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Speaking Truth to Power: China's Artists, Poets and Netizens on the Russo-Ukrainian War, 2022-Present
Type
conference lecture
Date Issued
2024-05-08
Author(s)
Abstract
“Speaking Truth to Power: Parrhesia and Perceptions of the Russo-Ukrainian War in
Chinese Online Poetry and Visual Narratives, 2022-Present”
Daria Berg & Qian Cui, University of St.Gallen, St.Gallen, Switzerland
Abstract SAG Nachwuchstagung, Basel 8-10 May 2024
When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin felt confident in Xi
Jinping’s support, cemented by pledges of a ‘no-limits friendship’. While the world looked to
China for a resolution to the crisis, China’s official media touted Russian propaganda in their
coverage of the war while censoring Ukrainian news and pro-Ukrainian perspectives.
Despite the risks, Chinese artists, poets and netizens have been exploring the new
social media as alternative avenues for creativity to express their views, posting visual art and
literature such as poetry, painting and photography in support of Ukraine. This talk will
analyse selected works to discover how they ‘speak truth to power’.
The Euripidean concept of parrhesia, ‘speaking truth to power’—or literally ‘saying
everything one has in mind’—denotes freedom of expression, transparency, duty, idle talk
and gossip. Foucault (1983) has pointed out that truth-tellers face risk or danger but feel
bound by duty to muster the courage and ‘speak truth to power’.
Here I argue that China’s vernacular culture draws on its indigenous tradition of
parrhesia, celebrating freedom of expression in visual or literary narratives, fuelled by the
storytellers’ sense of duty to their country to ‘speak truth to power’. In the time-honoured
tradition of the xiaoshuo—originally meaning small talk or gossip—the new artists and
authors brave the risks to use social media as vehicles of expression for their indirect yet
scathing critiques of power.
References
Foucault, Michel, Henri-Paul Fruchaud and Daniele Lorenzini, “Discourse and Truth” and
“Parresia”, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Chinese Online Poetry and Visual Narratives, 2022-Present”
Daria Berg & Qian Cui, University of St.Gallen, St.Gallen, Switzerland
Abstract SAG Nachwuchstagung, Basel 8-10 May 2024
When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin felt confident in Xi
Jinping’s support, cemented by pledges of a ‘no-limits friendship’. While the world looked to
China for a resolution to the crisis, China’s official media touted Russian propaganda in their
coverage of the war while censoring Ukrainian news and pro-Ukrainian perspectives.
Despite the risks, Chinese artists, poets and netizens have been exploring the new
social media as alternative avenues for creativity to express their views, posting visual art and
literature such as poetry, painting and photography in support of Ukraine. This talk will
analyse selected works to discover how they ‘speak truth to power’.
The Euripidean concept of parrhesia, ‘speaking truth to power’—or literally ‘saying
everything one has in mind’—denotes freedom of expression, transparency, duty, idle talk
and gossip. Foucault (1983) has pointed out that truth-tellers face risk or danger but feel
bound by duty to muster the courage and ‘speak truth to power’.
Here I argue that China’s vernacular culture draws on its indigenous tradition of
parrhesia, celebrating freedom of expression in visual or literary narratives, fuelled by the
storytellers’ sense of duty to their country to ‘speak truth to power’. In the time-honoured
tradition of the xiaoshuo—originally meaning small talk or gossip—the new artists and
authors brave the risks to use social media as vehicles of expression for their indirect yet
scathing critiques of power.
References
Foucault, Michel, Henri-Paul Fruchaud and Daniele Lorenzini, “Discourse and Truth” and
“Parresia”, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Language
English
Keywords
Chinese visual art
Russo-Ukrainian war
Chinese social media
Xi Jinping
Chinese online poetry