Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️
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chenchenzhang.net
Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️
@chenchenzhang.net
8.5K followers 340 following 1.6K posts
migrant & researcher interested in politics and other things. currently: digital narratives, postcolonial nationalism, the global right, China stuff. neurodiversity-affirming parenting. she/her. 不必等待炬火.

https://chenchenzhang.net
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chenchenzhang.net
🚨new open-access article!🚨
what do drastically different representations of the Paris Olympic opening ceremony on Chinese social media tell us about competing narratives of civilization & transversal alignment in digital reactionary politics?
academic.oup.com/isagsq/artic...
Abstract: Scholarship on “non-Western” civilizational discourse in international relations remains largely limited to the versions crafted or endorsed by the state. This paper takes the representation of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Chinese social media as an entry point to exploring vernacular and competing narratives of civilization in global cultural politics. Drawing on data from multiple platforms, I scrutinize visions of civilizational progress, decay, and betrayal, interlaced with contested imaginaries of “China”, “France”, and “the West”, in celebratory and demonizing discourses on the spectacle. First, I argue that ideas of “civilizational standards” have always been co-produced, appropriated, and negotiated by actors from the peripheries, rather than monopolized by the centre. A nuanced and situational reading of the celebratory discourse shows how users employ civilizational and universalist vocabularies to contest locally hegemonic structures, which may simultaneously reproduce and challenge homonationalist logics. Secondly, the paper contributes to the emerging literature on the co-opting of the anticolonial language in reactionary politics, showing that in this case, the accusation of coloniality is turned inwards to target the internal other, whose identification with progressive values is recast as colonial subservience and betrayal. Finally, I show that the trope of “Western civilizational decay” and certain constructions of difference/affinities are instrumental to queerphobic nationalist narratives. However, civilizational signifiers such as “West” and “East” function in digital reactionary discourse less as a tool for narrating cultural distinctiveness than as flexible transnational codes, allowing for transversal alignment to emerge across conventional geopolitical and ideological boundaries.
November 24, 2025 at 10:09 AM
chenchenzhang.net
oh no
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Matsuoka Yosuke, a leading architect of Japanese colonialism in Manchukuo who later became the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the wartime period, Du Bois described Matsuoka as a person “with the responsibility of proving to the world that colonial enterprise by a colored nation need not imply the caste, exploitation and subjugation which it has always implied in the case of white Europe” (Du Bois Citation1937a). The favorable impressions of Japanese bureaucrats in Manchukuo were naturally linked to his overall evaluation of the colonial empire.
November 21, 2025 at 5:10 PM
chenchenzhang.net
making unfortunate arguments when American leftists project their racial politics onto the rest of the world. as early as Du Bois.
Notably, the growing gap between the reality of white dominance and Du Bois's frustration that China was in economic and social disarray reconfirmed his previously held belief that China must cooperate with Japan, and Du Bois contended that this was the only solution for the “China problem.” Du Bois acknowledged that a clear path for the future of Asia faced obstacles. He asked: “Why it is that you [the Chinese people] hate Japan more than Europe when you have suffered more than England, France, and Germany, than from Japan?” (Du Bois Citation1937b).
November 21, 2025 at 5:07 PM
chenchenzhang.net
left: BBC, used hyphens & en dashes for linking sentences
right: Guardian, used en dashes for linking sentences
outside of AI you really don't see em dashes that often, which is why they stand out.
screenshot of BBC news screenshot of Guardian article
November 21, 2025 at 9:22 AM
chenchenzhang.net
that's my rainy-and-dark-at-3-pm-November comfort food
noodle broth with green salad & 酥肉
November 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
chenchenzhang.net
snapshot
A narrow, leaf-covered stone pathway curves uphill beside old brick and cream-colored houses, with two people walking hand in hand under autumn trees with orange and yellow leaves.
November 9, 2025 at 7:26 AM
chenchenzhang.net
by the way, I've written a couple of things on the "western civilization is killed by suicidal empathy" line of reactionary thought. start with the Three Body Problem fans.
madeinchinajournal.com/2023/12/11/t...
Elon Musk: Western Civilization is doomed, unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognized and actions are taken that are hard, but necessary for survival
November 8, 2025 at 12:49 PM
chenchenzhang.net
just UnHerd readers thinking von der Leyen is left wing under yet another UnHerd article on why the EU has lost to US & China
comment: Risk averse, left wing, very often female, lawyers dominate Europe’s policy-making centre of gravity. America has Musk. Europe has von der Leyen. "Don’t be fooled by the EU’s overhyped Horizon Europe programme, which is a pork-barrel spending programme for second-rate universities. Europeans like to think of themselves as being innovative and “pro-science” — but they keep falling further behind the US and China. Europe’s priorities are to protect workers and existing industries."
November 4, 2025 at 9:44 PM
chenchenzhang.net
half-term school holiday is finally over!
Durham at its best
photo of autumn leaves with Durham cathedral in the background kid walking on path covered with autumn leaves photo of four young people sitting on a hill top photo of a woman against the background of autumn leaves & Durham cathedral
November 2, 2025 at 4:46 PM
chenchenzhang.net
autumn in the north
A child wearing a light coat sits on a wooden bench, looking out over a scenic landscape of green fields, trees with autumn colors, and a cloudy sky.
November 1, 2025 at 4:08 PM
chenchenzhang.net
At the memorial a banner in Chinese and Italian reads: there are only two races in the world, the exploiter and the exploited.
strike actions have now helped many garment workers win 8x5 workday contract.
Sister Wang is one of the few Chinese union members. And she’s not a garment worker.
photo of the memorial. photo taken by the reporter Zhang Hanlu
November 1, 2025 at 11:07 AM
chenchenzhang.net
short trip to St Andrews
this bookstore Topping & Company has a surprisingly good selection of politics books
photo of a lonely beach photo of meadow, buildings & cars photo of a beautiful bookstore
October 30, 2025 at 9:16 PM
chenchenzhang.net
amazing how one of the better known PRC propagandist on X (who proudly describes themselves as such) has come up with the concept of "multi-ethnic ethnostate" and a theory that "socialist" ethnonationalim is superior to other ethnonationalims
X post: China is a multi-ethnic ethnostate, in fact most constitutionally communist/ socialist countries are ethnostates. A multi-ethnic ethnostate, is a country where the national identity is made up of the main ethnicity + minorities that are indigenous to that country. Such as China's Han + 55 ethnic minorities. This national identity, a family if you will, is set and are not open for mass migration. Which is why I always find it amusing when the Western Right, keep making up nonsense how mass migration is because of "communists and socialists". In reality, multiculturalism, mass migration and open borders are the product of neoliberalism. A middle of the road Republican ideology from the 1980s.
October 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
chenchenzhang.net
(that's a famous one, search 德国 油纸包).
anyhow, now in the 2020s the table has turned. Chinese netizens are aware that urban legends about China are now circulating on X or YouTube or Instagram. and they call it 反向意林 reverse Yilin.
a Chinese article titled "the Yilin trend is affecting foreigners"
October 26, 2025 at 6:17 PM
chenchenzhang.net
In the 1990s and 2000s there was a popular magazine in China called Yilin 意林. It's known for making up "foreign moon is rounder" type of stories, like, toilet flush water in Japan is so clean it's drinkable, or Germans left replacement parts in the Qingdao sewage system 100 yrs ago
X post. Commenting on "67.6% of US consumers are now living paycheck to paycheck, according to a PYMNTS survey", a user says in China the number is 0%.
October 26, 2025 at 6:17 PM
chenchenzhang.net
timeline cleanse
October 25, 2025 at 12:42 PM
chenchenzhang.net
joining everyone else in reading Katabasis @rfkuang.bsky.social and the dark academia jokes are indeed dark & hilarious
EVERYONE TOLD MAGICIANS IN TRAINING TO at least consider careers in other fields before they went on the job market. "Alt academia," they called it, like it was some punk and rebellious lifestyle, like failing at the single thing you'd been trained to do made you cool. But halfway into her degree, Alice felt that anything but magick was simply not an option. She became a tenured magician, or she died. She could envision no life worth living otherwise. Besides, no one really meant it when they said alt academia was just as prestigious (or, more commonly, that there was no shame in it, really). They meant it even less when they emphasized that alt academia paid better, had kinder hours, was less stressful, gave you better job security, made you happier. Oh, magicians do really well in consulting, they said. Employers like critical thinking and problem-solving skills, they said. Fewer people die in industry, they said. These aphorisms were uttered by tenured professors who had already caught the golden goose, who could comfortably know they would never say "Oh,
October 24, 2025 at 7:03 PM
chenchenzhang.net
don't know which is funnier, influential foreign propagandist defecting to "Western AI" because of censorship or using AI to "research China"...
Nathan Rich: DeepSeek is so overly censored that it's completely useless for any research. Guess I will have to continue to depend on Western AI to help research China. Sad.
October 22, 2025 at 11:56 AM
chenchenzhang.net
throw back to 14 years ago, autumn 2011, when I found myself at the Norrköping train station
A man in a dark jacket walks his black dog on a leash through a park covered in bright yellow fallen leaves during autumn. In the background, a train is stopped at a station labeled "NORRKÖPING C".
October 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
chenchenzhang.net
too bad I already submitted the book manuscript. otherwise this exchange could go straight to the "sinophobia and sinofantasy" section. background of the handles in alt text.
"Maga communism" Jackson Hinkle says "China is living proof that communism works". "Gen Z conservative" Vince Dao says "communism didn't build any of this. it's market reforms and capitalistic trade".
October 19, 2025 at 7:31 AM
chenchenzhang.net
if they saw Japan as the country that posed the biggest threat to the US of all countries, then I'd say it's definitely existential. but I won't continue this argument since it's a matter of "I think" "you think".
October 18, 2025 at 10:41 AM
chenchenzhang.net
why does this person keep showing up in my feeds, each time with ever more absurd claims
the US and the EU are literally China's largest trading partners ok fine
screenshot of a guy in a video interview, with text reads "China is waiting for the West to collapse"
October 15, 2025 at 10:31 AM
chenchenzhang.net
and? the pursuit of technological and strategic superiority. ensure tech company's loyalty to the military. it's something "bigger", civilizational, world-historical.
According to Thiel and Karp, the United States can only maintain its technological and strategic superiority if tech companies ally with the US military. Critics— particularly former employees—argue that the founders use this pro-Western mission and Tolkien symbolism to give young employees the idea that they are contributing to something "bigger." But in practice, this rhetoric should primarily foster loyalty. In an interview at an event hosted by investment bank JP Morgan, Alex Karp described his company's culture as a "cult, minus the drugs and the sex." Palantirians are "snobby" about their intellect, difficult to convince, and driven not by money but by technical challenges and the founders' mission, Karp said. "My success is in making Palantirians believe my ideas are theirs." "
October 11, 2025 at 12:14 PM
chenchenzhang.net
commonalities & differences between US techno-libertarians and Chinese techno-authoritarians. the former "the govt should do nothing to hinder tech progress", the latter "the govt should do everything to enable and guide tech progress". both anti-democratic and anti "woke".
Libertarian Thiel and Democrat Karp differ in their political views but share a common aversion to the culture of progressive, woke Silicon Valley, which they believe forces companies to engage in moral self-censorship. For this reason, Palantir moved its headquarters from California to Denver, the capital of Colorado, five years ago. Karp and Thiel espouse a "techno-libertarian" belief: the government should do nothing to hinder technological progress. In their worldview, the best changes come not from lengthy deliberation or democratic consensus, but from radical choices made by visionary thinkers and entrepreneurs. Thiel, in particular, regularly delivers fierce criticism of what he sees as the conformist culture of politicians and scientists. People who, in his view, behave in a morally"
October 11, 2025 at 12:11 PM
chenchenzhang.net
don't know it's hot but that's every group meal in China
"katy_ward 15h You know what's hot? When the guy gets up and goes to the waiter to pay away from the table, letting me think he went to the bathroom. Apex flirting right there"
October 10, 2025 at 1:05 PM