WeChat Account “New New New Silence” and China’s Online “Reincarnation Party”

Final week’s CDT Chinese language 404 Archives podcast highlighted the latest revival of the Silent Observer WeChat account. The account, which for a number of years has offered a platform for philosophically-inclined reflections on Chinese language society and present affairs, is now on its fourth incarnation: from 默存格物 Mòcún géwù, or “Silent Observer”; to 新默存 Xīn mòcún, or “New Silence”; to 新新默存 Xīn xīn mòcún, or “New New Silence”; and now on to 新新新默存 Xīn xīn xīn mòcún, or “New New New Silence.” Its editor, author and former journalism professor Tune Shinan, introduced the most recent regeneration in September in a publish laden with references to Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Arendt:

Silent Observer, New Silence, and New New Silence are all gone.

At present, we create New New New Silence, as a result of we nonetheless can; as a result of there’s freedom, magnificence, and love in our hearts, and Silent Observer is an island of that freedom, magnificence, and love.

We construct these islands as a result of we dwell in a extremely fragmented society. Day-after-day, we face a flood of data, however we don’t know what’s actually occurring in our society, or within the minds of others. We all know the ideas of some in our personal rapid circles, and see glimmers of some others’ by way of social media, however we don’t know what the individuals on the high are pondering, nor these on the backside, nor these in between. We don’t know the ideas of those that died in silence, nor those that dwell on in silence. We can’t freely talk, and the anguish of that doesn’t simply have an effect on us individually. Freedom, magnificence, and love will shrivel in an age of stifled communication, until individuals have a track of their hearts that they’ll clap and sing alongside to, irrespective of how constricted the area, or whether or not anybody else can hear.

[…] There are too many obstacles on the way in which to freedom, however I believe the most important is nihilism.

[…] To rise above nihilism, we should construct islands for ourselves. Maybe Silent Observer will be one such island—an island of freedom, magnificence, and love. [Chinese]

Silent Observer was the unique writer for Jiang Xue‘s well-known account of “Ten Days in Chang’an” below Xi’an’s COVID-19 lockdown in January, 2022. Ian Johnson defined the account’s title, tone, and the circumstances of its first reincarnation in his 2023 guide, “Sparks: China’s Underground Historians“:

Jiang Xue had posted her piece on the WeChat public account known as mocun gewu, or “Silent Observer.” The title itself is a small expression of dissent. Mocun will be translated as “silent” however it’s best generally known as that means the soul leaving an motionless physique and wandering to different lands. It stems from the Taoist traditional Liezi, the place a king sits at a banquet. A magician takes him to different realms. After what looks like ages have handed, the king returns to the banquet, wakes up, and asks his retainers what has occurred. They are saying he has merely sat there silently (mocun) for a number of moments. And so the time period has been glossed to imply sitting silently whereas one’s spirit travels far—a metaphor for Chinese language society.

Instantly after Jiang Xue’s article was posted, the “Silent Observer” account was closed for violating web rules. Shortly after, the account was relaunched as “New Silence” and resumed with an article by the well-known author Zhang Shiping, who goes by the pen title Ye Fu. He has written quite a few essays and quick tales concerning the brutal early years of Communist rule in western Hunan province and now lives in exile within the Thai metropolis of Chiangmai. His essay was a meditation on the jianghu—the honorable bandits and rogues of the backwoods who had turn out to be a logo for Chinese language individuals with a conscience.

[…] “In at this time’s mainland China, what the imperial courtroom desires is that each one corners of the land revere its orthodoxy, and for that it should crush civil society. The tangible jianghu has lengthy ceased to exist, however within the hearts of the individuals the jianghu continues unbroken.” [Source]

(“Mocun” was additionally a courtesy title of legendary Chinese language literatus Qian Zhongshu, chosen by his father as an antidote to Qian’s talkative nature.)

New Silence was later banned in obvious response to an essay by Tune posted in December 2022, which praised Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti, and China’s personal White Paper protesters for “Preventing for Historical past.” Saying New New Silence’s launch in February, 2023, Tune wrote: “What would you do if years of painstaking effort have been worn out immediately? Cry and wail and curse your destiny? Sink into dejection and quit at that first setback? No. The late Ming Dynasty historian Tan Qian had a particularly inspiring reply: depend to 4, and begin once more.”

One other glimpse of the account’s content material will be seen in a mirrored image on the extremely contested spirit of the Could Fourth Motion that was posted by “New New Silence”—and subsequently censored—in 2023:

As I see it, a very powerful inheritances of the Could Fourth Motion have been the lively participation of the plenty in politics, resistance in opposition to the powers that be, craving for brand spanking new discoveries, and the pursuit of equality and freedom for people. That is the Could Fourth Spirit that’s actually price cherishing. It’s a spirit we sorely want proper now. [Source]

Silent Observer’s newest revival confirms its casual membership of Chinese language social media’s “Reincarnation Celebration”—although its 4 incarnations so far pale compared to the handfuls or lots of achieved by some others. “Reincarnation Celebration” was one in every of 104 phrases defined in our China Digital Instances Lexicon: twentieth Anniversary Version book, from which the next entry is taken:

Reincarnation Celebration (转世党 zhuǎnshì dǎng)

Collective title for these posting below new social media accounts after their prior accounts have been banned by platform censors.

Cartoonist Kuang Biao reincarnated on Weibo dozens of instances. (Weibo)

The title comes from the Buddhist idea of reincarnation. Customers who publish about delicate matters could have their social media accounts suspended or deleted by the corporate working the platform, typically with none clarification. In such circumstances, a consumer can then “reincarnate” on the identical platform by creating a brand new account, typically named after the outdated one however with labels to designate that it’s a “reincarnated” account, typically by together with numbers or the phrase “reincarnation,” to make it simpler for his or her earlier followers to seek out. The time period first utilized to Weibo and has since unfold to different social media platforms.

Political cartoonist Kuang Biao reincarnated dozens of instances on Weibo, and for a number of years included his reincarnation depend in every successive username: as of Could 2015, for instance, his incarnation was “Uncle Biao Fountain Pen Drawings 47” (@飚叔钢 笔画47 @Biaoshugangbihua47). One Weibo consumer named “Restore” reportedly reincarnated a record-holding 418 instances. In 2011, after DeutscheWelle’s official Weibo account was deleted, the media outlet mentioned it was “pressured to re-incarnate once more below the tyranny of Sina [Weibo].” In 2013, Taiwanese politician Hung Chih-kune tried to sue Weibo for repeatedly deleting his account and forcing him to reincarnate.

As on-line reincarnation grew to become widespread, it grew to become an more and more seen type of resistance in opposition to web censorship. Customers whose tenacity within the face of repeated bans leads them to interact within the observe grew to become a part of the “Reincarnation Celebration.” Regulators subsequently started to tighten guidelines about who can create new social media accounts. In 2015, the Our on-line world Administration of China (CAC) introduced new guidelines that required customers of blogs, microblogs, instant-messaging providers, on-line dialogue boards, information remark sections, and associated providers to register with their actual names. In 2021, CAC regulators ordered social media web sites to step up oversight of “blacklisted accounts” as a way to stop “reincarnation.” These measures have made it more durable for customers to efficiently “reincarnate” and led to a lower within the phenomenon.

One account that succumbed to this pattern was 越秀山边 (Yuexiu Shanbian), a WeChat public account targeted on occasions in and round Guangzhou, recognized for its emphasis on individuals’s livelihood points, unbiased thought, and free speech. After being repeatedly banned and reincarnated, it introduced on Could 30, 2023: “I remorse to inform you that ‘Yuexiu Shanbian’ will not be reincarnated; the backup account ‘Yuexiu Shanxia’ that was activated on January 4 this yr may also cease updating indefinitely.”

China’s authorities, though formally atheist, additionally claims authority over non secular reincarnation below the “Measures on the Administration of the Reincarnation of Dwelling Buddhas” issued by the State Administration for Non secular Affairs in 2007. These rules element the bureaucratic necessities for allowing, finding, verifying, and approving reincarnations of Buddhist spiritual leaders.