July 17, 2013
Chinese protesters gather for food, drink, and crime.
In China, protesters use eating and drinking as a cover to discuss politics and social issues. Photo via Boxun.
The 2011 Jasmine Revolution succeeded worldwide. In its success it not only changed the geopolitical roadmap of the Middle East, it also generated an earthquake in China.
During this period a new method of protest was launched by online activists. It was called the “walk and smile” campaign, and was adopted by hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens. During the spring of 2011, every Sunday afternoon at around 2 o’clock, people would walk to an appointed place in their town and amass together. This is known as the “circle and watch” method (weiguan) and happened in many large cities throughout the country. Nothing makes the government more nervous than when people gather in a public space; officials feel that the situation can get out of control. For this reason, government officials started to disperse the crowd, forbidding the assembly and arresting the instigators as well as the suspicious spiritual leaders involved. As a result, writers and lawyers like Ran Yunfei in Chengdu, Ye Du in Guangzhou, Teng Biao in Beijing, and others were put into jail prophylactically for several months.
After this, on the surface, the revolution died down in China. Yet a surging undercurrent of it exists all over the country because the economic situation is getting worse; deflation troubles banks and scares consumers; the government’s fight against corruption is faltering; polluted food makes people panic and causes them to buy foreign products.
So where can people share their agony, fear, and dissatisfaction? “To eat and get drunk in the same city” (Chinese: tongcheng fan zui) is a new citizen initiative designed to address this problem. There is no organization, no leader, just one sentence on a website which explains where and when they will meet for dinner.
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