A month ago, we linked our readers over to The Onion, a well-known American satire newspaper site, when it did a China special that involved a major face-lift of its website to suggest that it had been sold to a Chinese company. The general consensus amongst most of us English-bloggers here in China was that most of the spoof articles were sorta-kinda funny, some with really clever titles or premises, but others quickly degenerating into utter lameness, and yet others being lame from start to finish.
Of course, we also recognized that this was just our biased opinion, given that we were likely to have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of China and the Chinese than the average American The Onion’s jokes were made for.
Soon after, we also linked readers to a rather lengthy essay by Stanford professor Haiyan Lee sharing her thoughts on how The Onion’s China special reflected upon American insecurities (amongst other things).
Now, I’d like to share an interesting post by one of my favorite bloggers, a pirate The Last Psychiatrist, that can, arguably, be characterized as disturbingly mind-bending or mind-bendingly disturbing. Titled, “This Onion Clip Is Hilarious; Now Let Me Tell You Why It’s Scary“, he explains how the below faux news clip from The Onion’s China spoof special is “a study on how to manufacture reality.”
Source: The Onion: Police Still Searching For Missing Productive, Obedient Woman
Here’s an excerpt from The Last Psychiatrist’s post:
I got this Onion video as a link in my email, and the subject heading was “this is our future.”
Which makes it funny. But the more insightful, and scary, way of looking at the clip is to assume the clip is occurring not in the future, but in the present, now. Then the video isn’t a description of the future, but a study on how to manufacture reality.
I.
Imagine that American life is exactly as it looks right this second, but the Chinese bought one or two or nineteen news programs.
Say they wanted to influence American culture to become more Chinese, and also convey an impression about the Chinese as hard working, etc. So, they create a news program like this one. Initially, you’d laugh, just as you have already laughed. But over time the program would appear ordinary– especially if all of the news programs were the same. You would watch this in your non-Chinese house, and slowly, over time, the media images would chip away at your conception of reality until it seemed completely normal that two white people are talking in Chinese-isms, judging a person by their industriousness, etc.
You probably remember the name of the program, but not the name of the missing woman. See? A story about Chinese culture makes you consider the merits of Chinese culture. But a show like this, that is about something else, makes you assume that this is already known to be the way Chinese culture is.
At some point the news version of China would contrast with your own life experience of China, and one would begin to dominate. Oh, you don’t have any actual life experience with China except from TV. Hmmm.
How long before you start to accept the value system promoted on the news? In this case it’s industriousness, but I hardly need to tell you it could be anything at all.
The full post is fairly long and a bit convoluted in comparison to many of his other incisive and thought-provoking posts (mostly topics unrelated to China, about big Pharma, health care reform, narcissism, etc., you know, things a medical practitioner would be interested in). Nonetheless, he proposes a lot of fascinating to frightening points about our relationship with the media and how it shapes our consciousness of reality that will, frankly, test how limber your mind is.
Some Questions:
- Is the prospect frightening by itself, or only because it is China?
- How is this any different, if at all, from Americans’ existing influence upon the world with its grip on pop-culture media?
Might be interesting, for those of you like me that aren’t interested in or can’t be bothered to join the low-brow racist commentary going on over a certain mixed-race girl.
-
Turkey and Azerbaijan news media reports that China executed 196 Uighurs in connection with the recent Urumqi riots scruitnized while The Onion satirizes China.
-
Several days ago, ESWN posted a translation of a Tianya post titled “What is the reason China’s younger generation is losing confidence in the Western...
-
Does China’s mainstream media fear competition from new media like the internet? Editors of the People’s Daily don’t think so, and say bloggers are parasites.
Untrue Uighur Execution Reports & The Onion Mocks China 
Chinese Youth on Western Media: A Diversity of Opinion 
China’s Mainstream Media Views On China Blogs & Bloggers 
I wonder what makes the author think that the current news programme is any better in terms of manipulation other than its different focus? What is promoted now is an American set of values and points of view and for me being European, the US American news programme is often totally different from what we’re told here on the other side of the pond. Even within Europe news are always different depending on where they were written. When it comes to news, there is nothing like an objective truth.
Right nows mainstream media are not exactly impartial when reporting about China as has been often reported here in this blog. Coverage on China is now simply the other extreme of what we saw in the clip and I really cannot see why that would be any better.
I’d like to know more about the “general consensus” among English language bloggers that the stuff was only so-so funny. Evan Osnos seemed to like it more than so-so, as did Imagethief.
It’s one thing that you seem to spend so much time getting in the last word defending China’s honor on various websites, but now you have to tell us how funny “the committee” found the spoof?
The only thing worse than a 50 mao’er is someone who shows up to to do the job for free.
It always warms my heart to have people like you so obsessed with me. ;)
I love it when people make equivalencies between authoritarian states and western democracies, and then insinuate that anyone who would dare to dispute that has a problem with “how limber your mind is.” Making equivalencies is easy; any fool can do it. The trick is knowing what your values are so that you can navigate between the low-brow, pseudointellectual Scylla and Charbydis that such equivalencies invite.
And for those of us who live in Taiwan, where the scenario you sketch here is hard at work in one 100% owned Chinese media firm, and in Want Want Corp.’s new fawning newspaper about China, we can already see its hideous, anti-democracy, anti-environment, pro-authoritarian goals, along with its churlish support of Chinese expansionism. Thanks, but I much prefer the neocolonialism of the western media, whose practitioners must pay at least lip service to the idea of democratic, civic culture, and journalistic ethics, and whose espousal of such values, along with, in many cases, strong individual commitment to such values, has many positive effects.
Michael
Michael, I love it when people suggest that “authoritarian” states and western “democracies” cannot and ought not be compared for legitimately comparable phenomenon within either, and insinuate that those who do are low-brow, pseudo-intellectual fools.
I’m curious, is Taiwan a “western democracy” to you?
Turton, as much as I respect your ability to command an audience with your politics, both you (hopefully) and I know how easy it is to do so and feel secure in the semblance of support and unanimity any position provides itself if you only narrow your vision just enough.
Kai, if you want to understand the difference between the western media and any putative future global Chinese media, you need only look at their respective response to the colonialisms of their homelands. During the heyday of colonialism in the west, there was a vigorous debate about it and about all its aspects in the media, which also included a massively broad spectrum of media positions, from communist and socialist to corporate and far-right. During the heyday of Chinese colonialism in Tibet and Xinjiang and elsewhere, the media is ….. its handmaid, and other viewpoints are not permitted.
I’m sorry to bring up the actual empirical experience of Chinese-owned and allied media organs in Taiwan. It must suck for advocates of cheap equivalencies that actual reality is so incredibly at odds with their intellectual games. But let’s do it some more! You can also compare the empirical experience of western media in Taiwan. Again, during the heyday of “Free China” anyone could find articles in the media disputing that and discussing the reality of conditions under the Chiang regime in Taiwan. Further, such articles appeared across the full range of media, from newspapers to weeklies to academic journals to books. What is the range of discussion in the current Chinese media about China’s drive to annex Taiwan and the sentiment there about becoming annexed to China? That would be…. narrow.
So yes, there is good reason to fear what would happen with a Chinese media whose reach is comparable to the western, and that can be empirically verified by comparing the media response to the two respective national colonialisms and territorial expansions.
Equivalencies are games played by individuals whose values have gone astray, and who have become enamored of intellectual tricks, like dogs watching wind up toys run across the living room floor.
Finally, note that I never said that China and the West ought not to be compared. I merely argued that we shouldn’t have the analytical stances of five year olds when we did.
Michael
“So yes, there is good reason to fear what would happen with a Chinese media whose reach is comparable to the western…”
Indeed.
Anyone of the opinion that a world where media falls increasingly under CCP control and is expecting a more balanced global output should brace themselves for disappointment.
Confucius Institutes are just the beginning.
stuart,
Thankfully I’m not of that opinion!
Michael,
Sincerely, I think you have a revisionist understanding of the “vigorous debate” in the Western media during their period of colonialism. I’m willing to entertain that there may have been quantitatively and marginally more debate in the media, but not this black and white qualitative difference you’re drawing, and I think you’re seeing what you want to see. For me, I a spectrum of opinion and public discourse (albeit more — but not completely — restrained when only looking at state-controlled media) regarding China’s colonialism, but maybe that’s because I see what I want to see too. The question is, how can I grant you that what I see doesn’t exist?
I also needn’t explain how qualitatively different Xinjiang or Tibet is relative to China versus, say, India was relative to the British, or the Philippines to the Americans. Do I?
No, I don’t think you understood my previous response. Either that, or you’re confusing the issue. I asked you, Michael: do you consider Taiwan a “Western democracy?” I’m waiting for your answer before I comment upon your previous statements beginning with: “And for those of us who live in Taiwan…” You’re jumping the gun in what you think I’m about to say and sprinkling it with a few choice insults like “cheap advocates” and “intellectual games.” I’m not playing games with you, Michael, I’m asking you a question to better understand what you were previously trying to say. You do ask questions when you’re uncertain of the other person’s position, don’t you?
A very understandable opinion. You’ve also answered the two questions I asked in my post. Correct me if I’m wrong but you’re answering that the prospect is frightening not by itself but because it is China. You’re also answering that Chinese would not use such a grip on pop culture media in the same way the American do, which I essentially believe is representing and promoting their own lifestyle and values. Again, let me know if I’m misrepresenting you here.
I’m going to ask you to kindly define “equivalency” for me, since I’m starting to suspect we’re not operating on the same denotation and, frankly, I could make an argument that you’re employing the same equivalencies I understand them to be.
As for your general statement about individual whose values have gone astray, I pretty much think that’s bullshit paramount to moral blackmail and one of the silliest of fallacies. You’re basically denouncing anyone who bothers to look at a situation or issue devoid of their own personal, subjective values…and you call them a dog. This is you in ethnocentric mode, as a cultural imperialist. You may not have a problem with it, or you may just dislike any negative overtones attributed to you, but this characterization is no less accurate. You have values you believe everyone should share, or through which everyone should view things. I don’t think share this sentiment, that every examination, investigation, or consideration of any subject requires that I view it through my values. Just because I don’t share this sentiment doesn’t mean I don’t have values or that my values have gone astray…unless ethnocentrism is a value.
We’re both capable of intellectual tricks, and I certainly know for a fact we (yes, including you) use them all the time. What I’ve concluded so far from your post is that you think your values should be enforced upon all, and you view anyone who disagrees with you as playing intellectual tricks.
I have to say, Michael, I’m not sure we can have a productive discussion but I’m sure there are people here who share your opinions and people who don’t. The former will make you feel good. The latter you may enjoy as fodder.
Pretty empty statement. You’re not explaining your disagreement, you’re adding insult to your disagreement. My previous reply stands.
It is a little disturbing that you link to the “Onion” as a humorous site. They have never been funny in their high-school slap-stick joking.
Still, I’ve seen a number of site I like refer to them.
And I think “What the fuck were they thinking linking to this grade-school American-flavoured joking?”
“The Onion” disgusts in its shallow, cheap jibes. It isn’t funny in any way.
If you are disturbed/disgusted by The Onion, then you would be absolutely gobsmacked by /b/ at 4Chan.org. Welcome to the Internet.
JqUH, lol, I actually think the /b/tards have their moments too.
Pter,
Well, humor is like beauty, man. I’ve seen a lot of good stuff from The Onion but I’ve also seen a lot of lame stuff too. That’s pretty much why I wrote “kinda-sorta funny.” They have their moments, and those moments may be different for different people, right? Not much more I can say, and you’re certainly entitled to your own opinion about The Onion and me linking to them!
Oh yeah, and everyone already knows about the eventual China media hegemony. I’m sure a decade later we’ll see analysis of how “Nihao, Kai Lan!” was a harbinger of things to come.
JqUH, eh…short of some cataclysmic game-changing event happening to the West, I sincerely doubt it’ll happen in a decade. Personally, I’m not inclined towards this sort of sensationalist fear-mongering. Americans aren’t going to give up their media that easily, and socializing new values is a generational endeavor. You guys have understandable fears, but I don’t think they’re very rational with all things considered.
well, i didn’t have the patience to sit through the whole clip what with the high-speed internet connection we have here (and by that i mean totally not), but what i did see was, in my opinion, totally offensive and not funny at all. how did that not escape the radar of the asian american community, who from what i gather, hasn’t made a peep about it? i guess hyphen’s too busy denying that things asian have a link to asian america. geez, this is unbelievable.
(^ apart, of course, from ms. lee’s mostly eloquent, albeit sometimes rambling, [and, let's face it, probably too high brow for anybody who would find the onion funny] response)
Probably because a healthy amount of the Asian-American, even Chinese-American (many whom were immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong), population actively resists being associated with evil, communist China. In defense of the Onion, its jokes were more about things particular to mainland China than mere Chinese ethnicity. Even with reference to the video above, the joke is “these are the values propagated by mainland China media” as opposed to “these are the only values any Chinese person cares about”.
Some of the humor from the Onion is actually quite intelligent, often requiring a pretty sophisticated awareness of international pop culture. Often, it also requires enough familiarity with ignorant stereotypes to appreciate the humor that plays on them.