Fenqing is a Chinese word which literally means “angry youth”. This word has many translations in English such as cynical youth, young nationalists, hysterical youth and angry young men. I personally like to call them mob youth or ignorant angry youth. It is impossible to understand China without knowing what Fenqing is and what role they play in the society in today’s China. I will try to paint a portrait of a Fenqing in this post.
What a Fenqing is like?
Fenqing is someone who is usually below twenty years of age, though sometimes people who are at their twenties or older can also be identified as Fenqing. Though you can find the majority of Fenqing among high school and college students, age is not the most important feature. What really matters is their outlook of China and the world.
What a Fenqing doesn’t know?
The fact that most Fenqing are (gleefully) ignorant of many things determines their opinions and views of the world and China. A typical Fenqing does not know the answer to the following questions:
- What are the differences between the nation, the government and the party? Fenqing believe these three things are basically the same thing.
- How large is the China’s territory and what is the ranking of its land area? Fenqing were taught that China was the third largest country in the world, and they never knew it shrank a little.
- What is a purpose of economic and social development? Fenqing believe everything can be readily sacrificed to achieve “the grand goal”. For them, the value of human life and dignity is readily expendable for the slogans and ideologies.
- How the tax money is spent? Fenqing do know or care they are in fact tax payers and has a right to know how their tax money is spent.
What is Fenqing’s outlook?
Their ignorance and lack of social experience shaped the outlook they hold onto:
- U.S. is a monolith. America is bad, bad and bad because Bush is bad.
- Anti-Japan and call for boycotting Japanese products while enjoying Japanese AV or cartoons.
- China’s stock market slumps because of the conspiracy of the imperialist western countries. The price of housing in China skyrocketed because of the hot money of the international speculators.
- Western countries led by the U.S. are trying to encircle and contain China.
- The Internet should be censured and any bad information, like the flies or mosquitoes outside the room, must be screened and filtered.
- CNN is evil because it lied, but it is fine for CCTV to modify the information to maintain the stability of the society.
What is the role of Fenqing in China?
Fenqing are often spontaneous, but it is easy to fan up their blind fervency — just tell them China has been attacked. Fenqing never realized that they are manipulated and they are among the first to be expended for the “greater good”. Their anger is harnessed and channeled to the designated objects, yet they are carefully guarded not to cross the line and overdo the “job”.
Fenqing are not patriots
Over about a hundred years since 1840, China was bullied, humiliated and brutally invaded by the industrialized western powers. China is the longest continuation of a civilization, and for centuries, it was leading the world by its economic development and technological inventions. The enormous suffering and humiliation over a century deeply hurt Chinese people, and it became a national dream of China to drive out the western invaders and colonizers and stand tall in the world again with dignity and glory. Undeniably, this is the root of Chinese patriotism and nationalism.
While the hostility toward the past western colonizers and invaders (especially Japanese during World War II) is well justfied, Fenqing are a group people who turn a blind eye to the domestic problems or simply attribute everything bad to the imperialists. They are conveniently absent when shoddy buildings collapsed, when farmers are displaced and the Internet is turning into a GLAN (the Great Local Area Network).
Fenqing are not qualified to be called patriots for the simple reason they are ignorant of three simple political concepts I mentioned above. They are party-triots.
Who produced Fenqing?
When I played a movie about the war in Iraq — No End in Sight –to a group of young college students, a student came up to me and said: “Our teacher of Mideast history told us Saddam was a national hero of Iraq, and people lived a prosperous and a happy life under his regime.” I was surprised to hear what she said, and told her what Saddam did to Kurdish population in northern Iraq and the fact that he was once supported by the U.S. government during Iran-Iraq War.
Will Fenqing remain to be Fenqing forever?
No. I was a Fenqing myself several years ago (anti-Japan), but now I moved on. Fenqing can’t survive very long after they are exposed to the realities and truth. Once Fenqing enter the society, see more and get busy making a living, they will change. By the way, the Internet is a catalyst to quicken the conversion of Fenqing.
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