As an Asian/Taiwanese, I do not understand why Hexbearians feel the need to point out what's racist for us.
The picture of Xi the Pooh is clearly a parody and pointed specifically at Xi and the CCP, and not a general racist insult to Asians. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in East Asia knows that, including the Chinese themselves. We use/refer to it a lot ourselves on our own social media platforms in Taiwan (習維尼, 習: Xi, and Winnie the Pooh: 維尼), and if you mention any of it on Chinese social media Weibo/WeChat, you likely will get banned from the platform.
Kind of reminds me of cultural appropriation gone out of hand, where Westerners feel the need to be angry at other Westerners for wearing Japanese Kimonos or Chinese Quipaos. Like, no one here is offended. We don't understand why those people feel the need to be angry for us.
Edit: I just saw a Hexbear comment on another thread posting that China doesn't ban Winnie the Pooh because Disney is able to exist. Well, no shit. It's in the context of Disney. Put that phrase in any other thread on their platform (preferably political) and see what happens, then can you claim that the CCP doesn't ban the word Xi the Pooh.
Yeah as far as I know the Winnie the Pooh thing originated in the PRC. Apparently Xi is really upset about it and did a hard ban on it. But it's kinda a Streisand effect kind of thing so places outside of the CCP's control kinda ran with it.
But the hexbears are just conditioned to say it's racist to try to shut down any conversation about it. I mean it's their tyrant using censorship for an extremely petty reason. I probably wouldn't call him Xi the Pooh myself if it weren't for the fact that this tyrant is so butthurt and petty about it. And that's what makes it hilarious. And fuck that guy.
Kind of reminds me of cultural appropriation gone out of hand, where Westerners feel the need to be angry at other Westerners for wearing Japanese Kimonos or Chinese Quipaos.
Yeah the whole cultural appropriation thing is weird. Sure it's wrong to trivialize something that holds a lot cultural or religious significance to others. But people generally like seeing others participate in their culture, and they'll let you know when something is sacred and not for a casual tourist to participate in.
When I went to Peru I bought a shirt from a tourist shop that was the local style. Everyone seemed happy to see that. One older woman said she was happy to see a westerner wearing the local style and invited me to a wedding. Approval all around... except for one guy that said I probably shouldn't be wearing that shirt. It was a white guy from the UK (judging from the accent).
And the kimono thing is really weird. When I was in Kyoto, anyone could dress up as a samurai or a geisha. Not only was it acceptable, the shops would give discounts to people dressed up this way. Because it made things more fun. This may be shocking to some people, but cosplay is fairly popular in Japan. I also saw some dudes in a park cosplaying as American 1950s geasers. Was I offended by this because they were appropriating our culture? Of course not, they seemed to be having fun and nobody dresses that way anymore anyway.
The idea of a blanket stigmatizing of western people having any participation in other cultures seems like it'll be a problem long term. If it's ok for everyone in the world to adopt western culture, but not ok for westerners to adopt anything from anyone else's culture, then western culture spreads and other cultures don't. Seems to me like what happens with colonialism, but this time with good intentions! But intentions doesn't change the result. And if the result is the spread of western culture while preventing the spread of other cultures, seems like a bad result to me.
If I were a head of state, on a suitable occasion I'd absolutely make sure that the state present is a selection of the finest local honeys. Also some mead for completeness' sake. Let their diplomatic corps bend over backwards attempting to not insult such a fine offering of friendship.
Edit: Someone clearly is salty enough to downvote a comment they didn't read or even bother to translate themselves. FYI, it's about the typhoon weather here in Taiwan. Not even remotely political/on topic. Pathetic.
One of them called me a nazi apologist because of something similar. Like how in the fuck did you make that connection? They're delusional at best, a troll factory at worst.
Not really westerners. Pretty much the whole US left with their history of fucked-up race relations and cultural penchant for either pussy-footing or waving their dicks around, nothing in between, and a small splattering of leftist from other countries drawn into their bullshit reasoning and inability to see context that is beyond the brim of their burger.
Americans desperately need everything to have a definite Right Way and Wrong Way, so that we can properly judge people who are Doing Things The Wrong Way as immoral. It's their imperialist reflex: they always know better than you.
It might not be racist in your areas, but I’ve absolutely seen a lot of people be racist with it in the US. A lot of are from there, so I’ll admit we have a perspective bias, but when a large majority of the people we seeing spreading it are from that racist, US grown, bloc of posters, it kind of primes a response to it.
Sure. But I don't think it warrants that big of a response, when it's clearly a parody of Winnie the Pooh, which is yellow itself. If Pooh was somehow white, black, or green, it would be depicted as that. It has nothing to do with yellow skin.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Winnie the Pooh was latched on to so well by Western audiences. The United States is a perennial winner in the racism olympics. Different crowds can draw connections on different parts of stuff.
Oh I'm quite aware that the US has some serious problems regarding racism. I think Winnie the Pooh is just too widely known, plus the Streisand Effect kicking in when it was known that they censor a cartoon bear, that had people just dunking on them with this meme.
It also doesn't help when the Chinese are taught in school to love their party and country, view the party as their own parents and not question them, that they become such snowflakes when people criticise their government. It becomes pretty easy to trigger them with just a photo/keyword. Either they blow up in your face, or if it's on China's platform the mods will come an delete the post/comment and give out bans.
It also doesn't help when the Chinese are taught in school to love their party and country, view the party as their own parents and not question them, that they become such snowflakes when people criticise their government. It becomes pretty easy to trigger them with just a photo/keyword. Either they blow up in your face, or if it's on China's platform the mods will come an delete the post/comment and give out bans.
I can read Chinese, and understand what people say on their social media. So let me ask you then, when you see a picture of Xi depicted as Winnie the Pooh, do you see it as an insult to your leader, or as racism in general? Cause from what I see, the point of "yellow skin" never came up in the conversations in Chinese social media.
Also, the original post claims that the picture is racist towards Asians in general, which includes Taiwan, therefore me. I think I have a right to say that I don't feel insulted by it.
I don't understand why you feel the need to protect a head of state of another country from being parodied either. If you live in China where they teach you to obey the rules of the CCP, thank the CCP and Xi for everything they provide, and basically view Xi as a god, then yeah I can see why. But you live in a Democratic state. The government is supposed to serve YOU, not the other way around. Sure you can show the leader some respect if you want, but it doesn't mean everyone has to either. You don't live in China where you can't even make jokes about their leader.
Again, its a parody of Pooh, which is yellow. It has nothing to do with having yellow skin. If Pooh somehow is white/green/pink, that pic would be white/green/pink. You claim that it's racist against Asians in general, so I'm here to tell you as an Asian that it's not.
I understand your need to reframe my objections to racist caricatures in general as being a defense of someone you're trying to demonize with your racism. But if you weren't being racist to asian people generally when you say it's acceptable to do minstrel show level racism to the right targets, you're certainly being racist towards Chinese people in general right now when you're using this stereotype of them being hive minded and easily brainwashed.
in China where they teach you to obey the rules of the CCP, thank the CCP and Xi for everything they provide, and basically view Xi as a god
Sounds like Christian fundamentalists talking about Arabs.
I understand your need to reframe my objections to racist caricatures in general as being a defense of someone you're trying to demonize with your racism.
Who the fuck am I being racist to? Asians? As an Asian myself?
you're certainly being racist towards Chinese people in general right now when you're using this stereotype of them being hive minded and easily brainwashed.
Nowhere have I said that. Them having that kind of education since a kid is a fact. And you clearly haven't been on Chinese social media to see what bullshit the pinkies say on there.
Sounds like Christian fundamentalists talking about Arabs.
I've seen a Chinese history textbook for kids in high school and it's just generic history using a Marxist lens and framing the CPC as the current administrative body. They list accomplishments of the party, yeah, but that's because they have accomplishments they can point to.
It's a lot better than how my American school tried to get me to worship slave owners like Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
They list accomplishments of the party, yeah, but that’s because they have accomplishments they can point to.
And they also prohibit you from criticizing them if you don't agree with their policies. I definitely do not want to be forced to love a country that doesn't care what their people says.
It’s a lot better than how my American school tried to get me to worship slave owners like Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
Fuck that shit. Criticise. You are free to do so without the government knocking on your door, unlike in China.
Dude, this may be breaching opsec, but my comrades have had DEA and FBI knock on their doors because of affiliation with anarchist organizations and connection to BLM leadership. Please don't tell me what cops here do or what I have the freedom to do. I live here and I've seen people get arrested. Just last month an elderly guy was shot and killed in an FBI raid over a tweet.
We're free to criticize as long as we keep quiet about it and don't actually try anything. The place I live absolutely will kill people if need be. I'm definitely not free to be open and critical wherever I go. My boss will fire my ass if he knew my politics. I've been fired for unionizing attempts at previous jobs. Is that freedom? Freedom of speech without the freedom to do shit about it? I don't subscribe to this liberal horseshit of raising awareness or raising voices, or that my ability to say certain things is my greatest freedom. Fuck that, I would take a free house, comfortable existence, a better job, and healthcare if it meant never opening my mouth again. You understand me? I want to do shit now, actual physical things and topple this whole capitalist framework.
Four Consciousnesses talks about obeying the party, looking at the bigger picture. "更加緊密地團結在以習近平同志為核心的黨中央周圍,更加堅定地維護黨中央權威,更加自覺地在思想上政治上行動上同黨中央保持高度一致" which translates to "Unite more closely around the Party with Comrade Xi as the core, firmly safeguard the authority of the Party Central Committee, and more consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee in terms of ideology, politics and actions."
Four Confidences talks about being confident in "中國特色社會主義 Chinese style of Socialism", to believe that it is the only way to realize socialist modernization and create a better life for the people, and is the correct theory to guide the party and the people to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Two Safeguards basically means to safeguard Xi Jinping as the core of the Party Central Committee and the entire party, and safeguard the authority and centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee.
習近平思想 or "Xi Jinping thought" along with 毛澤東思想 "Maoism" are political courses you have to take during elementary, middle and high school. Their stance is to "入腦、入心、入魂", which means "Into the brain, heart, and soul". "新時代愛國主義教育 Patriotic Education of the new era" is an education program written into their curriculum. This is a sample of their textbook for elementary students. The first chapter is literally called "我愛你中國 I love you China". The first paragraph is "在世界東方,有一個偉大的國家叫中國,她的全稱是中華人民共和國,她就是我們的祖國。我們都是中國人,我們每個人都深愛著祖國,就像習近平爺說的,"愛國,是人世間最深層、最持久的情感,是一個人立德之源、立功之本"。 " which translates to "In the east side of the world, there is a great country called China, full name People's Republic of China, and she is our motherland. We are all Chinese, and all of us love our motherland deeply. As Granddad Xi Jinping says: "Patriotism is the deepest and most lasting emotion in the world. It is the source of a person's morality and the foundation of his merits." "
They actually tested you for it during their GaoKao or National College Entrance Examination this year.
Not even people living in Canada can escape the patriotic courses, as a Chinese class in a high school in Richmond gave out a homework about the patriotic movie "我和我的祖國 My People My Country" (More accurately translated as Me and My Motherland).
Edit: If you want to search for information yourself, you can use the keywords I used for searching: 習近平思想, 習近平新時代中國特色社會主義思想, 習近平語錄, 毛澤東思想, 毛澤東語錄, 中國特色社會主義, 愛國主義, 愛國教育法, 愛國主義教育法, 新時代愛國主義教育實施綱要
Add Maoism, Xi Thoughts, patriotism, nationalism, and a sprinkle of anti-Japanese stances to your curriculum, then worship and thank grandad Xi every day for providing such a perfect country, and you'd have a full course meal. Remember that the Party is always watching.