Fenqing

This article is about a stereotypical description. For the English term "angry young man", see Angry young man (disambiguation).

File:愤青.jpg

fenqing 愤青

Fenqing (simplified Chinese: 愤青; traditional Chinese: 憤青; pinyin: Fènqīng), or "FQ" (abbreviation), which is itself an abbreviation for Fennu Qingnian (simplified Chinese: 愤怒青年; traditional Chinese: 憤怒青年; pinyin: Fènnù Qīngnián), means literally "angry youth". It mainly refers to leftist Chinese youth who display a high level of Chinese nationalism. This term first appeared in Hong Kong in the 1970s, referring to those young people who were not satisfied with Chinese society and sought reform. It has now evolved into a term used predominantly in Internet slang. Whether fenqing is derogatory or not usually depends on the person. Chinese critics often refer to them using the homophone characters "粪青" which are pronounced identically but translate to "shit-youth". This is often changed further to fènfèn (粪粪) as a derogatory nickname.

Overview

Fenqing is not a unique Chinese thing. This conception was used to describe the youth who are in the treason time at beginning and then refer to the youth who didn’t find their life direction and faith.

The phenomenon of fenqing arose after the "reform and opening up" of the Chinese government, during the period of fast economic development that occurred in China. Some people argue that fenqing are a natural reaction to recent neoconservatism in Japan and the neoconservatism in the United States . Fenqing and these foreign neo-conservative elements intensely dislike each other, but all of them share certain similarities: distrust of foreign powers, support for the military and boundary disputes, etc. However, fenqing are not to be confused with Chinese neoconservatives, who espouse a more pragmatic and gradualist approach to political reforms and favor the development of an "East Asian Community" with Japan and Korea, an idea that is anathema to the fenqing

As a group, fenqing are very diverse in their opinions. However, they are usually nationalistic and patriotic, and often left-wing in political ideology and tend to defend Mao Zedong's controversial actions during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The fenqing are very much concerned with political issues, especially in domestic policy relating to Tibet and foreign policy relating to Japan, Taiwan, or the United States.

They often harbour negative attitudes towards Japan due to the invasion and occupation of China by Imperial Japan, and support aggressive political stances towards Japan. For example, many believe that the Japanese government's apologies for Japanese war crimes are insincere and inadequate (some even believe no apologies will ever be adequate). More recent incidents, such a former Japanese prime minister's patronage of the Yasukuni Shrine, territorial disputes surrounding the Senkaku Islands (known as Diaoyu in China), and the revisions of history textbooks by uyoku dantai (Japanese right-wing extremists), lead these young people to conclude that the Japanese government is again seeking to expand militarily. These anti-Japanese sentiments are not necessarily only directed against the Japanese government and military, but often fiercely towards the Japanese culture, economy, and people.

They want to set the world right.They pay much passion on emphasize their discontentedness,hostility and the calling of justice towards the significant social events and international issues and they are very easy to be angry when they see something is not confirm to their value.They lake critical thinking and do not allow different voice. Anyone who defend their opposite will be called "hanjian(traitor)".

Fenqing also refers to "20-somethings often use the Internet to publicly express their views on politics and society."

Characteristics

File:愤青抵制日货.jpg

Boycott of Japanese Goods

Some support Chinese boycotts of Japanese products, for historical reasons and in reaction to events described above. They may dislike Chinese Japanophiles and other Chinese who are more Westernized and free-market oriented, calling them Hanjian ("Chinese traitors").The hostility of the “angry youth” to Japan, comes from the history. In the history, Chinese always took themselves as the central of the world and took Japan as “a dot on the world map(弹丸之地)”. But Japanese invaded China and did atrocity like Rape of Nanking. Since Chinese don’t want their generation to forget the humiliated history, that period history is an important part of all history teaching books. It’s easy to form the hatred emotion during the education process. And the Japanese’s action like falsifying the history in their teaching books and visiting to the yasukuni war shrine, deepen the anger of “angry youth”. The most typical anti-Japanese action can be seen in the activity in collecting signature to anti Shinkansen technology using in Jing-Hu trail and destruction of Japanese product on 18th , September. The “angry youth” concern on the Japan’s attitude to history which reflects the national power of China and Chinese’s ambition that never be insulted by others.

Some view Taiwan as a part of China, and believe that Taiwan independence should be prevented by any means necessary. Many fenqing tend to consider war to be feasible, if not immediately necessary. A few may even favor the use of nuclear weapons against Taiwan.

Some view American or Western attention to issues such as human rights, Falun Gong, Tibet, etc. as attempts to undermine the rise of China. Most support the ideal of democracy, but view Western attempts to spread democracy as self-serving, subversive propaganda. However, only a few truly believe in communism.

In May,1999, China's embassy's was bombed in the Republic of Yugoslavia by American army. This event irritated the “angry youth” and they made remonstration to it. Chinese hackers attacked many American websites. In the demonstrations, the most eye-catching slogans calling for a boycott included ‘Burn all McDonald’s in China’ and ‘Damage American intellectual property by practical action: free provision of pirated software’. On 1st, April, 2001, American aircraft crashed down Chinese plane. The hackers in these two countries began their fight again. Most of the “angry youth” have a thought that: the United States doesn’t want China to develop.

Korea is different, because it is the ally when Chinese “fenqing” face to Japan as Korean are also victims of Japanese during the Second World War. Chinese “angry youth” concern more on the adscription of non-material culture heritage. The arguments about the ancestor of Li Bai and the demonstration of anti Korea to application Chinese festival as their own festival are all about the traditional culture. Though “bang zi (棒子)” which used by the Chinese to degrade Korean is everywhere on the Internet, “fen qing”’s attitude towards Korea is less radical. They just angry about that Korean want occupy their traditional culture which is an symbol in their ethnic identity and they also angry about that the government didn’t pay enough attention on their own culture.

Some have the view that the Chinese Communist government is invincible and justified at all cases. They may unconditionally defend all action by the Communist Party of China, or by Mao Zedong against countries they feel that "threaten China's rise". However, others simply defend the Chinese government because they believe it to be better than an alternative government which they believe would be dominated by Westerners.

Some are very passionate about irredentist claims. In addition to the official claims made by the People's Republic of China, such as Taiwan, Arunachal Pradesh, the Senkaku Islands, and the South China Sea Islands, some fenqing also make irredentist claims to Outer Mongolia, Tuva, Outer Manchuria, the Hukawng Valley of northern Myanmar, parts of Central Asia east of Lake Balkhash, Bhutan, Ladakh, and Sikkim.

They generally abhor political corruption within the government and government organizations. Many fenqing care greatly about the poor and believe they are the voice of the poor, advocating social security policies, and despise what they call the "elites" of China. Most fenqing are highly skeptical about the free market and often blame it as the source of corruption, social inequalities and the weakening of the central government. They also generally perceive the government as being too nice or ineffectual in a variety of issues, such as the Taiwan Straits, relations with Japan or the U.S., and Tibetan and Xinjiang independence. For some their role models are Lu Xun and the activists of the May Fourth Movement. Some fenqing believe if Lu Xun were still alive today, he would continue fiercely criticizing the government.

The Chinese Communist party does not officially espouse Han chauvinism. It espouses Zhonghua minzu nationalism, which emphasizes assimilation into a modern nation of multiethnic origins, and emphasizes the Zhonghua nation's modern-era struggles against the "Imperialists": the West and Japan, and the historical multiethnic Zhonghua nation's insistence on unity under a single imperial state.

Militant nationalist websites, whether Zhonghua or Han, are often suppressed by the government because they appear to be elevating popular discussions into political levels. The government simply has a habit of clamping down on any kind of political discussions to prevent them from becoming ideologies that can replace official Zhonghua-Marxo-Capitalism.

Zhonghua nationalist websites tend to style themselves as "ultra-left socialist", venerating Mao as an anti-colonial icon over his capitalist successors, and identify Japan and US as their prime enemies, and focus very heavily on the goal of militarily invading Taiwan. Uyghurs and Tibetans are discussed as if they are mainly law-abiding Zhonghua citizens, with a minority elements instigated by overseas "separatist exiles".

See also

• Stereotypes of East Asians in the Western world
• Chinese nationalism
• Chinese Exclusion Act
• Red Guards (China)
• Angry white male - a similar phenomenon among White Americans