For The Record, I’m Not Celery.

You may have noticed that lately things have not been going very well for me in the real world, and I haven’t been able to avoid seeing connections to bigger picture events beyond my private Idaho that somehow make me feel that somehow it’s all connected.  The growing number of silent protests in China that seemed to turn up in almost every news feed I receive called out to me this weekend in a way only eclipsed by an image I saw on my IG feed:

So let’s unpack all of this:  Here’s what’s going on in China, per The Insider’s Cheryl Teh:

The act of holding up a blank piece of paper has become a symbol of protest in China as people take to the streets to protest the government’s ongoing zero-COVID measures.

Protests against China’s harsh COVID-19 restrictions erupted across China over the weekend. Cities like Shanghai and Beijing had rallies of a scale not seen since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The anti-government protests were largely peaceful, though people in cities like Shanghai were met with violence from the police, and they featured a common sight: People raising sheets of white paper above their heads.

One large rally took place at Chinese President Xi Jinping’s alma mater, Tsinghua University in Beijing. Students were seen brandishing sheets of paper and crying out slogans like: “Government for the people, freedom for all.”

Leave a Comment