Brian Hioe.
A recent article in Jacobin by Seth Ackerman on “Chinamaxxing” again reveals the usual blind spots of Western leftists.
Jacobin Glorifies Leftist Yellowface, Ignores Chinese Perspectives in Article on “Chinamaxxing”
A recent article in Jacobin by Seth Ackerman on “Chinamaxxing” again reveals the usual blind spots of Western leftists.
Ackerman discusses the online phenomenon of “Chinamaxxing”– the recent turn of Gen Z teens on social media claiming that they are in a “very Chinese period of their life.” Gen Z teens have taken to mimicking Chinese cultural habits, such as taking off shoes indoors or drinking hot water.
For Ackerman, this highlights the “kill line” in the US–that living conditions are desperate and marked by scarcity–that Gen Z Americans have turned toward imitating such cultural habits.
For one, Ackerman conveniently never discusses the racial projection at work, nor does it ever seem to occur to him that this is a form of culturalist Orientalism. It is, after all, hardly just a Chinese habit to take off shoes indoors. And one is hard pressed to find the connection between drinking hot water and remedies to stark socioeconomic inequality.
Indeed, it is not even as though the phenomenon of Chinamaxxing refers to Westerners deciding that they would prefer to see China’s system of economic governance in the West.
Continue @ ESSF.
For one, Ackerman conveniently never discusses the racial projection at work, nor does it ever seem to occur to him that this is a form of culturalist Orientalism. It is, after all, hardly just a Chinese habit to take off shoes indoors. And one is hard pressed to find the connection between drinking hot water and remedies to stark socioeconomic inequality.
Indeed, it is not even as though the phenomenon of Chinamaxxing refers to Westerners deciding that they would prefer to see China’s system of economic governance in the West.
Continue @ ESSF.
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