User:Abovfold/Sandbox/Ziganwu

Ziganwu (Chinese: 自干五; pinyin: Zìgānwǔ; "Fifty Cents Who Bring Their Own Dry Food") is the self-appointed name for Chinese nationalists in mainland China who spontaneously and effusively support and defend the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party through content on social media, particularly Sina Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin. In caustic posts and videos, which are then reposted by tens of thousands of fans, ziganwu often criticize the western world and media, rejecting perceived western values such as feminism, multiculturalism, and democracy, and shouting down any criticism of human rights issues in China or support of self determinism for Taiwan or Hong Kong. They have been described as "uncomfortably reminiscent of the Red Guards." Historically, ziganwu differed from government backed wumao because they acted independent of the government and advocated sincerely held beliefs, however, more recently Chinese government recruitment of ziganwu has come to light.

Ziganwu recruitment poster from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education.

Etymology

The term "fifty cents" originated with the 50 Cent Party, which is an online commentator hired by the government to speak on the Internet to guide public opinion . It got its name from 50 cents for each post"  The term ziganwu first appeared sporadically between 2005 and 2008, and the frequency of occurrences became higher after 2008. In 2014, this group attracted the attention of the Chinese media and was highly praised by Chinese media officials, who were called " firm practitioners of socialist core values."

"Zigan" means "bring your own dry food". However, the simplified Chinese character "gan" also corresponds to the traditional Chinese character "gan" and " gan ". Due to the particularity of the conversion between traditional and simplified characters, this word is often misunderstood as meaning "do it yourself". Five " to increase its taunt effect.

"Do it yourself" in the name, can also be translated as "do it yourself", which is an abbreviation of the phrase "do it yourself dry food" ( Chinese ex.自帶乾糧). However, the simplified version of the ziganwu name uses the character "干", which corresponds not only to the traditional character "乾; gān", but also 幹; gàn. Due to the special nature of the conversion between traditional and simplified characters, this term can change its original meaning and sound like "doing it alone." In recent years, netizens deliberately write "single five" ( Chinese ex.自幹五) to increase the effect of ridicule.

Participants

Ziganwu are mostly Millennials or members of Generation-Z who have grown up amid China's economic revitalization, experienced globalism, and, from a very early age, witnessed Xi Jinping’s strong promotion of Chinese nationalism.

Ties to the Chinese government

As of 2021, Freedom House reports that ziganwu are "largely unpaid and operate separately from the CCP’s propaganda department," though "not all nationalistic social media engagement is organic" as social media trending hashtags are state controlled. Now however, the Chinese government appears to have coopted . Even the Communist Party mouthpiece, the Global Times, has admitted the state is increasingly supporting the ziganwu, writing "A commentator from Anhui's Provincial Propaganda Department recently wrote in article this January that "good netizens should dare to be 50 centers, to hit the 'Like' button, and be happy to become a ziganwu. They should be a powerful force in positive voices on the Internet and delivering mainstream values."

A provincial education document titled “The Notice of Recommendation of Core Internet Commenters and Ziganwu”, issued mid-May by the Sichuan education office, indirectly confirms the term's inclusion in official language.

Leaked emails showed that the China Communist Youth League, one of the most significant Chinese Communist Party organizations under the single party regime, has set out to recruit an estimated 18 million of these commenters from colleges throughout the country since last year.

A screenshot shows the official notice of recruiting ziganwu.

The Sichuan document lists recruitment criteria for the ziganwu and the “core Internet commenters” composed of both teachers and students from the colleges. It demands that each public college recommends 50 Internet commenters from among students. For private and vocational colleges, the numbers are 20 and 10, respectively, with 70 percent being teachers and 30 percent students. Eighty-one provincial colleges are estimated to have 3,450 core commenters.

Soon after it went viral on social media, authorities pulled the notice from college websites on June 7.

Recommendation requirements:

1. Having a reliable political stance, complying with the constitution and laws and supporting the lead of China’s Communist Party and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
2. Having a high level of [making or using] policy, a strong ability for professional work, and having a good writing ability, academic achievement and study performance.
3. Having the integrity of style and good personal character, and commitment not to use the Internet commenter role to seek business or improper profit for an individual or organization.
4. Having the skill and being familiar with the traits of Internet communication, writing articles and frequently conducting interviews and offering advice and opinions for the work of online public sentiment.

Working methods:

1. Core Internet commenters and ziganwu should frequently guide the public sentiment by writing commentary, conducting interviews and so on.
2. Core Internet commenters and ziganwu are encouraged to register accounts on Weibo, WeChat and other platforms, and are responsible for timely reposting of personal work (to guide the public).
3. Core Internet commenters and ziganwu should assist the provincial education office to develop and organize the work of guiding the public. The provincial education office is going to utilize practical measures of administration, techniques and market power to promote well-known experts and opinion columns.

Targets

Among the targets of the ziganwu was the writer Fang Fang, who described the initial phase of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. In a viral post, a ziganwu named Shangdizhiying accused her of "stabbing us hard in the back" and creating "a powerful weapon that the anti-Chinese forces are using to vilify us." Chinese medical expert Zhang Wenhong was similarly targeted after suggesting that China should learn to live with COVID-19, contrary to Beijing's official Zero-COVID policy. ziganwu immediately dug up his doctoral dissertation and accused him of plagiarism, and claimed that his recommendation that the children drink milk for breakfast meant that he rejected the traditional Chinese breakfast, and therefore values.

Perception within China

The Chinese government has praised the work of ziganwu on multiple occasions, with the Guangming Daily calling them "firm practitioners of the core socialist values, and praising them as "good netizens."

People's Liberation Army Daily has claimed that anti-China forces are using the internet to disrupt China, and said ziganwu are an important force to defend the position of public opinion. The newspaper also praised Zhou Xiaoping, Hua Qianfang and others as "the tenaciously fighting Zigan Five."

In addition, China Civilization.com published a comment saying that the current era needs more "Self-Government Five" and everyone should become a member of the "Self-Gen Five" and be a member of the righteous team. China, and contribute to the realization of the Chinese Dream."

On April 12, 2015, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League released a video on Sina Weibo praising the ziganwu and left a comment of "I will do Zi Gan Wu in the next life", causing controversy.

After the term " Zhao family " became popular, "wumao" and "ziganwu" were criticized by netizens who opposed the Chinese Communist Party as "Jing Zhao", that is, the spiritual Zhao family. According to the distance from the center of power, some netizens ranked Chinese netizens who support the government in the order of "the Zhao family, the chaebol, the official five cents, and the self-employed five." In an interview with The New York Times, Xu Ben , a professor of English at St. Mary's College in California , compared the education in mainland China to the doublethink in George Orwell's 1984, pointing out that overseas Chinese Ziganwu are more active Patriotism is actually due to cognitive dissonance. In addition, Hong Kong's " Oriental Daily News commented that a Ziganwu is a "Mao fan" whose name has been changed, and is a "victim of the CCP's policy of obscuring the people and enslaving education." They have long accepted the propaganda and education of the CCP’s single information and ideas, and have never questioned the CCP’s propaganda. For a long time, they have completely believed in the greatness and correctness of their fictions, and have lost the ability to discern the truth.