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If you walk into the virtual “hallway” of the invite-only and iOS-only Clubhouse app over the weekend, you will see chat rooms titled, in Chinese, “Young people from both sides of the Strait Free Chat,” ” Silicon Valley Investor Fair, “” Are there internment camps in Xinjiang? And “is now the best time to return to China?” Inside these halls, thousands of people from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other Chinese-speaking diasporas around the world were waiting patiently in line for hours, if not days, for the chance to speak for a few short minutes, while others listened quietly and tentatively. Most of the rooms had been running nonstop for days. Moderators in one time zone would cede one room to those in another, often after being up all night.
For the first time in over a decade, some mainland Chinese users, usually surrounded by the great firewall, were able to be on the same social media platform as the rest of the world, communicating freely with others. Chinese-speaking communities and the diaspora. (YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook were blocked by the Great Firewall in 2007, 2009, and 2009 respectively.) For a younger generation, this is the first time they’ve been able to communicate directly with their counterparts across the Taiwan Strait or other borders.
However, after a weekend that many users describe as “unforgettable,” the app has been placed behind the Great Firewall since Monday morning EST, or early Monday evening, Beijing time. Many stay on the app through a VPN connection, while warning themselves not to disconnect, as Chinese cell phones cannot receive the verification code needed to reconnect.
Clubhouse was first popularized in China by Elon Musk, who has a cult following among Chinese tech-savvy people and joined the platform with great fanfare on February 1. Although the app did not exist in Apple’s Chinese App Store, many found ways to download it, eager to try out the new “drop in” audio social media platform for themselves. Invitation codes for the app were on sale on Chinese social media for up to 300 yuan ($ 47). Long lines formed in WeChat groups, where the next person to enter the Clubhouse invited those behind them. These users represent the upper echelons of China’s socio-economic strata, with access to an iOS device, a foreign app store, social connections to an early guest, or free time to queue for a code. invitation.
Early adopters were drawn to the high density of Western investors and tech entrepreneurs on the platform. However, as Chinese-speaking users reached critical mass, cross-border curiosity took hold. The coins intended to connect those outside mainland China and those inside have multiplied. Those inside were eager to experience different views and perspectives outside, and those outside craved authentic voices from within. The result? A decade of pent-up demand for communication with the other side of the Great Firewall has unleashed on Clubhouse.
The first talks were very controversial, including occasional shouting matches. However, moderators quickly solved the problem by establishing rules: one speaker at a time, limited time only, no interruptions. (Unlike platforms like Twitter, moderation on Clubhouse contributes a lot to civility.) Rooms that have solved the civility issue have also addressed the issue of fairness. Many rooms had rules that a male speaker must be followed by a female, or a Uyghur speaker by a Han speaker, or rules that users could only share first-person accounts – no replicas, rhetorical questions or radical generalizations about an entire group allowed.
Many also attribute the courtesy of the conversations to the humanizing effect of the voices. “Once you hear someone’s voice crack, you can’t help but feel empathy,” one man said on the night of February 2 in the room titled “Clubhouse Night” being blocked – collect 100 moments of light from our presence at the Clubhouse. ”He continued,“ The human voice raises the temperature of conversation to body temperature. ” He admitted to being moved to tears on several occasions during his short stay at the Clubhouse.
Whether political or not, all discussions were sincere, intimate, emotional, and full of moving personal stories. Chinese-speaking people at home and abroad, sometimes speaking quietly, other times fervently or even in tears, into their iPhones, shared their thoughts and experiences on free speech (or the lack of it) , racial discrimination, China’s treatment of minorities, sexism, mental illness, domestic violence and more.
A Taiwanese woman shared her experience working in Shanghai, trying to fit in while maintaining her identity and dealing with not being understood by her colleagues on the mainland. A worker in the Chinese tech industry said that the culture of working overtime “996” (9 am to 9 pm, six days a week) in China has taken on him and his family. A Cantonese woman recounted how her friendship with her friends in Hong Kong had suffered during protests against the anti-extradition law in recent years. A student from mainland China expressed concern over whether democracy would make China as divided as the United States. Uyghur activists recounted the torture they suffered daily without knowing when they would see their families again. In response to one of these stories, a Chinese said, “If I had been through what you had, I don’t know if I would be as strong as you.”
During this week, it was common to hear users, in different flavors of the Chinese language, say that Clubhouse taught them to listen (we spend a lot more time listening than talking) and that it was an honor. to hear from others.
Besides testimonials and first-hand views, information has also traveled across borders on Clubhouse. Activists exchanged notes on anti-doxxing best practices; software programmers traded pay scales between Shenzhen and Silicon Valley; victims of domestic violence exchanged notes on personal care.
On Friday evening, the anniversary of the death of the Chinese coronavirus whistleblower, hundreds of people joined a silent room titled “Silent Remembrance of Doctor Li Wenliang”. In another room, centered on reducing depression, each “speaker” played a song without exchanging words.
Clubhouse week gave us a quick glimpse of what an internet could look like with unfiltered Chinese voices. These voices have in turn enriched the understanding of China by others. With the app now stuck, save for a small group of callers with VPNs, both parties are back to guessing. The blockage is cruel and personal as it happened at a time when the appetite for communication had just been optimally piqued, and so many souls yearning for a sense of connection, belonging and identity culture were just beginning to imagine new possibilities.
“We all have the right to speak and be heard,” said a woman in the aforementioned “Clubhouse Highlights” room. “We all have the right to real human relationships.”
Future Tense is a partnership between Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
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