On Social Reality in China

关于中国的社会现实

[Epistemic status: intuitions and anecdotes.] [认识论状态：直觉与轶事。]

Recently, several posts and projects (Thoughts Memo, Babel Translation, Please Give Them a Chance) have taken important steps towards raising AI safety awareness and sharing rationalist philosophy in China. It’s great that we’re recognizing the importance of solving the messaging problem for China, and thus laying the groundwork for an international AI pause. Below I record my perspective on cultural differences which are relatively underdiscussed, which may become roadblocks to this communication program. 最近，一些文章和项目（如 Thoughts Memo、Babel Translation、Please Give Them a Chance）在提高中国对人工智能安全的认知以及分享理性主义哲学方面迈出了重要步伐。我们能够意识到解决中国的信息传播问题并为国际人工智能暂停奠定基础的重要性，这非常棒。以下我记录了自己对一些相对未被充分讨论的文化差异的看法，这些差异可能会成为这一交流计划的障碍。

Background: I’m a “first-generation” Chinese-American who moved to the States at the age of four. The beliefs in this essay are primarily drawn from interactions with my parents and their generation of immigrants, and from consumption of Chinese media (dramas, webnovels, games, and manhua) which are not necessarily representative of the realities on the ground. I am likely over-indexed on the older generation and internet culture, and would appreciate corrections from folks who have direct lived experience. The picture I aim to paint is also complicated by a massive generational gap, and my understanding is that some of the below sentiments (e.g. the cynicism and nationalism) are partly inherited by the younger generation, and partly rejected through a variety of countercultures. 背景：我是一位四岁时移居美国的“第一代”华裔美国人。本文中的观点主要源于我与父母及其移民一代的互动，以及我对中国媒体（电视剧、网络小说、游戏和漫画）的消费，这些内容未必能代表中国当下的真实情况。我可能过多地关注了老一辈和互联网文化，非常欢迎有直接生活经验的朋友予以指正。我试图描绘的图景也因巨大的代沟而变得复杂，据我理解，以下提到的一些情绪（如愤世嫉俗和民族主义）在年轻一代中，一部分被继承了下来，另一部分则通过各种反主流文化被排斥。

Briefly, I point to four axes along which China is strikingly different. These differences are not black-and-white, but I think if you take the liberal middle-class western bubble I live in and shift the mode ~1 standard deviation in these directions you would get a substantively more accurate model of China: 简而言之，我指出中国在四个维度上存在显著差异。这些差异并非非黑即白，但我认为，如果你以我所处的自由派中产阶级西方泡沫为基准，并向这些方向偏移约一个标准差，你就能得到一个更准确的中国模型：

1. Chinese social media is like American junk food. Chinese people find American food disgusting: inauthentic slop inundated with additives and high fructose corn syrup. Westerners will find Chinese social media similarly disgusting: uncanny-valley filters are everywhere, and social media is omnipresent in every corner of life.

2. 中国的社交媒体就像美国的垃圾食品。中国人觉得美国食物很恶心：充斥着添加剂和高果糖玉米糖浆的虚假糊状物。西方人也会觉得中国的社交媒体同样令人作呕：恐怖谷效应的滤镜无处不在，社交媒体渗透在生活的每一个角落。

3. Primacy of social reality, and of shame and “face.” Shame is seen as something that just works in China, and is the dominant lever by which virtue is enforced.

4. 社会现实、羞耻感和“面子”的至高无上。羞耻感在中国被视为一种行之有效的手段，也是强制执行美德的主要杠杆。

5. Dark World thinking as described in Truth or Dare – a deep cynicism about human nature. People are by default out to get you. Emphasis on strength/competence and de-emphasis on kindness/virtue. Closely related to, but distinct from, scarcity mindset.

6. 《真心话大冒险》中所描述的“黑暗世界”思维——对人性深度的愤世嫉俗。人们默认都在算计你。强调力量/能力，淡化善良/美德。这与稀缺心态密切相关，但又有所不同。

7. Chinese nationalism as collective insecurity. The narrative is that China experienced a “century of humiliation” being brought to its knees by western colonizers, the Opium War, and Japanese atrocities in WW2, and the world still sees Chinese as “East Asian weaklings.” Through this lens, the primary drive of Chinese people is to prove themselves equal or superior to westerners and usher in the Chinese century.

8. 作为集体不安全感的中国民族主义。其叙事逻辑是：中国经历了被西方殖民者、鸦片战争和二战中日本暴行所蹂躏的“百年屈辱”，而世界至今仍将中国人视为“东亚病夫”。通过这一视角，中国人的主要动力是证明自己与西方人平等甚至更优越，并开启中国世纪。

Chinese Social Media is like American Junk Food

中国的社交媒体就像美国的垃圾食品

One thing I was shocked by when visiting China is that my grandparents went down to the supermarket every afternoon to buy fresh veggies to cook dinner. Chinese people, at least the older generation, are extremely careful about what they ingest, and have extremely high standards about freshness and culinary discernment. The idea of Americans storing fruit, veggies, and preserved food from the grocery store for weeks in the fridge is repulsive to them. 回国探亲时，有一件事让我感到震惊：我的祖父母每天下午都会去超市买新鲜蔬菜做晚饭。中国人，至少是老一辈，对摄入的食物非常谨慎，对新鲜度和烹饪鉴赏力有着极高的标准。美国人把超市买来的水果、蔬菜和腌制食品在冰箱里存放几周的做法，在他们看来是令人反感的。

I think the exact reverse of this dynamic exists for social reality. Chinese beauty filters are out of control. Similarly, here’s what much of pre-AI manhuas look like: 我认为在社会现实方面，情况恰恰相反。中国的美容滤镜已经失控。同样，这就是许多AI时代之前的漫画看起来的样子：

Westerners sometimes tell a story that China embraces AI because of some philosophical positivity towards technological progress. I don’t entirely discount this story, but my impression is that Chinese consumers already had a high tolerance for slop and AI content fit naturally into this ecosystem without ever triggering an uncanny-valley reflex. If anything, AI slop is of higher quality than some of the existing mass-produced content. According to this article, one new AI mini-drama (several hours in length) launches every 36 seconds on Douyin. 西方人有时会说，中国拥抱人工智能是因为对技术进步持某种哲学上的积极态度。我并不完全否认这种说法，但我的印象是，中国消费者本身对“垃圾内容”就有很高的容忍度，AI内容自然地融入了这个生态系统，而从未触发过恐怖谷效应。甚至可以说，AI生成的垃圾内容比现有的某些批量生产的内容质量更高。据这篇文章称，抖音上每36秒就会发布一部新的AI微短剧（时长数小时）。

Another striking feature of Chinese media is the ever-presence of audience reactions and the surrounding cultural conversation. Here is what I see if I pull up the first episode of idol drama “Pursuit of Jade” with 弹幕 (bullet comments) on by default: 中国媒体的另一个显著特征是观众反应和围绕其展开的文化对话无处不在。如果我打开偶像剧《玉骨遥》的第一集，并默认开启弹幕，我看到的是这样的：

Here’s the first chapter of a randomly-selected popular novel on Qidian (the largest site for Chinese webnovels): 这是起点中文网（中国最大的网络小说网站）上随机挑选的一部热门小说的第一章：

Every sentence is annotated with reader comments – so interacting with the reactions of other netizens is now part of the reading experience. Often these comments are filled with memes and in-jokes (梗) which take years of internet immersion to understand. And thus reading a novel, something I classify as one of the most private experiences, is embedded into the cultural conversation. 每一句话都有读者的评论标注——因此，与网友的反应互动现在成了阅读体验的一部分。这些评论往往充斥着需要多年互联网浸淫才能理解的梗。于是，阅读小说——我将其归类为最私密的体验之一——被嵌入到了文化对话之中。

There is a lot more I could say: writing is filled with “clickbait” attention-grabbers; astroturfing and doxxing are entrenched industries; and it is typical for important events in slop novels to be padded by pages of fictional “social media reactions” showcasing in-universe virality. The basic message is: how others react to something is as important as the thing itself. 我还可以说很多：写作充斥着“标题党”式的吸引眼球手段；水军和人肉搜索是根深蒂固的产业；在垃圾小说中，重要事件通常会用几页虚构的“社交媒体反应”来填充，以展示其在书中的病毒式传播。核心信息是：别人对某件事的反应，与这件事本身同样重要。

The Primacy of Social Reality

社会现实的至高无上

Here is the first verse of a popular children’s song: 这是一首流行儿歌的第一段：

小嘛小儿郎，背着那书包上学堂。 不怕太阳晒，也不怕那风雨狂。 只怕先生骂我懒哪，没有学问啰，无颜见爹娘。 朗里格朗里呀，朗格里格朗，没有学问啰，无颜见爹娘。

(Translation provided in original text) （原文已提供翻译）