I have been lurking on Chinese social media because I’m sort of a native Chinese speaker. In China’s leftist scene, a lot of the “patriot”, anti-imperialist, pro-CPC folks are extremely anti-feminist, anti-LGBT, racist, xenophobic, anti-semitic, and islamophobic.
Of course CPC itself doesn’t slightly take those stances. However I’m worried if it grows out of control it might be a problem in the future, as some of those leftist influencers have millions of social media followers.
Since you say your native language is Chinese, watch this video and be sure to read the comments in the comments section. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV11S4y167Ni?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0
Most young people on the left don’t object to the things you mention. What you are referring to is what we call identity politics. It has been used as a tool of peaceful evolution by US. What we are opposed to is a propaganda tool of American imperialism, not LGBT itself.If, unfortunately, you do read ultra-nationalist but pro-China bloggers, then you are right, that such a situation exists, and it’s very common.But remember, they don’t count as leftists.
This is exactly the kind of situation I’m talking about.
They act like they’re immune to ideological pitfalls, but this is all the exact same transphobic garbage you can find on patriots.win
Like I get the sentiment, but if they make these points without building solidarity with lgbt comrades then they’re just setting themselves up to be divided along gay/straight, trans/cis lines. Just from the opposite side.
China has a lot of Nazbol problem online but pretty much non existent offline, CPC shuts that shit down hard.
I mean, my impression is that, in regards to LGBT people, most Chinese folks see it from a “don’t ask, don’t tell” point of view. It’s not surprising that there is social apprehension/ignorance towards LGBT issues given some of the attempts made by Western libs to apparently put forward progressive issues on Chinese social media with the true intention of creating social friction, as user roccopun described in this thread.
In any case, it doesn’t seem systemic (correct me if I’m wrong) to me (same as the racism problem, which I have seen a lot of as well), so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, just something that will become less evident as time goes on and China develops.
I do have to call into question someone here who stated that LGBT rights in the West are better than in China. By what metric? Perhaps LGBT people enjoy greater social acceptance in general in West, but what is the standard of living of the average LGBT person, especially a transgender person, like? If more and more people have easy access to free education and healthcare, are guaranteed work, and are able to afford housing, and social and material inequality lessens, then the people will have less and less of a reason to scapegoat LGBT folks as conduits of liberalism as a result. Though not founded in reality, such concerns are merely a byproduct of the ever-present threat imperialism and capitalism poses on all socialist states; it is unfortunate, but not surprising to see.
ive discussed this at length with other trans people i know in china. we concluded that the conditions of trans people in china and america are nearly identical, with slight favor to china simply because no one knows what being transgender is (which has its own issues too). whereas in usa its a hot button issue
Is the Beijing LGBT Center considered reliable for stats? (Not that their website is working right now)
I recall seeing that they report widespread depression, suicidal thoughts, and difficulty in public spaces for transpeople. So I assumed that meant conditions for lgbt people haven’t really improved that much, combined with the state not having any real preventative measures against discrimination (though I’ve seen a few regional court cases where they rule in favor of an lgbt person, it’s not exactly comprehensive). Gay marriage still isn’t legal. Though if you’re using the USA as a metric, the baseline for what’s considered ‘an improvement’ can vary wildly between comparisons to NYC or to Alabama.
General material conditions being better in China though? Yeah, I recognize that. My main thought process here is whether it’s cool with most bosses to show up to work and get a paycheck while being openly trans, because that’s where I’ve had the most issues.
Kind of an aside, but… brings a whole new dimension to Western libs that say “I love the Chinese people but I hate the Chinese government”
Keep in mind a lot of those are just anti American liberal interventionism Goes for a lot of the issues you mentioned, but for example a lot of the “pro-feminism” voices on social media are literally funded by American NGOs for regime change. They could care less about women and equality, in fact they love to see them all Chinese women die horribly if they bring down the communist government with them, and another war criminal in the US will tell Americans that it was worth it.
If you lurk more you will see how ridiculous the social media “feminists” often are, how they fall completely silent if not sabotage feminist matters that would put communist China in a good light, how the same groups again and again aligns with American imperialist positions when it has nothing to do with feminism (for example, being rabidly pro-Ukraine, advocating that covid is just a harmless flu).
Of course when such people parade around social media with a feminist banner, you will see people respond by stomping it to the ground with boos and widespread opposition. Nothing wrong with being “anti-feminist” when the “feminist” in question has little to do with things like women’s equality and more about sowing discord, and thus the loud opposition to it says little about people being against women’s equality and more about against sowing discord.
I guess the issue there would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Which I would believe would be the long-game planned by said American imperialists. They hope to get people across the world to associate social progressivism with imperialism which makes it easier to convert them to fascism and makes Western liberals say, “See, see, these people aren’t leftists they’re bigots!”
unfortunate. i can only hope that those with such views remain a minority or have little power to cause harm. at the same time, i cannot expect a developing country with a very rural population to be perfect about things like this.
