Introduction: After the Beidaihe Conference, China officially entered the political cycle of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Looking back at the past ten years, from the 18th National Congress to the 20th National Congress, whether it is placed in the cycle of reform and opening up, or in the 100-year cycle of the CCP, it is an extremely critical decade.
In the past ten years, not only has the CCP leadership system undergone major changes, the economy has shifted from high-speed to medium-low speed and has become a new normal, and platform economies such as Didi and electronic payment have also officially brought China into the cycle of technological change and the Internet age. Surging, the Chinese people's world outlook has become different from the past, and the rise of Little Pink has become the most iconic phenomenon.
When the epidemic of the century is intertwined with the changes of the century, the changes in China and the role China can play in the international field become more and more important.
Before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, "Hong Kong 01" launched the "Ten Years Summary" series of special articles, in order to better understand China's past, present and future.
This is the seventh in a series of feature articles.
Ten Years Feature • 1 | Ten Years Feature from Kowloon Flood Control to the Change of the CCP Leadership System.
2 | Different "Party-State": The integration of the party and the government has become a new attempt in national governance for ten years.
3｜Normalization of anti-corruption beyond the most eye-catching transcripts does not mean institutionalization 10-year special article 4｜Ideological struggle filled with gunpowder and public opinion control has become the biggest shortcoming in governance 10-year special article 5｜The illusion of China's economic perception: high expectations Ten-year special feature with low sense of gain 6 | The new four major inventions to prevent the disorderly expansion of capital "Jack Ma" is shaking
The times create youth, and youth also influence the times.
In the past ten years, the ideological trend of Chinese youth has changed significantly, showing complex, multi-faceted and mixed characteristics. Not only are the political spectrum, value orientation, and ideology of the youth group diverse and complex, but groups with the same tendency may include a variety of mixed left and right. , Nationalism and Liberalism, Nationalism and Universalism.
This is largely because with the continuous development of China's economy and society and the in-depth popularization and backward compatibility of mobile networks, the number of young people participating in public discussions and expressing public opinions has increased significantly compared with the past. The presented orientation to nature is more complex.
Especially in today's era when it is no longer a single trend of thought that can dominate the world, the cultures of different groups are often different, the
social trend of thought is stratified, and the ideology of youth groups is highly differentiated and varied
. conceivable results.
However
, under the more complex and multi-faceted general characteristics, there is a very noteworthy change within the youth group, that is, the proportion of young people who were simply inclined to liberalism in the past is obviously declining, while the young people who are inclined to pink The volume has increased significantly and is increasingly showing considerable influence
.
From the perspective of popular social trends of thought, before 2012, whether it was the popularity of the southern media, which leaned toward liberalism and deeply influenced countless young people, or the “surrounding and changing China” craze triggered by Weibo, or the liberal publicists and bigwigs The huge volume of V on the Internet shows the huge appeal of liberal ideas to young people at that time.
However, marked by the "Constitutional Dream Incident" in the New Year's speech of "Southern Weekend" in early 2013, the southern media have been purged one after another and spread to liberal media and platforms throughout the mainland. For example, in 2016, some reformists within the system gathered "Yanhuang Chunqiu" magazine was reorganized, and the consensus network, which had a great influence on the Internet, was suddenly shut down.
The debate on constitutionalism in early 2013 has become a dead end in the past ten years. Since then, constitutionalism has become a sensitive word, and many liberal media, intellectuals, and Internet influencers have either been purged or silenced.
January 6, 2013, "Southern Weekend" 2013 "New Year's Special Issue".
In contrast, the statist and nationalist little pinks continue to gain more influence after their opponents, liberals, have gradually faded away.
Little Pink generally refers to the new generation of patriotic youth in China born after 1990. They appeared and formed initial influence as early as 2012
. The market leaves room, and they take advantage of the situation to seize and deeply influence the public opinion field.
In 2015, a group of mainland netizens boycotted Taiwanese artist Zhou Tzuyu, who waved the flag of the Republic of China on the show.
In 2016, the Diba expedition caused a sensation, with a large number of mainland netizens posting comments on Sanli News, Apple Daily and Tsai Ing-wen's social media homepages.
In the same year, the film "No Other Love" directed by Zhao Wei was boycotted because the actor Dai Liren was questioned about his political position, which in turn led to Dai Liren's replacement.
After the turmoil over the amendments broke out in 2019, a large number of netizens raised a wave of public opinion against violent protesters in Hong Kong, and sparked a controversial boycott of the NBA.
In the same year, with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the National Day military parade was held, and the patriotic sentiment of Little Pink reached a climax.
This year, Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung was besieged by Little Pinks because a video congratulating Hong Kong on the 25th anniversary of its return was misinterpreted.
In the past ten years, such turmoil has emerged one after another. The frequent public crusades against people, organizations or events that are humiliating, anti-China, Hong Kong independence, and Taiwan independence tendencies have been frequently launched by small pink, all of which have stirred up waves of public opinion at home and abroad.
In the process, the irrational side of the little pink wave has become increasingly apparent, and there has been a dangerous trend of madness.
"Emperor's expedition without grass grows" is famous on the Internet.
(Facebook)
Why is this so?
Times have changed.
The influence of any social thought is closely related to the social environment at that time.
In the 1980s, the reason why the influence of liberalism in China reached a peak was inseparable from the background of emancipating the mind and reforming and opening up after the end of the Cultural Revolution. At that time, liberalism and the direction of national policy had extensive overlap. , Enlightenment liberalism is almost an intellectual consensus.
However, with the deepening of reform and opening up, both the limitations of liberalism and the tension between liberalism and state policies have become increasingly prominent, and the ideological differentiation between the intellectuals and the general public has been increasing, and the influence of liberalism has declined accordingly.
In the past ten years, with the continuous tightening of China's public opinion control and the continuation of the country's rise, there have been officials' increasing intensification of the red traditions, traditional culture, and nationalism of the Mao Zedong era, and the structural contradiction between China and the United States has highlighted the need for liberalism. The reverse extrusion of liberalism has significantly shrunk the activity space of liberalism, and its influence has been greatly reduced.
However, even so, liberalism is still a trend of thought with considerable influence in contemporary Chinese society. Every time China encounters a major crisis or a major public event, the influence of liberalism will be reborn.
The concepts of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, the restraint of power, critical thinking, the spirit of independence, and the spirit of contract, which have been advocated by liberals for a long time, have long been embedded in Chinese society and have become a background color of the era with widespread influence.
Even the small pink groups that have been ridiculed and criticized by many liberals have already shared many values and concepts with liberals to varying degrees, but they have differences in the game between the state, government, capital, and state.
According to Yu Liang, an associate researcher at the China Research Institute of Fudan University, in the article "Little Pink's Genealogy, Ecology and the Future of Chinese Youth": "When we dive under the surface of Little Pink's strong patriotic feelings and observe, we can see Little Pink's It shares some important contemporary ideological and emotional components with its opponents, the "universal" faction, including "avoidance of the sublime," life politics, postmodern jokes, political correctness, and universal anxiety about spiritual fragility." Of course, some Some people may say that some important contemporary ideological and emotional components shared by the small pink group and the universal value group bear the imprint of vulgar liberalism and do not belong to true liberalism, but the problem is that the current Chinese society and even looking around the world, How many people have liberalism without a vulgar, superficial aspect?
In 2016, the original team of "Yanhuang Chunqiu" was basically replaced, and the newly released "Yanhuang Chunqiu" magazine was replaced with a green cover.
(Image source: Jigsaw)
The relative decline in the influence of liberals must be accompanied by the growth of small pink groups.
Just like the rise of many countries in the process of rising national self-esteem and honor and the strong return of traditional culture, when China has created an economic miracle that is rare in human history in just a few decades since the reform and opening up, it will inevitably give birth to huge economic miracles. The national self-confidence of China will inevitably make more people from temples to the people begin to look at the West with a head-on perspective.
This is very obvious in the Chinese intellectual community. Most of the older generation of intellectuals have more good imaginations about the West, and they tend to take the West as a teacher. Among the younger generation of intellectuals, including many people with rich experience in studying abroad and living in the West, many of them believe that there is a huge gap between Western ideas and reality, that there are many internal problems in the West, and there are irrational forces of racism and blind xenophobia. They tend to have strong statism and nationalism in foreign exchanges, and are more inclined to toughness and struggle.
Under such an atmosphere of the times, especially in the past ten years, Chinese officials have strengthened nationalism and subjectivity, and their foreign work has frequently shown toughness and sharpness, and the United States has curbed China's rise and stimulated by irrational events in overseas society. It will have a huge echo in the Chinese folk, and as a result, the voice of Little Pink will naturally continue to rise.
To a certain extent, the reason why Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was able to arouse so much dissatisfaction in Chinese society for a time, so much so that the public opinion field once had the illusion of military planes expelling Pelosi and reunifying Taiwan by force. Of course, Hu Xijin was misled. But from a deeper perspective, this is obviously directly related to the small pink trend that has been rising in the past decade.
Pelosi's visit to Taiwan is a stab at nationalist sentiment in mainland China.
(Associated Press)
The decline of liberal influence and the rise of the little pink voice has two effects.
On the one hand, it will make China strengthen its subjectivity and revive traditional culture in the process of its rise, it will make China's foreign relations more tough and sharp, and it will make the overseas society, including the United States, unfriendly to the irrational force of mainland China. The fear will make the narrative of the West in Chinese society richer and more diverse.
On the other hand, it is easy to induce populist nationalism, which interferes with the flexibility of China's diplomacy and is not conducive to the evolution of Chinese society towards inclusiveness, diversity and openness.
In recent years, some irrational xenophobia and high-level accusations that have occurred frequently in the public opinion field are powerful examples of the negative impact of the small pink ideological trend.
Whether the debate between Hu Xijin and Shen Yi reveals the internal divisions of Little Pink, or the inappropriate accusations made by some people on the Internet against Zhang Wenhong and Zhang Xueyou, it shows that the side effects of Little Pink's ideological trend cannot be ignored, and populist nationalism cannot be avoided.
After all, historical experience has repeatedly warned that nationalism is necessary and justified within a reasonable range, but once it slips into populist nationalism and becomes increasingly frenzied, it is easy to go crazy and cause terrible backlash to the country and society.
Chinese youth should definitely look at the world, walk out of the sadness and shadow of history, and face the West confidently, but self-confidence does not mean blind arrogance or xenophobia. The historian Xu Zhuoyun once said, "Taking the paths that human beings all over the world have traveled, it is one of the paths that I have traveled."
Mount Tai does not allow soil, so it can be large; rivers and seas do not choose trickles, so they can be deep.
A rising great power should be a great power that "accommodates all rivers, tolerance is great", and is well versed in the simple wisdom of "if people from afar are disobedient, then cultivate virtue."
The rise of Little Pink reflects the self-confidence of Chinese youth, which is a good thing, but at the same time,
only when Chinese youth are self-confident, inclusive and open, and good at learning from the development of various countries in the world, can they be like a hundred years old. Liang Qichao hoped that "the wisdom of the young is the wisdom of the country".
How far the Little Pink Thought can go in China is still difficult to determine, but one thing is certain, the influence of the Little Pink Thought is not only related to whether the Little Pink group can get rid of the rubbish and save the essence, reflect on themselves, and transcend themselves. It is more related to whether China can continue to rise and whether it can continue to improve people's lives.
In the early days of the Wuhan epidemic, especially on the night of Dr. Li Wenliang's death, young people, including many little pinks, were generally dissatisfied and disappointed. Later, China took the lead in controlling the epidemic when the world was mired in the epidemic situation, and quickly generated very positive feedback in the whole society. The chaos during the lockdown in Shanghai this year has left many young people disheartened.
This shows that the enthusiasm of the little pinks is closely related to the quality of national governance. The better the national governance, the higher the little pinks' emotions, and vice versa.
There is a popular saying about Chinese youth on the Internet: Many young people are full of confidence in the country but are confused about their own future.
It can be said that how long the patriotic stamina of Little Pink can last depends on whether Chinese society can solve a series of deep-seated economic and livelihood problems that plague young people as soon as possible while most young people are confident in the country.
Ten Years Feature • 1 | Ten Years Feature from Kowloon Flood Control to the Change of the CCP Leadership System.
2 | Different "Party-State": The integration of the party and the government has become a new attempt in national governance for ten years.
3｜Normalization of anti-corruption beyond the most eye-catching transcripts does not mean institutionalization 10-year special article 4｜Ideological struggle filled with gunpowder and public opinion control has become the biggest shortcoming in governance 10-year special article 5｜The illusion of China's economic perception: high expectations Ten-year special feature with low sense of gain 6 | The new four major inventions to prevent the disorderly expansion of capital "Jack Ma" is shaking
