Tims's Han Han, Han Han's Time
By Zhang Tiezhi
http://udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/OPI4/5559448.shtml
He used to be a rebellious teenager in the literary world, a STAR writer or a representative of the ‘80s writers. He has handsome looks; and he is a professional car racer. But now, he has become the most influential speaker of public opinions in China, and a model citizen who dares to speak the truths. Recently, he has been elected by Times magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He is 28 years old; his name is Han Han.
More than 300 million hits on his blog
Han Han published his first novel Triple Gate （三重门）when he was 18 and aroused a so-called ‘Han Han Phenomenon’. Till now, the racking up sales of the novel has reached 2 million. From then on, he has constantly published a number of best-seller books, and has made greatly disputed statements. He started his blog writing in 2006 commenting on various social phenomena. Hits on his blog posts easily exceed a million. Up till early April, his webpage had been viewed 346 million times, which makes it the most widely read one in China.
Why does Han Han has such a great influence? Surely, one reason is that his sarcastic language is agreeable with young people and the dominant tone of the internet age. Wrapped in the sarcastic language, he is not a nihilist; he asserts his own values. He questions the lie told by the government institutes and the mainstream media; he challenges the authorities; and he has sympathy for those people living at the bottom of society. For example, he would take a ironic tone saying:
‘I sincerely hope that the government would forget about the glory brought by GDP…reduce their pressure in life, protect them, shelter them, and let them live with the slightest sense of self-esteem. If you lose these obedient citizens in the hands of starvation, sickness, poverty, compulsion, poison, food, indignation, injustice, water-drinking or plain sleeping, where are you going to find any citizens who are more obedient than them?’
Unveiled lies are plain common knowledge
Therefore, he is considered as the truth-telling child in The Emperor’s New Clothes. In contemporary China where it is predominated by absurdity and hypocrisy, he speaks out people inner voices, which are not enlightening remarks, but merely common knowledge. However, common knowledge, especially the part about the relationship between citizens and government is exactly the sharp sword that cuts out the lies of the times. Moreover, when a great many other established writers are enjoying the benefits provided by the system and have lost their writer’s critical role, Han Han appears to be extremely rare.
‘You'd wonder why cannot China become a big cultural power? That’s because when most of us are speaking, the cadres always come first, and the cadres are lacking in culture. At the same time, they are those who are scared of culture and censor the culture. So how could such a nation possibly become a big cultural power?’
As to his nomination for the 100 most influential people by Times magazine, he dropped his sarcasm and took on a sense of being powerless and tragic: ‘I often ask myself, what contributions I have made to this society filled with ‘screened words’. Maybe in the end, I will have only contributed another screened word named after my own name.’ ‘In China, influence usually entails power. Only those people who have the real power to let you die, let you live or make you half dead are truly powerful people.’
Struggling to tear down the walls under the spotlights
The 1980s and 1990s after the Opening-up and Reforming policy in China was the age of enlightenment, during which academic intellectuals played an important role. At present, the enlightening role they assumed has been abdicating gradually. After all, Chinese citizens have become more and more aware of their rights; but the government is still oppressing them, and the politics is still ridiculous. Therefore, the key is to stand up and fight for rights, or speak out the basic ideas. Havel once said that under post-centralized system, the only right those powerless people have is living in truth. Han Han does exercise the weapon of the powerless. The following remarks make him deserve to be elected as one of the top 100:
‘We are just nobodies on stage under the spotlights, but the theatre is possessed by those real influential powerful people who get to decide to drop the curtain down, shut the lights, cut the electricity, close the door and unleash the dogs at any time; then things become normal again with no traceable hints on what’s just happened. I just wish that these people would do the right thing with their influences on other people; and every single one on stage and maybe even those who helped build the theatre would be able to gradually tear down the high-standing walls and light bulbs. So when sunshine spreads in, no one can never ever crush out the brightness.’
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