We’ve got a special bonus episode this week on the protests over the weekend of November 26th-27th in multiple cities around China. Joining Kaiser and Jeremy are old friends David Moser and Jeremiah Jenne, co-hosts of the Barbarians at the Gate podcast, who have 50 years in Beijing between them. David Moser is a linguist, academic administrator, and accomplished jazz pianist and composer. Jeremiah Jenne is a writer and historian. Both David and Jeremiah are still in Beijing, and they offer an on-the-ground account of what happened and what it all means.
3:12 โ Summary of latest protest developments
7:55 โ Popular Chinese sentiments regarding the virusย ย ย
10:23 โ The scale of these protests
13:22 โ Demographics of the protests
17:06 โ How the Urumqi fire incident exacerbated latent frustrations
20:39 โ The zero-COVID policyโs disproportionate burden on women
26:23 โ Have loosened restrictions paradoxically been the impetus for popular protest?
30:57 โ WeChat account suspension and the censorship apparatus responseย ย
35:13 โ The role of students in the protests
40:29 โ Comparisons between the current protest movement and 1989
42:44 โ Assessing the limits of the protestorsโ demands
44:49 โ The salience of โhostile foreign influenceโ argument for the publicย ย ย
51:42 โ How vaccination skepticism prolonged the zero-COVID policy
55:04 โ The police and security apparatus response thus far
A transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations โ
Jeremy: The Twitter account ๆ่ๅธไธๆฏไฝ ่ๅธ (Lว lวoshฤซ bรนshรฌ nว lวoshฤซ), with the handle @whyyoutouzhele; Cindy Yuโs Twitter account @CindyXiaodanYu
Jeremiah: Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China by Ruth Rogaski
David: The Globe and Mail article โIn rare show of weakness, China’s censors struggle to keep up with zero COVID protestsโ by James Griffith; Speak Not: Empire, Identity and the Politics of Language by James Griffith
Kaiser: Happiness is 4 Million Pounds, a New York Times documentary by Hao Wu
