Gentleman in Residence - Jess: All The News That's Fit to China

See Jess' first Gentleman in Residence post here.

You know how, when you get a new car, all of a sudden you start seeing the same car everywhere? It's as if suddenly everyone in your town decided they also desperately needed a silver Saturn SL1.

I've noticed something similar happening with China in the news since I got here. I'm positive it's just that I never really paid attention to articles about China before it suddenly because relevant to my life, but U.S. news sources suddenly seem to be paying a lot of attention to what's going on here. And most of it seems to be really bad.

Now, I'll give you that the past couple weeks have been kind of exceptional, with the news that the imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize (Not to mention the Chinese government's subsequent crackdown on celebrations) and Tim Geithner attacking Chinese currency policy, the House of Representatives passing a bill trying to prevent trade imbalances due to Chinese currency manipulations and the news that U.S. candidates have apparently decided that the catchphrase of the day is "Blame China!"

Still, I've also seen articles about Chinese vacation policy, the differences between education in China and America, and the question of whether or not there is free speech in China (short answer: no, unless you're a foreigner, or rich), news that China is fighting a report alleging that Chinese ammunition and weapons have been sold to Darfur, and the Obama administration launching an investigation into Chinese clean-energy subsidies.

I can't claim that my month and a half living here has imparted some great wisdom about the Chinese people. But I do think that, left to the western media's devices, you're never going to hear anything but bad news about China. So, interested in reading about something other than how evil Beijing is? Here's a couple blogs I follow to get news about what's going on in everyday China:

China Geeks takes a lot of Chinese media sources, translates their stories and then provides analysis. China Geeks also has an awesome blogroll if you want to find more things to read.

China Smack, a gossip site similar to Jezebel, only without the feminist bent.

This Ridiculous World, an expat blog that is usually hysterical.

My Laowai, another really funny blog. Laowai is a word that literally means foreigner, but can be used as a very negative name to call obnoxious non-Chinese.

Read/Reax

An internet phenomenon, or human nature?

I call it "Read/Reax," though I suppose it could also be "see/reax" or "listen/reax."

We've all done it, some more than others. How it works, is we consume some kind of information, and then produce a reaction to it. Read, and react.

The original form of this kind of expression was likely literary criticism. Aristotle wrote the Poetics, Plato attacked poetry altogether, and there is an overabundance of literature on Christian/Jewish/Islamic texts. For film, the most renown and influential criticism is probably from the small French magazine Cahiers du cinéma, highlighted by the film works of their writers Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. As for music, there has been criticism of the classical kind for hundreds of years, though most prominently the Musical Times, but most of popular music "critique" probably comes from something derived of Rolling Stone magazine.

Back in the "old days" (like, 10 years ago) we used to just call that a review, and it might have come in the form of a book review, or film review, or album review. A critic listens to an album, watches a movie, or reads a book, and reacts. You'd read these reviews in magazines, or in newspapers. Maybe you'd even hear a "review" on the radio, or watch a goofy looking dude on your local news station give a "review" of a movie he just watched before you did.

The difference is that criticism, especially literary criticism in the classical sense, was an academic and cerebral affair with analysis. Today, we're more or less just talking about an immediate response.

I believe there is still room in this world for professional critics, especially good writers with scholarly insight. Simultaneously, it thrills me that everyone is given a voice of expression if they want one. After all, the internet has brought us closer to democracy, right? We all get a voice if we want one, we all get a vote if we want one, and that vote is equal.

Internet reactionism appears, to me, to have flourished as the 'i-generation' has finally come into its own. I've noticed two trends from this new 'i-generation':

- One is that we've begun to consume news differently. While literary, film and music 'reactionism' are probably still the most common and popular types of 'consumption-reaction,' we aren't limited to these topics anymore. News is now consumed not as knowledge, but as something closer to entertainment, and we respond to it not as a valued piece of information, but as a product to react to.

- Second is that, if news is to be considered more of a product than as valued information, then ANYone can react to it. We're moving away from the days of "water-cooler talk," and instead, reactionism is in print, because ANYone can put it to print, right here, on the internet. So now, someone can take a column, or a quote, or an article, or a really cool video, and, just, react. No insight, no "critique," just unsolicited, blindingly-entitled, opinion.

Read/Reax: Evolution or Degradation.