For anyone even remotely interested in China (from any perspective) you need to watch this talk by Kaiser Kuo entitled Shouting Across the Chasm: Chinese and American Netizens Clash in Cyberspace.
If you’ve ever made a comment or written a blog post about Chinese censorship, nationalism, human rights, economic development, whatever — this talk is relevant and will likely make you reexamine the way you think, and more importantly the way you speak, about China. Few people articulate the complexities of China-related issues as well as Kaiser Kuo, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done as well as he’s done here.
For me, as someone who often rambles on about China-related internet issues, this talk is important because it prompts self-reflection, as well as empathy for a Chinese point of view. Given the direction that the internet is moving, “bridge bloggers” will become increasingly important in facilitating cultural understanding online.
If you care about this kind of cultural understanding at all, you’ll set aside an hour and watch this talk.
Seriously. Just watch it.
