The idea that all we hear about life in China being Sinophobic propaganda is genuinely so insulting - most of all to Chinese people, who are living under an authoritarian regime, who's traditional culture was forcibly suppressed, and who are unable to speak freely.
I've spoken to people, personally, who have been DEEPLY harmed by the CCP. Stop spreading authoritarian propaganda. Seriously.
You know what Sinophobia looks like? Ignoring the human rights abuses Chinese people face just to dunk on Americans. Being more than comfortable with censorship preventing honest discussion about the occupation of Tibet, the domineering attitude towards Taiwan (which didn't suppress traditional Chinese culture, by the way), or the active extermination of the Uigher people.
Anyways Free Tibet. And Hong Kong. Uighers deserve to live and practice their culture. Taiwan deserves independence. Forced abortion is wrong. Protesters shouldn't be hosed into the gutter. Privacy is a right. And Chinese people deserve better then China is giving them.
Stop eating up the propaganda.
Similarly, videos showing people having fun, enjoying themselves, doing cool things, or generally being normal are not revealing ""suppressed"" information that ""they"" don't want you to know if you live in a country with basically free access to information and a diversity of media sources. People are still people no matter where they live, and will still try to have fun, enjoy themselves, do cool things, and be normal even if they live under certified Not Great ™️ governments engaged in all manner of oppressive nonsense that the average person has little to no say in. It may be that there is a psychological stage of development that people need to go through where they realize that Others are Like Them in certain fundamental ways, but I promise you that this same revelation is possible--even for those in "homogenous" areas--through cultural materials like literature, music, and art, and through an overwhelming amount of internet content like Tumblr where people from a dozen different countries can freak out together over their love for the same shows and hobbies.
Another thing you can find on Tumblr is years' worth of posts sharing negative things from different countries/about different governments--especially their own governments and countries--many of which are bitingly critical of those countries, sometimes even crossing over into full-throated bigotry against people who live there or whose families come from there. That sort of content on apps like TikTok does not exist in the same way it does on sites like Tumblr; that is for a reason. Certain types of content are boosted and promoted on TikTok over others for a reason.
My post is not about the people of China. If you ever find yourself in an environment where all the information you're getting about an issue dehumanizes and demonizes another group of people, whether that's based on ethnicity, religion, simply where they were born, etc., you need to seriously ask yourself whether you're getting an honest, nuanced picture of what's going on, and what the motivations of a person who intentionally dehumanizes and demonizes others might be.















