China is often perceived as a monolith — not just politically, but socially and culturally, too. Nothing could be further from the truth, and SupChina dives deep into China’s diverse and changing society and culture on a daily basis.
In a section about homosexuality, the book accuses gay people of “violating the law of nature” and “bringing instability into society.” It also depicts homosexuals as “unhealthy” and “suffering” individuals who “have shorter life expectancy than normal people” and are “more prone to abuse drugs” because of their “lack of willpower.”
With the Trump administration bearing down on Chinese students, many feel helplessly caught in the crosshairs of a high-level U.S.-China political spat. But not all of them are passively accepting their fate.
From a hot sauce endorsed by John Cena to a candy gifted to Richard Nixon, here are five items that those in the Chinese diaspora all know — and which the wider world is gradually getting to know as well.
In 2014, Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of separatism, despite his relatively moderate stance on questions of Uyghur autonomy. But his truth was too blasphemous — intolerable for China's gatekeepers of history.
Although the State Council, China’s Cabinet, urged all schools to make sexual and reproductive health education part of their compulsory curriculums in 2011, lessons covering sex-related topics are still limited and not offered at all in many Chinese schools.
The decision has been met with mixed reactions from the public, with some denouncing the ban on tattoos as a form of discrimination in the workplace, and others applauding it for protecting the interest of passengers.
At one time, Guo Moruo was at the forefront of Chinese arts and literature, considered a romantic and iconoclast. But all that changed during the Cultural Revolution, when, in the face of persecution, he failed to rise up to the moment.
An Instagram post has gotten former NBA point guard Ty Lawson into hot water in China, but the post itself was tame compared to the racial abuse the player received afterwards.
“Growing up in an authoritarian system, I regarded cynicism as part of life,” writes Connie Mei Pickart, who became an American citizen six years ago and voted in her first presidential election in 2016. “But in a democratic state, a cynical attitude has far-reaching consequences,” she adds — a lesson she learned the hard way.