These past few days I’ve finally realized I’m a lil newbie communist. I’ve noticed there’s some communists on reddit, particularly non-ML people, who are skeptical as to whether or not China is /really/ committed to communism. While my friend’s experiences are all anecdotal of course, I thought you might be interested in hearing the general (not rooted in any sort of theory) perspective of a recent high school graduate in China:Disclaimer: I’ve been a lib up until very recently so pls excuse the basic ass topics we talked about. Also, my Chinese is not really fluent yet.She vaguely knew what capitalism was. She says her knowledge of it is that it’s not bad, it’s just worse than socialism. She says one of the only things they learn about capitalism in school is 雇佣关系 (gùyōng guānxi) - the relationship that someone works for someone else and gets money in return. There must be more to this that I don’t understand b/c it’s so generic?? (edit: Also I just remembered that she said the word that comes to mind when she thinks of capitalism is 金融危机 - financial crisis. But we all knew that already >:D)When she was a kid, she thought she liked capitalism because she saw capitalist countries as the places where rich people live.She said she likes living in a socialist society, but she’s not sure if it’s just because a socialist country is all she’s ever known in her life.She supports socialism but is not sure about communism. She doesn't call herself a communist because she didn’t think it’s possible for “everyone to be equal.” She thinks it’s human nature that people are “lazy” and “what will motivate people in a communist society?” “Not everyone can be equal!” I was kind of surprised by this since these are the exact anticommunist “lines of reasoning” I see in America all the time, but also it turns out she’s never read Marx or Engels - in China they dedicate the majority of their childhood preparing for 高考 (gǎokǎo), the gruelling college entrance exam. She said she would’ve had no time to read Marx or Engels. But, she said she has friends now reading Das Capital.She will take Marxist classes every year of college. She said doing well in these classes is extremely important. After college, people generally support communism. She said they generally think little kids are too young to understand communism, and the kids/teens are busy with 高考, so they don’t make the Communist readings required until college.I was saying something (perhaps lazily worded that) most people like Xi JinPing, and she made the correction to me that everyone in China supports Xi JinPing. She said there’s not really a reason to voice dissent with a government that’s clearly serving its people.She said some people are die-hard Mao fans, some show milder support. When she was young, she didn’t understand why her grandmother praised him so much and my friend disliked him for no reason, but now she respects him.She says in some ways there’s more freedom of speech than you’d think, but she’s concerned about some restrictions on freedom like professors speaking out against Chinese government - they will be banned and no one knows what happens to them. I asked about a hypothetical situation of what would happen to a professor who might be Westernized in some way and speaks out against the government - she said they would be banned, and Chinese people would definitely support and agree with that. She’s concerned about the term limits lifted from the presidency, but that’s the only area that troubles her about the way the government runs things.She says in school they say 共产主义终会战胜资本主义 (Gòngchǎn zhǔyì zhōng huì zhànshèng zīběn zhǔyì) - Communism will eventually defeat capitalism.She didn’t seem surprised that so many people are anticommunist in America, but her eyes did pop a bit when I told her how the general narrative we get is “Communism is a failure, communism is bad” from our history classes, our media, our government.There’s a big state-wide news program that comes on everyday at 6pm - a lot of families watch it together. She said her grandparents hate Tsai Ing-Wen. She also said 大陆人可以认可台湾人，但是他们很讨厌要分裂的台湾人 - Mainland Chinese can recognize Taiwanese people, but they hate pro-independence Taiwanese.The irony of all of this is I first met her years ago while I was in China participating in a language immersion program that was completely funded by the Department of State :0 Our program organizers at the time told us to not talk politics with our host families - now I know it discouraged us libs from understanding the specifics and politics as to why Chinese people love their government. Of course, we saw signs of this all the time - going to a restaurant with a huge portrait of Mao, watching a day-long military broadcast with most families glued to the TV sets, watching movies about the Communist Revolution where, when each historical figure was introduced on screen, the entire theatre erupted in applause, etc. At the time, these were all chilling signs of nationalism that us lib American high schoolers didn’t understand, but now I’m so proud to be learning Chinese and incredibly grateful to have a friend in China to talk about all of this.My friend said she learned a lot from our call and I certainly learned a lot as well. She also expressed newfound excitement at the prospect of studying Marx in college and we’re excited to continue calling and help each other learn. via /r/communism https://ift.tt/3bzh6PN
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