At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common. But in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valour in cyberspace. Last month a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan, accusing him of smearing the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China.
Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo”, is seeking 1.5bn yuan ($208m/£164m) in damages from Mo – one yuan per Chinese citizen – as well as an apology from Mo and the removal of the offending books from circulation. His lawsuit has not yet been accepted by any court.
Although there are elements in Mo’s books that would probably not be published in today’s more restrictive cultural environment, say experts, he is by no means a dissident. He is widely celebrated in China and is a vice-chair of the party-backed China Writers Association.
Although Mo hasn’t responded to Wu’s attacks directly, this week – in response to the “recent storm” – Chinese media outlets shared a video of him reciting a poem by the Song dynasty poet Su Shi about the struggles and joys of being a scholar despite setbacks.
In attacking such a venerated figure, Wu “wants to sound more Catholic than the pope”, says Dali Yang, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. And while some people have accused Wu of trying to boost his own social media clout, the fact that such a campaign is tolerated by China’s censors reflects the rising levels of online nationalism, which in recent years have reached dizzying heights of fervour….
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Book review: The State as Faction: Mao’s Cultural Revolution
How one man went from China’s Communist party golden child to enemy of the state
Nationalism = Enforced patriotism
N.S. Lyons: The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning
Against homogenisation: Advancing diversity through Democratic Confederalism
Alternatives to the nationalism of the conspicuously ignorant: Markha Valenta
The Crises of Party Culture: by Yang Guang
‘Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962’ – by Yang Jisheng
After the truth-shower 