Chinese Whispers: Do China's intellectual elite support the government?

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🗓️ 19 April 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might think that in a country as tightly controlled as China, diversity of opinion is hard to come by in written form. But as I find out in this episode, there is a vibrant conversation going on with vastly different views, especially in the intellectual elite amongst professors and journalists. So what do these intellectuals think, and how much can they get away with saying?

With Professor David Ownby, who founded the website Reading the China Dream, which translates writings from Chinese intellectuals into English. He tells me:

'A casual observer of China in the West will think that all Chinese are sitting at home, with the blinds closed, waiting for the Chinese Communist Party to fall apart before the police come and get them... But that's not the life led by most Chinese intellectuals... By knowing what they talk about, it humanises China.'

In the episode, we also discuss Cai Xia, a former CCP professor now living in exile, and the article she wrote from the US. Click here to read it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator is Europe's fastest growing current affairs magazine.
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0:10.0	Plus, we'll send you a bottle of Spectator gin worth £30.
0:13.8	So you do the math, your workout that is absolutely free.
0:16.8	Go to www.spotator.com.uk forward slash gin.
0:30.8	Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu.
0:36.4	Every episode I'll be talking to journalists,
0:38.6	experts and long-time China watchers about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more.
0:44.3	There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some context as well.
0:49.0	How do the Chinese see these issues? Is there a vibrant intellectual debate going on within China? It's easy to think
0:57.2	that in this one-party state everyone thinks the same thing either because they have limited
1:01.6	information because of censorship or because they've been brainwashed. But actually, my guest today
1:06.8	says something different. It seems that within this society and especially amongst the
1:11.3	intellectuals, the academics, the journalists, there is a debate going on. It's simply one that
1:16.6	we in the West very little hear about. My guest is David Omby, who is a professor at the
1:21.8	centre of East Asian Studies in the University of Montreal. He founded a website called Reading
1:27.1	the China Dream,
1:28.2	where every few weeks, a few articles from leading Chinese intellectuals
1:32.2	are translated into English.
1:34.2	It's readily available for anyone and everyone.
1:37.0	David, welcome to the podcast.
	...

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