FlashDangerpants wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2017 8:00 pm
What would be the point in writing any? If it's any good the author will lose his job, if it's very good he will go to prison.
When China is no longer a censorious single party state which throws dissenters into prison, perhaps the question will become worth a revisit.
So, how far is their reach?
Would Anja and Rick be in danger, pants ?
Have you noticed how much anger there is on this forum when people get to discussing Political Correctness? My mere mention of the phrase is liable to spark a rant from some quarter no matter the context. We have people here who suffer indescribable anguish just because it is no longer polite to call each other spastics, retards, wetbacks and chinks (Limeys, Frogs, Yanks and Huns still seems ok though).
The modern Chinese system, whether in academia, the press or just on internet discussion sites, is organised around a principle of routine self-censorship which is only quite rarely reinforced by actual oppression. We're a society that barely tolerate being frowned at if we use a handful of racial slurs and a little casual misogyny, having to stop and wonder if it is politically safe to use the phrase "empty chair" today would break us.
So those people you mention likely wouldn't emerge uncompromised in China, they would surely have a set of questions never to address, and a few assumptions that must never be challenged. If they did respond with actual open thinking, there probably wouldn't be a large or responsive audience. But if there were, then folks start losing their jobs and going to prison.
Reminds me of a funny exchange between two characters in the delightful 'Murdoch Mysteries' TV series which is set in Edwardian Toronto. Detective Murdoch was describing a suspect in a crime as an 'imbecile' (literal). His constable looked mortified and said to him, 'If I might be so bold sir, I believe the polite term to use nowadays is 'moron' '. PC in a nutshell really.
