The last paragraph/question takes on added weight in the era of social media...wherein system platforms are specifically designed and operated to maximize extremist engagement. It is not a medium for intelligent discourse. Plus....humans. We're talking humans here. Humans are a problem.
Per "Youth"...I saw it in the theater when it was released. It resonates poignantly with olde people (me). It takes a bit of life experience to appreciate it. I can easily see young people giving it a yawn.
Godfather I & II....and Farewell My Concubine. I can watch any of them over and over. I own FMC....I've watched it so many times, if it was a vinyl record it would be worn out. My current laugh riot...Death of Stalin. Black as black humor can get.
Kurt: you might be amused to learn that in 1993 Weinstein/ Miramax hired me to clean up the English subtitles of “Farewell My Concubine”, a film made by an old friend. Geremie
Amused...more like impressed. I've seen a few different variations, some where the language was apparently cleaned up, one that clearly went through the CPC washing machine with entire sections excised, and one that I own that...I've been told by friends...is original, with appropriately foul language, as it should be for such an emotional film.
When Dieyi is left at the 科班/kēbān by his mother, she exits, Dieyi turns and sees only an empty gate...snow gently falling outside...is there any other scene in all of cinema portraying loss as painfully and truthfully? (No.)
You know Chen Kaige? YOU KNOW CHEN KAIGE?!? OK, I'll calm down. His film is a masterpiece. Fie on anyone thinking otherwise. I have been transfixed by FMC since the first time I saw it. I own a total of approximately 12 films; FMC is one of them.
Kurt: I first met members of the post-Mao generation of Chinese film-makers in 1981, when they were still studying at the Film Academy. We shared a lot of cinematic interests as I was working with film people both in Italy and Hong Kong. Got to know Kaige after he finished “Yellow Earth”, and we featured it in our 1986 book “Seeds of Fire”:
The early Chinese films...money short, folks feeling their way, the work was raw, unadorned...image oriented where any frame could be sliced out, matted and hung on a wall as a perfect composition...those are awesome films. (Ju Dou, another favorite I've watched a dozen times.)
You're certainly right about the limitations of social media. The companies want maximum engagement, and you get engagement by playing on strong emotions. The stronger the emotion, the more engagement you receive. So they play up outrage and stoke hatred as a business model. And no one is immune.
I know very little about China, it's people or it's history, but it's interesting to read that they are having some of the same issues we're having in the West with governments struggling to thread the needle between different online extremists. Censorship is obnoxious to thoughtful, curious people, but not everyone is thoughtful or curious.
Lenin warned, even once speaking to the Duma vociferously railed, against Russian Chauvinism. His warning eventually turned into a system of corrupted local fiefdoms. In part because the official line didn't allow for any discussion / complaints that the way the policy was implemented did not give rise to a unified proletariat (while also) allowing wide cultural difference. The censorship by the capitalist class in western media does not bode well for any peaceful resolution of the tendency for capitalism to concentrate everything. Joseph Kennedy kept telling FDR and anyone who'd listen, "the solution for communism is fascism." I know not what will come, but If the system can't allow for healing, then something will replace it. Let's hope the consultative process keeps working or we'll all be up (the) boiling creek running over a waterfall with no paddle.
Americans tend toward seeing societal history is a win-lose linear progression. Chinese, more accurately, tend toward understanding history as ascendant and descendant cycles.
The first manner of belief is a trap one can't get out of. The second manner is closer to the truth. Of course, one then points to Carthage or the Mayan, but in the broad context, isn't that also cyclical?
It's all part of my imaginary book..."Humans: Weird, Aren't They?"....with the subheading "Or Is it Stupidity?"...but I may need to change it to keep me in running for the Pulitzer For Imaginary Books.
However, I wonder if this 'extremism' is less about a lack of historical knowledge and more about current social frustration? If people were happy and optimistic today, they would likely watch a movie like Youth for pure entertainment.
It feels like the past has become the only 'safe' language left for people to express their unhappiness with the present. This explains why the government is so quick to censor these narratives: they aren't just protecting historical facts; they are trying to shut down the implication that life in 1644 or 1966 was somehow 'fairer' or 'better' than life in 2025. In a system where you can't criticize the present, romanticizing the past becomes a radical act of protest.
So we should be grateful for censorship in China?😃 seriously, I have no issue with censorship that censors out rubbish and let’s society engage in reasoned discussion. We have enough prejudice and misinformation to contend with, even with the best censorship regime that can be constructed.
Generally speaking, in China, whether it's the Maoist left or the nationalist right, they are completely powerless against the Communist Party. The vast majority are merely keyboard warriors seeking attention. With just a slight breath from the government, they would scatter in all directions. Rather than worrying about online populism, it is more important to be concerned about those conspirators hidden within the government. Until the recent successful push to seal drug use records, no one could have imagined that they actually possess the power to accomplish certain things and cause real damage.
Some of the information, particularly the woman making fake videos of Chinese being insulted by supposed employees of Japanese institutions in China show the lack of courage and clarity in what is and isn't acceptable to censor needs work. One of the supposed strengths of government censorship over corporates censorship is that there should be some mechanisms to both set out what is censored and what isn't, a system of of appeal, but lastly it should give rise to wider oversight of high risk individuals. One would hope there would be a restraining order against this woman or any of her followers coming within 500 meters of a Japanese school, and (just as it is allowed in the USA) when the incitement to violence is direct, jail time :(where in China at least there might be some chance of re-education, it's pure punishment, plus economic exploitation as slave labour by corporations inside the jail).
China’s people have so much history! And China’s history has taught them to love peace and hate turmoil.
Am I alone to think that J. R. Tolkien’s Hobbits represent China’s core ideology? Forget the furry feet or physical differences….Hobbits value settled communities and stability. In many ways, Confucius codified Hobbit ideology.
In any Hobbit community, of course extremism is looked down upon.
We want to live our lives in peace. Change is good and progress is good, but let it be gradual and don’t let it be disruptive.
Remember, we have loved ones to feed and babies to care for…
Very well written, however, even in countries with plenty of public discourse, we still see extremism grows. Is extremism really caused by suppression?
On a different but related track, Robert, is it fanciful of me to suspect a connection between the crackdowns on both left and right, on the one hand, and the seeming purge of several Generals on the other?
Is it possible that the latter and/or the PLA writ larger, were planning a coup against Xi, or even the party itself? Have elements within China’s foreign and domestic big business communities, intelligence services, or the NED’s and MI6’s of this world, latched on to an groundswell of disaffection among the the youth and/or unemployed over joblessness or the looming prospect thereof? And are shit stirring.
Or, in the case of the fired Generals, is it simply a case of corruption. I ask because if similar dismissals occurred in Africa, the immediate conclusion would be ‘regime change’, something I dread to even contemplate.
The last paragraph/question takes on added weight in the era of social media...wherein system platforms are specifically designed and operated to maximize extremist engagement. It is not a medium for intelligent discourse. Plus....humans. We're talking humans here. Humans are a problem.
Per "Youth"...I saw it in the theater when it was released. It resonates poignantly with olde people (me). It takes a bit of life experience to appreciate it. I can easily see young people giving it a yawn.
I like it! Won't be my favorite but like it. I am more of a Godfather type of guy :D
Godfather I & II....and Farewell My Concubine. I can watch any of them over and over. I own FMC....I've watched it so many times, if it was a vinyl record it would be worn out. My current laugh riot...Death of Stalin. Black as black humor can get.
Kurt: you might be amused to learn that in 1993 Weinstein/ Miramax hired me to clean up the English subtitles of “Farewell My Concubine”, a film made by an old friend. Geremie
Amused...more like impressed. I've seen a few different variations, some where the language was apparently cleaned up, one that clearly went through the CPC washing machine with entire sections excised, and one that I own that...I've been told by friends...is original, with appropriately foul language, as it should be for such an emotional film.
When Dieyi is left at the 科班/kēbān by his mother, she exits, Dieyi turns and sees only an empty gate...snow gently falling outside...is there any other scene in all of cinema portraying loss as painfully and truthfully? (No.)
You know Chen Kaige? YOU KNOW CHEN KAIGE?!? OK, I'll calm down. His film is a masterpiece. Fie on anyone thinking otherwise. I have been transfixed by FMC since the first time I saw it. I own a total of approximately 12 films; FMC is one of them.
Kurt: I first met members of the post-Mao generation of Chinese film-makers in 1981, when they were still studying at the Film Academy. We shared a lot of cinematic interests as I was working with film people both in Italy and Hong Kong. Got to know Kaige after he finished “Yellow Earth”, and we featured it in our 1986 book “Seeds of Fire”:
Wow...he said.
The early Chinese films...money short, folks feeling their way, the work was raw, unadorned...image oriented where any frame could be sliced out, matted and hung on a wall as a perfect composition...those are awesome films. (Ju Dou, another favorite I've watched a dozen times.)
You're certainly right about the limitations of social media. The companies want maximum engagement, and you get engagement by playing on strong emotions. The stronger the emotion, the more engagement you receive. So they play up outrage and stoke hatred as a business model. And no one is immune.
I know very little about China, it's people or it's history, but it's interesting to read that they are having some of the same issues we're having in the West with governments struggling to thread the needle between different online extremists. Censorship is obnoxious to thoughtful, curious people, but not everyone is thoughtful or curious.
https://www.sinicalchina.com/p/chinas-official-media-rebukes-han
Lenin warned, even once speaking to the Duma vociferously railed, against Russian Chauvinism. His warning eventually turned into a system of corrupted local fiefdoms. In part because the official line didn't allow for any discussion / complaints that the way the policy was implemented did not give rise to a unified proletariat (while also) allowing wide cultural difference. The censorship by the capitalist class in western media does not bode well for any peaceful resolution of the tendency for capitalism to concentrate everything. Joseph Kennedy kept telling FDR and anyone who'd listen, "the solution for communism is fascism." I know not what will come, but If the system can't allow for healing, then something will replace it. Let's hope the consultative process keeps working or we'll all be up (the) boiling creek running over a waterfall with no paddle.
Americans tend toward seeing societal history is a win-lose linear progression. Chinese, more accurately, tend toward understanding history as ascendant and descendant cycles.
The first manner of belief is a trap one can't get out of. The second manner is closer to the truth. Of course, one then points to Carthage or the Mayan, but in the broad context, isn't that also cyclical?
It's all part of my imaginary book..."Humans: Weird, Aren't They?"....with the subheading "Or Is it Stupidity?"...but I may need to change it to keep me in running for the Pulitzer For Imaginary Books.
Great analysis, Robert.
However, I wonder if this 'extremism' is less about a lack of historical knowledge and more about current social frustration? If people were happy and optimistic today, they would likely watch a movie like Youth for pure entertainment.
It feels like the past has become the only 'safe' language left for people to express their unhappiness with the present. This explains why the government is so quick to censor these narratives: they aren't just protecting historical facts; they are trying to shut down the implication that life in 1644 or 1966 was somehow 'fairer' or 'better' than life in 2025. In a system where you can't criticize the present, romanticizing the past becomes a radical act of protest.
Yep, it’s more about the present day
So we should be grateful for censorship in China?😃 seriously, I have no issue with censorship that censors out rubbish and let’s society engage in reasoned discussion. We have enough prejudice and misinformation to contend with, even with the best censorship regime that can be constructed.
I have highly conflicted view of it…
Generally speaking, in China, whether it's the Maoist left or the nationalist right, they are completely powerless against the Communist Party. The vast majority are merely keyboard warriors seeking attention. With just a slight breath from the government, they would scatter in all directions. Rather than worrying about online populism, it is more important to be concerned about those conspirators hidden within the government. Until the recent successful push to seal drug use records, no one could have imagined that they actually possess the power to accomplish certain things and cause real damage.
https://vickyxu.substack.com/p/why-are-foreigners-getting-stabbed
Some of the information, particularly the woman making fake videos of Chinese being insulted by supposed employees of Japanese institutions in China show the lack of courage and clarity in what is and isn't acceptable to censor needs work. One of the supposed strengths of government censorship over corporates censorship is that there should be some mechanisms to both set out what is censored and what isn't, a system of of appeal, but lastly it should give rise to wider oversight of high risk individuals. One would hope there would be a restraining order against this woman or any of her followers coming within 500 meters of a Japanese school, and (just as it is allowed in the USA) when the incitement to violence is direct, jail time :(where in China at least there might be some chance of re-education, it's pure punishment, plus economic exploitation as slave labour by corporations inside the jail).
China’s people have so much history! And China’s history has taught them to love peace and hate turmoil.
Am I alone to think that J. R. Tolkien’s Hobbits represent China’s core ideology? Forget the furry feet or physical differences….Hobbits value settled communities and stability. In many ways, Confucius codified Hobbit ideology.
In any Hobbit community, of course extremism is looked down upon.
We want to live our lives in peace. Change is good and progress is good, but let it be gradual and don’t let it be disruptive.
Remember, we have loved ones to feed and babies to care for…
Very well written, however, even in countries with plenty of public discourse, we still see extremism grows. Is extremism really caused by suppression?
On a different but related track, Robert, is it fanciful of me to suspect a connection between the crackdowns on both left and right, on the one hand, and the seeming purge of several Generals on the other?
Is it possible that the latter and/or the PLA writ larger, were planning a coup against Xi, or even the party itself? Have elements within China’s foreign and domestic big business communities, intelligence services, or the NED’s and MI6’s of this world, latched on to an groundswell of disaffection among the the youth and/or unemployed over joblessness or the looming prospect thereof? And are shit stirring.
Or, in the case of the fired Generals, is it simply a case of corruption. I ask because if similar dismissals occurred in Africa, the immediate conclusion would be ‘regime change’, something I dread to even contemplate.
I think they are quite isolated cases with unique dynamics and dependencies of their own