As Chinese fandoms begin to take off on twt, I feel there’s a growing problem where non-Chinese people take a single influential person as the sole authority on Chinese culture, seeing Chinese culture one single, cohesive thing.

But Chinese culture is NOT a monolith.

In truth, culture is defined through power. Different actors in the global community are CONSTANTLY seeking to define and redefine culture. Culture is thus a set of dominant narratives maintained by the majority, and counter narratives by minorities vying to be heard.

I think it’s very natural for outsiders to take the narrative put forward by a single influential account as a reflection of a single neat, cohesive, monolithic culture.

But underneath the surface, there are extremely deep fissions in the global ethnic community.

A personal example: I have ALWAYS been taught growing up that while there is a huge proliferation of verbal dialects, there is only “one standard written Chinese”, which is evolved from the written system used by the imperial court in ancient times.

Then I became friends with a bunch of Hong Kongers through fandom. When they type in Cantonese, many of the particles are completely different. I have pretty good reading comprehension, but I literally cannot understand A WORD of what they are saying.

Also look at this amazing word a friend showed me. This is the character for the Hokkien word “biau”, which is a contraction of the Mandarin “bu yao” (不要). It’s literally just 不要 stacked on top of each other. This is NOT a part of the “one standard written Chinese” I learnt!

The assertion that “there is only one standard written Chinese” has been taken with offense by some of my friends from HK and TW. They view it as a part of the dominant narrative which seeks to culturally and politically assimilate HK and TW into the mainland.

This is an example of how the ethnic community disagrees VEHEMENTLY about representations of culture, history and language.

More importantly, this is an example of how definitions of culture and history become fraught battlegrounds between different factions of the community.

A complicating factor is the fact that we are EXTREMELY fragmented geographically. Many of us are diaspora, based in countries all over the world. We are not living in the same country where we become easily exposed to narratives that counter our own.

When power struggles take place within a single country, there is more space to learn about counter narratives and come to a consensus on inclusive definitions of culture and history. But when we’re geographically spaced, we grow up in silos, not knowing of other viewpoints.

In my country, we identify as ethnically Chinese, but I’ve been told many HK and TW people don’t like being referred to as Chinese! I still haven’t figured out a better way to refer to us as a collective yet Maybe some would hate that I even represent us as one community?

There are SO MANY things I don’t know. I am still learning. When I first started out in danmei fandom I was REALLY excited to share my culture. I’d never really had anyone be so interested in my culture before since, yanno... I live in a Chinese majority country

But the culture that I represent is inevitably a reflection of my social background, my privileges— but also my marginalization!

There are a great many tensions in our ethnic community. Mainland vs. diaspora, Han Chinese vs. ethnic minorities, North vs. South.

I am Han Chinese and an ethnic majority in my country, but I am also Southern Chinese, and diaspora.

I am ALSO in a country where the dialect groups have all been culturally assimilated by the govt due to early violent conflicts between groups

Chinese people have always been presented to me through public education as heterogenous, as ONE cohesive group. But my mom recently told me that she used to be a part of violent inter-dialect conflicts! She learnt martial arts and used to beat people up!

We aren’t heterogenous!

I am AFAB, nb, and queer, and I have CONSTANT arguments with or get REALLY offended by people who assert that feminism, LGBT rights, and democracy are alien to Chinese values.

We don’t always agree on what culture is! We get upset with each other and argue!

The way I represent culture is a result of my privileges, and can be DEEPLY hurtful to minorities.

The way other people represent culture is also a result of their privileges, and can be deeply hurtful to me as a minority!

Lately, I’ve noticed some counter narratives (esp from people living in, or of HK / TW descent) being put forward against tweets being made by an influential account, run by someone who is western (mainland) diaspora. I feel like those criticisms havent been taken very seriously.

On a personal level, I KNOW how difficult it is to take criticism on our own representations of culture, esp when criticism is often about being “not a real Chinese” or “not Chinese enough”. I don’t think I’ve taken criticism in the past very graciously either.

So if you’ve read this thread up to this point... a couple of takeaways!

For myself, I want to accept criticism more graciously, and to also be more responsible about my representations of culture, history, and language.

Over time, I’ve become troubled about how people in fandom had begun to take my threads on culture as the sole representation of a cohesive, monolithic culture, especially in light of angry criticisms from other people that “this doesn’t represent my experience”.

I think at first I was upset because I was like “You are asking the impossible of me. How am I supposed to represent EVERYONE’s point of view, when I only have access to my own point of view?”

So on my end, I think I would like to be more gracious about criticism going forward.

And to other Chinese people (myself included), I hope we can refrain from accusations of “not Chinese enough”. It creates a toxic environment and makes it hard to be gracious about criticism! PERSONALLY, I’ve made those accusations in the past so... it’s a work in progress!!

And for non-Chinese people in Chinese fandoms... I hope we can refrain from thinking of Chinese culture as a monolith, and remember that there are deep fissions in the community.

More importantly, refrain from dismissing counter narratives!! Don’t talk over people!!

It’s painful, but I hope people will take criticisms against me seriously too. Sometimes it hurts to even look at QRTs, but yanno... hypocrisy is not a good look... even if I’m not in the right space to address criticism, I hope people won’t talk over or dismiss my critics.

Lastly.

I think for a lot of non-Chinese people in fandom, understanding of Chinese culture is removed from daily reality. It’s easy to see threads as “information to understand the source text” or “information for writing fics or meta” or “inside jokes in the fandom”.

I think it’s easy, as a result, to be like “it was just a joke” or “they are presenting the dominant narrative as a guide for writers and audience to understand the media” and think “don’t take it so seriously / personally” when criticisms arise against people you like.

But to critics, contestations about culture and history can be a very real part of the oppression they face in their daily lives. It’s not “just a joke”, it is a narrative that contributes to their marginalization.

So!!! Let’s refrain from viewing culture only through the lens of fandom, and only in the context of fandom.

And let’s learn together !! I am still learning how to be a better and more considerate member of this community..,