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惟江上之清风

[Chairman Rabbit]​​Departure from China/Hong Kong independence——Self-Hating Chinese

View the original via ​​​@rabbit chairman


People often say: "Why are these Hong Kong people so hostile to China?" "Why are there so many people who don't want to be Chinese?"

Today this blog will add a new dimension for developing ideas - "Self-hating" Chinese.

Specifically, these Chinese hate their Chinese identity/identity.

It can be translated as "Chinese hatred/anti-China Chinese/Chinese", which can be freely combined according to the specific situation.

First, conceptual discussion: what is "Chinese"?

1) It can be a concept of ethnicity, that is, the Chinese people who are distributed around the world and mainly live in mainland China. As an ethnic group, if it falls in a Western context, there may be different expressions when targeting non-Han people with mainland Chinese backgrounds. Including Tibet, Uyghur, etc., which mainly depends on the identity of the parties themselves and the labels that outsiders are willing to choose).

2) It can be a political concept referring to citizens of the People's Republic of China.

Technically speaking, the Han Chinese in Hong Kong fit both of the above identities.

(In the short paragraphs above, I think many young people in Hong Kong and the vast majority of black teenagers have no idea)

Begin the text below.

1. First quote a concept: Self-hatingJew (or anti-Semitic Jew)

Self-hatred Jew, anti-Semitic Jew. This is a concept that has been used and studied more in the Western context and has existed for more than a hundred years.

Why are there self-hating Jews?

To go back to Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. In particular, Germany, where the Jews took root in the upper middle class and the upper class, was the most progressive and willing to give Jews the same political rights and social status. ), seems to be the most active and sincere society in helping Jews. (Interlude, the Nazis were born here, contributing to the Holocaust that spread across Europe).

So how do Jews actually integrate into the local society and become members of ordinary citizens/non-Jews ("Gentiles")? Of course, deep assimilation is needed to become the same person as Gentile. You must first give up Judaism, convert to Christianity, and become a member of the church; you must become a Jew who receives a good local education and advocates modernity, civilization, and rationality. It is necessary to strip away the Jewish traditions and habits of the body as much as possible, from religion to clothing to language to behavior. To be real and down-to-earth to become a member of the Germans. Has Feel German, not Jewish.

Many German Jews believe that they can accept the culture of the host country (Germany/Europe) and become a local member through active assimilation. They firmly believe in the modern spirit of Western humanism and in progressive politics. They believe that they can be German, and strive to make a foreign land their homeland and Germany their identity. (Interlude, the rest is history: the Holocaust that wiped out six million Jews in Europe).

Jews living in exile in Europe lived in a very unfriendly and hostile society (the country of residence), and they faced perennial anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism started out religious, then developed into economic, cultural, social, political, and in the early 20th century into “scientific” (Nazi anti-Semitic scientific racism”). There are countless anti-Semitic prejudice and discrimination in the host country. They have been fighting and eliminating these discriminations through hundreds of years.

But over time, after several generations, especially when the window of assimilation opens and opportunities arise, the oppressed (Jews) will also be divided, and some people begin to accept the prejudice, discrimination and accusations and gradually "internalize" them. Discussions about Jewish identity/identity were a big deal in the Jewish community from the 19th to the early 20th century. Many progressive intellectuals will cite what appears to be a typical anti-Semitism today to criticize the group in three rounds. These Jews who wish to assimilate into German/European see no value in "being" a Jew.

The extremists will even resent anything that has anything to do with Jews. All these things that trigger local/German/European anti-Semitism, they are trying to get rid of. Because these characteristics and qualities will influence them to join the group they want to integrate into - the local/German/European group.

To be baptized, to join Christianity. Get a local education, speak standard German, give up Yiddish. It is also necessary to live a completely German life, from the dress, speech, behavior, spiritual resources and values, to be completely localized. When they get home and shut the door, they will complain and say: Why are we born Jewish?

There were several groups of contradictions in the society at that time.

One is the contradiction between progressive, reformed, assimilated Jews and traditional/Orthodox/Orthodox/Orthodox Jews. The former believed that Jews could only find their place in German/European society through assimilation. The latter believes that Jews must stick to their traditions, and are deeply skeptical of the complete acceptance of Jews in the country of residence, based on thousands of years of historical memory. Their Jewish identity and Jewish future also clashed fiercely. In addition, progressive Jews believe that the existence of "backward" traditional Jews will make them a barrier to joining the local mainstream society, and they also oppose the idea of ​​Jewish nationalism (Zionism), believing that the future of Jews is to integrate into the society of the host country.

The second is the conflict between Western European Jews (mainly German Jews) and Eastern European Jews (Ostjuden). Ostjuden mainly lives in the so-called Pale of Settlement, which includes Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Belarus, Russia, and more. The so-called contradiction is also discrimination, that is, German Jews believe that they are Jews who represent the most advanced Western modern civilization, standing at the pinnacle of civilization. And their poor relatives living in Eastern Europe give them the most eyeballs and psychological discomfort. These people are only backward, ignorant, stubborn, and uncivilized. The existence of Ostjuden makes Western European Jews feel that they belong to a "backward" nation; Western European Jews are also very worried that their "backward" brothers will hold them back, making Western Europeans look down on themselves and discriminate against the entire Jewish community.

Such contradictions and conflicts could later occur directly in Nazi concentration camps. Western European Jews = higher Jews; Eastern European Jews = lower Jews.

(Seeing this, do you feel that it is a bit similar to the views of many Hong Kong people on mainland China? Look down on your "poor relatives"? I will analyze it further later).

This was Jewish anti-Semitism 100 years ago. It is tearing apart the Jewish community.

And often because their own people know each other, so their own people stab themselves more hurt. Opponents argue that the Jews' own anti-Semitism will do more harm to the Jewish community as a whole than does alien anti-Semitism.

(Similarly, Hong Kong people who are anti-mainland will hurt more globally than Westerners who are anti-China).

2. Why there is self-hating Jew and the theoretical statement behind it

In fact, the reason has been said before, that is, the Jews have stayed in this hostile and more advanced external environment for a long time. Many people hope to integrate into the local area. At the same time, because the foreigners are advanced, over time they also believe the foreigners' attitude towards them. Some negative reviews. They hope to integrate into foreign races, just because they and their compatriots are not pleasing to the eye. In addition, I am afraid that my own characteristics and my compatriots will lose their hind legs. For themselves, they want to erase their Jewishness and make themselves as local as possible. We must always criticize our "backward compatriots". That's it.

Expressed in slightly technical and academic language:

People (i.e., "progressive Jews") wish to distance themselves from a group (i.e., "broad Jewish groups") that are assigned a lower value (or "depreciation") in status and value judgments, and, they have accepted Negative comments from outside groups/dominant groups/mainstream groups on the aforementioned groups (i.e., the "broad Jewish groups", represented by traditional groups that retain the characteristics of Jewish groups to the greatest extent possible). They argue that the existence of the aforementioned groups (i.e., the "broad Jewish group") is an obstacle to their ("progressive Jewish") achieving their desired social status.

This is the reason for self-hatred, self-hatred at the ethnic level.

There are also some social psychological expressions, such as - "internalized oppression". Internalized oppression is when the oppressed group ("Jews") notices a marked inequality between the values ​​of their own group and the value of the oppressor group (Native Europeans), and therefore the oppressed group begins to apply the values ​​adopted by the oppressor. Phrasing, method, logic, discourse against members of their own group, by which they hope to be closer or closer to the group of oppressors.

To do this, the oppressed must internalize all the prejudice and discrimination of the oppressor. Internalize is to truly believe in the prejudice and discrimination against their own group constructed by these oppressors. (In this context, there is a somewhat similar but popular term called "self-brainwashing").

The composition of a community may be based on various identities and foundations. The same goes for prejudice and discrimination, which can be gender, racial, ethnic, class, religious.

After completing this self-discrimination, the oppressed achieve "internalization" and "self-stigmatization" of themselves and their group.

This situation is very common, and gender-based discrimination is more common in life. For example, if a woman is in a completely male-dominated work environment, she may be affected by some prejudice and discrimination from men, and this prejudice may be affected. and "internalizing" discrimination - eg female weakness, indecision, lack of opinion, submissiveness, lack of courage. The result is nothing more than two, one is that this woman completely believes in this kind of prejudice and discrimination, and believes that she does have this kind of shortcomings (which makes me suspect that Lam Cheng may be so). Another is that this woman hopes to prove that she is not a member of such a weak woman through her actions, and make herself more masculine than men. (This brings me to Thatcher's example. And, if Hillary gets to power, she must too).

This is common among immigrant groups. As an immigrant, you may experience a sense of inferiority and insecurity if the new community you live in is very contemptuous of your background origin (perhaps based on your language, ethnicity, race, culture, religion, beliefs, behavior, etc.) , then this can lead to self-hatred - self-hatred of the original group you belong to. Moreover, in this situation, in order to be accepted by the new community, you will perform exceptionally well, and you will accept the concepts, culture, and behavior of the new community more radically, and prove to them that you have completely assimilated, integrated, and are among them Absolutely reliable one. Nothing is more effective than rejecting and attacking the community to which one belongs. In layman's terms, it's hard work. Therefore, we have seen some new immigrants who grew up in China all their lives and arrived in Hong Kong, and even intellectuals with good education and experience, who are no less than locals in terms of Hong Kong independence/disengagement from China. Even more radical than the locals, using the local language completely. That kind of person may be to cater to the locals, in order to gain their approval. We can judge that they may be the typical objects of this analysis: internalized oppression, self-stigmatization, self-hatred.

Another explanatory dimension is Stockholm syndrome. A group that has been surrounded by hostile external ethnic groups for a long time may gradually accept the judgments of the hostile external ethnic groups, no matter how prejudicial and discriminatory these judgments are. They also need to find comfortable reasons ("rationalization") for their non-resistance, cooperation, and harmonious coexistence by accepting these prejudices and discrimination.

To sum up, what is the way to deal with oppression from outside groups? If you can't beat them, join them: keep a distance from your original identity background, and even find a way to abandon your original identity background and deny your identity. By doing so, achieve cognitive balance and move from oppressed to oppressor.

* ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I'm going to pull back a little bit back to the German Jews of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

German Jews did not deny and could not deny that they were Jews. Their "self-hatred" and denial of ethnic groups are more cultural and social. German mainstream society does not really accept Jews. The native Germans never believed in the Jews who tried to convert and register as Christians. They are just hypocrites who think they just want to infiltrate German society, behind closed doors or not admitting Jesus. This trust has never been broken. And economic, social, and political anti-Semitism gave birth to the Nazi Holocaust. This is the tragedy of history.

Self-hating Jew still exists in contemporary times. For example, Jews will criticize Jewish materialism and money worship. But most of the time, self-hating Jew is used between right-wing Jews and left-wing Jews in Europe and the United States, and the topic tends to focus on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian policy. Left-wing Jews often criticize the policies of the Israeli government. Right-wing Jews attack left-wing Jews as self-hating Jew. In contemporary Europe and the United States, the definition of anti-semitism is also changing, and all actions against Israel can be labeled as anti-Semitism. Personally, I find this political label moot.

Back to Hong Kong below.

3. "Self-hating Chinese"

In fact, many ancient civilizations and ethnic groups with a long history will have different degrees of self-hatred, a kind of grief that is angry with oneself for not fighting and hating iron.

1) This kind of self-hatred was mainly reflected in the criticism of tradition, society, culture and behavior in the past.

I think actively learning from the West and introducing the West are not self-hatred, but a systematic negative evaluation of China, and the negative evaluation contains biased, extreme, one-sided, and stereotyped discourses and thoughts, such as summarizing certain The "ethnic inferiority", which believes that all members of a nation have this inferiority to varying degrees, can be attributed to this category. Due to the backwardness of China for more than a hundred years, as an insider, we are dissatisfied with our own society, and this tendency is difficult to avoid.

You can cite many examples. I think the more typical ones are Bo Yang's "Ugly Chinese" and "Sauce Jar Culture".

There are many people who criticize the shortcomings of Chinese culture, including Sun Yat-sen, Lu Xun, Lin Yutang, etc., but Bo Yang is more extreme, so he cited it as an example.

——"Mr. Bo Yang once said: 'The culture of any nation flows incessantly, and many filthy and dirty things make this water unable to flow and become a pool of stagnant water.'

Bo Yang believes that the various drawbacks of traditional culture are referred to as "sauce vat culture", and he points out that traditional Chinese culture has a filter disease, and future generations are "eternally infected" and "continuously". The bad qualities of Chinese people mentioned by Bo Yang include self-exposing family scandals, exposing bad habits, fighting in dens, dirty, messy, noisy, disunited, not admitting wrongdoing, selfishness and disregarding others, disorder, not saying "I'm sorry, thank you, it's okay", Love to speak big words, empty words, tell lies, lies, especially vicious words... Countless Chinese people have bad habits. In addition, at the institutional level, the imperial examinations that caused the corruption of Chinese officials, the servile eunuch system, the ignorant and ignorant footbinding and so on.

Taking him as an example of self-hating is not because what he said is completely unreasonable, but because he expresses extreme, one-sided, one-shot killing, and most typically, describes the entire nation with a stereotype, This characteristic is shaped into the unchangeable characteristic of the nation, and it is imprinted on the nation.

Bo Yang is familiar with Chinese traditions, but his behavior has always been very extreme. For his fierce opposition to many traditional cultures, I believe that he "hates iron is not steel", but his extremeness, the way he expresses it, is based on today's Western standards of "political correctness" , has constituted "racism". Because he is Chinese, people will not accuse him like this, but if his value judgments and labels are borrowed by foreigners to describe Chinese people, they will be considered discrimination or even racism.

Returning to the topic of this article, for Bo Yang, we say that this can be regarded as a kind of “self-hatred” to the nation.

There are also in modern Chinese history, all advocates to learn from the West, comprehensive

2) Reflect on the system.

Bo Yang was anti-Confucian and criticized Confucianism. In the last century, many intellectuals and political factions have embraced different versions of imported institutions and models, while criticizing Chinese traditions and institutions. The "destruction of the four olds" and "anti-Confucianism" in the second half of the last century can be seen as concrete manifestations of the continuation of this tradition. Since the reform and opening up, it has evolved into a further worship of the modern Western system ("lighthouse"). I won't go into details here, I'm sure everyone understands. This self-doubt and hatred were not dissipated until China achieved economic development and achieved a certain international status according to its own path and model. People re-look at their own development process and the history of this civilization. Its political representation is the proposal of the "Four Self-confidences".

We objectively assess that by 2019, the number of people willing to judge Chinese history and the current system more comprehensively and objectively will increase, while the number of people who simply and blindly worship the Western system will decrease. This is change.

(In the West, a similar trend has actually occurred, reviewing the problems encountered by Western civilization, the challenges it faces, and even the dead end of democracy, "the end of the end of history")

4. Hong Kong people

This article has analyzed so much, I believe readers can already analyze it by themselves.

1) Colonial Hong Kong

The situation facing Hong Kong is very special. For the past 150 years, it has been an uninterrupted colonial society under foreign rule. This foreign race is the western white people who built the most powerful British Empire in the modern history of mankind, and the race is the most powerful civilization of modern human beings. This is in stark contrast and contrast with the former imperial China, which was backward and beaten in the first half of the 19th and 20th centuries.

This is a contest between two civilizations, two societies, two races, and two eras. We can see various binary oppositions:

advanced vs backward

modern vs ancient

Civilization vs Barbarism

prosperity vs decay

Civilized vs Uncivilized

rich vs poor

strong vs weak

The Chinese in Hong Kong over the past 100 years have existed under this dualism.

They attribute it to the West because of the strength of Western civilization.

They witnessed the continued strength of Western civilization in the 20th century and the continued backwardness of China for a long time

Under the rule of Western civilization, they realized their relative wealth, advanced and civilization relative to China.

In most of history, especially in the past half century, some of their experiences have confirmed their cognition and belief: the West is stronger and China is more backward.

Then, they were in a colonial society.

What was the British like in the colonial era? Especially the British in modern times, the 19th to the first half of the 20th century; racism, of course. Maybe a little friendly, not always malicious racism, but racism nonetheless. This is the mainstream value in Western Europe, it is their methodology of looking at the world, and it is taken for granted.

So many Chinese had to accept advanced foreign rule. This rule is also something they have no power to break, so what should we do?

If you can't beat them, (try to) join them.

Become an agent of the colonizer as much as possible, become a member closer and closer to the ruler, thereby obtaining a higher social status and more social resources, and it is best to help the ruler to rule other compatriots together.

Internalized oppression comes into play (“internalizedracism”—internalized racism). They believe in the strength of Westerners, and believe that the negative comments, discrimination and racism of Westerners towards China are true. They internalize racism. They accepted the racist sequence (or "chain of contempt") with British/white at the highest order. The best way to elevate yourself in the contempt chain is to turn yourself into something closer to the British, reduce your Chinese characteristics, and gain the ruler's approval.

So, to learn English, go to school in the UK, learn to dress and speak British people, learn English literature and British/Western culture, take positions in British institutions, get British medals and social honors, socialize with British people, And it’s best to go back to the mainland, gain honor, recognition, and control assets in the UK, so as to make the British accept that they may only be the same kind of different races (Chinese but “higher Chinese”).

Just like the German Jews who hope to integrate into the mainstream German society and be recognized, this is a way of survival for the Chinese in Hong Kong to gain social status and to be recognized by the dominant group, the British.

Do these higher Chinese have internalized oppression? Is there any self-stigmatization of Chinese? Is it self-hating Chinese? Everyone can judge for themselves.

I believe that colonial thinking has a deep-rooted imprint on a society. This imprint is hierarchical thinking, racism, and contempt chain thinking. To get rid of this backward thinking, society needs to undergo a major institutional change, systematic decolonization, and major reforms of social institutions in areas such as education and culture. None of this happened in Hong Kong.

3) Anti-Communist Hong Kong

Since the second half of the last century, a new dimension has emerged in the self-hatred of Hong Kong people towards China. This is the anticommunist dimension.

In addition to the perspectives of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they have gained new perspectives and constructed many new binary oppositions, which are black and white and extreme:

Democracy vs Autocracy

free vs bondage

Rule of Law vs Rule of Man

Liberation vs Oppression

nice vs ugly

good vs evil

truth vs brainwashing

Moderate vs extreme

Civilization vs Stupidity

advanced vs backward

pure vs dirty

First of all, before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, many people who suspected, opposed and feared the Communist Party moved from the mainland to Hong Kong. However, it may be after June 7 that these values ​​gradually became the framework for many Hong Kong people to understand the world, themselves and China. It reached its peak among the younger generation in the 2010s.

Since the reform and opening up, the mainland has turned to Hong Kong for investment. Hong Kong's assistance to the development of the Mainland has proved its superiority, and at the same time it has created its own economic prosperity.

In Hong Kong after the handover, it is no longer a matter of a few high-ranking Chinese helping the British to rule other Hong Kong Chinese compatriots. Many Hong Kong people are not really reluctant to accept China's jurisdiction, which is more backward in their view, the other side of the binary opposition. They want to become the agents of the entire Western world, the civilized world.

Hong Kong is not only superior to mainland China, but also represents the advanced Western civilization to judge China. Hong Kong people have such a "responsibility". (We saw Hu Xijin's dialogue with Tao Jie and the host on TVB. This dialogue is Hong Kong's trial of China on behalf of advanced civilization).

At this time, what is Hong Kong's self-hatred for "Chinese" identification? I don't think it's the "traditional inferiority" of the Chinese customs mentioned earlier in this article - it's not the focus of their opposition. Hong Kong people’s contemporary anti-China can basically be identified as economic superiority + institutional anti-communism – they believe that the Chinese Communist Party’s governance in mainland China, on the one hand, is economically backward, even if there are various major problems in development, on the other hand, it has created a new "" Sauce jar culture", endows all mainland Chinese with a system of inferiority - autocracy, bondage, rule of man, oppression, ugliness, evil, brainwashing, ignorance, and backwardness. They extended these negative comments to the whole group of mainland Chinese. They believed that as long as people were born and raised in the mainland, they could not get rid of various backwardness in economy, concept, system and culture. At the same time, these pollutions will also pollute Hong Kong.

They equate the group-cum-identity of "Chinese" with these negative comments. They believe that once they are tainted with the "backward" status of the Chinese, they will not only degrade themselves, but also hinder their acceptance and recognition from Western civilization (mainly the United Kingdom and the United States), which is the biggest stumbling block for them to get close to Western civilization. Moreover, those who leave China will be annoyed at the existence of this "poor relative" in mainland China, just as German Jews despise Eastern European Jews.

They have several strategies for this,

1) To further disengage from China in the system (“shame to be in the company of China”), it is necessary to achieve political independence, cultural independence, educational independence, establish isolation from mainland China, and maintain one’s own “purity”. In order to stay close to the West, they want the education system and institutions to be as Western as possible.

2) Since the identity of "Chinese" is considered to be so negative, it is necessary to firmly deny that one is Chinese, build a "Hong Kong" identity, and draw a clear line with the Chinese. The radicals among them will call China "China" to express their sense of racial superiority, in order to rank higher on the racial sequence/contempt chain with Anglo-American/Western/white as the highest order, and go down Looking down on mainland Chinese.

3) It would be even better if they could join the United Kingdom. How much would those who have left China/Hong Kong independence hope that the United Kingdom will pay attention to their "overseas territory passports", integrate them into the United Kingdom collectively, and become British in one step. This can give them a higher status on the contempt chain, and if this is achieved, I believe they are happy to give up Hong Kong people's identity and Hong Kong independence. Then back to the overseas territories of the United Kingdom, it is also better for the British to appoint a white governor than it is now.

I want to write here, this article is very clear.

The Han people in Hong Kong are ethnically Han/Chinese descendants, and their nationality is the People's Republic of China. Why are they so hostile and anti-China and unwilling to be Chinese? The reason is as mentioned above.

They are a group of self-hating Chinese with very twisted psychology. If we look at them detached and sympathetically, they are actually products of history. (Interlude: Look again at the delusional German Jews, how pathetic. They are just blinded by history and politics and can't see the truth)

In the international community, no matter politically or ethnically, "Hong Kong people" can never get rid of their Chinese/ethnic Chinese identity. As a member of the Han nationality, the ethnological identity value is even lower than that of the ethnic minorities in China.

And in the long history, the real value of the self-hatred of Chinese-ness by the de-Chinese Hong Kong people has only become something that social psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, and historians are willing to study. a sample.


Therefore, when you see Hong Kong independence/de-China factions who do not recognize themselves as Chinese in the future, please apply this concept: "You are just self-hating Chinese".

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