Talking Taiwan (where allowed)
You get used to self-censoring in China. I don’t like to admit this, but I’ve seen it happen to everyone. I don’t bring up certain topics anymore. I sugarcoat certain things in certain company. We can all guess what those things are. Most of them start with a T.
But now I’m in South Korea, an openly and unabashedly capitalist democracy. More importantly, it has its own taboos, not China’s, and those haven’t worked their way into my routine. I won’t be here long enough for that to happen.
Here at Yonsei, I have a Canadian friend whose wife hails from Taiwan and who isn’t shy with opinions. Last week another friend, an American headed to Dalian next month for a semester at DaWai, raised the subject of that island I’m no longer used to talking about.
Eventually, he said, it has to go back to China.
Uh uh, the other guy wasn’t having it. Taiwan’s never going back, he said. I haven’t heard anybody say that in 18 months.
“If Taiwan could get what Hong Kong has…” the American started to respond.
“Taiwan doesn’t want what Hong Kong has,” the other guy threw back. “Hong Kong wants what Taiwan has.”
Later, I tried to throw in what I thought was an off-hand comment: “It’s weird, on the Mainland—”
And that’s where he stopped me. “No, man, there ain’t no ‘Mainland.’ It’s China. There’s China and there’s Taiwan.”
Refreshing, really. Like snow down the back of your shirt.
January 12th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Good of you to bring up the embarrassing topic of self-censorship. We don’t mention the T word here in Beijing, because doing so brings you in view of the third wall, and it’s not a pretty site.
The first two walls (by which I mean the Great Wall and the Great Firewall, of course) have their ugly moments: the swarming hawkers, the inexplicable and annoying censorship of Eyes East… But in the end it’s all just kind of quaint. Wink wink, nod nod. We all know those walls are full of holes — a pretense kept up for showing the mandarins that the bureaucrats are working hard to preserve harmony.
But the third wall is stone-faced and blustering, maybe even frightening. Few foreigners outside (mainland) China have seen it, but no foreigner in China for any amount of time could have missed it. Usually if you visit once, you don’t go back. It starts off as an innocent enough conversation. You think you’re exchanging honest opinions about the nature of governance. Then all of a sudden the tone is truculent — livid if you decide to push. You’re getting a lecture about foreign powers trying to divide and conquer China and how you’ve been brainwashed by the foreign media and couldn’t possibly understand anyway.
Maybe that’s all to be expected. Jingoism in any country is distasteful, and every country has it. But the “maybe frightening” part is how few chinks there are in this wall. As you first approach the wall, you might laugh it off, knowing off the top of your head half a dozen independent-minded friends who’d be happy to let you past. It’s only when you get there that you realize your mistake. They’re not just not letting you through, they are enthusiastic enforcers of the wall’s integrity. There is only one China, they are sure, and you wonder what means they’ll go to to enforce that belief.
Yikes. And don’t even think about bringing up the other T word from the west.
January 12th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Moments like those remind me how much I’VE been brainwashed… when I go home and get into arguments with my friends and family about China-related issues, it dawns on me I’ve totally internalized a lot of the propaganda. Maybe I could get a job as professional shill for the CCP.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Is taiwan issue a taboo topic in China?
Are we in different China?
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Living in China I do get tired of having to self censor myself and not be able to say what I really think. I think Tibet and Taiwan are seperate countries but I don’t dare say that. If I say the Dalai Lama is a good man (which I’ve done) I get shouted down quickly enough. It is sad that I can’t tell my Chinese friends what I really think. I like Chinese people but I’ll be glad to leave next year.