I was staying in a hostel in China a few months ago when I had this awkward conversation with this hostile Chinese girl. There weren’t many foreigners around other than the odd English teacher and most of the guests were young Chinese who would be backpacking abroad if they were allowed to. She asked me if I fit on the beds and I said that I did if I slept diagonally. Her hands went to her hips and she frowned as she said “It’s not China’s fault!”

She was blocking my way out of the room. I forced a smile for a second and broke off eye contact. In the awkward silence I turned sideways to her and rearranged a pile of my gear. She kept looking at me for a bit and then asked “Where are you going next?” Her tone was less hostile but still tense and her face was set like concrete. I mentioned some vague plans about exploring the south. She was like “Ah, yes, there you can appreciate the traditional culture of the Naaxi people!” I nodded out of politeness but I was thinking about the ‘traditional minority culture’ performance I’d already seen: brightly dressed dancers smiling like plastic dolls performing suspiciously modern moves to a thumping electro-house beat. Very sino-disney. Next her face opens into a huge smile and her voice enters the steady cadence of a propaganda recital: ‘Many people believe that China is only made up of one type of people but did you know that we are one united country of 56 different ethnic groups?’

China’s ‘angry youth’. They’re intelligent, educated, they can speak English, and they’ve been tunneling under the firewall for years now. They’ve been following western media; they know exactly how the news networks portray China which means they all know what we’re thinking; all our scumbag thoughts about China and pollution and Buddhists and what have you. This girl didn’t need to have a conversation with me to know that my perspective had been engineered by the anti-Chinese media cabal. Her response was a series of tailor-made propaganda pellets: ‘minorities love the central government!’ etc.

So these kids have been cranking out these homemade videos as a counter to the conspiratorially-biased western media. The videos are made with news clips and photos from the internet spliced with text on a blank background å la silent film. The seminal work in the style is called 2008 China Stand Up! and it’s by CTGZ:

The influence of his style is pretty heavy throughout the movement’s subsequent pieces. One of my favourite post-Stand Up! vids is Anjohelena’sTibet – Cannibal Monks Show Their True Faces. It’s pretty much Stand Up! – Cannibal Monk Remix but the tasteful use of an acoustic guitar track and unique facts about Tibetan cannibalism make it worth watching.

- Willem Betts