Baizuo
Baizuo (白左, literally white Left ) is a Chinese mocking word for Westerners , which is approximately the term do-gooder equivalent.
Origin and use
In May 2017, the political scientist Chenchen Zhang reported on the openDemocracy media platform that the term baizuo was becoming increasingly popular as a disparagement among Chinese netizens . The term appeared around 2015 and quickly became one of the most popular buzzwords for disparaging opponents in online discussions. According to the well-known question and answer website Zhihu , he only refers to people who are only interested in topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment and have no idea about problems in the real world, and hypocritical humanitarianists who stand up for peace and equality to satisfy their own sense of moral superiority. They are so obsessed with political correctness that they tolerate backward-looking Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism , and believe in the welfare state , which only favors idlers and free riders . They are ignorant and arrogant Westerners who feel sorry for the rest of the world and consider themselves saviors. These attacks on the “white left” are astonishing, as problems such as immigration, multiculturalism, minority rights or positive discrimination that Western conservatives grapple with are largely unknown in Chinese society. Thus, apart from the occasional allegation against Chinese Muslims , one mostly refers to events in the western world.
The term was first significant in the context of the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 and Chancellor Angela Merkel was the first western politician to be called Baizuo because of her policy of open borders . Hungary , on the other hand, was praised for its tough line. This and other similar terms were also applied to JK Rowling and Emma Watson , and to volunteers, social workers and ordinary citizens who have expressed sympathy for refugees in Europe or China. During the 2016 presidential election in the United States , criticism of the Baizuo increased in importance. Online discussions on topics such as welfare state reform, affirmative action or minority rights have been added, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have become the epitome of the “white left” and Donald Trump a hero. Public critics of this development, such as the renowned neurobiologist and intellectual Rao Yi, were immediately classified by an overwhelming majority as typical representatives of the “white left”: biased, elitist, ignorant of social reality and characterized by double standards.
The prevailing hostility towards the Baizuo on Chinese social media is in part interest-driven, according to Zhang. Chinese students and job-seekers in Europe think it is unfair that they have to work hard themselves to stay, while refugees can simply come and demand asylum. The Chinese in the US feel they are being disadvantaged by the affirmative action and do not want to pay the price for the mistakes of white Americans. Ideological factors would be added. In post-socialist China, for example, ruthless pragmatism and social Darwinism are widespread, according to which everyone is responsible for their own fate and economic inequality is to be accepted as inevitable. The term also fits the narrative of the rising China and the sinking Europe. Finally, the role that the Chinese government and its "Internet commentators" play in this is unclear. At least criticism of democratic values such as pluralism , tolerance and solidarity is one of the “safest” critical opinions that ordinary citizens can express on the Internet.
Qu Qiuyan wrote in the CP-affiliated Global Times that the term baizuo was due to general anger over what is perceived in China as the superiority complex of the western liberal elites and their ideological agenda against China. Zhang Yi wrote there that the Baizuo discourse on the Chinese Internet shows the dissatisfaction of Chinese netizens with the Western approach to solving global problems.
Reception outside of China
Merics , the China Institute of the Mercator Foundation , reported that Chinese Internet users used the word frequently in reference to Angela Merkel , especially after the failure of negotiations for a Jamaica coalition after the 2017 federal election , since the state news agency Xinhua after the cancellation the talks about "Merkel's end and Germany's sad future" and the state broadcaster China Central Television reported a fragile stability of the social order in Germany . The attacks on Merkel did not come from the Chinese media, which in the past had predominantly reported positively about her, but from Internet users. However, Merics pointed out that China's propaganda machine was "adept at using news from abroad to criticize liberal democracies while promoting China's political system."
Ansgar Graw wrote at WeltN24 that, according to the Urban Dictionary , the term denotes "ignorant and arrogant Westerners who pity the rest of the world and consider themselves to be the saviors" and at WeltN24 it is directed against "naive, educated people" who are, for example, refugees , Establishing peace and a multicultural society in order to underpin their own claim to moral superiority, and whose political correctness goes so far as to allow the introduction of backward Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism . The word corresponds roughly to the term do- gooder . Also derStandard.at commented the spread of the term.
Simone Pieranni drew parallels to the Italian term "radical chic" and saw it as a populist criticism of those who deal more with refugees and rights for the LGBT Q community than with real problems. However, the Chinese picture seems more complex. Since the accusation Baizuo is often directed against “westernized” Chinese who are closer to Western values and therefore potentially more critical of China, it is a reflex and perhaps also a kind of criticism of a nascent Chinese middle class that is moving towards universal values bills resembling those of the western world.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ansgar Graw: Chinese ridicule Merkel as a naive white do-gooder , WeltN24, November 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b Entry Baizuo in Urban Dictionary . Retrieved December 26, 2017.
- ↑ a b After the end of Jamaica, Merkel is mocked in China as a "naive, white western woman" , Focus online, November 24, 2017.
- ↑ Chenchen Zhang: The curious rise of the 'white left' as a Chinese internet insult , Hong Kong Free Press , May 20, 2017.
- ↑ Qu Qiuyan: Chinese derogatory social media term for 'white left' Western elites spreads , Global Times, May 21, 2017.
- ↑ Zhang Yi: Chinese baizuo gibe a rebuttal to West's moral superiority , Global Times, May 22, 2017.
- ↑ a b Topic of the Week: China's Media and Jamaica , China Update 19/2017, Merics - Mercator Institute for China Studies, November 10-23, 2017, p. 2.
- ↑ Christoph Winder: Glossary "Wortkunde": Baizuo , derStandard.de, November 26, 2017.
- ↑ Simone Pieranni: Cina tra Alt-right e populismi: la gente contro i radical chic , eastwest.eu, May 26, 2017.