Considering how dominant anime has become when it comes to 2D animation and also its popularity in China for the past few decades, I suspect that for the most part there will always be a lot of similarities. That being said, I think a number of existing donghua do have distinct Chinese visual elements to them. The most notable examples I can think of would be Fog Hill of Five Elements or this recent short film from Wolfsmoke (studio that did the batman of shanghai animations): https://youtu.be/IS_IFUTZUe4.

I guess that depends on what kind of stuff you like. I think what makes them the most unique and what I find refreshing about them is how well-read they are and their ruthless criticism of the Western left (including other self-described MLs). So my recommendations along those lines would be:

China's Cultural Revolution and drawing a parallel with what's happening today to critique Western leftists: https://youtu.be/7gG6zzHy48w

Interview with Fan Wennan on his art piece (which you can now find pinned on Haz's twitter) that had been dunked on by leftists on twitter at the time - apparently this served as a large source of inspiration for them: https://youtu.be/LhooFz-Tfz8

Critique on Luna Oi and the Western leftists online: https://showinfrared.substack.com/p/exposing-the-fraud-that-is-luna-oi *

*Note: Haz was big mad when he wrote this so it reads like bloodsports and I think he misunderstands certain things here like Luna's tweet on China which was taken out of context and the entire last section on Landback which was based on his interaction with a small segment of online leftists.

They just published the complete BadEmpanada rebuttal video which I imagine you might be interested in: https://youtu.be/FPt1OPbowrI

https://youtu.be/R9WMHvrYy5I

Yeah he's the face of the Infrared collective. I think it makes sense to have him be the entertainer on streams that attracts people to the channel. For the more serious educational content that they put out though, the other members can still take leading roles in producing stuff (e.g. https://youtu.be/1rSWhSBmfMA).

This is similar to how for example Midwestern Marx (https://www.midwesternmarx.com/) has Eddie - who has 300k+ followers on TikTok - as their most prominent influencer

Yeah, media is just a tool ultimately. Just because it hasn't been used productively yet, doesn't mean it should be shunned entirely. Infrared isn't just Haz btw. There are a bunch of other members that are part of Infrared which you can see in their older youtube videos.

the same reason

Individuals can still leverage media to educate people and get them to join/support parties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Youth

Why? Define the “mainstream”.

I think Haz is entertaining and can appeal to more conservative and/or right-wing leaning people who otherwise would never touch anything to do with communism. I guess by mainstream, I mean big enough to cause a significant impact IRL (e.g. influencing a large number of people to join parties/orgs)

Assuming it is slander, why do you even care?

Like I said, I think their project has potential. Also, I wanted to encourage folks here to consume media critically and promote a mentality of interpreting what other leftists say in good faith.

1. I think Infrared has potential to make ML mainstream
2. The original post is free advertising for another narcissistic owner of a small media business and is basically low effort slander which I want to push back against seeing as nobody else here was doing it.

Why would you become a streamer?

For the same reason that communists sold news papers. With the collective audience and money that Breadtube and adjacent personalities have,you could do a shit ton of IRL action. The Infrared collective saw that nothing was happening/shit was heading in the wrong direction so they set out to take down Breadtube and do it themselves.

I believe the basic idea here is that the "imperialism" of Rome is fundamentally different from modern "imperialism".

19. The “imperialism of ancient Rome,” which carried on a policy of seizure and conquest, by force of arms subduing to its hegemony a great many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, must not be confused with modern imperialism, just as, for instance, usury capital which existed before capitalism must not be confused with usury bank capital in the epoch of imperialism. The difference between the imperialism of ancient Rome and modem imperial­ism consists in the difference of production bases. Then it was small peasant and artisan production and commercial capital; now it is enormous machine production and monopoly capital. This example, among others, shows how incorrect it is to understand by the term “modem imperialism” only a “policy,” and not a whole system of capitalist economy. The former point of view makes it impossible to understand the distinction between the imperialism of ancient Rome and modem imperialism.

• Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, p. 125

That was me. I stand by what I said.

Haz is currently explaining this on stream in case anyone was interested in actually understanding his words here: https://www.twitch.tv/infraredshow. The meaning of words can change over time and depending on context. It's really not that hard to interpret the guy in good faith, but I suppose most Western online leftists would rather just dunk on people to feel good.

Some interesting stuff in here: https://boards.4channel.org/g/thread/83698907

Apparently there's some shady shit going on with some of the high paid streamers:

Earlswood

Average viewers less than 100

Suddenly went offline when the leaks happened

Somehow earned $385000 on twitch in 2 years

Bans anyone who mentions the leaks

also

Altoar

Number 8 on the list at over 3 million earned

174 followers

Hot take I guess but Haz is a smart dude who knows his shit. BadEmpanada just doesn't understand the arguments being made and also lacks the knowledge which Haz is taking for granted when he says the shit he does. So naturally the thing to do for a low-effort content reaction video like this is to just make bad faith assumptions and dismiss the guy as a delusional idiot.

In case you were curious about Haz's rebuttal: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1168636717?t=00h29m30s

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/read-the-china-cables-documents/

They're also the group that leaked some "official documents" related to Xinjiang.

Yeah I've been trying to wrap my head around all this and I think the idea behind the criticism would be that socialists in the imperial core should put their efforts into seizing power and supporting "land back" efforts don't necessarily help with that (and in some cases it may even be harmful arguably). There's probably also some confusion where some instances of "land back" activity like that Bezos funded org in the US advocating for giving public land away are in capitalist interest whereas others are not.

deleted by creator

I think you may be making some false assumptions here so I'd like to make it clear that nowhere in my comment did I condemn them for their decision or purport to know what is better for them.

As far as I can tell, nobody is arguing that Indigenous people must first be socialist before land is given back to them, although I now see how one could easily interpret it that way.

I took some time to dig into this debate a bit more, and I think what Peter Coffin and others are saying is pretty clear. This is what happens when "land back" occurs under capitalism and it is why capitalists are funding the current "land back" movement: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/senakw-squamish-first-nation-vancouver-rental-housing-development

Squamish First Nation members overwhelmingly voted to approve the massive development on their 12-acre Kitsilano reserve in late 2019. Thus allowing band leaders to seal the partnership with local developer Westbank and continue their work with refining the design concept.

Between $16 billion and $20 billion will be generated from the rental income of Senakw throughout the entire lifespan of its buildings, with the First Nation receiving half of this income under its 50-50 partnership with Westbank. In 2019, the construction cost of the project was estimated to be $3 billion.

The people who are against "land back" are against it not because of "paternalism and settler guilt complex" but because giving land back right now would ultimately end up serving capitalist interests