By Junius Tian

“Global Talent Visa recipient, three-year institutional art curator, fake artist troublemaker, Marxist ghost, into-Marxists, Royal College of Art (RCA).”  This is the personal profile of student Wang Hanzheng from the Royal College of Art on the Chinese social platform ‘Xiaohongshu’.

On August 7th this month, a group of Chinese students from the Royal College of Art has taken concrete actions to truly implement the call by Chinese President Xi Jinping to “tell the China story well.” In the famous Brick Lane in London, they completely whitewashed a wall of graffiti which reflects a variety of ideas and artistic styles and covered it with the 24 red characters of the ubiquitous political slogan “Socialist Core Values,” commonly seen on the streets and alleys in China. Amidst the graffiti art covered by communist propaganda slogans, there are several works with special significance, including one that pays tribute to and commemorates the late graffiti artist Marty. And the initiator of this entire event is none other than the Marxist ghost, Wang Hanzheng.

When queried about the fundamental idea driving his actions, Wang Hanzheng used a typical Frankfurt School academic jargon to answer, “His actions strive to confront the illusory nature of Western freedom by utilizing a socialist framework that challenges the narrative of colonialism.”

Beneath Wang Hanzheng’s obscure Frankfurt School academic jargon lies the arrogance towards the working class from the pampered university’s Marxist rich kid. This sense of superiority beneath such arrogance is no different from the British upstarts of centuries ago who tried to hint at their aristocratic status by showing their French proficiency. But the cringes thing is his academic bullshit’s function is not even a language like French can promote communication between people, but is essentially sophistry under the logical framework of moral relativism to block communication between people. 

Wang Hanzheng gives us a glimpse into a group of people in China who were born into an upstart family and tell everyone they are the most qualified person to guide the working class should do. They say they represent the oppressed classes in society yet are even disdainful to say a simple “thank you” to the servers who served them one minute ago. They declare themselves as the vanguard of human progress but lend support to those nations that employ torture against women and homosexuals. They depict themselves as fearless revolutionaries, yet they excel at flattering those in power and bullying the weak more than anyone else. They arrogantly believe that their ideas are so profound that ordinary people cannot comprehend them, then obliterate others’ diverse and emotional works with a bucket of white paint. They are Chinese Marxists, and I have a suitable name for them, champagne Marxists. 

On China’s prominent online platforms, there are many such champagne Marxists. From Bilibili to Weibo and various online chat groups of Marxist communities on QQ, these keyboard socialist revolutionaries in China seem to be immersed in their revolutionary role-play, relishing the simulation of being the “great leaders” of the proletarian revolution. Chinese Marxists often self-proclaim themselves as general secretaries or mentors within small online chat groups ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred people. They regard the power to ban or remove members from these online chat groups as a life-and-death authority, seemingly transforming into the all-powerful “great leaders” of communism in those moments. 

Their so-called “revolutionary actions” actually are extolling the achievements of the Chinese Communist Party whether in Chinese domestic social media or abroad internet social media, while advocating for revolutions in countries where genuine freedom of elections and speech. They believe that countries where genuine freedom of election and speech substantially is so-called capitalist countries with false freedom. They think these countries should carry out socialist transformation into real people’s democracies like China or North Korea. Ironically, these Chinese Marxists themselves are subject to China’s online censorship system when engaging in keyboard revolutions within the Great Firewall. Within the Great Firewall, any discourse related to revolution is promptly silenced, even if its original idea is praise for those in power. Conversely, outside the Great Firewall, these self-proclaimed “revolutionaries” enthusiastically support the authoritarian rule of the Chinese authorities while attributing all of China’s societal issues to the feeble influence of capitalism, despite China having never truly experienced capitalism outside Communist Party control.

Hence, I would like to correct Wang Hanzheng’s explanation for his actions. His performance art in London actually is constructing a dark form of cruel humor based on unequal discourse context, employing the framework of socialism. Because the fact is, the “Marxist ghost” Wang Hanzheng resides in London where human rights and freedom of speech are fully respected, and plays academic sophistry games such as Orientalist theories to critique the so-called unequal power between privileged Western liberal values and oppressed Eastern authoritarian values. Meanwhile, in China, those people the same age as him who genuinely live under Eastern authoritarianism are taught the culture of endurance, working until near dawn, and enduring life in communal dormitories devoid of privacy, amidst an environment strewn with fruit peels and cigarette butts, all while struggling to survive. Then, Marxists like Wang Hanzheng tell everyone bullshit, “Hey guys! I support Eastern authoritarianism because Western values such as human rights and freedom are a form of cultural colonialism against Eastern authoritarian culture.”

Certainly, when discussing the topic of inequality, aspects like paid higher education do contribute an inequality in discourse. Because the payment-based higher education system allows oppressors like the champagne Marxists in China through wealth advantage to know how to masquerade as revolutionaries and openly express support for tyranny through obscure academic jargon. They can use complex academic language to convey their endorsement of oppressive regimes and claim they are advocates of progress. Meanwhile, the truly oppressed and exploited, lacking an equal footing in terms of their ability to voice their opinions because they haven’t the wealth to support higher education, silently endure the harsh realities of authoritarianism.

In my childhood, I watched a movie called “V for Vendetta,” and there was a memorable line that stuck with me: “Artists used the lies to tell the truth, while politicians used them to cover the truth up.” The thing that happened on August 7th of this month gave us another version of this quote: “Artists use lies to tell the truth, while Chinese Marxists use them to cover the art up.”