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As one who respects both @chinaheritage's & Hessler's work, I find this sad. Both viewpoints have validity--because China is simply too big & complex to be captured in a single story. People experience & respond to life under authoritarianism in hugely varied ways. Thread: https://twitter.com/mikeygow/status/1300779966683062273
I think about this as someone who, every year, looks at a syllabus & thinks about what constellation of pieces adequately captures modern China for my students. It's tough to do in a collection of 30 readings, let alone one long-form journalism piece. So what do I do? /2
Answer: find pieces that speak to each other. I've said before I don't think Hessler's piece is really about "how China beat coronavirus." Bad headline. It's about where state (authoritarian) response to the virus was & wasn't visible to citizens. Which is fascinating. /3
It speaks to a theoretical question we don't understand well enough: why do some authoritarian regimes maintain a degree of popular support? ( @jessicacweiss's work notwithstanding, there's more to it than nationalism.) Hessler's article, to me, helps us think about that. /4
But I wouldn't assign it alone! I'd assign it alongside, for ex, this @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage story about the failures of the Chinese CDC, & perhaps my own piece w/ @JulianGewirtz on China's blending public health & security: /5 https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-cdc-built-to-stop-pandemics-stumbled-when-it-mattered-most-11597675108?tesla=y
Similarly, if I was teaching about tech & the Executive Order banning WeChat, I'd pair pieces that have different takes, like this suggestion from @NeysunM : /6 https://twitter.com/NeysunM/status/1294836302991568898?s=20
Similarly, when I teach nationalism, I assign news clips/readings that suggest:
a) CCP is afraid of protests;
b) CCP is diverting attn from domestic issues;
c) CCP is using protests for bargaining in foreign policy (the point made by @jessicacweiss' excellent book). /7
a) CCP is afraid of protests;
b) CCP is diverting attn from domestic issues;
c) CCP is using protests for bargaining in foreign policy (the point made by @jessicacweiss' excellent book). /7
In other words: China is a symphony, not a solo. There is not a single "China story"; there are at least 1.3 billion of them. And in my view, writing on China should reflect that.
