Sipping a hazy beer in a dimly lit Shanghai pub, Liang Xiao found himself immersed in a sociology lecture that astounded him. <\/p>\n
Beneath a projector screen, a Chinese PhD student at an elite American university was explaining how modern states were built to a crowd of more than 40 young urbanites who packed the tiny venue in China\u2019s most cosmopolitan city. <\/p>\n
Though the talk did not cover China specifically, Liang was struck by the frankness with which the academic laid out how state power works \u2013 including the use of brute force \u2013 something rarely discussed openly today in the country\u2019s stifled political environment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was completely stunned when he mentioned violence so bluntly,\u201d said the 32-year-old, who was born and raised in China. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn China, you just can\u2019t talk about the nature of a country so openly.\u201d <\/p>\n
In recent months, \u201cacademic pubs\u201d hosting free lectures by Chinese scholars from universities worldwide have sprung up in China\u2019s major cities \u2013 such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou \u2013 offering a rare open space for free-flowing intellectual conversation in a country where the public sphere is shrinking as censorship tightens. <\/p>\n
These alcohol-with-academics sessions delve into a range of topics in the humanities and social sciences. <\/em>They include issues deemed politically sensitive and often censored online, such as feminism, but also more innocuous subjects like social anxiety and cats in ancient Chinese paintings. <\/p>\n Similar initiatives have been popular in the West for nearly three decades. In Britain, \u201cCafe Scientifique,\u201d a laid-back science debate forum, kicked off in 1998 and \u201cPint of Science,\u201d a three-day science festival, launched in May 2013. Both have since gone global. <\/p>\n Now, these brain-expanding happy-hour huddles are catching on in China as its urban, educated youth \u2013 emerging from three-year pandemic lockdowns and restrictions \u2013 are desperate to reconnect in person. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce you leave campus, it\u2019s difficult to find social science talks elsewhere\u2026 That\u2019s part of why we\u2019re so eager to make it happen ourselves,\u201d the Shanghai pub posted on its official social media account in late August, wrapping up its first series of pub lectures. <\/p>\n Unlike Western universities, which generally welcome the public, most Chinese campuses remain fenced off, keeping their academic resources exclusive to students, faculty and authorized personnel. <\/p>\n \u201cThe rise of academic pubs shows China\u2019s youth are still hunting for places to talk and share ideas, even as the public sphere is shrinking,\u201d said Lei Ya-wen, a sociology professor at Harvard University. <\/p>\n Recent arts graduate Cinnamon Wu attended a talk on the evolution of Chinese-American literature in a Beijing bar just a 10-minute drive from China\u2019s two top universities. <\/p>\n The session, which focused on how Chinese-American immigrants found their place in a strange, sometimes hostile land, elicited a wide-ranging discussion. But Wu, using his English nickname for privacy reasons, was surprised when some participants criticized the apparent influence of political correctness in American popular culture. He didn\u2019t expect attendees of such intellectual events to hold what he saw as conservative views. <\/p>\n While Chinese cyberspace is filled with critiques of political correctness and \u201cwokeness\u201d in American culture, Wu had never heard such opinions voiced so openly in a physical public setting, including on campus. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually tough for us to air any political views in class \u2013 unless they\u2019re extremely mainstream and unshakable,\u201d Wu said. <\/p>\n \u201cBut in the pub, a place without authority\u2026 People are more likely to speak their mind.\u201d <\/p>\n The belief that \u201cteachers are always right\u201d is instilled in Chinese students from a young age, he added. Even in college, where critical thinking should be encouraged, he said, he feels \u201cteachers remain unchallengeable authorities.\u201d <\/p>\n University teachers in China, tasked by Beijing with \u201ceducating for the Communist Party,\u201d rarely encourage political discussion as they have to steer clear of any controversies that might cross political \u201cred lines.\u201d <\/p>\n Despite finding some views unsettling in the open discussion, Wu still said the academic pub was \u201cworth a visit.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s refreshing to see people huddled offline in a casual setting, discussing literature and society\u2026 It makes me feel like we ordinary folks can also engage in public conversations.\u201d <\/p>\n As the academic pub and bar trend gains momentum, concerns are bubbling up on Chinese social media about the future of this nascent public sphere for intellectuals in the heavily censored country, especially following a string of cultural crackdowns. <\/p>\n Last year, China\u2019s stand-up comedy scene came to a brief halt with shows canceled nationwide after a comedian\u2019s army-themed joke was deemed a \u201csevere insult\u201d to the military, leading authorities to slap a hefty fine on the entertainment firm representing him. Earlier this year, an artist was detained over sculptures he created over a decade ago that featured political critiques. <\/p>\n Nationalist voices online have also grown into a powerful unofficial force policing speech across Chinese social media. They\u2019ve gone after bloggers, journalists, celebrity chefs and even a Nobel laureate, trying to hold people accountable for any remarks or behaviors they see as slighting China. <\/p>\n The trend has extended into university classrooms, with students \u2013 in a sign that political loyalty often trumps cultural reverence for educators \u2013 reporting their teachers for expressing any view not aligned with party orthodoxy. <\/p>\n Liang, who deemed the state-building talk \u201cbold,\u201d said he loves these academic pub sessions but suspects they will eventually face restriction. <\/p>\n \u201cIn a country with such strict governance, it\u2019s common for people to self-censor, scrutinizing their own words \u2013 and those of others \u2013 from the government\u2019s perspective,\u201d said Lei, the Harvard professor. <\/p>\n \u201cThese events are safe for now as they are not organized gatherings by nature,\u201d noted Kang Siqin, an assistant professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. <\/p>\n Kang, who mainly studies state capacity, gave the first lecture in the Shanghai pub talk series, introducing social science research methods themed around \u201csocializing over drinks.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cBut in China\u2019s context, any kind of gathering can be perceived as presenting challenges to public security,\u201d Kang added. <\/p>\n As for the future of the pub lecture trend, Kang said it \u201call depends on if anyone wants to target them.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sipping a hazy beer in a dimly lit Shanghai pub, Liang Xiao found himself…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} \u2018Place without authority\u2019<\/h2>\n
Elephant in the room?<\/h2>\n