Does anyone have a link to the original Chinese source of this article?
I'm not able to find the article in Chinese anywhere, either.
Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
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Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#12"chaohuan" perhaps means "超幻" in Chinese.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#13 I only skimmed the article since reading familiar @#$% in Chinese context in another language made me feel sick. I think this guy is just like many other Chinese that want to make a claim on a global stage with little awareness of what the reality on that stage might be. They often coin a concept for China and claim its uniqueness and somewhat advancement. People are easy to make that kind of claim when all they can see are just raw observations, especially when they think they know what they observed.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#14I only skimmed the article since reading familiar @#$% in Chinese context in another language made me feel sick. I think this guy is just like many other Chinese that want to make a claim on a global stage with little awareness of what the reality on that stage might be. They often coin a concept for China and claim its uniqueness and somewhat advancement. People are easy to make that kind of claim when all they can…
OK, I finally found something related he wrote in Chinese "超幻时代的写作（宁肯）": http://www.bjwl.org.cn/wwwroot/bjzjw/publish/article/657/530...
From what I can guess, he is from the inside of the system "体制内". So most likely, someone in the system needs to do some more "theoretical" work to prove/claim the advancement of "us" (Chinese). That's it. Don't worry about what it actually delivers, it is way less related than we think. The only difference nowadays is that we can make those propaganda seen by westerners. Even on HN.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#15So, some corrupt officials, a polygamist, a wanted official seeking asylum in a foreign consulate, and restaurants reusing cooking oil too much is an example of "unreality"? Where exactly did the author grew up in? Cushioned upper class life, or Disneyland? And those examples in a country with over a billion people? You can find all those examples in Africa, Asia, South America, etc. A lot of those are hardly uncommo…
You're doing no better by trivializing the author's purview. He doesn't live anywhere else you mentioned, he lives in China and in Tibet before that. That is the world he inhabits and that his writing reflects.
Not to mention that problems are relative; you think an American balking at finding out their favorite restaurant was closed because of hygiene issues doesn't feel something comparable to a Chinese person who finds out their favorite street vendor used gutter oil? [0]
Also in all of those Western examples you gave, China was much worse off. How can you say that China's situation isn't bad with a straight face? This is a country where the smug is so bad you can't see a few feet ahead of you. Where people who criticize the government can be made to disappear. Where the internet goes through a firewall [1] and is closed off from the rest of the world. [2] Sure, there are many countries worst off, but that doesn't mean we can completely overlook issues with our own countries.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_C...
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#16So, some corrupt officials, a polygamist, a wanted official seeking asylum in a foreign consulate, and restaurants reusing cooking oil too much is an example of "unreality"? Where exactly did the author grew up in? Cushioned upper class life, or Disneyland? And those examples in a country with over a billion people? You can find all those examples in Africa, Asia, South America, etc. A lot of those are hardly uncommo…
You're doing no better by trivializing the author's purview. He doesn't live anywhere else you mentioned, he lives in China and in Tibet before that. That is the world he inhabits and that his writing reflects. Not to mention that problems are relative; you think an American balking at finding out their favorite restaurant was closed because of hygiene issues doesn't feel something comparable to a Chinese person who…
> Not to mention that problems are relative; you think an American balking at finding out their favorite restaurant was closed because of hygiene issues doesn't feel something comparable to a Chinese person who finds out their favorite street vendor used gutter oil?
I don't think it's unreasonable to have a strong reaction in either case. But I do agree with the parent commenter that believing this to be unprecedented and "beyond unreal" shows a level of ignorance or naivety that is more remarkable than the event itself.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#17I think the "crazy" aspect coming into play is an iteration of the world-shattering view that occurs when a child realizes his or her parents are just people, not infallible perfect protectors. This fundamentally changes the view of the world for a person because a fundamental truth is no longer true. This change can be viewed as "crazy" and reality becomes more chaotic in the new world view. I believe the same thing…
> I believe the same thing is happening right now in modern China. Simply substitute constituents and the oligarchy instead for the child and parent. Only ordinary Chinese citizens are not childlike and easily led at all (that's an early colonial misunderstanding) -- they are just as smart and street-wise as we are, and understand all the gritty details -- they always did.
Thanks for pointing this out. It was not my intention to portray Chinese citizens as childlike. I simply meant to use the loss of childhood innocence as an example of how world views can be changed at a fundamental level. That kind of change can occur at any stage of life for anyone; childhood innocence tends to be the most relatable as an example across cultures.
Another example was given to me by a coworker: after Fukushima, she realized that her employer ultimately did not care about her safety in a regional-paralyzing event. That shattered her world view about how she would be viewed as an object, not a person, by employers. This was despite all the women-in-tech, no-glass-ceiling, etc rhetoric. She vowed to take a new job where she would consider only employers that had demonstrated an active commitment to their employee's safety. It changed her world view about PR pieces put out by companies, especially with regards to diversity.
Edit: To conclude, I personally believe there is an opportunity for personal growth about learning a healthy distrust in what government or politically-active people have to say in any country, including the USA, for everyone. Including myself. I truly did not mean to single out the Chinese in a degrading manner.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#18Whilst I'm sure China has some 'ultra-unreal' situations, I don't think anything it can produce will top this one... 62 people have the same level of wealth as half the world's population. If you're talking ultra-unreal, nothing else is likely to come close to global inequality.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2016/01/...
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#19I think the "crazy" aspect coming into play is an iteration of the world-shattering view that occurs when a child realizes his or her parents are just people, not infallible perfect protectors. This fundamentally changes the view of the world for a person because a fundamental truth is no longer true. This change can be viewed as "crazy" and reality becomes more chaotic in the new world view. I believe the same thing…
I appreciate that you are reasoning well from the basis of your understanding of China, and you have arrived at a good explanatory story that works well within a sort of Jungian "collective unconscious" theory of society and culture.
However, I think that it is too broad in its generalizations to be viable, and it does not pay enough attention to the actual historical context of circumstances in China.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#20I think the "crazy" aspect coming into play is an iteration of the world-shattering view that occurs when a child realizes his or her parents are just people, not infallible perfect protectors. This fundamentally changes the view of the world for a person because a fundamental truth is no longer true. This change can be viewed as "crazy" and reality becomes more chaotic in the new world view. I believe the same thing…
I appreciate that you are reasoning well from the basis of your understanding of China, and you have arrived at a good explanatory story that works well within a sort of Jungian "collective unconscious" theory of society and culture. However, I think that it is too broad in its generalizations to be viable, and it does not pay enough attention to the actual historical context of circumstances in China.
Thanks, and I admit my understanding is pretty general having spent very little time with people currently living in modern China. Could you or others correct me? I would appreciate pointers, insights, or refinements.