Lying on the Wall

Since I'm still in school, I've only intermittently accumulated some viewpoints I've seen, heard, and thought of recently. I use Traditional Chinese just to follow local customs; actually, I don't speak any Cantonese or Hokkien.

As a student in a regular high school in mainland China, I spend all day in the computer room because I study for the Informatics Olympiad. Recently, I got a suitable ladder, allowing me to climb over the wall and breathe the 'oxygen' of free speech.

Studying in Guangdong, this summer I can slightly feel some unusual atmosphere. My father is a businessman; political matters are completely unrelated to him. At most, he does some business with the local government, gives gifts to the officials, and earns a little money.

Around June? My father had planned to go to Hong Kong to buy some summer clothes and, by the way, bring back two cans of milk powder for my younger brother. Of course, I was happy because he could help me bring back a controller—then we could play Switch with four people. But that's beside the point.

Unexpectedly, when my father was crossing the border, he lost contact with my mother, and it was over an hour before they reconnected. When asked, he said that at the border he was taken to a small dark room, received a call from the so-called 'Political Bureau,' answered some inexplicable questions, and then was sent back into the mainland. At the time, I didn't understand, but now I somewhat do.

Speaking of Hong Kong, my classmates around me always angrily accuse Hong Kong 'waste youth' of damaging public property, saying they are traitors, ungrateful, and so on. Of course, there are also many indecent words. Probably because what they see and hear is all there is, so I don't blame them. Actually, using such words is strange—why blame them? Why blame anyone? If you ask me, I don't understand either; I just feel that everything has its reason for existing, and it's not good to blame.

All summer, what I heard about Hong Kong was nothing more than 'a group of rioters clamoring for independence causing destruction in a city that was once economically prosperous.' Although it's so close to me, I didn't feel anything! Training continued, dates continued, and I didn't feel anything was wrong. Perhaps there was a thought that 'the Party and the state must have a way,' thinking that the so-called movement was just a fuss and would be over soon, at most avoiding shopping in Hong Kong for a whole year.

Around me, everything is thriving, and there's no talk about Hong Kong. Everyone is only concerned with games, anime, and such. The occasional discussion always ends with a sigh, 'We can only witness it.'

There are also topics that go viral online, such as popular phrases like 'I support the Hong Kong police.' Everyone just slightly understands the story, knows that the Hong Kong airport was besieged, and is then overwhelmed by full patriotic sentiment, speaking up for the Hong Kong police. Who cares what happened behind it? Just doing this can earn praise, just doing this can gain the pride of being 'patriotic,' only this way can one not be left behind by the trend.

In this regard, the Party has won! The controlled media has given society a stable atmosphere, which is good. The news industry that has lost its original purpose is not good.

News that has lost freedom and neutrality is meaningless. If the disseminator carries the viewpoint of one side in a conflict, then its role is only to incite the emotions of both sides, making one side more convinced of its own viewpoint and the other more agitated and angry. It is of no use in resolving the matter.

When reading news, one needs to think: Is everything I see the truth? Is what I see the whole truth?

This is lamentable; news has actually fallen to a point where it cannot be trusted.