From Nowhere to Red China: The Dilemma of the Chinese Left

Old article from 2013, there is nothing wrong with the point of view. However, the author should not have expected that in less than ten years, China's domestic environment and foreign situation will be turned upside down, and the future will become a beacon of hope for mankind and it will not be a glimpse of the moon in the water.

Author: Mr. Mi

Link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/19939140/answer/19852150

The current predicament of the leftists in China is, to put it simply, the actual contradiction between the leftists represented by the land of nowhere and the leftists represented by red China.

The common split of contemporary Chinese thought trends in people's eyes is probably the split of the right wing represented by liberals, such as Christian constitutionalism, Confucian constitutionalism, Enlightenment, pencil clubs, rights activists, national fans, etc. War of words. In fact, the most intense ideological split in China is currently taking place among the left. Right-wing disputes are nothing more than war of words, and they are nothing compared to left-wing ideological struggles. Like all leftist debates in history , the current leftist debates in China point directly at the standpoint, at the heart, at the foundation of their footing, and even at the enduring debate over their legitimacy. Its degree may not have reached the most intense stage, but this is also due to the fact that one of the groups strongly emphasizes internal unity, not that their ideological gap has not reached this level.

Although the civil war between the leftists is fierce, it is generally not known to the outside world. The reason is not that the leftists deliberately concealed it, and there is no need to conceal it. Therefore, this phenomenon is more characteristic of the times, and it is more worthy of analysis and exploration - not the rightists, but It is precisely the standard leftist discourse that has become the most sensitive sentence pattern in China today. An analogy can be used to illustrate why standard leftist discourse has fallen into such an unprecedented state of sensitivity. For example, an emperor faced two kinds of accusations at the same time, one said "you are a bad emperor" and the other said "you are not the original emperor at all". Of the two accusations, the latter is naturally the most threatening, and the situation of the leftists is also the same.

The split of the Chinese left is going on all the time. This split is caused by the uneven distribution of interests and also caused by the split of ideology. Most of the reflectors in the left came from the underdog in the system. As the left itself said, class determines class consciousness. Over time, a new class consciousness forms, and finally a new ideology emerges. This process was basically completed as early as the end of the last century, and by the beginning of this century, it has become a wave of ideological reflection and a new ideological force outside the system. At first, this new ideological force had unified viewpoints and discourse methods, but under the weight of historical background, in the face of realistic dilemmas, and in the competition with liberals, the leftist discourse system began to undergo subtle changes. And form a different trend, and eventually split.

A strange phenomenon is that it seems that liberals have no interest in the internal contradictions of the left, and even often show contempt and disgust, which is very incomprehensible. Understanding the contradictions of the left is essential for sorting out the current ideological trends in China, sorting out the inner thoughts of various interest groups, and searching for the real leftist discourse (this is extremely scarce in today’s China, where leftist discourse is gradually interpreted as nationalist discourse and statist discourse ), it is beneficial and necessary to have a better understanding of China. At the same time, the leftists have their own discourse characteristics, which complement each other and can make up for the deficiencies of the rightist discourse system in some aspects.

In an article analyzing the left and right, I once said that the characteristics of the current left is to explain the current social problems with typical nationalist discourse, and finally interpret the domestic class contradictions as ethnic contradictions. Many people are sensitive to the term class contradiction, especially the right, which seems to be a term reserved for the left. In fact, class can be understood as a certain interest class. Obviously, there are different classes with sharp conflicts in interests in China at present, so class conflict is a reasonable explanation, which can lead to many topics.

From Banner Network to Land of Nothing

The online base camp of the leftists is neither iron-blooded nor a powerful country. It is a forum with typical nationalist and statist tendencies. It belongs to the standard right-wing discourse system and has nothing to do with the left. The real home base is Nowhere and the Banner Network. The communication page of the Land of Nowhere is relatively closed, a bit like the early century China; the banner website is a standard forum setting, and the communication is relatively smooth, so for a period of time, the banner network has always been more popular than nothing. Judging from the content of the discussion, Banner Network is more inclined to discuss current affairs, while Wu is more inclined to academics. This difference in positioning also determines the difference in popularity between the two.

It is precisely because the banner network is inclined to discuss current affairs, it is more radical, and it always maintains a certain distance from the current regime, so it is often blocked, and its status continues to decline over time. Around 2008, Wuyouzhixiang became the online stronghold of the leftists, and even after the re-opening of Banner.com, its momentum was not as strong as before.

Another reason for the decline of the banner network is that its discourse method is very similar to that of Nowhere, that is, they tend to interpret domestic problems in a nationalist discourse way. The ideas of the two are similar, the content is similar, and the recognition is poor.

Although Banner has a nationalist tendency, there are also standard leftist discourses in it. For example, "Zhongsheng" and Li Yang are more typical traditional leftists, and "when others will stop", which is a more rational and enlightened leftist (I am in the In 2008, he wrote a short story "The Beggars' Suffering", which mocked Qiqi.com's ban, in which many Qiqi.com netizens were used as prototypes as key figures).

Wu You was originally philosophical, but I don’t know when, his discourse style quickly shifted towards nationalism, and soon surpassed the banner network. Now, looking at the themes of no-existing websites, almost all of them use nationalist discourse to interpret contemporary issues. Typical examples are GMOs , the Mao Yushi issue, and even discussions about the Arab Spring. Its immutable logic is that the Western world headed by the United States is the root of all evil, and all problems in China, all problems in the world, are the conspiracy of the Western world headed by the United States. The discussion of all issues, as long as we rely on this conclusion, can exist in non-existence, that is, non-existent political correctness. The Arab Spring is the result of Western incitement; GM is the biological weapon used by the West to exterminate China; Mao Yushi is a comprador of the West; the South China Sea is the West’s containment of China; ... No need to give more examples. In short, all problems must be found in the West. The current Chinese government is a naive child who is easily deceived by the elites and becomes their tool. Its mission is to persuade the children to come back from the comprador, to bring them back to the right path. Therefore, this is a national conflict, and it is a matter of life and death. Therefore, those who oppose them are traitors, and those who support them are patriotism.

The more recent it is, the stronger this tendency toward nothingness becomes. Its leaders are mainly led by Zhang Hongliang, Liu Yang, Kong Qingdong and others. Because of their inclination towards nationalism, they often flirt with nationalists and nationalists. Therefore, Sima Nan, Moruo, Yang Fan, Song Xiaojun, Song Luzheng and other characters are mixed. It has also become their guest of honor, euphemistically called, the United Front.

However, the way of nationalist discourse is not the traditional way of discourse of the left, and it has even been severely criticized by the Comintern in history . Therefore, such a remarkable turn in nothing will inevitably lead to internal contradictions of the left, and the real problems will appear again and again. , is also beating the truth of the non-existent remarks, and the immediate result is the emergence of the Red China Net.

The Shipwreck faction and the battle to save the party and protect the country

Red China seems to be a website that was only established at the beginning of this year. I found out that it was around May. An article by Guan Tian's old friend Ma Qianpu was cited, and then a series of unexpected discoveries were made.

I'm always adjusting my ideological tendencies so that I don't lean left or right as much as possible, so I've always been very concerned about what truly leftist thinking is. Because on Banner and Wuyou, the content that really belongs to the leftists has been pitiful, and even the old online leftists such as Yan Bizhong and Li Xianyuan are basically invisible (Yan Bizhong and Li Xianyuan both have relatively typical and pure leftist discourse methods ), so I once thought that the real leftist discourse in China was basically on the verge of extinction, but after seeing red China, this was denied. In terms of discourse, Red China is more purely leftist than Wuyou and Banner (although generally rough). That is to pay attention to the interests of the common people and to pay attention to class issues, and to abandon the discourse mode of nationalism as much as possible in the interpretation.

The speech leaders of this website are Yutai and Mamenlev, and a major part of its theme is the criticism of today's revisionism, and a large part of it is the criticism of its "representative" Zhang Hongliang. To simply express the tendency of Red China, Red China believes that the main contradiction in China is by no means a national contradiction, but a domestic class contradiction. The primary enemy of the Chinese is not Western imperialism with ulterior motives, but the revisionists at home who are primarily responsible for a series of social problems in China. If you deliberately confuse the domestic class problem with ethnic contradictions, you will obscure the essence of the problem and miss the main goal of solving the problem. In fact, it will play a role in escorting the revisionism’s continued rule of darkness. Therefore, this kind of speech tends to must be criticized. The goal of the struggle must be reset, there are primary and secondary goals, the secondary goals are ignored, and all forces are concentrated on the primary goal. At the same time, some of the more radical people in Red China, such as Zhou Qun, have some radical views on how to deal with real issues, and they often express their radical views unabashedly. To this end, Zhou Qun even became independent and built a more radical Red Stone Forum (which has been blocked many times).

Wu You clearly noticed this tendency in the red, and some of them called those radical leftists "Shipwrecks", accusing them of being a bourgeois restoration, another leading party (which is obviously hilarious, sober). Everyone knows that the so-called restoration is already a fait accompli, and it does not need to be realized at all, so what exactly do they want to express?). At the same time, they believe that what the leftists should do is to save the party and protect the country, and they believe that they can change the status quo and return to the original path by uniting some sympathetic leftists in the party. The shipwreck faction retorted, claiming that these "rescue the party and protect the country" factions are just typical revisionists, or even gunmen hired by the government. Therefore, the most fierce battle between red and nothing is the battle between sinking ships and saving the party and protecting the country. In the discourse of Red China, the phrase "saving the party and protecting the country" has the same meaning as "helping the Qing Dynasty and destroying foreign countries" a hundred years ago. They are both stupid and wishful thinking, and even belong to the capitulation faction.

The Chongqing Problem and Two Kinds of Reformism

Another point of contention between Wuyou and Red China is the evaluation of Chongqing. Wuyou has almost no negative words for Chongqing. For Wuyou, Chongqing represents the best possibility for China at present, and the direction China should take in the future, and for any question about Chongqing, no matter which one is questioned, they will have nothing to do with it. Hesitantly criticized. It is precisely because of this attitude that Wu You's affirmation of Chongqing has gone beyond the level of analysis and research and jumped to the level of belief.

Many people regard Wuyou's attitude towards Chongqing as the general attitude of the Chinese left towards Chongqing at present, but this is not the case. Even like the infighting of the leftists, the leftists, represented by Red China, criticized Chongqing far more than the liberals denied Chongqing. The two words "criticism" and "denial" can also see the intensity of their criticism. different.

For Red, the core contradiction in reality has always been blurred, and reformism is used as the powerful and powerful to seek the legitimacy of its continued existence, and the reckless blindness towards Chongqing is definitely the concentrated expression of this reformism. Red asked Chongqing, since it is a return to the red tradition, why did not restore public ownership, why did not return power to the common people, but continued to rely on bureaucrats and the powerful to rule. For them, the so-called anti-corruption campaign and popular slogans are only superficial articles, a means of concealing people's eyes and ears, so as to smear through the leftist image on the performance, and finally maintain the legal status of the powerful and the bureaucracy through limited cutting.

In fact, many people who are out of nothing will not think that the present in Chongqing is all their ideals, and Chongqing must take more steps to achieve the ideal state. The difference between them and the red is that they want to give Chongqing more time, instead of rushing for success, pulling the seedlings to encourage growth, singing the red and fighting the black is not the end, but just a prelude, Chongqing will definitely go on like this, and it will definitely move towards the ideal. Goal step by step. But Red denies this, they think it's not a matter of timing at all, but a matter of position and attitude. The background and position of the current Chongqing rulers themselves determine the limitations of the red reform in Chongqing, and Chongqing really wants to change, the so-called difficulties in reality are not difficulties at all, but just an excuse for them to shirk the change. Therefore, Chongqing cannot be expected. The expectation for Chongqing is only a manifestation of capitulationism. It is a typical royalist behavior and a realistic embodiment of saving the party and protecting the country. Its behavior is exactly the same as Song Jiang's being recruited.

This is the debate about Chongqing within the left

The reds accuse Chongqing of being reformism, and the rightists also criticize reformism, but this is not aimed at Chongqing, but at a group of people who are trying to achieve peaceful transformation through means within the system, such as what some liberals in the system are doing, and Efforts made by independent representatives. These two kinds of reformist criticism from different directions and different goals actually foreshadow the current delicate situation in China. The moderate leftists and rightists hope to realize the transformation of the country at the least cost, while the more radical leftists and rightists believe that People in the existing system can't do it whether they turn left or right, because there are no intellectual issues or operational issues involved, only interest issues. Interests are the fundamental reason why people in the current system are unwilling to change. People are selfish animals, and they will not voluntarily give up their own interests, especially when the degree of such interests is huge, and once they give up, they may worry about their lives. Taking the initiative to give up is tantamount to seeking skin with a tiger, which is impossible.

It can be seen that these two kinds of accusations against reformism in different directions seem to be completely different, but in fact they point to the same problem. The main forces in the current system are neither left nor right, and they only care about a "benefit". As for the current reformism in the two directions, it is only a small step over the left and a small step over the right. For critics, such small steps are not helpful at all. Even only has a whitewash color. And whitewashing is easy to deceive the public, making real change later and more difficult to come.

Two Leftists' respective problems

The first is a problem shared by the left.

In the past few decades, the owners of the state who ruled in the face of the left have criticized and attacked intellectuals almost indiscriminately for decades, which has caused a large number of intellectuals to talk about the color of the left and criticize everything related to the left. Things - including learning, stay away. This large-scale alienation of intellectuals against leftist thinking has made the leftist power in today's China lose an important source of power. Because intellectuals control a large number of market-oriented media and other private thought platforms in China, these platforms have long replaced official platforms and become an important channel for the dissemination of ideas, and they continue to influence the values of more people. The alienation of intellectuals from left-wing ideas, on the one hand, prevents the left from forming a large-scale ideological force (there are very few people on the left who can understand Wang Hui), and on the other hand, their voices are lacking.

Leftists accuse liberals of controlling a large number of media platforms in China, and leftists themselves should reflect on what caused this. One is what I said above. The second is what I said at first, the unprecedented sensitivity of leftist words in today's Chinese context, which further compresses the living space of leftist discourse and leftist thought.

The latter of the above two is also an important reason why leftist ideological platforms such as Land of Nowhere have turned to nationalist discourse consciously or unconsciously. There are many leftists who don't have the same understanding of real issues as the red ones. However, in order to speak politics and to unite as many as possible, they will strategically choose some of the most popular discourses. At the same time, in order to avoid some sensitive issues, and also for the sake of survival, it may be safer to use nationalist expressions to describe real issues. In my opinion, this is the main reason why nationalist discourses are becoming more and more popular among the left. It's hard to tell if it was an unconscious move or a conscious move, maybe both. And the result seems to be that genuine leftist discourse is drowned out by plausible nationalist discourse, and in the end, many liberals can't help but equate left with nationalism, which is obviously comical, but almost a fait accompli. And its further problem is that a large number of leftists seem to have accepted this judgment of liberals and raised patriotism to its highest mission. Recognized judgments such as “achievement” have long been a thing of the past and cannot be traced. In the end, a large number of leftists' judgments on real problems appeared obvious nationalistic tendencies, which indeed played a certain opposite role in revealing the essence of the problem.

The red Chinese leftists, who have finally understood this issue, are trying to clear the source and put things right. However, because they are determined to tear down a large number of leftist ideological nationalist disguise and insist on using the most sensitive leftist discourse, their living space will be suppressed to the greatest extent.

In addition, the leftists represented by Red China still insist on using some leftist programs that have suffered widespread failures, such as public ownership, such as Mao-style publicity, such as the dictatorship of the proletariat, such as revolution. Molecular alienation and their own social status (most of them are those who are out of power and have a tougher life) make them generally conservative in their thinking, and they cannot gain insight into the historical trend of leftist development in the tide of historical development (as in the great The same problem exists with Hanism). They can't go beyond history , or even China today, so it's even more difficult for them to gain universal recognition. Not only those within the system disagree, but also liberals who may be in the same class. Its further marginalization is a fate that is difficult to escape. Of course, they themselves have already discovered this problem, and more insightful people such as Yu Tai are also working hard to correct it. This correction will encounter a lot of resistance from the land of nowhere, and they will be accused of being traitors by the other party. Accused of leading the way, and liberals will continue to view this correction with skepticism. So the pace of this correction will be very slow, or a race against time.

Some of the leftists belong to the New Left, led by Zhang Xudong, Gan Yang and others. They have adopted a large number of international New Left languages, thus creating a certain distance from the current reality of China and making it difficult for the Chinese Left to have a smooth communication bridge with them. , and its ideas are difficult to feed back to China's leftists at this stage.

A roughly predictable outcome is that some in the nowhere will continue to align with nationalism and statism, eventually becoming one with them, while some in the red will align with the liberal left, gradually aligning with the more radical liberals. Some people unite. Whether this differentiation is a good thing or a bad thing will come to different conclusions from different angles. From the perspective of ideological development, I am happy to see all changes and blending with everything. After all, there is no future without change.