💘Can authoritarian propaganda cultivate support and deter protest during “normal” times?

➡️ @tzyang.bsky.social & @zhuhs.bsky.social find that hard propaganda reinforces support for protest, while soft propaganda loses credibility www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

In December 2022, Chinese official propaganda on COVID policy made a sharp U-turn. How did these contradictory messages from the policy shift impact citizens’ perceptions? We find "soft" ones lost persuasiveness while "hard" ones more strongly deterred protests.
@psrm.bsky.social

There will never be a better deal that takes Chinese voices global, as foreign creators bring their audiences to their jurisdiction, on their terms, under their regulations, with an interest in Chinese content. Shutting down this is equivalent to forgoing every cultural leadership prospect of China.

What struck me the most in this Vivek saga is that how naturally aligned are tech mongols and the Democrats who supported legal immigration. The breakdown of their alliance on DEI has been very unfortunate for America.

Japanese newspapers today: Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi merge.

I taught Dutch Disease in my political economy class. My Classical Chinese colleague heard about it and said it’s exactly what ancient Chinese philosopher Guan Zhong (700–645 BC) did: tricking a neighbor state into abandoning agriculture by stimulating non-agricultural demand.

“Ke Wang”(1990), or “Yearning” in English, is a household-name TV series in China with an eye-popping 90.78% ratings. My Grandma got streaming TV and picked it up. She explained she hadn’t watched it because she was busy working. She probably thought she’d never see it again if not for streaming.

Bookstore’s frontend reflects a city’s mental state. Here is one I took from Shenzhen: what stand out are two versions of Camus’s The Stranger, reminding me that everyone in Shenzhen is an immigrant.

Interesting coincidence: the famous Baidu joke-themed BBS 弱智吧 called themselves 青龙山精神病院, after a mental hospital in Nanjing. Their jokes are being used to train AI now. While the most famous mental hospital in South China is 青山医院 in Hong Kong, so famous that even Guangxi people use 入青山 as slurs.

Roughly half of 🇨🇳 household “savings” the last two decades was related to greenfield home construction.

So to the extent high home ownership rates in 🇨🇳 society is based on cultural elements (and I would argue they do), I’d agree with Simon that culture plays a role here.

@zhuhs.bsky.social

Tianya today and Bluesky share a lot of things in terms of atmosphere. A more recent example is Clubhouse in early 2021, before it was banned in China.

My normie middle-aged aunties WeChat group is utterly impressed by Trump’s anti-immigrant/anti-DEI/anti-war/tax-reducing policy lists. It’s ironic bc typical Chinese social media have been recycling US right-wing materials (illegals, crimes, wars) to disparage Biden/US for 4 years.

Four-year anniversary of my Bullshit Jobs (in China) minicomic, which tragically only grows in relevance with every passing year:

I simply cannot believe this is purely coincidence.

Bad omen for Chinese restaurant diversity in the U.S.

1/7 foreign companies have been downsizing their foreigners headcount for years: HR localization was supposed to solve all the issues and have only benefits, from a better understanding of China’s market to reducing costs

I wonder how much the return of foreign-educated Chinese impacts this shortfall of demand for foreign talents.

Start my first day of 30 years old on Bluesky! Already feel more civil and compassionate here.