Culture

posts related to Chinese culture

Satirical Tibet

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New Publication: Satirical Tibet: The Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo
By Timothy Thurston
University of Washington Press, 2025.

What does comedy look like when the wrong punchline can land you in jail? Humor has long been a vital, if underrecognized, component of Tibetan life. In recent years, alongside well-publicized struggles for religious freedom and cultural preservation, comedians, hip-hop artists, and other creatives have used zurza, the Tibetan art of satire, to render meaningful social and political critique under the ever-present eye of the Chinese state. Timothy Thurston’s Satirical Tibet offers the first-ever look at this powerful tool of misdirection and inversion. Focusing on the region of Amdo, Thurston introduces the vibrant and technologically innovative comedy scene that took shape following the death of Mao Zedong and the rise of ethnic revival policies. He moves decade by decade to show how artists have folded zurza into stage performances, radio broadcasts, televised sketch comedies, and hip-hop lyrics to criticize injustices, steer popular attitudes, and encourage the survival of Tibetan culture. Surprising and vivid, Satirical Tibet shows how the ever-changing uses and meanings of a time-honored art form allow Tibetans to shape their society while navigating tightly controlled media channels.

Timothy Thurston’s groundbreaking book Satirical Tibet is the first major study of Tibetan humor. Drawing on years of research in Amdo, Thurston reveals the cultures of comedy that have thrived in Tibetan-language literature, radio, television, and oral and performing arts into the digital age.”— Christopher Rea, author of The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China

Aftermath of Thai handing Uyghur refugees to China

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If you read just one article about Thailand handing Uyghur refugees to China, this may be the one — it situates this stunning debacle in the context of the global US withdrawal from commitments, promises, and values:

“US Ally Kowtows to China as Old Order Crumbles Under Trump,” by Matthew Tostevin. Newsweek (Feb. 28, 2025). 

The Newsweek piece was published the day after the forced deportation, so it could not yet note the absolutely stunning admission from the Thai government, on March 6, that they knowingly lied about there being no other governments (or the UNHCR) ready to take the refugees — as top officials all the way to the PM had been insisting, until that day, as one justification for setting aside the Torture Convention.

Links on this and on the Thai government’s shocking parroting of various other Chinese talking points (the refugees are “safe”, because there is pictufre proof from Chinese-arrangeded photo ops, etc.):

“In reversal, Thai official acknowledges other countries offered Uyghurs resettlement“… (Radio Free Asia)

“Thailand had offers to take Uyghurs but deported them to China anyway: MP.” (Radio Free Asia)

“US offered to resettle Uyghurs that Thailand deported to China, sources say.” (The Guardian)

For more, including some of the Chinese propaganda around this whole incident, see my online bibliography (periodically updated) on the genocide in the Uyghur region (East Turkestan): https://uhrp.org/bibliography/

Sincerely,
Magnus Fiskesjö

Thailand deports Uyghur refugees

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This morning, on Feb. 27, 2025, Thailand deported over forty Uyghur refugees to China, despite a pending court hearing set for next month. This was simply set aside — and was perhaps a lie to begin with. The shameful deportation was done under the cover of night, in buses with black-out windows, to prevent the press from seeing the prisoners [https://prachataienglish.com/node/11322]. A Chinese plane flew them direct from Bangkok to Kashgar in the Uyghur region, where China’s concentration camps now await them.

Thailand has now violated both the UN convention on torture, which it signed, and the principle of non-refoulement, against sending refugees in harm’s way. Thailand’s betrayal of human rights also overrides the Thai politicians and lawyers and others who tried to protest, arguing that refugees had suffered enough, languishing in Thai jails for over ten years, with five dying, including two children.

It is obvious this was done only to obey China — where state media celebrated getting their hands on the refugees.

For more see: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14jjxz8re6o

A week ago, I explained the global stakes of Thailand’s Uyghur refugee drama, that has now ended in such a gruesome way. Listen on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/wrfihumanrightsshow/magnus-fiskesjo-feb-21_4upload
(first aired Friday, Feb. 21 on the “Human Rights and Social Justice” local FM radio show hosted by Ute Ritz-Deutch, on WRFI.org, at FM 88.1 in Ithaca)

Sincerely, with great sadness, and frankly disgust at the Thai authorities’ betrayal,

Magnus Fiskesjö

Thailand obeys China on refugees and kidnapping

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On the burning issue of Thailand’s pending forced repatriation to China of forty-some Uyghur refugees, to certain torture and probably death there, because of international protests (even from UN-appointed experts), and global media attention, top Thai political leaders and the national police chief have now come out, to tie themselves in knots while trying to defend their country’s actions and shore up an image of decency.

Thailand’s police chief has the audacity to say that the refugees, WHO HAVE BEEN DETAINED FOR TEN YEARS NOW, are “doing OK”.

This article also mentions the brave Thai senator Angkhana Neelapaijit, chairwoman of a Senate committee that has now asked to at last be allowed to see the detained men, and who also “expressed concerns shared by human rights organisations that the Uyghur group could face danger if they are sent back to China.”

She also reminded us all about how the coup government of general Prayut Chan-o-cha in 2013 already forcibly returned 109 Uyghur men to China at Beijing’s request, and to this day, their fate remains unknown. (Of course, we can assume they have all long since put to death).

In another report, a deputy PM and defence minister says Thailand will handle this decently (again, that’s after holding these refugees for 10 years!!), and “promises to adhere to human rights.” This minister’s pronouoncement has been seized upon as a hopeful sign, by Uyghurs in exile.

But I for one wonder, about Thailand and human rights. The country has refused to sign the international refugee convention on refugee treatment, and that same coup general once mocked the very same Uyghur refugees he sent to their probable death, as lowly animals. Continue reading Thailand obeys China on refugees and kidnapping →

Pema Tseden retrospective

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For the complete retrospective of the films of Pema Tseden that I’ve curated for TIFF Cinematheque in Toronto, I’ve written a brief introductory essay on his work, and capsule descriptions of the 8 features and two shorts that we are showing in Toronto. This retrospective, if all goes well, will travel to several other venues in 2025: the Harvard Film Archive, the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution, and at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver. I’m open to other suggestions – Shelly Kraicer <shellyk@mac.com> (Toronto, Canada)

Source: TIFF.net
Compassionate Light: Stories of Tibet by Pema Tseden
By Shelly Kraicer

Tibetan director Pema Tseden (1969–2023) became, during his all-too-short life, one of the most remarkable filmmakers of this century. He revolutionized the representation of Tibet and Tibetans and shared his visions of authentic Tibetan life with the entire film-going world by reimagining how narrative cinematic fiction could operate within so-called “Chinese minority cinema”. His alterative formal strategies and narrative framings were inspired by the contemporary lived experience of Tibetans, centering in his works their culture, language, religion, and ways of inhabiting and interpreting their world.

Pema Tseden died mid-career, at the age of 53. Born to farmer-herder parents in the Tibetan highlands of Qinghai Province, China, he went to rural schools and trained as a teacher. After studying Tibetan literature at Northwest Minorities University, he discovered a passion for making films. A scholarship enabled him to enrol in the prestigious Beijing Film Academy (BFA), where he studied screenwriting and film directing. He was the first Tibetan to graduate from the BFA in 2004. Since 1991, he has published short stories in both Chinese and Tibetan that use humour and a seemingly simple yet eloquent style to depict aspects of contemporary Tibetan life. Continue reading Pema Tseden retrospective →

Statement on Uyghur asylum seekers in Thailand

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See below for information on signing a statement protesting the Uyghurs being held by Thailand and who are at risk of being deported to China. –Magnus Fiskesjö

======================

Dear Friend and colleagues,

You will have seen the tragic news that 48 Uyghurs face immediate deportation from Thailand to the PRC where they will certainly face persecution.

We urge you to sign the following statement addressed to the Thai authorities asking for the group of detained Uyghur men to be given safe haven: https://forms.gle/zWw3GbTvvqiuNLRX7.

We hope that this statement will raise awareness of the detainees’ situation and prevent their deportation to the PRC.

Kind regards,

Nyrola Elimä, Rune Steenberg, David Tobin <d.tobin@sheffield.ac.uk>, and Emily Upson.

Call for article retraction

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Greetings and Happy New Year. We write to bring to your attention a recent article on Tibetan children and “racial empathy bias” that was published in the US psychology journal, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology (the journal of the American Psychological Association’s Society for the study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race), by a pair of Han Chinese psychology scholars (Jing Sheng and Li Wang) and their graduate students at South China Normal University. In their article, they claimed that their research in the TAR among Tibetan “primary school” students received the approval of their university’s “human ethics” board, but we and others think the scholarship is deeply suspect both ethically and theoretically, in that they make racist claims about Tibetan children’s alleged “racial empathy bias” toward Han Chinese.

The scholars’ claims were so explicitly racist that the journal received complaints after it was published. To their credit, the editors published an apology, and required the authors to strike the most egregious statements (see below). However, the article was NOT retracted, and remains published in the journal. Given recent Chinese state efforts to shape scholarly discourse on Tibet abroad, we feel strongly that this article needs to be completely retracted and that the continued presence of this article and others like it in US academic journals threatens the credibility of these journals and the well-known scholars on their editorial boards (this journal seems to have a huge editorial board, as well as a large list of “editorial consultants,” scholars from major colleges and universities across the U.S.).

Please support our call to the journal editors to retract this article by signing the open letter (see below) to the editors through the Google Form link at the top of the letter. Your name and affiliation will be automatically added to the letter. Continue reading Call for article retraction →

How China is erasing Tibetan culture

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Here’s snippet of a long, multimedia-based article on the Chinese government’s efforts to erase Tibetan culture.–Kirk Denton

Source: NYT (1/9/25)
How China is Erasing Tibetan Culture, One Child at a Time
By Chris Buckley

China Central Television

Across China’s west, the party is placing children in boarding schools in a drive to assimilate a generation of Tibetans into the national mainstream and mold them into citizens loyal to the Communist Party.

Tibetan rights activists, as well as experts working for the United Nations, have said that the party is systematically separating Tibetan children from their families to erase Tibetan identity and to deepen China’s control of a people who historically resisted Beijing’s rule. They have estimated that around three-quarters of Tibetan students age 6 and older — and others even younger — are in residential schools that teach largely in Mandarin, replacing the Tibetan language, culture and Buddhist beliefs that the children once absorbed at home and in village schools.

When China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, visited one such school in the summer, he inspected a dormitory that appeared freshly painted and as neat as an army barracks. He walked into a classroom where Tibetan students, listening to a lecture on Communist Party thought, stood and applauded to welcome him.

Mr. Xi’s visit to the school in Qinghai Province in June amounted to a firm endorsement of the program, despite international criticism. Education, he said, must “implant a shared consciousness of Chinese nationhood in the souls of children from an early age.”

Chinese officials say the schools help Tibetan children to quickly become fluent in the Chinese language and learn skills that will prepare them for the modern economy. They say that families voluntarily send their children to the schools, which are free, and that the students have classes in Tibetan culture and language. . . [READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE (paywall)]

Politically correct designations for China’s borderlands

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Source: Ethnic ChinaLit (1/2/25)
The Battle over Politically Correct Designations for China’s Borderlands
By Bruce Humes

The word “Tibet” has been replaced by “Himalayan World” accompanied by “Tibetan art.”

Labels matter. As Confucius (reportedly) said:

名不正，則言不順
言不順，則事不成

If names are not rectified, then words are not appropriate.
If words are not appropriate, then deeds are not accomplished.

— The Analects (Trans. Raymond Dawson)

New politically correct designations for China’s traditional frontiers — homelands to Tibetans, Mongols and Turkic Muslims  — are emerging, but their usage outside the Middle Kingdom is proving controversial.

According to a report by Radiofrance (le mot “Tibet” supprimé), two major museums in Paris made changes to their labeling of Tibetan art in 2023 and 2024. On the explanatory panels in its galleries, Quai Branly began replacing “Tibet” with “Xizang,” China’s name for the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Then Musée Guimet — which houses one of the largest collections of Asian Art outside of Asia — repackaged its “Nepal-Tibet” section as “Monde Himalayen” (Himalayan World).

These changes were noted and vigorously critiqued by French scholars, who accused the museums of bowing to pressure from China in its campaign to force the outside world to accept its colonialist terminology. “Is it the job of museums to rewrite history at the behest of an authoritarian regime? “ queries French Tibetologist Katia Buffetrille, according to Radiofrance. Continue reading Politically correct designations for China’s borderlands →

Anime’s knowledge cultures

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Source: Association for Chinese Animation Studies (11/14/24)
Anime’s Knowledge Cultures: From Astro Boy to China’s Zhai Generation
By Jinying Li

In the first two decades of the 21st century, we witnessed a widespread cultural movement of geekdom that went global and mainstream simultaneously. While American media were announcing “it’s hip to be square” and “geek is chic,” their East Asian counterparts were embracing otaku and zhai as trendy labels to identify a new generation of pop culture heroes who thrived on the transmedia arenas of the digital era. In 2008, “zhai” was chosen as the Chinese “buzz word of the year” to celebrate the cultural prominence of China’s zhai generation which, according to the Chinese news media, not only defined the cultural meanings of the “Internet pop” (网络流行) but also characterized “a state of living and being” (生存状态) in the 21st century.[1] During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, zhai as “a state of living and being” was further embraced in China as a crucial cultural strategy to survive the pandemic quarantines and lockdowns, displacing the fear of an infectious disease with the obsession with spreadable media.[2]

The worldwide rise of geek and zhai culture points to the emergence and significance of a new demographic of transnational knowledge workers in a global economy dominated by information networks. This knowledge class functions as a crucial yet often overlooked nexus in the ongoing transformations of information society that we are still trying to understand. These so-called geeks, otaku, and zhai are the active agents, as both consumers and producers, connecting techno-economic developments to socio-cultural changes. Therefore, critically examining this social group and its cultural values, I believe, is the key to understanding our current information society at large.

My work is about the cultural values of geeks, otaku and zhai: how they emerged, why they matter, and what they mean. Through the lens of anime and its transnational fandom, I explore the meanings and logics of “geekdom” as one of the most significant sociocultural groups of our time.  The key questions are why anime appeals to this rapidly expanding social group, and how anime constitutes a mediation environment that effectively translates between knowledge work and what Tiziana Terranova calls “knowledgeable consumption of culture.”[3] I study geek and zhai as informational knowledge culture in postindustrial society and investigates how anime constitutes a powerful media environment that cultivate and sustain this knolwge culture. Studying anime as the media environment of global geekdom, I want to shift the center of knowledge culture from the computer boys in Silicon Valley to the anime fandom in East Asia, problematizing the supposed American whiteness in the popular imagination of the knowledge class. This shift from the techno-culture of computing to the transmedia system of anime also calls for a theoretical rethinking of how knowledge culture is mediated. I argue that the culturalization of informational knowledge work needs a media form, which is animation rather than computation. Continue reading Anime’s knowledge cultures →

New sources on China’s annexations

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New comprehensive essay collection on China’s brazen annexations of territory in Nepal and Bhutan, and related topics, such as the forced sinicization of Tibet, etc.:

Mapping China’s Himalayan Hustle: Revisionism Resistance Must be the Order of the Region. Edited by Jagannath Panda. Institute for Security and Development Policy [Stockholm], 2024, November 2024.

Note also these recent articles on China’s unilateral annexations:

https://turquoiseroof.org/forceful-diplomacy-china-cross-border-villages-in-bhutan/

https://thediplomat.com/2024/10/the-politics-of-chinas-land-appropriation-in-bhutan/

ps. I too recently published on China’s Himalayan annexations — in Swedish: “Kina annekterar delar av Nepal och Bhutan.” Kinamedia, 21 november 2024.

Magnus Fiskesjö nf42@cornell.edu

Soup dumplings

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Source: The Guardian (11/10/24)
100,000 Chinese students join 50km night-time bike ride in search of good soup dumplings
Authorities impose restrictions on bike hire after huge group blocks a highway between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng in China, as night biking trend takes off
By  in Taipei

College students from Zhengzhou cycle to Kaifeng.

College students from Zhengzhou cycle to Kaifeng. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

A night-time cycling trend that started with four Chinese students riding 50km for dumplings blew out to a reported 100,000 people on Friday, jamming major roads, overwhelming a small tourist city and drawing the attention of authorities.

The pack of students, mostly on public share bikes, rode several hours through Henan province from their campuses in Zhengzhou to the ancient city of Kaifeng.

“People sang together and cheered for each other while climbing uphill together,” Liu Lulu, a student at Henan University, told China Daily. “I could feel the passion of the young people. And it was much more than a bike ride.”

But Kaifeng quickly reached capacity, with accommodation, restaurants and public spaces packed to bursting, officials said. Video circulating online shows tens of thousands of cyclists filling the six-lane Zhengkai avenue, the expressway between Zhengzhou and the streets of the much smaller Kaifeng, as police used loudhailers to ask students to leave, by bike or on a free bus.

To prevent a repeat of Friday’s event, authorities announced temporary restrictions on roads and cycle paths for the weekend, and bike share apps warned they would remotely lock any bikes taken out of designated zones in Zhengzhou.

Some Zhengzhou universities also enacted measures including banning bicycles on campuses and requiring students to apply for passes to leave the grounds. Continue reading Soup dumplings →

Harvard position in anthropology

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TENURED PROFESSOR IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CHINA
Harvard University
Department of Anthropology

Position Description:

The Department of Anthropology seeks to appoint a tenured professor specializing in the anthropology of China. The appointment is expected to begin in academic year 2025-2026. The successful candidate will have a distinguished record of ethnographic research on contemporary Chinese society and culture and will contribute to both undergraduate and graduate education. Candidates are expected to engage in ongoing research that advances the department’s commitment to intellectual diversity and excellence.

Basic Qualifications:

Candidates are required to have a doctorate in anthropology or a related field.

Additional Qualifications:

A demonstrated strong commitment to teaching, advising, and research is essential. Candidates should exhibit intellectual leadership and impact on the field and have the potential for significant contributions to the department, university, and broader scholarly community.

Application Instructions:

Applicants should submit the following materials through the ARIeS portal (https://academicpositions.harvard.edu) no later than December 30, 2024: Continue reading Harvard position in anthropology →

Can men in China take a joke?

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Source: NYT (10/31/24)
Can Men in China Take a Joke? Women Doing Stand-Up Have Their Doubts.
Comedy has become a way for women to skewer China’s gender inequality. Some men aren’t happy about it.
By Vivian Wang (Reporting from Beijing)

A woman in a sleeveless, striped top, is seen holding a microphone in her right hand.

Yang Li, China’s best-known female stand-up comic, in a screenshot from a variety show. She was dropped from an ad campaign after men complained to the company.Credit…iQIYI Variety via YouTube

On the list of topics best avoided by China’s comedians, some are obvious. Politics. The Chinese military.

Now add: Men’s fragile egos.

That, at least, was the message sent this month, when a major e-commerce platform abruptly ended a partnership with China’s most prominent female stand-up comic. The company was caving to pressure from men on social media who described the comedian, Yang Li, as a man-hating witch.

Speaking up for women’s rights is increasingly sensitive in China, and the stand-up stage is the latest battleground. Growing numbers of women like Ms. Yang are speaking out about — and laughing at — the injustices they face. On two hugely popular stand-up shows this fall, women were among the breakout stars, thanks to punchlines about the difficulty of finding a good partner, or men’s fear of talking about menstruation.

But a backlash has emerged, as men balk at being the butt of the joke. They have attacked the comics on social media; Ms. Yang has described receiving threats of violence. The women’s new visibility can also be easily erased. Not long after the e-commerce company, JD.com, dropped Ms. Yang, it deleted posts on its official social media account featuring two other female comedians.

The battle over women’s jokes reflects the broader paradox of feminism in China. On the one hand, feminist rhetoric is more widespread than ever before, with once-niche discussions of gender inequality now aired openly. But the forces trying to suppress that rhetoric are also growing, encouraged by a government that has led its own crusade against feminist activism and pushed women toward traditional roles.

On guancha.cn, a nationalistic commentary site, an editorial declared: “The fewer divisive symbols like Yang Li, the better.” Continue reading Can men in China take a joke? →

China’s latest security target: Halloween partygoers

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Source: NYT (10/29/24)
China’s Latest Security Target: Halloween Partygoers
阅读简体中文版 | 閱讀繁體中文版
Last year, the Shanghai government said Halloween celebrations were a sign of “cultural tolerance.” This year, the police rounded up people in costume
By Vivian Wang and Muyi Xiao (Vivian Wang reported from Beijing)

Social media videos verified by The New York Times showed police in Shanghai escorting away people dressed in costumes. CreditCredit…

The police escorted the Buddha down the street, one officer steering him with both hands. They hurried a giant poop emoji out of a cheering dance circle in a public park. They also pounced on Donald J. Trump with a bandaged ear, and pushed a Kim Kardashian look-alike, in a tight black dress and pearls, into a police van, while she turned and waved to a crowd of onlookers.

The authorities in Shanghai were on high alert this past weekend, against a pressing threat: Halloween.

Officials there clamped down on Halloween celebrations this year, after many young people turned last year’s festivities into a rare public outlet for political or social criticism. People had poured into the streets dressed up as Covid testing workers, to mock the three years of lockdowns they had just endured; they plastered themselves in job advertisements, amid a weak employment market; they cross-dressed, seizing the opportunity to express L.G.B.T.Q. identities without being stigmatized. Continue reading China’s latest security target: Halloween partygoers →