长篇 // Changpian // Longform
Welcome to the 25th edition of Changpian, a selection of feature and opinion writing in Chinese. 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 researcher of Chinese politics. Feedback is very welcome (tabitha.speelman@gmail.com or @tabithaspeelman). Back issues can be found here.
Welcome to another issue of this extremely unreliable newsletter. There might be more Changpian in 2023 (if you still wish to receive it), but this 25th edition was motivated by a dose of nostalgia. Breaking with my tendency to read either ‘everything or nothing’, it mostly includes some recent reads. For now, a happy 兔年! I very much hope the recent waves of the pandemic have not hit you and your loved ones too hard. (Since I have been dealing with long Covid these past years, on the off-chance it is needed, these books, or this review if you just want the research, might be helpful on longer-term symptoms. Feel free to contact me on this too.)
干货// Ganhuo // Dry Goods
In this section I highlight any (loose) themes that stood out in my recent reading.
记录
Following events from faraway Europe, it seemed that as the extreme uncertainty and stress around China’s pandemic measures built up, so did a collective sense of living through something extraordinarily hard that should be remembered. From the Xi’an lockdown in early 2022, written about critically by the writer Jiang Xue when public opinion was still more divided on the measures, to the protests across cities and campuses in November, I saw more people expressing anger and frustration but also writing long messages recording what they had gone through. As one journalist in my timeline wrote on November 18, sharing an article on ‘养码’ or the practice of traveling to a low-risk area to regain a green health code that would (hopefully) allow you to go where you actually needed to be : “记录记录记录，就是不要忘记啊.”
One journalist whose work I kept saving was 李颖迪, whose features for Esquire magazine bridge rural and urban perspectives, including government voices. Reporting across China in spite of lockdown risks, she writes about southern villages, in which getting villagers to scan health codes became yet another task on local leaders’ growing to-do list, five months in the life of a neighborhood 网格员, whose workload exploded and who started playing an outsized role in daily life, but also about young people reflecting on the meaning of public life in Chengdu, which until last fall maintained a higher level of normalcy. (However, by late September, as editor Xie Ding wrote in a note above the story, “没有一个地方有能力嘲笑另一个地方”.)
Some other accounts that stuck with me, in what is inevitably a very selective and incomplete list: stories of collective quarantining and intergenerational neighborhood interaction during the Shanghai lockdown; 谷雨 on small-town healthcare workers, unable to outsource any of their Covid-19 testing; a three-month attempt to go home; a long-read on Italian migrant Ale, titled ‘世界分裂了，你为什么留在中国？’; CASS researcher Sun Ping on how Covid changed the 送外卖 labor market; the 不明白 podcast on the Sitong bridge protest; media researcher Fang Kecheng’s detailed overview of the Omicron wave and reopening in 2022 Hong Kong; a vocabulary list of 246 pandemic control terms, organized by category (‘我们是一个极富语言创造力的民族’); an interview with Elizabeth Perry, Joseph Fewsmith and Timothy Cheek on China’s pandemic politics; an insightful analysis of the November protests as ‘三个运动’; a Han protester reflecting on interethnic solidarity; NGOCN writing about arrested protesters and their parents; ‘放开后想做的第一件事’; elderly home administrators on combatting the Omicron wave without time to prepare; US-based literature professer Jiwei Xiao on losing her mother in China’s Omicron wave (in English); interviews with 7 Chinese citizens on how they got through 2022 financially; and, finally, 5 Initium journalists on being back home for new year after 3 years.
其他好故事 // Gushi // More stories
Some other interesting stories.
- 乌克兰行记：“我们是欧洲最好的国家”，“我们是欧洲最差的国家” — 端传媒 – Chinese journalist A Qi writes about two Ukrainian fixers, in an empathetic portrait that lays out a diversity of Ukrainian discourses. (See also their piece on Lviv Chinese tea culture, which unlike this story appeared inside the firewall.)
M和他的朋友们属于和新经济同时成长的乌克兰“Z世代”，也是受益于IT产业的一代人…只不过，和创办IT公司并且不少移民国外的上一代乌克兰精英相比，M在内的这批Z世代年轻人更有民族主义情怀。他们的成长和乌克兰政治与社会的急剧变迁恰恰同步。2014年广场革命发生时，他们中的大多数还只是中学生，并未切身涉足基辅市中心的独立广场。但随着警察开始镇压示威者，“全班同学都变得义愤填膺，想去基辅参加运动。”虽然大多数人都被父母拦住了，但广场革命和随后俄军进占克里米亚成为了M这一代人的政治启蒙。他从此被乌克兰民族主义右翼组织“国家军团”（Natsionalnyi Korpus）所吸引，一度参与过他们的基层活动。
- 成为女性主义者，有什么用？— 正面链接 – A sometimes painfully honest essay by gender studies researcher 刘亦瓦 on her journey of applying feminist values in marriage and parenting. In its sharp observations of the main characters (the author, her partner, and her parents) and their wider context, it had me reflecting on their choices long after I finished reading. (See also this recent conversation between two feminist mothers.)
小陈能捕捉到我的敏感、脆弱和苛刻，但他从不迎合和讨好我。我的两任前男友在跟我产生冲突之后，常会选择逃避，或是归因于我们不合适。只有小陈愿意跟我抽丝剥茧地探讨我们冲突的根源…我们决定要找到解决吵架的方案。一开始我们会在微信上把吵架心得总结成文字发给彼此，后来开了个备忘录，再后来内容多到不得不开一个word文档记录。于是，就有了我们的恋爱（婚前）协议。我们还约定每年修订一次协议。等到交往第三年时，这份协议已经有一万多字，其中篇幅最大的是关于生育的。
- 照护父亲九年，我离世界越来越远 – 人物 – A Taiwanese literature professor quits his job to become his father’s full-time caretaker. A thoughtful, detailed account of his experience, shared in the same week that news of China’s shrinking population came out.
身边的人说，你怎么可能顾得上嘛，送养老院不就好了。但是我觉得，这不只是解决父亲没人照顾、送养老院的问题，是如果我们一辈子活在这个世界上，只有那么几段重要关系的话，我们要如何对待它们。照护不是责任分担或是义务，而是我的心愿。我没有婚姻、子女、家庭要照顾，我的心愿就是陪着父亲，让这个家画上最后的句点，做那个把原生家庭维持到最后的人。我们这一代同志，是原生家庭最后的照顾者。
- 共情被忽视的人群是理解身份政治的出发点 – 北京大学社会学系 – Peking University sociology students interview sociologist Zhang Zhe about his class on identity politics, nationalism and other themes. Clear analysis of key social issues and the ways they affect classrooms worldwide.
大家后来一度在微信群里争论起来，言辞比较激烈，可惜我当时在讲台前上课，微信群里吵的热火朝天，我什么都不知道。这件事对我还是挺有触动的。这算过度敏感吗？显然也不是。毕竟有同学当时就在微信群里说，“好笑吗，这是我的日常”，还有人针对“命名复杂、新鲜”回应说，“如果你觉得复杂，可能是因为你的世界太简单”。我们讨论身份政治一直强调，身份政治是关于某些社会群体成员的不公正经历的理论和政治活动，我们希望能够重新发现和理解那些在主导的社会文化之下受压迫的、不被看见的人群，性少数也好，少数族群也好。共情显然是一种高级的能力。很多人会慕强，会带入帝王将相或者富豪、明星的视角去共情，但朝向那些此前被忽视的人群共情是不容易的，这也是理解身份政治的主要出发点。
- 波兰女性在经历什么？— 三明治 – I really loved this eloquent story by 邹思聪, in which he writes about three Polish women, while also going deep on Polish politics and history. Very long and/but warmly recommended.
“没想到你们也有这种愚蠢的家庭矛盾”，我只好说。我和兹沃比卡认识已有一阵。我们同在雅盖隆大学，我在欧洲研究系，她在媒体创意系；我十多年来萍踪不定，如孤魂野鬼。她则离家两年多，未来同时充满了希冀与迷茫。我很少见兹沃比卡那么愤怒和口若悬河。一方面，她聊的某些家庭矛盾特别中国，另一方面，她讲的事情又独具波兰特色。在我看来，那是一场国家入侵家庭的内战。例如当她说，爷爷不让她和黑人结婚时，你只需稍加思考，便会觉得这过于“正常”。
- ‘润学潮’下最危险的逃难路径：穿越巴拿马丛林的中国人 – 报道者 – Taiwanese reporter 陈映妤 tells the story of Chinese migrants’ journey through Central America on their way to the United States, a hazardous route that became more popular during the pandemic.
这条偷渡路径，中国网民称其为「走线」，其实过去就有一些中国的异议人士铤而走险。在一部1990年代的剧情片《爱在别乡的季节》，剧中由梁家辉饰演的男主角，也是经巴拿马、墨西哥偷渡到美国。对南美人来说，疫情前也有人试图穿越达连丛林，但因为风险高、资讯量少，并未形成一条成熟的路径。近两年因为疫情和各国的政治局势，许多国家的人民被逼上绝路，加上社群媒体日愈发达，Facebook、Tiktok和Telegram上都有相关的分享资讯，更有许多仲介、旅游公司跳入这门数百万美金的生意，大肆宣传包办「安全」穿越雨林的服务，从住宿、交通、装备、「向导」和协作等，都可以找到人打理，形成一个相对成熟的偷渡产业链。根据巴拿马政府的统计，今年已有超过22.7万人走上这条路。
- 建筑人转行，抛下曾经心动的offer — 极昼工作室 – Personal career stories of people working in China’s architecture sector, known for its high intensity but now affected by the property market downturn.
今年5月，陈雪为期两年的建筑师生涯画上了句点。她在小红书上发布视频倾诉，眼睛有些浮肿：自己本科并非建筑专业，出于热爱决定跨专业考研。2020年二战同济失败后，陈雪入职了一家杭州的建筑事务所。顺利入行让她觉得，自己会在建筑行业一直待下去，“拿个初级工程师，再拿个中级工程师。钱攒得差不多再去考研。”
但失业之后，她忽然觉得“不被行业、甚至不被这个社会所需要了”，“跟失恋一样。”
疫情爆发之前，建筑行业由盛转衰的迹象就已经完全显露。
- 爱沙尼亚的中国“数字居民”：通往新身份之路 – 端传媒 – An award-winning feature by data journalist Zhou Youyou on Chinese interest in Estonia’s ‘digital citizenship’ policy.
2020年全球疫情爆发，一时间，世界静止了，人们无法进行旅行和迁移..每日居家办公，“数字居民”的网页在我的浏览器中停留了很长一段时间。打开网站，一幅全球地图在蓝色的背景上浮现，“今天就加入我们！”——申请的入口在网站首页就有四个。每当我忍不住点入，都无法下决心填写申请表：没有居留权的数字居民，除了美好的愿景，究竟有什么实际的用途？
- 戴锦华：我的电影年度观察（1）— 幕味儿 – Good, personal interview with film scholar Dai Jinhua, discussing the reception of films like “现象级作品” Return to Dust (which has also been playing in cinemas outside China). See here for the rest of the conversation.
我作为女性，或者说作为一个长得不漂亮的、身高过高的、说话过快的女性，一直是在多重的挫败经验当中成长。这一方面我从来没有掩饰过。但是（你对访谈内容觉得意外）可能有两个原因：一个原因是无论我怎样地不掩饰，别人并不感知我这一面。我经常有一种很挫败和弱势的自我感觉，但这些时刻我周围的人反而反馈说害怕我，或者说我“以势压人”，或者说我气场强大。这种错位的感觉其实是另一个困惑我的面向。我没有掩饰这个东西，但大家好像不察觉它。大家感觉的是另外一些东西。
- 京骂、摇滚和夜生活：从老工体到新工体 – 界面文化 – Not having been in Beijing since 2020, I was not aware that 工体 has been under construction for the past two years. But now it’s almost reopening. A nice overview of the cultural significance of the venue and its surroundings. (Speaking of BJ cultural life and national imaginaries, I’ve heard good things about this exhibition of Dutch photography, currently on view in Caochangdi.)
1959年，在一片芦苇坑上，老工体正式竣工。这座建筑成为了当时北京的“十大建筑”之一，也被誉为“芦苇坑上的奇迹”。为满足举办重大活动的需求，工体建成后先后经历了4次改造，而最近这次改造是工体历史上最为重要的一次，它成为了“全国首批、北京首座”国际标准专业足球场。除了足球场以外，其他区域将建设为城市体育公园和湖区，并将连接北京地铁3号线、17号线，建设成工体商业配套设施。
旧文// Jiuwen // Classic：
A piece of nonfiction writing that seems worth a read months, years or decades after its initial publication.
中国民间抗郁18年 – 谷雨实验室 – A 2018 narrative essay by author and editor 张进 introducing key figures in China’s social movement for raising public awareness of and helping those suffering from depression and other mental illness. Zhang, who passed away from cancer last December, spent most of his career in journalism as an editor at Caixin, leaving in 2017 to report and write the final book of his non-fiction ‘渡过’ trilogy on the subject. See also the preface Zhang wrote to a new edition of his books last year, published on the ‘渡过’ Wechat public account, in which he summarizes his “upward spiral of learning” the subject of depression (“肯定、否定、否定之否定……”), and this overview of all his writing.
就我而言，我的抗郁历程是从研究和写作起步的。曾经有一段时间，为了搞清自己为何患病、治疗何以见效，我对精神医学产生了浓厚兴趣，甚至会在每周六赶到安定医院，旁观我的主治医生看病。那时，安定医院的新楼还没有盖起来，破旧简陋的诊室总是挤满了病人和家属，空气浑浊，乱糟糟一片。但这样的环境给我提供了很大的方便，我一呆一天，无人过问。在那里，我见到了许许多多的人间悲喜剧，学到了很多实用知识。如今，在安定医院宽敞明亮、管理规范的新门诊楼，这样的场景已经不可能看到了。因为要尊重患者隐私，所有无关人等都被挡在诊室门外