BEIJING - At first it was nothing out of the ordinary. A book intriguingly
titled China Is Not Happy was expected to generate a buzz because it
claimed to detail the world's most populous nation and aspiring superpower's
resentment of foreign abuses.
The book was the joint effort of five Chinese nationalistic writers (Song
Shaojun, Wang Xiaodong, Huang Jisu, Song Qiang and Liu Yang) and was written as
a direct response to issues surrounding Tibet, the Olympic Torch upset in Paris
and other incidents that angered many in China last year.
But, the book appears to have struck a cord with Chinese readers on a level
that it was perhaps not intended to. In a surprising
twist, the volume - which set out to arouse national indignation at foreign
powers' treatment of China - has burst open the Chinese people's grievances
with their own government.
Waves of commentary have filtered out of cyberspace and into the pages of some
state-sanctioned media.
"Outwardly, this is a book about patriotism," said commentator Chang Ping in
the liberal Southern Weekend newspaper. "The problem is that it does not help
China solve its problems by revealing them. On the opposite, it wants China to
succeed by hating other countries and by castigating Chinese people that like
other countries."
But, "Indeed, how can Chinese people be happy?" asked Chang. "Their children
drink poisoned milk and get kidney stones; husbands go underground to dig coal
and get buried there; petitioners who line up to complain are sent to mental
hospitals. Meanwhile, even the cigarettes smoked by public officials cost a
fortune."
Among the book's defendants are some who are perceived as proponents of
government views. Veteran journalist Xiong Lei - who after retiring from the
official Xinhua News Agency now works as a council member for the China Society
for Human Rights Studies - argued that the book could be seen as an expression
of China's dissatisfaction with the current unfair world order.
"People certainly have the right to be unhappy with such inequity," she wrote
in the official China Daily. "It is understandable too, that some people demand
reform of the existing political and economic systems of our global village."
"The book China Is Not Happy is only valuable for its title," contends
Song Shinan, a blogger based in Sichuan province where last year a devastating
earthquake buried thousands of children in the debris of shoddily built school
buildings. "All the 340,000 words in the book should be removed and replaced
with only these five characters printed on the cover ... These five characters
will inevitably resonate with the absolute majority of the Chinese population."
The list of unhappy people provided by Song reads like an almanac of China's
social groups. They include children trafficked for slave labor, prisoners
killed in detention from torture, migrant workers deprived of jobs, college
students left unemployed, intellectuals accused of crimes because of their
speech, and "all those Chinese people who quietly cry at night because they
have been humiliated or injured". Yes, China is unhappy, he concludes.
The Communist Party, which has held power since 1949, faces a swell of popular
discontent over rampant corruption, income disparity and its failure to prevent
children's deaths in last year's Sichuan earthquake, and the scandalous cover
up of contaminated infant milk formula that has poisoned over 300,000 babies.
October 1 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of communist China. June 4
brings the 20th anniversary of pro-democracy students' demonstrations in
Tiananmen Square and their violent suppression.
The inward criticism of China's problems generated by the book was perhaps not
the foremost result the book's authors had hoped for. Although they do vent
their ire at targets at home, the authors' biggest scorn is reserved for the
outside world's unfair treatment of China.
A collection of loosely linked essays, China Is Not Happy takes off from
where a 1996 runaway nationalist bestseller China Can Say No written and
edited by Zhang Zangzang, Zhang Xiaobo, Song Qiang, Tang Zhengyu, Qiao Bian and
Gu Qingsheng left off. Both are written by a group of intellectuals and
academics that describe themselves as speakers for the emboldened Chinese
public - daring to criticize and demand from its government.
The latest book contends that protests that marred Beijing's Olympics last year
testify to a continuing foreign disdain for China while the foreign "ghosts"
behind the riots in Tibetan capital Lhasa in March 2008 show the extent of the
country's "strategic encirclement by the Western world".
Liu Yang, one of the authors, argues that China "must not let the United States
kidnap the world" and rebukes Chinese reformers for "blindly following the
American model" instead of blazing China's own path.
"These foreign slaves have not only transformed Chinese economy into an
American appendage, they have themselves become American dependents," he
writes.
Another one of the writers, Song Qiang, advocates that China should "hold up
its sword" as this is the only way to build a strong nation. China should
bravely protect international security as a way of clearing a path towards
becoming a superpower, Song said.
The binding element of the book is a brand of disgruntled nationalism,
preaching that Beijing should start wielding its clout abroad more forcefully
and reject any kinds of intellectual soul-searching that distracts it from
achieving the "big goal" of becoming a superpower.
Unhappy or not, the book's authors are certainly not displeased with its sales
record. Already in its eighth edition since release in mid-March, China Is Not
Happy is reported to have sold about half a million copies.
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