Cross-posted on Quora under the question “What can non-Chinese do to convince the Chinese that they are being oppressed?”

I do not think non-Chinese people should do anything. There is a popular saying in China: you cannot wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep (你叫不醒一个装睡的人). I believe this is a proper description of what is going on today with many Chinese people.

The recent emergence of a flurry of overseas Chinese who have grown up in mainland China and who continue to show unwavering, sometimes unconditional support for the CCP-ruled “motherland” (祖国) after they have moved abroad, often accompanied by zero tolerance for any (imagined or real) “criticism/insult against China” (辱华), has provided a good opportunity for the world to see how some Chinese people are pretending to be asleep, even if they are no longer obliged to do so. I would refer to Chris Wang’s answer under this same thread for a plausibly representative perspective from the said group. But before I give my two cents on the issue, I would commend Chris Wang for pointing out that, whether a person grows up under the CCP rule or in the West, they are very much likely to be brainwashed either way.

However, the crux of the matter is, how many types of brainwashing can there be?

For those growing up under the CCP rule (like myself), there is basically only one type of brainwashing, i.e. listening to the Party. This includes explicit propagandas, censorship/eradication of unwanted voices offline and online, patriotic/nationalistic education that is mandatory for school children, etc. Even if a member from this group has physically relocated to another country, the knee-jerk responses from their younger selves’ experience still strongly resemble an integral part of their way of life (political or otherwise).

Now compare that to those growing up in an environment where there are numerous channels and countless ways of brainwashing, including, but not limited to, the press (say, the New York Times, which, by the way, is a profit-making business whose stock price has gone up almost 200% in the past three years), social media, Wikipedia, Q&A platforms such as Quora, this Chinese-politics-related Quora question, the many (oft-opposing) answers people have submitted under this question, the comments on the answers, the comments on the comments, and so on—all of which are freely available on the internet. And if you go into the streets, parks, and sidewalks during a protest, you might see more eye-widening or even repugnant brainwashing ideas. Sure, these brainwashing ideas are not equally distributed, but the possibilities are endless, and vastly different brainwashing ideas do have a fair chance to compete against each other, at least in theory.

So why do some overseas Chinese people like Chris Wang still feel oppressed, provided that more is better when it comes to brainwashing? I believe this lies in the fact that unlike what they were accustomed to back where they grew up, they have now realized that in the West it is not at all easy to brainwash another person using only one type of brainwashing technique—which they themselves acquired from being brainwashed as they grew up—no matter how well the people in the “motherland” have responded.

Hence the feeling of powerlessness.

But remember, even when they are showing such grievances against the “other,” those overseas Chinese are not forced to shut up by any authority. Indeed, when they freely express their opinions which their Western neighbors, police officers, mayors, and prime ministers might not like, they are completely aware that they can do this precisely because whatever they say there will be relatively minor if any real oppression—with the only exception being “bad-mouthing China,” possibly because “it is my motherland,” or more likely because “my current/future business is there.”

While few of them would openly acknowledge this “I can say whatever I want to say” privilege, they nevertheless take it for granted when they vent their anger on Facebook, Twitter, and Quora, as well as when they march through the streets carrying the Five-starred Red Flag, knowing from the bottom of their hearts that none of these is feasible today where they grew up. Moreover, here they are given a full opportunity to brainwash the “other” using their very own, albeit limited, argument (or name-calling, for better or for worse), which is impossible for the “other” to do in the same way in China without some serious repercussions.

So you think they need to wake up? They have been awake since the very beginning.

A question remains to be answered: for those overseas Chinese who claim that they truly feel oppressed by the non-Chinese actors in their diasporas (the press, the government, the “other” people, etc.) but not their own government and people back in China, if they are reasonable, consistent, and honest to themselves, then why don’t they simply refrain from publicly expressing their complaints—just like what they would self-consciously do towards their “less oppressive motherland”—and go back to China for an ostensibly better future?

I bet many of them know exactly why they are not doing it.