长篇 // Changpian // Longform
Welcome to the 18th edition of Changpian, a selection of feature and opinion writing in Chinese. With other resources devoted to the many interesting sound bites from Chinese social media, this newsletter focuses instead on some of the wealth of longer writing that is produced in Chinese, both in traditional news media and on platforms like WeChat.
Changpian includes any nonfiction writing, from stories and investigations to interviews and blog posts, that I found worth my time – and that you might like as well. It aims to be relevant to an understanding of Chinese society today, covering topics in and outside the news cycle.
The selection is put together by me, Tabitha Speelman, a Dutch journalist and researcher currently based in Leiden, The Netherlands. Feedback is very welcome (tabitha.speelman@gmail.com or @tabithaspeelman). Back issues can be found here.
I’m glad to finally get to a new issue. Changpian doesn’t really have an events section but for non-fiction fans in Beijing: a 非虚构创作者大会 coming Friday might be of interest. And if you’re looking for a place to read in the capital — non-profit 鸿芷’s coffee shop in 银河SOHO is closing, but still there until May 20.
干货// Ganhuo // Dry Goods
In this section, I highlight any (loose) themes that stood out in my recent reading.
All the Xiao Cheng
It’s a recurring theme in Chinese non-fiction writing, and in Changpian –- life in the story-filled places that are China’s smaller cities. Like Bengbu, a city of about a million in northern Anhui in which Jiemian reporter 董子琪 grew up. In a quiet essay from February,董 dissects how her family juggles different versions of the ever-changing city and its culture, adapting but also holding on to personalized mental maps.
Reporting on the ‘non-elite’ stars and users of social media platform Kuaishou, and now also 抖音, is a bit of a hype. But the stories are often fun to read. In this recent GQ articleby ‘上快手的’, my favorite character is 潇潇, a New York-based 口译培训师 who says Kuaishou broadens her view of a world too dominated by the cultural few, be it in China or the US.
Photographer 慕容拖鞋 from Henan has been working on his《山河故人》series for over a decade. See here for a selection of his 小城 pictures on 活着 and here for a version with some more background and musings (你不觉得友谊很可怕吗？). (Both articles go well with the Sally Yeh and Pet Shop Boys filled soundtrack to Jia Zhangke’s 2015 film by the same name.)
And although often far from small by international standards, Tsinghua urban planning scholar 龙灜 explains how these smaller cities are also not necessarily getting any bigger. His talk on ‘China’s shrinking cities’ on TED-like platform 一席 offers a compelling view intoa reality that is largely absent from government planning.
Matters of Dialogue
A couple of interviews on worthwhile cultural production. Retired HKU journalism professor 陈婉莹 starts by recalling ‘60s Hong Kong, when starting a student publication in Chinese was an act of subversion. Academic publisher 杨全强 discusses ideals in an industry in flux. ‘Fifth generation’ film director Tian Zhuangzhuang is candid about his youth and his work. And this 谷雨 exchange with author Ian Johnson on 西方的“中国叙事” touches on many key issues in writing about China today.
Finally, a long interview on Taiwanese platform 报道者 with Zhang Jieping, former editor-in-chief and founder of The Initium. Zhang recently left HK-based The Initium to work on Matters, a start-up that aims to build a new social media network tailored to sustain high-quality public debate. She says the current state of the Chinese media landscape made her focus shift from ‘如何生產好內容’ to ‘如何讓好內容活下去’：‘現在的問題不是內容活不下去，而是好的內容活不下去。很多內容都活得下去，而且活得很好，用不著我來想辦法。現在的問題是這些重要的、嚴肅的內容活不下去，這個問題是應該被解決’。
The Initium, which last year switched to a subscription model after financial difficulties, remains a place for good reporting and opinion writing that cannot appear many other places (see for instance recent op-eds on WeChat censorship, the ‘decentralization’ of China’s State Council, and the role of China in Malaysian politics). Its new editor is 李志德from Taiwan.
其他好故事 // Gushi // More stories
Some other interesting stories.
1. 伟哥20年：被治疗的器官和被解放的欲望 – 界面文化 – Jiemian cultural reporter 张之琪 on the Chinese reception of Viagra. Good read.
今天，当我们回溯“伟哥”进入中国，以及其背后男科诞生，阳痿“显形”的那段历史，我们会看到一个处于新旧之间、中西之间，雄心勃勃又有些不知所措的中国。全球市场的怀抱向其敞开的同时，本土文化的规约力量依然强大；历史被暴力地阻断，而新的现实却在迅速地切割着尚在疗伤的人们；性与商品纠缠在一起，权力和一种具身的无力感诡异地共存 … 由于伟哥的引进，一时间，与性有关的话题在中国的公共话语中变得空前可见，一位医生就曾对张跃宏说：“伟哥让人们谈论性容易了很多。”
- 被遗忘了半个世纪的翻译精英，清河翻译组的故事 – 南方周末 – Detailed story on the foreign translation work done by imprisoned intellectuals in Beijing’s prisons in the 50s and 60s.
“…1958年夏到1964年底服刑的何宗智（1925-，退休前任北京市朝阳区政协副秘书长）的回忆则是其亲身经历了：“我记得当时的翻译组分工非常细致，包括各种语言。我因为当时的英语还好，就被分配到了英文组。其间我翻译了《西班牙共产党史》十余万字；此外还翻译了有关电器、机械、养蜂、天文、地理、自然科学等方面的各种著作、论文大约二十余万字。除此以外，还有德文组、日文组、俄文组等七八个组，都是按照语言来分类。”
- 在圣经被禁的岁月里：油印圣经历险记 — 生命季刊 –Following the recent tightening of online Bible sales on Chinese platforms, 生命季刊 ran this reflection by evangelist 林圣源reflects on running a secret press across from a 干部宿舍 in the 70s.
记得当时，人们得一段经文，便记下，便背熟，便转抄。我曾把去世的姨婆遗下的一本新旧约全书拆开，订成三十六本，借出去后，说什么都讨不回来。人家只肯反借给我，不肯归还给我。至今，我尚存有别人一套从创世记到启示录的手抄圣经，足见当日基督徒追求属灵需要的迫切 … 私人油印属灵刊物，在大陆上从来都是“不合法”的。
- 坐火车横越美国 — 正午故事 – Nice travel writing by feature writer 杨潇 who took a fifty-hour train trip (plus 9 hour delay!) from Chicago to San Francisco.
科罗拉多州的田园风光非常养眼，我过了半天才意识到那条慢慢长大，变得浑浊的溪流就是科罗拉多河，随着水量的增大，河岸被侵蚀得越来越厉害，经过的列车员提醒说，再往前就是这趟列车最大的卖点之一：一系列不通公路，只能在火车上或者漂流艇上观赏的峡谷 … 黄昏前列车再次在一个峡谷里临时停车，这次是因为这一班美铁司机的工作时间到了，其实换班的司机就在几十公里外的车站，但显然，比起列车准时，司机们按时下班的权利更重要。于是我们被晾在那里，等待换班司机想办法来到这鸟不拉屎的地方把火车重新开动。
- ‘Episode 4: Black Panther: Marvel’s new superhero, Afrofuturism, and what this all means in China’ – Loud Murmurs 小声喧哗 – Reflections on《黑豹》and hopes for future Asian-American cinema. Loud Murmurs is a welcome new addition to the Chinese-language podcast sphere.
- 寻找国企下岗潮中的中国女工 — 尖椒部落 — 原创 story of how three sisters fared after being laid off in the nineties.
在国企职工普遍下岗时期，巨大的经济压力导致家庭成员，尤其是夫妻间的争吵、家暴、离婚甚至自杀的现象很常见。这座山城里的男人们普遍嗜酒，满腔苦闷无处发泄的时候，这些男人开始酗酒，在酩酊大醉后将自己的拳头伸向了身边的女性。夏便是无数被暴力对待的女性中的一员。
7.谁来拯救正在消亡的萤火虫 — 剥洋葱people – China’s fireflies need more dark and less customers interested to have them light up their wedding. This is a re-run from a 2017 新京报feature – for some recent firefly news see here and here.
一则淘宝网活体萤火虫店的广告显示，“专业承接大型放飞活动，情人节礼物、婚礼放飞、生日礼物、儿童观赏、举办晚会、开业庆典”。价格明码标价，36只/89元，60只/119元，129只/219元。
- 谢宇：中国社会学本土化是个伪问题 — 知识分子 — Sociologist Xie Yu on the on-going debate on how ‘localized’ China’s social sciences are and should be. Among the clearest and most convincing articles I’ve read on this topic.
摘要：中国社会学本土化的争论虽然持续已久，但至今仍未产生共识。本文试图从议题本土化、应用本土化和范式本土化三个角度说明社会学本土化是个伪问题。从议题上来看，中国社会学的研究议题已经相当地本土化，而且不必为突出本土化特征而束缚研究. 从应用上来看，一些应用西方理论或方法的中国研究本土契合性不足，其原因在于研究者本身缺乏对社会学的认识和对如何做好研究的理解。若在秉承社会学研究规范性的同时能够将社会学本身的情境性带入其中，中国社会学必然能够保持其学术的独立性和原创力。从范式上来看，学术的贡献和原创性应该由学术同行来评价，中国的社会学家所发展出的理论和方法应该对这个学科的主流领域具有影响力，应该有助于整个社会学学科的知识积累，而不只是对中国社会学有所贡献。
- 《中国当代艺术编瞎话速成指南》– 桑拿空间 — Some suggestions on how to decipher (or adopt) Chinese art lingo.
呈现 = 结果. 例：我试了订个外卖，结果没买成。
——在对现代科技发起了尝试的交互后，最终形成了未完成的呈现。
非现场 = 不在那⼉. 例：昨天晚上煎饼师傅换了个地儿做生意。
——往⽇环境中关键人物的缺失与非现场性创作。
打破/模糊/挑战A和B边界 = 一边A一边B. 例：煎饼师傅一边摊煎饼一边哼歌。
——传统热工艺街头艺术家打破了经典东⽅餐饮⽂化与流行⾳乐即兴演作的边界。
- 他曾是中国外交官，精通11国语言，作为朝鲜间谍被抓后成为韩国教授 – IN 朝鲜 — The extraordinary story of China-born Korean historian and former spy 郑守一.
郑守一于1934年出生于中国吉林省延吉市，朝鲜族，原籍朝鲜咸镜北道明川郡，在延吉高中（今龙井高中）毕业后考上了北京大学阿拉伯语系，并以全系第一名的成绩完成北大学业，被政府公派到埃及开罗大学阿拉伯文学专业留学（1955-1958），随后进入外交部，1958-1963工作于中国驻摩洛哥大使馆。
旧文// Jiuwen // Classic：
A piece of nonfiction writing that Chinese academics, writers, journalists — or just me – think worth a read months, years or decades after its initial publication.
丁玲：“三八节”有感 — This classic short essay by Ding Ling was first published in《解放日报》on March 9, 1942. It’s a powerful articulation of unequal pressures placed on women comrades in Yan’an, where Ding Ling was at the time. But lines like “但女人总是要结婚的。(不结婚更有罪恶…)” make it easy to see why it still pops up early March WeChat timelines today.
This year gender debates in China have luckily continued beyond the weeks around Women’s Day, receiving quite some coverage in both Chinese and English. Here I just wanted to share an analysis/survey by gender studies researcher Chen Yaya on why she thinks it’s China’s university campuses that have been at the center of its #MeToo debate so far (with today’s censored but widely shared open letter by Peking University student Yue Xin proof of how uphill the struggle is there too). For more Ding Ling, I recommend other essays, famous experimental short story Miss Sophie’s Diary, as well as two recent English-language podcasts on Sophie’s Diary that brought her back on my radar.
我自己是女人，我会比别人更懂得女人的缺点，但我却更懂得女人的痛苦。她们不会是超时代的，不会是理想的，她们不是铁打的。她们抵抗不了社会一切的诱惑，和无声的压迫，她们每人都有一部血泪史，都有过崇高的感情(不管是升起的或沉落的，不管有幸与不幸，不管仍在孤苦奋斗或卷入庸俗)，这对于来到延安的女同志说来更不冤枉，所以我是拿着很大的宽容来看一切被沦为女犯的人的。而且我更希望男子们，尤其是有地位的男子，和女人本身都把这些女人的过错看得与社会有联系些。
Changpian by tabithaspeelman
Cellebroedersweg 5 Kampen, Netherlands