Thanks for posting. I think it’s really useful for western Comrades to hear perspectives from Chinese people.
I think there are lots of good intentions here but also a lack of knowledge. I lived in China for ~10 years and have read an ok amount about its modern history and politics but man is there a lot I don’t know.
Obviously it lacks the voice of the other side which is the government, but I think it is still pretty good documentary
The maker’s been sued by the students for including footage of a leader saying the goal was to provoke a bloodbath, while it’s also been banned in China. So yes, it’s about as evenhanded as you could hope for.
I’d caution against taking too much away from the River Elegy, mind. It was a current of thought, but the tide has turned against that sort of inferiority complex. As you note yourself, it ended up banned.
On the note of neoliberalism, I’d encourage you to check out Document 9, which outlines seven ideological trends to reject. You’ll note that number four is neoliberalism and extensive privatisation.
Neoliberalism undoubtedly had an impact on China, but at the same time it’s not outright neoliberal in ideology. For instance, the largest economic entity in the world is the holding entity for China’s SoEs.
Overall, Chapo should learn more about China. I’d suggest doing so from a perspective that it’s a Communist Party managing a society in flux, with all the flaws of a material world, and imperfect people and systems. That means critically analysing, without concluding every second sentence that it’s either a workers’ utopia or the same old capitalism.
There’s a certain trend in the left to think in absolute terms of purity. This article makes the case that it’s a holdover from Christianity’s influence on the western psyche. I’m not saying vote for Biden—but you should be able to look at what a socialist project is and isn’t, without jumping to deify or condemn it.
There has been a very noticeable and sudden shift in the socialist discourse re:China in the last couple years, right as the propaganda war against them has also intensified. It used to be more or less commonly accepted that the party was revisionist and had strongly liberalized and long betrayed Marxism-Leninism. I for one know I’m personally more sympathetic towards the party than I was a couple years ago, and it definitely has a lot of merits and achievements to show off for itself, and there’s absolutely a horrendous campaign of slander and lies about them directed at the general public.
I think you’re right and people are forming too strong opinions too quickly. It’s understandable of course given how sinophobia is every day more mainstream, but I also think more criticism can give way to more interesting and sometimes productive conversations. I don’t know. It’s too easy to just dismiss arguments one way or another just because you agree or don’t agree that their line is coherent with Marxism-Leninism or more generally communism.