The Chinese government is a big fan of actions that are often called “crackdown”, no matter how they try to label it “reform”.
And many Chinese people always hail the new measures as “great”, “just what we needed”, “a boon to society”. I always wonder if that’s because they aren’t allowed to publicly criticize the government or if that’s what they actually believe.
So far this summer and into the fall, they have “reformed” the education culture to have less stress for kids and less expense for parents, “reformed” the online culture to prevent children from playing too many games and getting addicted to the internet, “reformed” the celebrity culture to prevent people from unhealthily worshipping other people, and “reformed” children’s entertainment to help “promote good morals”.
They have also denounced the 996 work culture but haven’t actually done much to change it besides saying it is illegal. I guess that as long as it’s good for the economy, it’s not really that illegal.
Education Reforms
I’ve talked about these at length in another post. But, so far, I don’t think kids are under less stress to do well in school and I don’t see parents spending less raising their kids.
Now, the new rules haven’t fully come to Shenzhen, so I might see some of the changes the government is looking for once they do. But I haven’t read any news articles about parents saying how great the new policies are and how they can’t wait to have that third kid.
And, this being China, those news stories would definitely be showing up, if it was working the way they want, or even if it wasn’t. But, I haven’t seen them yet.
However, these “reforms” are only going after training centers and tests and homework for younger students. It’s put hundreds of thousands of people out of work and it barely affects most students.
It isn’t really touching on why and where most of the kids are stressed and overworked. Nothing’s changing, especially if nothing is done about China’s notoriously difficult entrance exams for middle school, high school, and college.
Gaming and Online Reforms
Many parents, especially rich ones, have abdicated their responsibility to raise their own children to grandparents or a nanny. But setting limits on kids’ activities, especially online, should be the parents’ job.
The new rules are part of a campaign to prevent kids from spending too much time on entertainment that communist authorities consider unhealthy. That also includes what officials call the “irrational fan culture” of worshipping celebrities.
“Adolescents are the future of the motherland, and protecting the physical and mental health of minors is related to the vital interests of masses, and in cultivating newcomers in the era of national rejuvenation,” the Press and Publications Administration said in a statement.
ZEN SOO PandaGuides
People have also “hailed the government for protecting the children and creating the restrictions”. It does the work of deciding what their kid can and can’t do away from them and they don’t have to work to teach their child right from wrong.
China has also limited online games for children to one hour Friday night, one hour Saturday night, and one hour Sunday night. Now, there aren’t any restrictions on offline games, besides what the parents and kids decide, but how much good is it doing to limit online gaming? Kids already have potty mouths and know swear words in both English and Chinese. And they definitely know about the middle finger.
When I was a child, I played a lot of video games, some of which my parents encouraged me to try. It didn’t negatively affect my schoolwork because they also set limits on when and how much I could play, mostly just after I finish my homework. I also didn’t pick up any bad language that I didn’t also hear at school.
Also, if the kids get the more “free time” that the government is pushing for, what are they going to do? Study more? Limiting choices in a child’s free time can lead to healthier individuals (more time to run and play outside) but it can also lead to more problems later in life when they can do the banned thing and haven’t learned moderation.
Technology Reforms
At the beginning of the crackdown-a-thon, Chinese tech giants, Didi, Meituan, and WeChat, were targeted.
Didi is still banned from being downloaded and creating new accounts (I cry every day that I didn’t sign up when I could). Meituan had a fine and WeChat had to change a few things, but both are operating as normal, at least as far as I can tell.
But, the government quickly got distracted by other things to control. Like Bitcoin. Which they completely banned. Anything and everything related to any cryptocurrency is now illegal in China, especially trading and mining.
Celebrity Reforms
Chinese officials have also taken an interest in what adults do online and who and how they follow people. As far as I can tell, they don’t like people who make their money by posting things online. Patreon, GoFundMe, or any of the other similar websites would never have made it off the ground in China..
And, they’ve somehow made a lot of their celebrity reforms about the children (cause what isn’t at this point?). The idea is that children need only the right kinds of role models and if they even know about anyone else, that’s a failure.
Chinese authorities [are] calling for boycotts against individuals with records of illegal or immoral behaviors, as well as sky-high payments for stars and abnormal appreciation of feminine men.
Individuals with a wrong political stance, and those who go against the country and the Communist Party of China, should not be employed by the industry […] – for example, the tax evasion case of actress Zheng Shuang, the rape accusation against Chinese-Canadian rapper Kris Wu.
OneTubeDaily
Guess there goes all of Hollywood. They’d never meet any of these standards. And most wouldn’t even want to try.
And:
The regulator ordered broadcasters to resist “abnormal aesthetics” such as “sissy” men, “vulgar influencers”, stars’ inflated pay and performers with “lapsed morals”.
ExpatHub
Faced with falling birth rates, Chinese authorities have tried to instil traditional masculine values in the country’s youth by ramping up gym classes and criticising male entertainers who model the effeminate looks of Korean pop idols.
Instead, broadcasters were urged to “strongly promote outstanding traditional Chinese culture… and advanced socialist culture.”
We can only have good role models who display the right morals and values. Including the right prejudices. That they’re actively embracing.
On the whole, China is racist, xenophobic, and homophobic. Oddly, they are trying to overcome their misogyny.
And, because of their rising xenophobia, I can’t count the number of times China has tried to blame the West for Covid or moral failings. According to them, it’s the foreigner’s, specifically America’s, fault. One of my coworkers even had an argument with one of his students about how Covid came from America.
Morals and Violence
In the midst of all the other reforms and trying to legislate morals into everything, for example:
[For games, u]nder the new rules, characters must have a ‘clear gender’, and plots cannot have ‘blurred moral boundaries’. [G]ames that give players a choice between good and evil acts will also be censored. ‘We don’t think games should give players this choice.’
GICexpat
They’re also working to ban violence in all its forms. Because if kids don’t see it on TV, it must not exist. Never mind the fact that many parents, especially fathers, are physically abusive. It’s considered normal and not frowned upon at all.
[The government decided to] ban cartoons and other TV shows primarily produced for children that contain any mention of violence, blood, vulgarity or pornography. TV channels must “resolutely resist bad plots,” and instead only broadcast “excellent cartoons with healthy content and promote truth, goodness and beauty,
Jessie Yeung, CNN Business
It affects both broadcast and online streaming shows. One of the more popular Chinese streaming sites took down Ultraman Tiga overnight.
For those that don’t know (and I didn’t until I moved here), Ultraman is an insanely popular show with kids in China. It’s a bit like the Power Rangers that I grew up watching in the 90s and it’s from Japan. I even had to ban all mention of it in my beginner class last semester when 3 kids in a row told me their name was Ultraman.
Now, they just took down one series and Ultraman has been around for decades on several different shows. The kids can still watch him and buy all of the merchandise that goes along with kids’ shows.
The Result
It seems like they’re hoping that by eliminating anything morally ambiguous, violent, or LGBT+ positive, kids won’t know these things are a choice and won’t go down those paths.
However, they’re forgetting that attraction is not a choice, many parents are abusive (verbally and physically), and people have their own ideas and access to outside ideas (no matter how hard they are to get to, thanks Great Firewall!).
All these reforms are doing is stifling individuality and creativity. Having someone constantly looking over your shoulder will do that to a person. In a communist society, it can be a good thing to have every one the exact same, but China is also capitalist. They need business and invention.
They’re not going to create anything world-changing. When was the last thing China invented that changed the world – gunpowder? And it still took Europeans to invent and improve the guns and cannons.
And the lack of hero worship can prevent people from reaching and striving for things. If they don’t know it’s possible, why try for something completely new and challenging. Especially when you know the government could decide that you’re too big, too important, or too powerful at any moment and shut you down.
Just look at the tech giants here or the training centers. There used to be billions of yuan flowing into China from foreign investors and funding the training centers and Didi raised millions through its foreign IPO. It’s all stopped now.
It’s illegal.
That should be the new motto of China.
If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.
My TEFL Adventure 