Clubhouse let Chinese people debate and mourn together. Credit: Frank Hoermann/SVEN SIMON via AP Images
For a few rare weeks, thousands of ethnic Chinese from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and around the world spoke to each other about some of the most sensitive topics of the day: Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang, gender equality in Chinese tech firms, loved ones lost from the deadly coronavirus in Wuhan, and Taiwanese fears of an invasion by the People’s Liberation Army. They were talking directly, hearing voices, gauging emotions, through Clubhouse, an invitation-only social media app.
Those weeks of real-time conversations revealed a rebel truth to a regime that has used increasingly sophisticated censorship and propaganda to promote a broad narrative of China triumphalism. As more voices joined in the free-wheeling platform — and I was among those who listened and even spoke a few times — their exchanges signaled that the regime did not represent, or even understand, the psyche of many people in China or its diaspora.
Some participants tried to defend the
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