Sunday, October 26, 2014

From the barrel of a gun

The Chinese President recently gave a talk to artists that has been likened grandly to talks by Mao Zedong in 1942: "Socialist literature and art," he said, "must reflect well the people’s wishes" and should be pretty and patriotic; they should foster "correct" views on Chinese history, nationality and culture, and help "clean up undesirable work styles."

In the talk he also singled out two bloggers for praise. Evidently the Chinese bloggosphere's been having a field day shredding the work of one of them, an enthusiastic young nationalist with a penchant for staggering hyperbole in accounts of the wretchedness of life in America, whom they call "cutlassfish Zhou." But as the report on the most recent gun violence in America on the subway news (above) reminds, he needn't try so hard.