[thread]

a week ago i joined clubhouse. it’s now blocked in china. i want to document some of my impressions and memories. a mourning or grieving, of sorts, if you will.

i have been “bingeing on free expression”. i listened not only to photographers talk about color calibration and developing film. so cool. but also to folks from hk, china and tw discuss sensitive topics such as the uyghur concentration camps, tiananmen and the hk protests.

what made clubhouse special? maybe because it was limited to a select few. maybe because it was audio and it felt intimate and personal. or perhaps what made it great was not so much technical, but social: a place where we did our best to put ourselves in the shoes of the other.

what stood out to me: our deliberate efforts to really listen to and understand each other. we would still get upset and shout at each other at times, but the room would always, without a fault, correct itself, reminding everyone to please be polite and respectful,

recognising how rare and valuable this opportunity was to speak with each other and exchange thoughts. a mini habermasian public sinosphere.

what also stood out for me: people bringing the best out of each other. one moderator had been moderating for nine hours straight, and asked for volunteers and people immediately jumped up.

or, a speaker suddenly had a brain fart, couldn’t find his words in mandarin, and people were patient and kind, told him to just speak in cantonese, and that they would translate his words for him.

or there was also the moment where a uyghur speaker appealed to the room for a china that would be inclusive and diverse. when she finished speaking, the room was silent for a bit, and then started clapping.

this is what the ccp is censoring: our ability to appeal to the better angels of our nature. our ability to resolve conflict through dialogue and conversation. we need to ask: what they destroy, how can we build up again? our spaces of hospitality, and bridges across cultures.

why not try having a conversation with someone you disagree with, with someone you cannot see eye-to-eye with? because free speech is not only about free speech, it is also about being able to live in difference with each other.