Having lived under communism I understand this concept of interpreting everything "upsidedown." Chinese writer, Wu Zuxiang, explains it very well, which I quote in Gods of Tech and Pestilence: "If a newspaper says ‘the Party has made great strides against corruption in Henan,’ then you know that corruption has recently been especially ba…
Having lived under communism I understand this concept of interpreting everything "upsidedown." Chinese writer, Wu Zuxiang, explains it very well, which I quote in Gods of Tech and Pestilence: "If a newspaper says ‘the Party has made great strides against corruption in Henan,’ then you know that corruption has recently been especially bad in Henan. If you read about the heroic rescue of eight miners somewhere, you can guess that a mine collapse might have killed hundreds who aren’t mentioned. Read upside-down, there is a sense in which the official press never lies. It cannot lie. It has to tell you what the party wants you to believe, and if you can figure out the party’s motive—which always exists—then you have a sense of the truth."
Having lived under communism I understand this concept of interpreting everything "upsidedown." Chinese writer, Wu Zuxiang, explains it very well, which I quote in Gods of Tech and Pestilence: "If a newspaper says ‘the Party has made great strides against corruption in Henan,’ then you know that corruption has recently been especially bad in Henan. If you read about the heroic rescue of eight miners somewhere, you can guess that a mine collapse might have killed hundreds who aren’t mentioned. Read upside-down, there is a sense in which the official press never lies. It cannot lie. It has to tell you what the party wants you to believe, and if you can figure out the party’s motive—which always exists—then you have a sense of the truth."