this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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Thank you for sharing your family story. I didn't mean to suggest that we should dismiss the stories of Chinese people as wrong just because they don't conform to an idealist history. I don't think that you think I said this—I just wanted to reiterate that and support your caveat for anyone else reading.
The broader problem is with techniques that are used to shut down westerners from praising China just because a Chinese person has a different story (you didn't do this). The person trying to shut down a pro-China narrative may dishonestly rely on (1) the relative rarity of westerners having visited China and (2) the pro-China westerner's anti-racism. The west is usually only open to 'China experts' if they're negative about China. The same people who accept that kind of narrative are often the same people who tell the pro-China westerners that they can't be right because a Chinese person said XYZ.
Thanks again for your family story. I can't imagine forgiving my government for doing anything close to that! Can I ask (feel free to say no): do these kinds of stories make it into Chinese fiction/drama, etc? Or do people dislike talking about it, either because it's traumatic, taboo, etc?
Haha, exactly, I agree with your message and how it was worded :) I was just adding some nuance.
As a non-CPC-hating Chinese American living in the West, I'm fairly aware of how these tactic are used, alas. The thing is, there is a kernel of truth there--even when distorted and used for dishonest purposes to smear the CPC--such that to dismiss it altogether, would make one's counterargument ring false as well. This kernel of truth lies behind anti-CPC sentiments within China itself, along with Chinese liberals yearning to live in capitalistic freedom, with naive people imagining the West is a utopia, etc etc. I think it's good to acknowledge it where possible, in its historic context.
As for how these stories are depicted in China, things were fairly repressed up til the 90s, then increasingly discussed, the history taught, scholarly articles written, etc. I can't speak for much beyond that, as I do not live in China, though I get a window into it due to being bilingual via Chinese media and social media. To go by all the recent pop culture dramas and movies, it's not a time that most people want to dwell upon. Both far away in the past, and yet not quite far away enough for completely open dissection.