For the interest of the MCLC list: An online article on how Tiananmen is not remembered:

Silencing the Echoes of Tiananmen. By Louisa Lim. World Policy Journal 33.3 (2016), 6-11. http://wpj.dukejournals.org/content/33/3/6.full

–forwarded by Magnus Fiskesjö <nf42@cornell.edu>

ps. –It reminds me that neurology researchers are developing new methods for erasing and replacing memories. Currently it is done in mice (“Memory Hackers. Scientists are learning how we can edit memories—and delete our worst fears.” PBS NOVA, February 10, 2016. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/memory-hackers.html), with a view to offering helpful therapies for people with phobias, and such. But, once developed, such new methods might also be deployed on people so they forget what the powers-that-be want them to forget, in China and elsewhere. In such a future, the current Chinese propaganda and censorship techniques for inducing “national amnesia” on a massive scale — as Louisa Lim discusses in this article on China — might come to seem too laborious, and obsolete, — as would the current techniques for torturing prisoners to make them parrot lies on TV. A simple memory-replacing therapeutic session might do it. Is this our Zombie future, we can ask.

I largely agree with Magnus’s comments, but analysis of the history and development of exhibitions of the terra-cotta warriors may require a bit more nuance (which may be present in Magnus’s 2015 essay, which I haven’t yet read –apologies).

Around the time I viewed the “Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China” exhibit (with terra-cotta statues as its centerpiece) in early Spring 1989, my classmates, friends, coworkers (at the Ohio State University library), and professors were enthusiastically following events in Beijing, and equally enthusiastic about the marvelous archeological finds being made in China, then showing in Columbus. As I recall, almost all of these people were in sympathy with and support of the students at Tiananmen. In other words, Westerners, Chinese (both nationals and Chinese-Americans)–most everyone I knew at the time–greatly enjoyed this exhibit without feeling that it aligned them with “Strongman” authoritarianism or that it contradicted or undermined their democratic aspirations.

So, at least based on my experience, I don’t feel that this type of exhibit was in Spring 1989 imbued with “widespread loss of faith in free politics, and a new yearning for Strongmen,” although I don’t doubt that later iterations might play into–and nourish–such “infatuations.”

Nick Kaldis <nkaldis@gmail.com>

It is eerie to read this Bell, an authoritarianist sycophant. I think this sort of sycophancy is a historical type which re-emerges periodically, and so emerges increasingly now, with the current turn to Strongmen, who will sponsor and pay people to do this. Or, people volunteer themselves as sycophants. In both cases, it seems that the more powerful the Chinese state, and its bullying at home and abroad, the more we will see this kind of type stand up for and justify Chinese authoritarianism. In the hands of Westerners it carries a certain racist flavor (in the hint that somehow Chinese are childlike and unfit, and must be kept in chains or they will get out of hand).

But I think far more important is the embrace of the ideology of “unity”, which here underpins the argument. Continue reading Xi’s authoritarianism (2) →

This is a response to the Wasserstrom/Merkel-Hess piece posted earlier.–Kirk

Source: The World Post (Huffington Post)
Western Critics of China Need to Avoid a Colonial Mindset
By Daniel A. Bell (Philosopher, Tsinghua University; author “The China Model”)

XIXINXING VIA GETTY IMAGES

BEIJING — Kate Merkel-Hess and Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s thoughtful response to an essay on Chinese politics by WorldPost editor-in-chief Nathan Gardels reminds us of the need to take into account the rich and multifaceted political traditions in China.

Continue reading Xi’s authoritarianism (1) →

Source: The World Post (Huffington Post) (9/8/16)
Xi Jinping’s Authoritarianism Does a Disservice to China’s Nuanced Political Tradition
By Jeffrey Wasserstrom (Chancellor’s Professor of History, UC Irvine), and Kate Merkel-Hess (Assistant professor of history and Asian studies, Penn State)

AP

The People’s Republic of China was created by a revolutionary upheaval spearheaded by Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong. The 40th anniversary of his death is Sept. 9 and as it nears, Chinese President Xi Jinping expresses reverence for this radical founding figure, despite the horrendous human misery caused by some of the chairman’s policies — especially the famine-inducing Great Leap Forward. Continue reading Xi’s authoritarianism →