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China’s fan-girl culture is mobilizing against the Hong Kong protests
- kerenua 7y agothis is surreal
- ralusek 7y agoDoes the name "Big Brother" hold any of its Western context in China? I'm wondering what level of irony can be applied to China labeling itself "Little Brother" in its propaganda.
- mytailorisrich 7y agoIn China it is quite normal for people to call each other using family relationship terms even when they are not related. For example children will call their parents' friends or acquaintances "uncle" or "aunt". The same goes for "big brother" for someone older and "little brother" for someone younger.
- gus_massa 7y agoSomewhat related, an article from Raymond Chen: "What kind of uncle am I?" https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20090427-01/?p=18433 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20090427-01/?p=18...
- voldacar 7y agoIs this the future of media? Every even remotely-mainstream aspect of culture becoming co-opted to serve the state and its interests?
- mytailorisrich 7y agoLet's remember things like Captain America in the past or many aspects of popular culture today. This is not not new. The thing is that when it comes from China it is immediately seen as negative without knowing their culture and point of view. That being said, socialist countries have a long tradition of not so subtle propaganda campaigns.
- voldacar 7y agoNo I definitely agree with that, I guess the cultural propaganda from non-western countries is usually just more clumsy and ham-handed than something like captain america
- mytailorisrich 7y agoI think one factor is that in countries like China where the state has an effective monopoly on information there is no incentive to improve. In the West the government would be openly ridiculed but obviously this cannot happen in China. Secondly, from my experience I feel that we detect propaganda more easily when it's foreign rather than in our own country. Perhaps because we are so used to "our own" that we cannot notice it anymore. For example, as a European I find Captain America as unsubtle as Chinese propaganda. If you're an American and come to the UK perhaps you will find coverage of the Queen and the Monarchy equally unsubtle.
- newen 7y agoYeah...I think Americans have a hard time thinking of their government spreading propaganda because America equals freedom/propaganda is only done in bad countries/etc etc. So people get some mild cognitive dissonance when they become fans of Captain America.
- Proven 7y agoYoung, clueless collectivists. In the past they'd join Red Guards.