The Stasi
Romanians lynching Ceaușescu
Tiennamen Square (they'll know it exists as an innocent landmark in the capital, not the history of what happened there)
1984 and the whole genre of dystopian police-state literature
Searching 1984 returns: http://search.jd.com/Search?keyword=1984&enc=utf-8&wq=1984&p...
the first item has 93k reviews. On taobao (by alibaba) the search results are: https://www.taobao.com/list/product/1984%E5%A5%A5%E5%A8%81%E...
I dont know where you get the idea that average mainland Chinese person who attended their public school system (we dont really have a private school system yet, for better or worse) are not aware of those things.
> I dont know where you get the idea that average mainland Chinese person who attended their public school system...are not aware of those things.
I just asked my Chinese friend, and they haven't heard of 1984 and report that they mainly read textbooks in high school or college. They didn't read novels because they weren't tested on that material.
I would guess that mainland Chinese people are less aware of dystopian, anti-authoritarian novels like 1984 than Americans, even if they are available, if only because those books are commonly part of US high-school curriculums and not Chinese curriculums.
During college there's no mandatory literature courses anymore but I was exposed to many western work during that time in my spare time. One reason was I was trying hard to learn English. But I can see many people dont have the incentives to read those even if those works are famous even in China. Many STEM college students in China start to prep for studying overseas once they step into college and all they care is GPA + a good Toefl/GRE score (and there are faster ways of getting good scores for those other than reading literature).
I dare to say many of those STEM students become the friends and coworkers you guys have in US today and they probably haven't "wasted" much time on pondering issues outside of STEM fields or getting their own lives to a better place.
Edit: not appearing in literature textbooks doesn't mean it's not famous or popular in mainland China. Haruki Murakami is also a very popular author whose work is not included in textbooks. He has a book called 1Q84 which was very popular and many Chinese got interested in 1984 because of it.
Chinese people does not like reading in general. Extremely few are aware of how gov works, what's the difference between party and state, and what democracy is.
However it not like the Party are actively censor George Orwell's books, it's just so insignificant. In 2016, the chinese Ministry of Education published list of recommended books for middle & high school libraries.
http://ncct.moe.edu.cn/uploadfile/2016/0518/2016051802153430...
You can search for "9787547121290", which is the ISBN for Animal Farm by George Orwell.
I met many visiting students, e.g. from India or Bangladesh, who do not know Star Wars, which was kind of a reality check for me, for how deep in a bubble we live.
For whatever reason in the US, Canada (and probably some other countries) "public school" means "free government run school". Meanwhile in the UK (and wikipedia tells me India and Australia) "public school" means "non government school you have to pay to go to".
I'm guessing that you mean the American version of "public school"?
Note: I think I was less than clear. In my area 'state school' is a way to refer to university or college that is primarily or entirely paid for by state government.
Kindergarten, Elementary, and Middle school: private schools were better, or perceived as better. People actively vet their schools if they can, my parents went to 3-4 schools before deciding to send me to one. There used to be a test to get into Middle schools (7-9th grade), but they abolished it, so now parents try to "donate" their way in if they can or somehow pass the interview process. Some public schools were good, but some perception was you could not control for quality, so if you can pay a tuition then you should find a school and pay it.
For high schools (10-12th grade), the public schools reigned king. This is (I think) because you have to take a test to get into. Some private schools are good, but the very very best (multiple kids get into Peiking/TsingHua/Ivy League etc) highs schools are all public and purely meritocratic in terms of getting in.
There are international schools, but those are only open to foreign nationals.
> Tiennamen Square (they'll know it exists as an innocent landmark in the capital, not the history of what happened there)
False. I was born in China in the early 80s and I witnessed the 1989 riots during Tiananmen Square on TV (I was in kindergarten). Average mainland Chinese people knows more than you think they do. Albeit, a lot of them would have very different idea of the same historical events.
What I wasn't expecting, and still cannot wrap my head around, is how thoroughly ingrained the cultural avoidance is to learning about anything in that intellectual space. I would have expected that upon hearing about such a program, both the thoughts "This might be good" and "This might be bad" would occur to a person, and both be potentially investigated, even if only quietly and internally.
But instead, it seems as if any intellectual space that could be considered even slightly controversial is often avoided by reflex, far before you get the chance to have the "this might be good or this might be bad" thought.
I was going to give an anonymized example of the above, but out of respect for the person have chosen not to do so in such a public forum.
We could flip it around and talk about how ignorant westerners are of Chinese history..
However, researching, blogging, or talking about such lesser known dark/embarrassing events will not get you or your family barred from travel, public schools, and such.
"But those people are legitimately awful!" you say, and I agree with you, yet.. maybe other cultures have other norms? Maybe we should learn a little Chinese history before we presume to dicatate what their norms should be.
The linked video is pretty good for imparting context on this issue, I'd recommend watching it.
I guess the combination of social credit system and censorship makes things particularly insidious, because if you are unjustly affected then you can't appeal publicly. But at the same time, enough people will get good social credit scores that a majority of the population might support the system still.