Chinese understanding of white left

[CMartel]

https://www.opendemocracy.net/digita...nternet-insult

Just as the Chinese embassy will give you a more honest assessment of dangers of US cities than any cop would on the record, the Chinese have a better understanding of the white left than most fake conservatives.


The curious rise of the ‘white left’ as a Chinese internet insult
Chenchen Zhang 11 May 2017

Meet the Chinese netizens who combine a hatred for the ‘white left’ with a love of US president Donald Trump.


lead
Internet cafe, Beijing, Flickr/Kai Hendry. Some rights reserved.
If you look at any thread about Trump, Islam or immigration on a Chinese social media platform these days, it’s impossible to avoid encountering the term baizuo, or literally, the ‘white left’. It first emerged about two years ago, and yet has quickly become one of the most popular derogatory descriptions for Chinese netizens to discredit their opponents in online debates.

So what does ‘white left’ mean in the Chinese context, and what’s behind the rise of its (negative) popularity? It might not be an easy task to define the term, for as a social media buzzword and very often an instrument for ad hominem attack, it could mean different things for different people. A thread on “why well-educated elites in the west are seen as naïve “white left” in China” on Zhihu, a question-and-answer website said to have a high percentage of active users who are professionals and intellectuals, might serve as a starting point.

The question has received more than 400 answers from Zhihu users, which include some of the most representative perceptions of the 'white left'. Although the emphasis varies, baizuo is used generally to describe those who “only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment” and “have no sense of real problems in the real world”; they are hypocritical humanitarians who advocate for peace and equality only to “satisfy their own feeling of moral superiority”; they are “obsessed with political correctness” to the extent that they “tolerate backwards Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism”; they believe in the welfare state that “benefits only the idle and the free riders”; they are the “ignorant and arrogant westerners” who “pity the rest of the world and think they are saviours....



The stigmatization of the ‘white left’ is driven first and foremost by Chinese netizens’ understanding of ‘western’ problems. It is a symptom and weakness of the Other.

The term first became influential amidst the European refugee crisis, and Angela Merkel was the first western politician to be labelled as a baizuo for her open-door refugee policy. Hungary, on the other hand, was praised by Chinese netizens for its hard line on refugees, if not for its authoritarian leader. Around the same time another derogatory name that was often used alongside baizuo was shengmu – literally the ‘holy mother’ – which according to its users refers to those who are ‘overemotional’, ‘hypocritical’ and ‘have too much empathy’. The criticisms of baizuo and shengmu soon became an online smear campaign targeted at not only public figures such as J. K. Rowling and Emma Watson, but also volunteers, social workers and all other ordinary citizens, whether in Europe or China, who express any sympathy with international refugees

[Revi]

Sounds like a copy-paste of the opinion of most young people on the outer right this part of the world.

Typing that up, I sorely miss a phrase to describe the right-wing version of "SJW", "young people on the outer right" sounds really inaccurate.

[Allybeboba]

What do you know? They identified the purpose of these sorts of articles and threads.

Took the strokes right off my fingertips!

[Noradin]

The criticisms of baizuo and shengmu soon became an online smear campaign targeted at not only public figures such as J. K. Rowling and Emma Watson, but also volunteers, social workers and all other ordinary citizens, whether in Europe or China, who express any sympathy with international refugees

This is the only relevant part.

[s_bushido]

Typing that up, I sorely miss a phrase to describe the right-wing version of "SJW", "young people on the outer right" sounds really inaccurate.

Isn't that what "alt-right" has become? In the past they might have just been called regressive or reactionary.

[Freighter]

Isn't that what "alt-right" has become? In the past they might have just been called regressive or reactionary.

Isn't alt-right white supremacism? I remember reading about it being another word for white supremacy before the election in the USA.

[sarahtasher]

Wait, wait, wait. You mean that right leaning Chinese xenophobes does not like Westerners in general ?

NO KIDDING ! I thought that foreign devils was a term of endearment.

[Saucexorzski]

i wonder if this will catch on in the states.

[Sky High]

great to hear from the righties that we need to take notes from the communists. /irony meters peaking out over 9000

[Garnier Fructis]

I'm continually amazed that the far right keeps trotting out the fact that they agree with the mainland Chinese public on various topics, as if it was something to be held up and admired. I guess it's simply never dawned on them that they're constantly agreeing with people who value strongmen & authoritarian stability and who think democracy is a weakness.

And it's not as if their beliefs are grounded in any sort of good reasoning, either. That part where the Chinese mock the focus on immigrants and minorities? Yeah, that's because Han Chinese have this tendency to be racist as hell. And before the excuses roll in: they acknowledged it themselves decades ago, and made a token attempt to fix it with the policy of 'Zhonghua Minzu' in their constitution. This has, of course, done jack shit to actually reduce Han supremacist tendencies.

Because as we've learned in the states, simply declaring that racism is over does not make it so.

[Independent voter]

Chinese are conservative for the most part.

[Garnier Fructis]

Chinese are conservative for the most part.

Understatement of the week.

[yetgdhfgh]

Isnt China a communist country?

Isnt that a bit like the kettle calling the pot black?

[Venant]

I'm continually amazed that the far right keeps trotting out the fact that they agree with the mainland Chinese public on various topics, as if it was something to be held up and admired. I guess it's simply never dawned on them that they're constantly agreeing with people who value strongmen & authoritarian stability and who think democracy is a weakness.

And it's not as if their beliefs are grounded in any sort of good reasoning, either. That part where the Chinese mock the focus on immigrants and minorities? Yeah, that's because Han Chinese have this tendency to be racist as hell. And before the excuses roll in: they acknowledged it themselves decades ago, and made a token attempt to fix it with the policy of 'Zhonghua Minzu' in their constitution. This has, of course, done jack shit to actually reduce Han supremacist tendencies.

Because as we've learned in the states, simply declaring that racism is over does not make it so.

Perhaps the real question is, what benefit would multiculturalism have to the chinese? It makes sense for them to adopt strategies that prevent the spread of multiculturalism into their country if they believe it is to their detriment, even if these strategies are 'racist'. It isn't like there isn't systemic racial discrimination in the west, its just that it is 'justified' as a strategy to somehow repair inequalities of the past.

[Stormspellz]

Isn't that what "alt-right" has become? In the past they might have just been called regressive or reactionary.

with everyone playing party over country politics, how fast the "never trump", cruz, ect all got in line to kiss the ring. there is no "alt-right" just the "republican" party.

[Vargrik]

The Chinese are very intelligent. It looks like most members of the White left in the West will only wake up from their path of auto-destruction when they are the only Whites left (pun).

[Zomis]

https://www.opendemocracy.net/digita...nternet-insult

Just as the Chinese embassy will give you a more honest assessment of dangers of US cities than any cop would on the record, the Chinese have a better understanding of the white left than most fake conservatives.


The curious rise of the ‘white left’ as a Chinese internet insult
Chenchen Zhang 11 May 2017

Meet the Chinese netizens who combine a hatred for the ‘white left’ with a love of US president Donald Trump.


lead
Internet cafe, Beijing, Flickr/Kai Hendry. Some rights reserved.
If you look at any thread about Trump, Islam or immigration on a Chinese social media platform these days, it’s impossible to avoid encountering the term baizuo, or literally, the ‘white left’. It first emerged about two years ago, and yet has quickly become one of the most popular derogatory descriptions for Chinese netizens to discredit their opponents in online debates.

So what does ‘white left’ mean in the Chinese context, and what’s behind the rise of its (negative) popularity? It might not be an easy task to define the term, for as a social media buzzword and very often an instrument for ad hominem attack, it could mean different things for different people. A thread on “why well-educated elites in the west are seen as naïve “white left” in China” on Zhihu, a question-and-answer website said to have a high percentage of active users who are professionals and intellectuals, might serve as a starting point.

The question has received more than 400 answers from Zhihu users, which include some of the most representative perceptions of the 'white left'. Although the emphasis varies, baizuo is used generally to describe those who “only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment” and “have no sense of real problems in the real world”; they are hypocritical humanitarians who advocate for peace and equality only to “satisfy their own feeling of moral superiority”; they are “obsessed with political correctness” to the extent that they “tolerate backwards Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism”; they believe in the welfare state that “benefits only the idle and the free riders”; they are the “ignorant and arrogant westerners” who “pity the rest of the world and think they are saviours....



The stigmatization of the ‘white left’ is driven first and foremost by Chinese netizens’ understanding of ‘western’ problems. It is a symptom and weakness of the Other.

The term first became influential amidst the European refugee crisis, and Angela Merkel was the first western politician to be labelled as a baizuo for her open-door refugee policy. Hungary, on the other hand, was praised by Chinese netizens for its hard line on refugees, if not for its authoritarian leader. Around the same time another derogatory name that was often used alongside baizuo was shengmu – literally the ‘holy mother’ – which according to its users refers to those who are ‘overemotional’, ‘hypocritical’ and ‘have too much empathy’. The criticisms of baizuo and shengmu soon became an online smear campaign targeted at not only public figures such as J. K. Rowling and Emma Watson, but also volunteers, social workers and all other ordinary citizens, whether in Europe or China, who express any sympathy with international refugees

The Chinese are pretty damn smart!

[JohnBrown1917]

The Chinese are very intelligent. It looks like most members of the White left in the West will only wake up from their path of auto-destruction when they are the only Whites left (pun).

Must be hard in a world where 'the left' is a single ideology/group.

[Garnier Fructis]

Perhaps the real question is, what benefit would multiculturalism have to the chinese? It makes sense for them to adopt strategies that prevent the spread of multiculturalism into their country if they believe it is to their detriment, even if these strategies are 'racist'. It isn't like there isn't systemic racial discrimination in the west, its just that it is 'justified' as a strategy to somehow repair inequalities of the past.

First off, everything I wrote would still apply even if there wasn't anything spread 'into' their country. Because China already has like 50+ different ethnic minorities, and shitting on them could basically be considered a national sport.

You're trying to frame this whole thing as if it had a rational basis, and it's a steaming pile of shit for the same reason it always is: because you've got the motivation and action all jumbled up. The starting is and always has been the idea that the Han are superior, and everyone else is an inferior human.

[s_bushido]

The Chinese are very intelligent. It looks like most members of the White left in the West will only wake up from their path of auto-destruction when they are the only Whites left (pun).

Please, tell me more about this White Genocide.