Fragile
October 26, 2021 8:18 PM Subscribe
It might Break Your Pinky Heart is a a playful, innuendo-laden mockery of China’s unappeasable, triumphalist and xenophobic ‘Pink Culture’ and its champions, known as ‘pinkies’ by Namewee 黃明志Ft.Kimberley Chen 陳芳語 . Here's some context.
don't angry, lil' pinky.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:34 PM on October 26, 2021
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:34 PM on October 26, 2021
Haha, this is terrific. But to be fair, for a counterpoint, we should consider the CCP's English-language Five Year Plan Rap.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:41 PM on October 26, 2021
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:41 PM on October 26, 2021
the thing i want to note for namewee is that his rise to fame also demonstrates the situation malaysian chinese do face in the country of their birth - his breakthrough was because he was basically did a remix of the national anthem, or at least that's how it's reported. He did it in Mandarin, this kid who studied in Taiwan. And he studied in Taiwan because there were no spots in the public education left for his ethnic community (we have an affirmative action policy that's very early on coopted by ethnic nationalists and fascists, so 'decolonisation' as a project in this country is a joke).
Anyway, he got banned for a while (well, getting banned is normal for him at this point), and being accused of being disloyal etc. Yet, his entire creative career from that point on, yes, very much in the sinosphere, but very much Malaysian. He's definitely more comfortable in Malay for example, compared to the establishment elites who claim they're more Malay than anyone else. He's a bit rude, and definitely in his early years expressed unexamined prejudices his community had towards the native and indigenous populations, but at least he's trying something that no one in the creative public space are able to do, and in large part he gets to escape the establishment attention because the language medium he's works in, since his mind really is bent towards that mix of irony and satire that is practically verboten, until of course the inevitable forays (inevitable because he's Malaysian after all) into the malay-language entertaiment. E.g. the current movie Babi which is in limbo (i'll spare most of the rubbish details, suffice to say the Malay-Muslim ethnonationalists have twisted themselves into the same kind of pretzels Americans will recognise from their evangelicals, that even a movie with the Malay word of pig is being branded as haram). Yet, he does more organic coalition-building with Malaysian artists of all backgrounds in his productions, not even relatively but objectively.
And so I want to highlight this song of his, which came out of his time living in China: Stranger in the North (feat. Wang Lee Hom, himself another diaspora Chinese with a China career). The subtext revolves around that whole thing Malaysian (and basically maritime Southeast Asian) Chinese* face with: the constant political message being told that their natural home is back in the mainland, when he's a stranger in that land as well.
Anyway one of the links shared the making of video, and it's so interesting this bit around minute 7:30 because the conversation he's having with Kimberley Chen is also something quite demonstrative as well of this other phenomenon of Malaysians migrating to Australia.
*well maybe not Singaporean Chinese, but they formed the counterfactual side of this political discourse
posted by cendawanita at 9:50 PM on October 26, 2021 [34 favorites]
Anyway, he got banned for a while (well, getting banned is normal for him at this point), and being accused of being disloyal etc. Yet, his entire creative career from that point on, yes, very much in the sinosphere, but very much Malaysian. He's definitely more comfortable in Malay for example, compared to the establishment elites who claim they're more Malay than anyone else. He's a bit rude, and definitely in his early years expressed unexamined prejudices his community had towards the native and indigenous populations, but at least he's trying something that no one in the creative public space are able to do, and in large part he gets to escape the establishment attention because the language medium he's works in, since his mind really is bent towards that mix of irony and satire that is practically verboten, until of course the inevitable forays (inevitable because he's Malaysian after all) into the malay-language entertaiment. E.g. the current movie Babi which is in limbo (i'll spare most of the rubbish details, suffice to say the Malay-Muslim ethnonationalists have twisted themselves into the same kind of pretzels Americans will recognise from their evangelicals, that even a movie with the Malay word of pig is being branded as haram). Yet, he does more organic coalition-building with Malaysian artists of all backgrounds in his productions, not even relatively but objectively.
And so I want to highlight this song of his, which came out of his time living in China: Stranger in the North (feat. Wang Lee Hom, himself another diaspora Chinese with a China career). The subtext revolves around that whole thing Malaysian (and basically maritime Southeast Asian) Chinese* face with: the constant political message being told that their natural home is back in the mainland, when he's a stranger in that land as well.
Anyway one of the links shared the making of video, and it's so interesting this bit around minute 7:30 because the conversation he's having with Kimberley Chen is also something quite demonstrative as well of this other phenomenon of Malaysians migrating to Australia.
*well maybe not Singaporean Chinese, but they formed the counterfactual side of this political discourse
posted by cendawanita at 9:50 PM on October 26, 2021 [34 favorites]
I know I'm just skimming the surface here, but "Cast pearl to pandas" is likely going to be part of my vocabulary.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:52 PM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:52 PM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
@cendwanita it makes me all the more aware that I could benefit from a full "explainxkcd.com" level introduction to namewee, but I really appreciate your knowledge that i don't actually understand!
posted by away for regrooving at 11:30 PM on October 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by away for regrooving at 11:30 PM on October 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
So, "pinky hearts" are like "snowflakes"? Do I have that right?
posted by CCBC at 11:58 PM on October 26, 2021
posted by CCBC at 11:58 PM on October 26, 2021
It's more of a reference to the 'little pinks', china's version of the nationalist commentariat.
posted by cendawanita at 12:16 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 12:16 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
I just realized, you can also contextualise this against what's now known as the milk tea alliance. milk tea because of course, unlike those in the mainland, the alliance comes from places where milk is a pretty common addition. (Naturally this means it has been known to extend into South Asia as well)
Honestly, the loudest most skeptical voices against CCP in English is probably found in this loose networking of southeast folks with a not insubstantial number of ppl of Chinese ethnicities, while it seems the American left is busy being co-opted by the Qiao Collective etc. (in English because it is a region of English speakers, though of course not the only language spoken, but it's shaping up to be a lingua franca in this matter) It's probably related to the fact southeast diaspora is only technically a diaspora when at this point they really are their own culture, and doesn't take kindly when CCP try to claim them and the region.
posted by cendawanita at 12:27 AM on October 27, 2021 [9 favorites]
Honestly, the loudest most skeptical voices against CCP in English is probably found in this loose networking of southeast folks with a not insubstantial number of ppl of Chinese ethnicities, while it seems the American left is busy being co-opted by the Qiao Collective etc. (in English because it is a region of English speakers, though of course not the only language spoken, but it's shaping up to be a lingua franca in this matter) It's probably related to the fact southeast diaspora is only technically a diaspora when at this point they really are their own culture, and doesn't take kindly when CCP try to claim them and the region.
posted by cendawanita at 12:27 AM on October 27, 2021 [9 favorites]
So the little pinks are basically 'wumaos' who don't get paid.
In terms of demographics, according to Zhuang Pinghui of South China Morning Post, 83% of the Little Pink are female, with most of them between 18 and 24 years old
83% female? That's pretty remarkable, wonder why that would be the case?
I've been hearing the Qiao Collective called out quite a bit for apologizing for CCP oppression in HK specifically. That leads me to wonder if they're a group with much real world impact, or are they mostly known on Twitter etc?
posted by viborg at 9:17 AM on October 27, 2021
In terms of demographics, according to Zhuang Pinghui of South China Morning Post, 83% of the Little Pink are female, with most of them between 18 and 24 years old
83% female? That's pretty remarkable, wonder why that would be the case?
I've been hearing the Qiao Collective called out quite a bit for apologizing for CCP oppression in HK specifically. That leads me to wonder if they're a group with much real world impact, or are they mostly known on Twitter etc?
posted by viborg at 9:17 AM on October 27, 2021
83% female? That's pretty remarkable, wonder why that would be the case?
because initially the congregation was located at a yaoi fandom space. these days though the usage can just mean the unpaid nationalist commenters, not the fifty-centers. I guess it's kinda like the western brony-to-nazi pipeline, except that's not fair, because it only feels strange in that it's a foreign nationalism. Then, it's a bit like post-9/11 western media fandom spaces in my experience in terms of the virulence and suddenness with which the sense of national pride got activity. In terms of the general development milestones though, it was like when social justice language entered Western fandom spaces, and from essays by MCU fans talking about Steve Rogers's subversive politics morphing into a general attitude of defending American institutions and military engagements worldwide (it's not a perfect analogy because the American norm-policing is substantively different, so if Chinese examples can't do any wrong, American ones can but the beauty is they will self-correct because democracy. It's still a discourse that upholds the inherent superiority of the system*). In any case, it's fannish energy (and China's fandom energy is keyed pretty high in a different register imo) being serviced towards the state.
As for Qiao Collective, I'm not sure. I mean, I learned from this other Mefi post about how they've gotten as far as hosting an event on NYC recently? What I seem to gather is more advances in gaining supporters or fence-sitters amongst those setting the political agenda, which counts I suppose.
(*Sam Wilson-as-the-Captain fandom discourse (or even the Captain Marvel one), as you might suspect, is pretty dire, but maybe I see it as a Muslim woman whose often encountering liberalising projects to save me, ie using feminism to justify imperialism)
posted by cendawanita at 10:29 AM on October 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
because initially the congregation was located at a yaoi fandom space. these days though the usage can just mean the unpaid nationalist commenters, not the fifty-centers. I guess it's kinda like the western brony-to-nazi pipeline, except that's not fair, because it only feels strange in that it's a foreign nationalism. Then, it's a bit like post-9/11 western media fandom spaces in my experience in terms of the virulence and suddenness with which the sense of national pride got activity. In terms of the general development milestones though, it was like when social justice language entered Western fandom spaces, and from essays by MCU fans talking about Steve Rogers's subversive politics morphing into a general attitude of defending American institutions and military engagements worldwide (it's not a perfect analogy because the American norm-policing is substantively different, so if Chinese examples can't do any wrong, American ones can but the beauty is they will self-correct because democracy. It's still a discourse that upholds the inherent superiority of the system*). In any case, it's fannish energy (and China's fandom energy is keyed pretty high in a different register imo) being serviced towards the state.
As for Qiao Collective, I'm not sure. I mean, I learned from this other Mefi post about how they've gotten as far as hosting an event on NYC recently? What I seem to gather is more advances in gaining supporters or fence-sitters amongst those setting the political agenda, which counts I suppose.
(*Sam Wilson-as-the-Captain fandom discourse (or even the Captain Marvel one), as you might suspect, is pretty dire, but maybe I see it as a Muslim woman whose often encountering liberalising projects to save me, ie using feminism to justify imperialism)
posted by cendawanita at 10:29 AM on October 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
Great post, thank you! The linked track is A++ trolling of some of the worst people on the internet.
cendawita, yes, unfortunately the Qiao people have become influential enough that the DSA International Committee recently refused to condemn the forced dissolution of an independent Hong Kong Trade Union.
posted by wuwei at 10:37 AM on October 27, 2021 [5 favorites]
cendawita, yes, unfortunately the Qiao people have become influential enough that the DSA International Committee recently refused to condemn the forced dissolution of an independent Hong Kong Trade Union.
posted by wuwei at 10:37 AM on October 27, 2021 [5 favorites]
This music video is awesome. As a diasporic Korean deeply irked when South Korea puts forth a narrative of lost little diasporic lambs (especially regarding international adoptees) who are yearning for the motherland, I love learning about how diasporic Chinese have and are asserting their own cultural identities. And that's not even getting into the politics of CCP propaganda and PRC-centered ethno-nationalism.
Also the aesthetics and mannerisms of pop music videos are so perfect. The pouty femininity that Kimberley Chen uses for this video, um, how do we say it now, chef's kiss....
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:45 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also the aesthetics and mannerisms of pop music videos are so perfect. The pouty femininity that Kimberley Chen uses for this video, um, how do we say it now, chef's kiss....
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:45 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also that Namewee 黃明志 Ft. Leehom Wang 王力宏【Stranger In The North 漂向北方】 video that cendawanita posted is beautiful and totally relevant to the urban planning classes I teach. Thank you!!
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:51 AM on October 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:51 AM on October 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
Wow, I haven't seen or thought about Leehom Wang since 1998, when I MCed for a show he did. Why was I the MC? Because I was running crew that night and was the only person in the production team who didn't have crippling stage fright.
wuwei, do you have a link to the DSA International Committee's decision, or a story about it? I intend to complain.
posted by 1adam12 at 2:04 PM on October 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
wuwei, do you have a link to the DSA International Committee's decision, or a story about it? I intend to complain.
posted by 1adam12 at 2:04 PM on October 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
1adam12:
https://twitter.com/brianhioe/status/1443300198319476736
That's as good as I can find -- the person who was relaying the news went private on Twitter, so now I just have Hioe's commentary.
posted by wuwei at 2:19 PM on October 27, 2021
https://twitter.com/brianhioe/status/1443300198319476736
That's as good as I can find -- the person who was relaying the news went private on Twitter, so now I just have Hioe's commentary.
posted by wuwei at 2:19 PM on October 27, 2021
@1adam12
Many of the people involved have deleted or otherwise gone private, so it’s hard to find any singular thing to point to. Here’s Promise Li mentioning the situation. Here’s a long-ass post from a DSA member who was not in favor of making a statement in support of HKCTU. I hesitate to link this last one because quite frankly, I think it's a bunch of disingenuous tripe—but it does explicitly discuss how "The DSA International Committee's membership in the Asia/ Oceania Subcommittee and the IC-wide China Working Group ultimately voted 11-31 against signing onto the statement."
re: Qiao Collective and how influential or not they are. I had never really thought about the real-world impact of these kinds of people, who launder blood-and-soil nationalism for a disaffected and irony-poisoned Western audience (rightfully) skeptical of Western media narratives on China.
But over the last two years I started noticing more and more of the people I know from real-life leftist organizing spaces casually dropping dehumanizing jokes and outright disinformation about the Uyghur genocide. It certainly made me see all of the ironic jokes that these people had been making about being “China cucks” in a different, more sinister light. I wanted to be able to push back on this but it’s difficult when these same people call HKers and Taiwanese people “gusanos” and CIA shills for speaking negatively about the CCP. As a result of this I have cut off contact with several people and mostly pulled back from real-life leftist organizing. As a Taiwanese person, I cannot feel safe organizing alongside people like this.
I can’t speak definitively as to the actual material impact of Qiao and their ilk, but I feel increasingly disheartened by seeing the spread of their ideas in real-world spaces. Qiao Collective offers a comforting fantasy to American leftists trying to confront American imperialism. There’s no need to actually learn anything about the complicated history of places away from the imperial core—all you need to “know” is that America = bad ∴ not America = good. China says they’re socialist so they obviously must be. Red team good.
The painful truth is that leftists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Syria, Bosnia, etc. cannot offer similarly easy or comforting narratives, and we will therefore always be at a disadvantage in Western leftist spaces. We cannot offer the false promise that there’s another big, powerful state out there, who are the good guys who will save Americans from themselves. We are unfortunately hamstrung by the messy reality of our actual histories and lived experiences. We have no choice but to try and survive within contradictions and uncomfortable alliances.
People’s Forum, the venue which hosted the NYC event at which Qiao spoke, received $12M from a Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund in 2019. To be sure, we all have to make compromises under capitalism. Yet the same people who saw HKCTU receiving $300k from the NED as evidence to utterly discredit an entire movement (supported by over half the population of the city) are content to overlook exponentially more dark money coming from donor-advised funds. Western leftists sitting comfortably in their salons pondering hypotheticals are allowed to navigate contradictions and take money from capitalists so long as it’s for a good cause. Meanwhile, the people elsewhere who have to make hard choices while literally fighting for their lives and freedoms are harshly condemned, the complexities of their situations and motivations ignored. A rich inner life for me, but not for thee.
posted by cultanthropologist at 7:26 PM on October 27, 2021 [16 favorites]
Many of the people involved have deleted or otherwise gone private, so it’s hard to find any singular thing to point to. Here’s Promise Li mentioning the situation. Here’s a long-ass post from a DSA member who was not in favor of making a statement in support of HKCTU. I hesitate to link this last one because quite frankly, I think it's a bunch of disingenuous tripe—but it does explicitly discuss how "The DSA International Committee's membership in the Asia/ Oceania Subcommittee and the IC-wide China Working Group ultimately voted 11-31 against signing onto the statement."
re: Qiao Collective and how influential or not they are. I had never really thought about the real-world impact of these kinds of people, who launder blood-and-soil nationalism for a disaffected and irony-poisoned Western audience (rightfully) skeptical of Western media narratives on China.
But over the last two years I started noticing more and more of the people I know from real-life leftist organizing spaces casually dropping dehumanizing jokes and outright disinformation about the Uyghur genocide. It certainly made me see all of the ironic jokes that these people had been making about being “China cucks” in a different, more sinister light. I wanted to be able to push back on this but it’s difficult when these same people call HKers and Taiwanese people “gusanos” and CIA shills for speaking negatively about the CCP. As a result of this I have cut off contact with several people and mostly pulled back from real-life leftist organizing. As a Taiwanese person, I cannot feel safe organizing alongside people like this.
I can’t speak definitively as to the actual material impact of Qiao and their ilk, but I feel increasingly disheartened by seeing the spread of their ideas in real-world spaces. Qiao Collective offers a comforting fantasy to American leftists trying to confront American imperialism. There’s no need to actually learn anything about the complicated history of places away from the imperial core—all you need to “know” is that America = bad ∴ not America = good. China says they’re socialist so they obviously must be. Red team good.
The painful truth is that leftists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Syria, Bosnia, etc. cannot offer similarly easy or comforting narratives, and we will therefore always be at a disadvantage in Western leftist spaces. We cannot offer the false promise that there’s another big, powerful state out there, who are the good guys who will save Americans from themselves. We are unfortunately hamstrung by the messy reality of our actual histories and lived experiences. We have no choice but to try and survive within contradictions and uncomfortable alliances.
People’s Forum, the venue which hosted the NYC event at which Qiao spoke, received $12M from a Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund in 2019. To be sure, we all have to make compromises under capitalism. Yet the same people who saw HKCTU receiving $300k from the NED as evidence to utterly discredit an entire movement (supported by over half the population of the city) are content to overlook exponentially more dark money coming from donor-advised funds. Western leftists sitting comfortably in their salons pondering hypotheticals are allowed to navigate contradictions and take money from capitalists so long as it’s for a good cause. Meanwhile, the people elsewhere who have to make hard choices while literally fighting for their lives and freedoms are harshly condemned, the complexities of their situations and motivations ignored. A rich inner life for me, but not for thee.
posted by cultanthropologist at 7:26 PM on October 27, 2021 [16 favorites]
I wanted to be able to push back on this but it’s difficult when these same people call HKers and Taiwanese people “gusanos” and CIA shills for speaking negatively about the CCP. As a result of this I have cut off contact with several people and mostly pulled back from real-life leftist organizing. As a Taiwanese person, I cannot feel safe organizing alongside people like this.
It's an unfortunate side effect of the trend in DSA towards more and more overt Leninism. I'd been somewhat optimistic in the 2016-2018 time period that there was room in the organization for diverse leftist points of view, but I think that was incorrect. The Leninists will never budge.
posted by wuwei at 10:34 PM on October 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
It's an unfortunate side effect of the trend in DSA towards more and more overt Leninism. I'd been somewhat optimistic in the 2016-2018 time period that there was room in the organization for diverse leftist points of view, but I think that was incorrect. The Leninists will never budge.
posted by wuwei at 10:34 PM on October 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
The commentary on this thread is so good and so informative - thank you everyone!!
Further, I worked in China in the late nineties/early 2000s and even then, when there was no particular big campaign against Ugyhurs, I was hearing that Uyghur neighborhoods in coastal cities were chosen to bulldoze for "urban renewal" and there were various other restrictions and limits placed on Uyghur food stalls, traveling bike repairmen, etc. This was largely before 9/11. So if this whole thing isn't real, then why is it absolutely in keeping with the previous treatment of Uyghurs generally?
It is so appallingly depressing to see Western leftists doing exactly the same bullshit as during the cold war. It may not end in exactly the same way, since the world is worse and the climate is collapsing, but it sure made that stripe of leftist 100% unprepared for actual events.
posted by Frowner at 4:29 AM on October 28, 2021 [6 favorites]
Further, I worked in China in the late nineties/early 2000s and even then, when there was no particular big campaign against Ugyhurs, I was hearing that Uyghur neighborhoods in coastal cities were chosen to bulldoze for "urban renewal" and there were various other restrictions and limits placed on Uyghur food stalls, traveling bike repairmen, etc. This was largely before 9/11. So if this whole thing isn't real, then why is it absolutely in keeping with the previous treatment of Uyghurs generally?
It is so appallingly depressing to see Western leftists doing exactly the same bullshit as during the cold war. It may not end in exactly the same way, since the world is worse and the climate is collapsing, but it sure made that stripe of leftist 100% unprepared for actual events.
posted by Frowner at 4:29 AM on October 28, 2021 [6 favorites]
Frowner, the Uyghur neighborhood by Xisanhuanbeilu was bulldozed when I was in Beijing in 1998. Han people would openly comment that Uyghurs were dishonest, dangerous, dirty, primitives, while standing in the smoking remains of what used to be a thriving Uyghur neighborhood. It was disgusting.
I've noticed the openly Leninist tone from my DSA mailings and it was already enough to disgust me and make me disengage. I was hoping DSA could be a refuge for people across the leftist spectrum since there's no good place for us within the DNC. But I am convinced this was a mistake. I won't be renewing.
posted by 1adam12 at 6:58 AM on October 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
I've noticed the openly Leninist tone from my DSA mailings and it was already enough to disgust me and make me disengage. I was hoping DSA could be a refuge for people across the leftist spectrum since there's no good place for us within the DNC. But I am convinced this was a mistake. I won't be renewing.
posted by 1adam12 at 6:58 AM on October 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
I've lost touch with my Hui Muslim friend not very long after she went back to China due to some fresh changes to the Great Firewall (the irony was she got nervous about her long-term prospects in the UK after Brexit), and while she felt relatively safe as a Hui, she would tell me things about the Chinese internet (the country, not the online Sinosphere) in the early days of this current round of Uyghur 're-education'. We were fandom friends of course so we engaged along those lines, and she'd be telling me little things like how Chinese internet would say anti-Uyghur stuff AND idolize Dilraba Dilmurat as an example of the right kind of Uyghur. Nothing unusual about that dissonance but worth sharing as an example.
Namewee btw just uploaded a video of Taiwanese YouTubers reacting to this song, which i found interesting in the general tenor of their reactions to see which bits hits hardest for them. It's trending no. 1 on Taiwanese and HK yt also.
posted by cendawanita at 7:20 AM on October 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
Namewee btw just uploaded a video of Taiwanese YouTubers reacting to this song, which i found interesting in the general tenor of their reactions to see which bits hits hardest for them. It's trending no. 1 on Taiwanese and HK yt also.
posted by cendawanita at 7:20 AM on October 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
A couple of updates:
In The Atlantic, Chris Horton used the song as an entrypoint to discuss how The World Is Fed Up With China’s Belligerence
And an hour ago, Namewee just released another love song-slash-maybe not a love song: The Wall. Ostensibly as part of the Kinmen County tourism campaign, also known as the Taiwan DMZ. nooothing to see here, move along, move along.
One of my mandarin-speaking friend said these two videos are pretty exhaustive in terms of understanding the nuances of Fragile for foreigners, I do agree I was very exhausted by the end of them:
Part 1: Decoding Chinese Lang Propaganda Subversion Symbolism for Westerners (he did some basic mistakes on the Malaysian bits though but he corrected them in Part 2)
Part 2: EVEN MORE Hidden 彩蛋 Easter Eggs & Symbolism Against China's CCP
posted by cendawanita at 3:54 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
In The Atlantic, Chris Horton used the song as an entrypoint to discuss how The World Is Fed Up With China’s Belligerence
And an hour ago, Namewee just released another love song-slash-maybe not a love song: The Wall. Ostensibly as part of the Kinmen County tourism campaign, also known as the Taiwan DMZ. nooothing to see here, move along, move along.
One of my mandarin-speaking friend said these two videos are pretty exhaustive in terms of understanding the nuances of Fragile for foreigners, I do agree I was very exhausted by the end of them:
Part 1: Decoding Chinese Lang Propaganda Subversion Symbolism for Westerners (he did some basic mistakes on the Malaysian bits though but he corrected them in Part 2)
Part 2: EVEN MORE Hidden 彩蛋 Easter Eggs & Symbolism Against China's CCP
posted by cendawanita at 3:54 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
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