Reader Dude - January 1, 2022 at 5:59 pm:
> Dan – I love your letters as always. In terms of China commentary it’s about as good as there is in the English speaking world, but unfortunately that bar is pretty low these days.
> I have to say – I’m a little disappointed re: your indictment of Chinese production of culture and some of the platitudes re: repression. The government can be heavy handed and has shown zero agility to respond when it comes to the propagandizing from the west, but you yourself are taking a western lens to what culture means and it’s embedded in your whole spiel (your references, your bit on classical music, etc.). In fact, writing from the states, one might even uncharitably call it the soft internalized racism (unavoidable) of ingesting a western standard of values.
> Why must the arbiter of cultural quality be what appeals to a commercialized western marketplace? Is it somehow a bad thing if China doesn’t produce manga or Kpop? Frankly it’s a failure of the state in some ways given that those cultural products help soften image on the world stage, but in short – Who is to say?
> Is not the rejuvenation of the Chinese people (something many subscribe to) a culture? Is not the rising patriotism and pride in China’s accomplishments by the vast majority of actual Chinese a culture? The rising “cultural level” (volunteers in Xi An delivering food as the area is in lockdown, the galvanizing of philanthropic attitudes after the Sichuan earthquakes) – Are those not cultures?
> Are we mistaking culture for entertainment? In 30 years are the artifacts you mention “culture”? Or some footnote in the history books, much as Madonna might be here stateside?