Posted on 21 September 2014 by Katherine Morton<\/p>\n
As part of the robust engagement of the People\u2019s Republic of China with media and academic opinion internationally, outspoken interventions, pointed critiques as well as rambunctious declamations are increasingly common. This should be the cause of celebration: multiple voices from China on topics of moment will surely enrich our understanding of that important country and the variety of professional and public opinion.<\/p>\n
Whereas in the academic environment a multiplicity of views and interpretations of ideas, incidents and facts is the lifeblood of intellectual life, sadly the all-too-often set pieces of party-state propaganda masquerading as authoritative media or personal opinion frequently reduce the complex, nuanced and varied views of Chinese thinkers, scholars, media workers and everyday people to a dull and belaboured monotone.<\/p>\n
In recent years the dreaded \u2018Hall of the Unified Voice\u2019 \u4e00\u8a00\u5802 of the High-Maoist Era has reappeared with baleful, and often risible, results.<\/p>\n
When I last lectured at the TOChina Summer School in Turin in 2013, I devoted one session to the rejigged concept of The China Dream, its histories and interpretations. Mainland Chinese participants, although of varied backgrounds and very different personal opinions (in private) felt that, after one of their number requested that she be given time to make a \u2018personal\u2019 statement on the subject of The China Dream, they all had to fall in line publicly and, hands raised, chorused a series of anodyne and vacuous declarations. If nothing else, I remarked to the non-Mainland students present, they had an insight into the Communist-inculcated cultural practice of \u2018performative declamation\u2019 \u8868\u6001, a form of verbal posturing, an example of \u2018group think\u2019 aimed at presenting a united front in the face of independent thinking. It\u2019s just this kind of knee-jerk solidarity that also vouchsafes the individual against the ever-present threat of being reported to the authorities back home.<\/p>\n
Posted on 21 September 2014 by Katherine … Continue reading
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