

On another page at NetEase, a girl is looking for her mother. She titled her post, “Mama…Can you hear me? Daughter searches for you?”

What follows is the description of the first boy mentioned, Wang Huxun, which has received 1,404 reader comments. Following that, a look at a blog the mother keeps, in which she writes messages to her missing boy.

Looking for Missing 4-Year-Old Child, Wang Huxun

Name: Wang Huxun, nicknamed Xun Xun, boy, 4 years old, 1.02 meters tall, disappeared on November 11, 2008 from a toy store next to a vegetable market in Guilin, Guangxi province, at that time he was wearing a yellow and black zippered jacket, blue pants, and orange shoes, there is a mole on the right side of the child’s face, in the middle of his eyebrows is a scar from falling on a sewing needle when he was younger.  If there is somebody who knows information, please contact me, reward of two million yuan!

Xun Xun is my middle school classmate’s child, it has already been two months since he went missing, in these two months, Xun Xun’s parents hearts have sunk from an uncommon suffering, but they have not ceased searching Xun Xun’s footsteps, my friend relies upon friends and acquaintances, they have searched the entire county, including going into all of remote mountain grottos, every time they entered a cave, everybody held their breath, nobody dared to make a sound, because they expected Xun Xun to come out, and they were afraid to see what accidents may have happened to Xun Xun.

After Xun Xun went missing, we posted advertisements on television, in newspapers, online message boards, etc., exhausting every sort of method.  At present it has been in many programs, already many media outlets have given reports, Zhejiang Satellite TV’s Search King program, Guilin TV’s Nearby program, Guangxi TV’s Information Nightly News program, Guanyang County TV, Guilin Evening Paper, etc., but until now, there has still not been even a little information about Xun Xun.

Children are parents’ everything, they are the meat of their minds.  For money, human traffickers will do any act without conscience, kidnapping children, it amounts to digging out parents’ hearts, just leaving them a shell. This is a crime beyond murder.  Children are harmless, they are small, leaving their parents, what kind of life will they experience?  Can they eat enough and sleep well? Will they miss their father and mother?  Winter is becoming colder and colder, will children shiver in the cold wind?  Poor children!  Thinking about these things cannot help but made people’s hearts ache, and weep…

One person’s strength is limited, but the whole population’s strength is formidable.  Sincerely entreating everybody, help me circulate this advertisement looking for the boy, use every means possible, to the best of your abilities allow more people to see Xun Xun’s picture, memorize his features, let us together illuminate the street lamps for Xun Xun’s road to return home….

Thank you everybody!  Thank you! I bow down!

Keep in mind the boy’s parents look for their son with no outcome, they cannot help but be in tears.

A few days ago, the mother wrote this message to her son:

“The World still has Warmth!”

Xun Xun, maybe right now you are somewhere crying alone?  Maybe your vision is blank, your heart is thinking: why have dad and mom still not come to meet me?  Baby, don’t be afraid, we always are looking for you, Mama has already not spoken with you for a few days, every time I come online, each time sobs do not become sounds.

Today, Mom really wants to tell you: “Baby, don’t be afraid, the message that we are looking for you has already gone up on 163.com’s homepage!” Yesterday already had many millions of aunts and uncles knowing you, they are all helping us look for you. Maybe you still don’t understand what Mama is saying, right, you are that small, you are barely a four-year-old child, but what ruthless-hearted person would just take you away from our side? Mama’s heart aches very much, eyes are pouring tears, but this heart is dripping blood! Baby, don’t be afraid, you should be a little stronger, just be like Dad and Mom, crying people must also swallow rice, even if it’s not digested, they also must eat! You must be brave, otherwise they definitely will always beat you, you must learn how to protect yourself.

Baby, Mama really misses you very much! 163.com and all netizens, it is you all who allow us to feel that there is still warmth in life, allow us to not again be soldiers fighting alone, allow us on the road searching for our child to still be able to feel life’s real affection, child, remember the road home, family without you is not complete!

– Translated by Jason Weinberg

ORIGINAL LINKS:
Baobei Huijia: 宝贝回家
Wang Huxun’s notice: 【网易爱心大搜救】寻找走失的4岁儿童王胡迅
Wang Wenxiao’s notice: 启动人肉搜索 为可怜母亲寻子 王文骁妈妈等你回家
Notice for missing mother: 妈妈···你可听到？女儿在找你？
Wang Huxun’s mother’s blog: 寻找走失的4岁儿童王胡迅

ARTICLES CITED:
Christian Science Monitor, “China’s virtual vigilantes: Civic action or cyber mobs?”
Forbes, “The Human Flesh Search Engine”
Los Angeles Times, “Cyberspace gumshoes are afoot in China”
The New Yorker, “Angry Youth: The new generation’s neocon nationalists”

A short article at sina.com provides a look into a sex ed class for prostitutes in Guangzhou. Even as AIDS activists are being detained or barred from traveling in China (see Li Xige), some Chinese are celebrating AIDS education among the country’s most vulnerable groups…

‘小姐’集体宣誓真实培训过程
Prostitutes* Collectively Swear an Oath and “Persuade Customers to Wear Condoms” — An Actual Training Course

First, it should be explained, this “training” is not normal “traning,” it is not, as some people would expect, training to make prostitutes more expert; it is a kind of educational course for intervention on behalf of people who are at high risk of contracting AIDS.

Yesterday, it was reported that Guangzhou prostitutes collectively swore an oath, “without condoms, no sex,” causing an uproar.  Many people criticize this kind of method as coddling prostitutes, and some people put forward that Guangzhou departments are just using World AIDS Day to make an impact.

Actually, this kind of prostitute health oath was already being done as early as a few years ago, furthermore many select locations across the country have all done this kind of oath — all are “high risk intervention task forces” who conduct AIDS protection interventions for high risk groups to persuade them to take the oath.

This involved a key person — Fang Shaoping.  He is the author of the oath to use condoms.  As it were, he is a hero in the history of Chinese AIDS prevention, because the work was too sensitive and controversial, and was very low-key, it was only understood by experts, very few people heard about it.  This contributed to holding back China’s rise in AIDS,  presumably it will be recorded in AIDS prevention history.

Fang Shaoping is China’s greatest AIDS high risk people group intervention course teacher. In the industry, he is the expert who has “touched” the most prostitutes; in 1991, he began researching AIDS prevention and high risk group intervention. He not only engaged in AIDS prevention interventions for prostitutes, he also trained “high risk intervention task force members” in famous places across the country, allowing more “high risk intervention task force members” to go and effectively guide prostitutes.

ORIGINAL STORY:
‘小姐’集体宣誓真实培训过程

NOTES:
* 小姐 (literally, “little older sister” or “little lady”) is written in quote marks throughout the article to connote “prostitute.”

Yang Shiqun, a professor at the top-tier East China University of Political Science and Law, has been accused by two female students of criticizing his own government during class, an idle charge in an American or European setting, but one which may mean the end of Yang’s career in China. The girls went to their public security bureau and Shanghai’s municipal education committee to report the so-called counterrevolutionary content, and an investigation has already begun.

China Media Project featured an article by journalist Wang Xiaoyu in Southern Metropolis Daily that lends tacit support to the accused: “That a university professor at a college of political science and law would be incriminated by their own words — this is something more absurd than one would expect to find even in the genre of fantasy.” But the same writer thinks Yang’s prospects are dim.

Here, we have translated the teacher’s own statement, which was posted by a Chinese blogger on Tianya’s forums, as well as a few of the most recent reader comments. The introduction in the post is the blogger’s own; the rest is Yang Shiqun’s:

现在进行时：匪夷所思的案件－－有同学告我是’反革命’
Going on Right Now: An Incredible Case — Students Accused Me of Being “Counterrevolutionary”

Incredibly, two female East China University of Political Science and Law students actually reported their professor, Yang, to the police. But, their professor Yang was in the classroom giving comments or expressing his own opinion! I cannot understand why, those two girls should have been born during the pro-democracy movement, they cannot understand, their elders should be experienced, or at least should have been a little enlightened. Nobody get agitated, it is time to move along!

Below is the East China University of Political Science and Law professor’s statement:

Classmates Reported Me as “Counterrevolutionary”
Today, the leaders called me to go have a meeting, saying that during “Ancient Chinese Language” class, students went to the police and city teacher’s association to report me, saying that during class I criticized the government among other things, and the above was already on file for investigation. It was actually ironic: a politics university’s students are actually on the same conceptual road as the cultural revolution, for being able to accuse professors of being counterrevolutionary by any means at all. They are sad, these Chinese university students!

I remember, during “Ancient Chinese Language” class, of course I would criticize some written texts which concern Chinese traditional culture, if some questions about traditional culture have relevance with today, I also would make connections with contemportary times and comment on the government.

I remember, after class there were two female classmates looking for me, indignantly condemning the way I criticized Chinese culture! Criticizing the government! Indeed, their eyes already contained tears. I greatly admire students with this kind of devotion to Chinese culture and the Chinese government, you have this kind of right! But why do I not have the right to comment on Chinese culture and government? So I told them: I also have the right to express my own opinion, if you do not want to attend my class, then in the future do not choose my class, and that’s that. Unawares, they actually went higher up to accuse me, indeed, adding salt to an open wound*, they added “groundless” accusations, actually suprising me**.

It needs to be known, if this kind of thing were discovered during the late Qing dynasty, maybe people would still believe it: and to say that it occured during the republic’s “May 4th” period, nobody would believe it. You know, young people at that time already basically accepted the concepts “democracy,” “freedom,” “human rights,” so normally we wouldn’t find this kind of strange event. Nonetheless, now, in 21st Century China and in Chinese universities, there can often be found such incredible things. Thinking about the most recent strange events found in Chinese schools, I just have a silent prayer for Chinese society and people: when will Chinese society be able to walk away from ignorance? When will Chinese education be able to get on track? When will Chinese students be able to compare well-balanced ideas?

NOTES:
* 添油加醋 literally means “adding fat and vinegar”
** 大跌眼睛 literally means “glasses to crash down”

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ORIGINAL STORY:
现在进行时：匪夷所思的案件－－有同学告我是”反革命”