Vladimir Putin is visiting China again this week. There is no country where he is more welcome than his fellow autocrat, Xi Jinping. Yet numerous Chinese academics have recently been highly critical of Russia and its long-term prospects of success. Christiane Kuehl resolves the contradiction in her analysis: The bottom line is that from Xi’s point of view, the advantages of Russia weakening both itself and the West simply outweigh the disadvantages. And in China, it takes only a word from Xi to end the debate.
Peter Schmid is the CEO of Visable, an e-commerce company in which internet giant Alibaba has invested. Visable operates the platforms “Wer liefert was” and the international B2B sourcing platform “Europages.” Amelie Richter spoke with Schmid about what has changed since the acquisition by the Chinese company – and how big and small fit together after all.
Vladimir Putin is traveling to China – again. Just a few days after his Europe visit, President Xi Jinping is meeting with the man the Europeans – most recently German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron – would like to get him away from. In vain so far.
China’s official position on Russia remains unchanged. Nevertheless, the debate about Russia’s attack on Ukraine and China’s stance on the issue continues, at least in academic circles. Recently, a guest article for the British magazine The Economist by one of the fiercest Russia critics surprised readers: Beijing politics professor Feng Yujun predicted Russia’s defeat. Continued Western support and social cohesion in Ukraine would force Russia to vacate all occupied territories “In time.”
From the beginning of the invasion, Feng had repeatedly argued that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was unjustified and motivated by imperial greed – and that China was making a strategic mistake by cooperating too closely with Moscow on this issue. “China’s relations with Russia are not fixed,” said Feng. China already abandoned the “no limits” friendship with Russia and returned to traditional principles of “non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties.”
Feng is not alone in his criticism of Russia. “Feng’s mistrust and criticism of Moscow have become clear in most of my conversations with Chinese scientists, albeit in a milder form,” explains Thomas des Garets Geddes, who has selected essays by Chinese scientists translated and published in his newsletter Sinification.
Mark Leonard from the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) also had confidential talks with several academics at a conference in Beijing at the end of 2022. “The ambivalent feelings of the Chinese towards the Russians were very striking,” he said last July during a webinar presentation of an ECFR study on the topic. He even noted a certain contempt in some cases.
But the West should not get its hopes up too much. Feng Yujun’s warning against maintaining close relations with Russia does not reflect the majority opinion among Chinese political analysts. “It is quite common for Chinese analysts to express criticism and distrust of Moscow while advocating the continuation of close relations with the Kremlin,” Geddes told Table.Briefings. “This may seem somewhat contradictory at first glance, but it simply reflects that China’s national interests take precedence over everything else.”
This includes the fact that Beijing continues to believe it needs Russia as an ally against the scorned Western-dominated world order. This is why some academics stand by Russia without question. In a recent text translated by Geddes, Wang Xiushui from Beijing Aviation University and former Air Force colonel demands: “Beijing’s relations with Moscow must remain at the center of China’s diplomatic strategy.” In a world where the law of the jungle applies, China and Russia must become unbeatable adversaries of the USA. Only then would they gain the respect of the West.
Wang sees the Ukraine war as a “clash of civilizations” (文明的冲突), which must be viewed from a long-term perspective: “From the perspective of the emerging global landscape, I believe that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the opening battle for a multipolar world” (多极世界的揭幕之战)” He does not use the word “war” in his article. According to Geddes, the prevailing opinion among China’s established intellectuals lies somewhere between that of Feng Yujun and Wang Xiushui.
It’s worth taking a quick look at Russia. Maxim Yusin, a columnist for the Russian business newspaper Kommersant, believes that Feng’s Economist guest article is definitely a signal. “If you know how Chinese society is organized, it’s hard to imagine that the professor who wrote this article acted at his own risk and without the support of the responsible comrades in Beijing,” he writes. There is no answer to this question.
However, according to Jusin, China’s peace initiatives to resolve the Ukraine conflict are “not at all” in line with the maximum demands of the Russian side. Beijing calls for an end to hostilities, even a freeze in the conflict, says Jusin, “but makes no mention of Ukraine’s demilitarization, denazification or a regime change in Kyiv.” These are all key demands of the Kremlin, which is why Jusin believes that China maintains a greater distance from Russia than the West perceives.
Meanwhile, there are no reports of loud demands from Chinese academics for arms deliveries or even military aid for Russia. China expert Thomas Eder from the Austrian Institute for International Affairs has looked at several Chinese platforms for expert discussions on foreign policy (aisixiang.com, cfisnet.com and cn.chinausfocus.com) and found that academics there generally “counsel prudence, balance and continuity.” He believes that this caution by the foreign policy elites is the one reason why the government is holding back.
On these platforms, Chinese academics describe “cooperation with Moscow in international organizations as important, and Russia as key for a global strategic balance.” However, many also argued that Russia’s actions were harming China’s interests. “They describe Russia as a potentially bigger problem for China-EU relations than the US.”
The platforms also describe the EU’s strategic importance for China in the context of competition with the US as “no less than that of Russia.” If this is true, the government should listen to Feng Yujun. Beijing must prevent the West and other parts of the world from transferring their dissatisfaction with Russia onto China.” That is currently the threat, especially in Europe.
Visable has been under the Alibaba umbrella for over six months now. What is your impression so far?
Alibaba is, of course, a huge company compared to us. We have 500 employees and are still a small company in comparison. There are some interesting situations when a large corporation and a medium-sized company meet.
Such as?
Alibaba wanted to have 20 of our employees in China for two weeks. Including flight tickets and accommodation, that costs several hundred thousand euros. As a medium-sized company, it’s not as easy to manage financially as it is for a large corporation. The big and the small still have to get used to each other. That also applies to new ideas: When Alibaba has ten new ideas for our collaboration, we often have to say, ‘Great, that’s fantastic, but our teams can only tackle three ideas for now.’ I would say that this is not unique to China, but is more due to the different sizes of the companies.
How does the partnership work regarding expertise and technology?
The European market is entirely different from the Chinese market. Firstly, it has to be said quite clearly that the reason why Alibaba invested in our company is that they have tried it with their own platform in Europe, and it has not yet been successful. We know the European market and are well established. However, Alibaba has technological expertise that can accelerate some of our processes and improve our services. We are also learning more about online marketing, such as how AI can be used in our processes.
Was there anything that surprised you about the Chinese approach?
This is less Alibaba-specific and more general: How do you deal with project deadlines? In the tech world, we work agilely, with dynamic goals, which I think is great on the one hand. However, I see a little more commitment on the Chinese side when it comes to meeting deadlines. I have to say that it impresses me. The Chinese side is very disciplined and precise. On the other hand, there are rarely meetings with fewer than ten participants. That’s less efficient. I also find interesting how competition-driven this country is in the Internet sector and how innovative: a hardcore market economy and competition-orientated even though Europe is actually the free-market continent.
Visable is also setting up in China. How is the status there?
Let me emphasize that we are in China for the expertise and talent, not to save costs. Many in Germany still think that China means outsourcing. Salaries for the highly qualified personnel we need in Hangzhou, where Alibaba is based, and Shanghai are at least on a par with Germany, if not higher. We have software developers there but are not planning to set up a business there. We are already planning a European champion, with employees throughout Europe, now also in Italy and Spain, which is approaching the size of Alibaba in China. We want buyers from all over the world for European SMEs on our platforms, that is already our goal.
The German government has spent a good six months reviewing Visable’s acquisition. Are there any rules that you now have to adhere to when working together?
It has been scrutinized very intensively, including at the hearing. I was there at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and it was clear that there would be restrictions on the data side. They have to stay with us. Of course, we assured them of this from the outset, not least out of self-interest. The second was the nature of the cooperation: We don’t allow the people from Alibaba access to our code because it is, of course, our property. It’s the same the other way around. It must also be said that Alibaba itself is extremely sensitive.
What is on the agenda for the next six months?
We want to expand our Chinese company. We now have 25 employees there and aim to have 40 by the end of the year. We have appointed a Chinese colleague to the management team who previously worked as CTO at Miravia in Madrid and will now move to Hamburg with his family. With so many employees in China, having someone in management who speaks the language is important. We will also open an office in Italy and are planning another one in Madrid. On the product side, we want to take the software to a whole new level and bring new products to the platform. I will travel to China again in the summer to intensify our cooperation on-site and gather new impressions. That is very important. Because the perception of China in Germany is not wrong, but it is not complete either.
Peter F. Schmid has been CEO and Managing Partner at Visable (previously “Wer liefert was”). After studying business administration at the LMU in Munich, he initially worked as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble. In early 1999, he joined the online car dealership Autoscout24 shortly after its foundation, later eBay Classifieds and then mobile.de. In the interim, he was Managing Director of the online dating agency Parship.
Following the publication of the FES study “Municipalities: the core of German China policy” and Benjamin Creutzfeldt’s position, “China is more open than it seems,” the dispute has flared up again: Is it okay to cooperate with China? How repressive are state actors in the People’s Republic of China and how do we keep academic freedom open? The Confucius Institutes are often cited as a prime example of dependency and influence.
As managing director of the Confucius Institute in Leipzig, Creutzfeldt calls for an exchange with China, arguing that “cancel culture” is useless. The FES study (p. 27) also highlights the Confucius Institutes as an underestimated opportunity that meets a social demand that is otherwise not being met.
After all, China competencies do not fall out of the sky and must be trained and tested. And the Confucius Institutes at our universities can take on this function.
Where are our training camps for Chinese competence? As far as the “full sinologists” are concerned, it is the academic subject and the stay abroad in a Chinese-speaking country. However, we will not be able to get top researchers from the STEM disciplines to spend several years in China. Instead of immediately initiating cooperation in a high-tech field, Confucius Institutes offer a training field here in Germany in non-critical areas: It is “only” about learning the language, cultural events, exchange formats and lecture series. At the institutes, we can try out and test ourselves on German soil under German law:
The Chinese partners at the Confucius Institutes, generally renowned universities with whom we want to be in contact, cannot simply withdraw when things get complicated.The developments at the institutes in Dusseldorf, Erfurt and Frankfurt/Main show the will on the Chinese side not to close any institute if possible. Don’t we have the upper hand and can practice our Chinese competence?
Despite sanctions, Merics speakers gave lectures at the Confucius Institute in Leipzig. Documentaries with socially critical content are shown at the Chai Film Festival, and a reading on Xi Jinping has also been held. Much is possible without upsetting your partner. However, in every partnership, exploring options and negotiating acceptable compromises to both sides is important.
Naturally, we must not outsource grounded sinological training and teaching to the Confucius Institutes – then we are in a state of dependency; they should and must only be a supplement and institutionalized training camp!
Only if we fail to develop cooperation on an equal footing and a strategy for preserving “our values” in the “Confucius Institute” training camp – then the quintessence should follow: No more cooperation or exchange at any university with China!
Linus Schlueter is project coordinator for developing regional China competence in the German state of Thuringia (ChinaKooP) and former managing director of the Confucius Institute Leipzig.
China has a problem with naked cadres! If you’re now thinking of nudism in the NPC (goodness gracious!), then I must stop you there. Because the undressed civil servants we are talking about are isolated cases, not a mass nudist movement. What’s more, in this scenario, civil servants don’t really strip naked. It’s more about Adam and Eve costumes in a figurative sense.
To shed some light on the textile darkness: 裸官 luǒguān (from 裸 luǒ as in 裸体 luǒtǐ “naked” + 官 guān “official, civil servant, cadre”) is the derisive language label that has become established in Mandarin for a certain type of civil servant. It describes shady functionaries who carefully park their family and assets overseas in order to protect their children and children’s children from the authorities and, if necessary, to make a quick exit. While partners and offspring sometimes even acquire foreign citizenship, the officials at home hold their ground. Of course, in lucrative positions, for example, in government agencies, state-owned companies, or the military. The reason for the strip at home: naked cadres are usually involved in crooked deals and corruption.
Of course, such financially frivolous nudists are a thorn in the side of the communist leadership because they incur the anger of the people. For this reason, attempts are being made to put a stop to this misguided form of personal freedom, particularly at the lower levels, for example, by tightening the monitoring of financial transactions abroad and travel activities.
However, the naked official is by no means the only nude buzzword streaking through everyday Chinese vocabulary. A few years ago, the “nude wedding” already achieved linguistic fame. While in some parts of the world (for example, in Austria, as a quick Google search reveals) people have actually said “I do” in the nude, the Chinese buzzword is once again misleading. Because in China, naked marriage (裸婚 luǒhūn) simply means stumbling into the bond of matrimony without the usual essential financial equipment (i.e., without 房子、车子、票子 fángzi, chēzi, piàozi – pad, car and cash).
By the way, in Germany, author Sven Haenke already did some linguistic educational work in 2015 with his book “Nackte Hochzeit” (Naked Wedding). In this humorous, autobiographical story, the “naked groom” from the Federal Republic of Germany depicts his experiences of dealing with his wife’s Chinese family.
Some other cheeky expressions with the character 裸 luǒ that scurry undressed through everyday and internet speech are:
On the other hand, nudism, and especially mixed-gender nudism, is something you will look for in vain in China. In China, naked bodies do not belong in the public. Interestingly, the character for “naked” itself is somewhat obfuscated. It is a flowery combination of the meaning 衤 for “clothing/covering/skin” and the phonetic component 果 guǒ for “fruit, result.” In other words, nudity is what remains after a fruit has been peeled from its skin.
Verena Menzel runs the online language school New Chinese in Beijing,
Vladimir Putin is visiting China again this week. There is no country where he is more welcome than his fellow autocrat, Xi Jinping. Yet numerous Chinese academics have recently been highly critical of Russia and its long-term prospects of success. Christiane Kuehl resolves the contradiction in her analysis: The bottom line is that from Xi’s point of view, the advantages of Russia weakening both itself and the West simply outweigh the disadvantages. And in China, it takes only a word from Xi to end the debate.
Peter Schmid is the CEO of Visable, an e-commerce company in which internet giant Alibaba has invested. Visable operates the platforms “Wer liefert was” and the international B2B sourcing platform “Europages.” Amelie Richter spoke with Schmid about what has changed since the acquisition by the Chinese company – and how big and small fit together after all.
Vladimir Putin is traveling to China – again. Just a few days after his Europe visit, President Xi Jinping is meeting with the man the Europeans – most recently German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron – would like to get him away from. In vain so far.
China’s official position on Russia remains unchanged. Nevertheless, the debate about Russia’s attack on Ukraine and China’s stance on the issue continues, at least in academic circles. Recently, a guest article for the British magazine The Economist by one of the fiercest Russia critics surprised readers: Beijing politics professor Feng Yujun predicted Russia’s defeat. Continued Western support and social cohesion in Ukraine would force Russia to vacate all occupied territories “In time.”
From the beginning of the invasion, Feng had repeatedly argued that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was unjustified and motivated by imperial greed – and that China was making a strategic mistake by cooperating too closely with Moscow on this issue. “China’s relations with Russia are not fixed,” said Feng. China already abandoned the “no limits” friendship with Russia and returned to traditional principles of “non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties.”
Feng is not alone in his criticism of Russia. “Feng’s mistrust and criticism of Moscow have become clear in most of my conversations with Chinese scientists, albeit in a milder form,” explains Thomas des Garets Geddes, who has selected essays by Chinese scientists translated and published in his newsletter Sinification.
Mark Leonard from the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) also had confidential talks with several academics at a conference in Beijing at the end of 2022. “The ambivalent feelings of the Chinese towards the Russians were very striking,” he said last July during a webinar presentation of an ECFR study on the topic. He even noted a certain contempt in some cases.
But the West should not get its hopes up too much. Feng Yujun’s warning against maintaining close relations with Russia does not reflect the majority opinion among Chinese political analysts. “It is quite common for Chinese analysts to express criticism and distrust of Moscow while advocating the continuation of close relations with the Kremlin,” Geddes told Table.Briefings. “This may seem somewhat contradictory at first glance, but it simply reflects that China’s national interests take precedence over everything else.”
This includes the fact that Beijing continues to believe it needs Russia as an ally against the scorned Western-dominated world order. This is why some academics stand by Russia without question. In a recent text translated by Geddes, Wang Xiushui from Beijing Aviation University and former Air Force colonel demands: “Beijing’s relations with Moscow must remain at the center of China’s diplomatic strategy.” In a world where the law of the jungle applies, China and Russia must become unbeatable adversaries of the USA. Only then would they gain the respect of the West.
Wang sees the Ukraine war as a “clash of civilizations” (文明的冲突), which must be viewed from a long-term perspective: “From the perspective of the emerging global landscape, I believe that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the opening battle for a multipolar world” (多极世界的揭幕之战)” He does not use the word “war” in his article. According to Geddes, the prevailing opinion among China’s established intellectuals lies somewhere between that of Feng Yujun and Wang Xiushui.
It’s worth taking a quick look at Russia. Maxim Yusin, a columnist for the Russian business newspaper Kommersant, believes that Feng’s Economist guest article is definitely a signal. “If you know how Chinese society is organized, it’s hard to imagine that the professor who wrote this article acted at his own risk and without the support of the responsible comrades in Beijing,” he writes. There is no answer to this question.
However, according to Jusin, China’s peace initiatives to resolve the Ukraine conflict are “not at all” in line with the maximum demands of the Russian side. Beijing calls for an end to hostilities, even a freeze in the conflict, says Jusin, “but makes no mention of Ukraine’s demilitarization, denazification or a regime change in Kyiv.” These are all key demands of the Kremlin, which is why Jusin believes that China maintains a greater distance from Russia than the West perceives.
Meanwhile, there are no reports of loud demands from Chinese academics for arms deliveries or even military aid for Russia. China expert Thomas Eder from the Austrian Institute for International Affairs has looked at several Chinese platforms for expert discussions on foreign policy (aisixiang.com, cfisnet.com and cn.chinausfocus.com) and found that academics there generally “counsel prudence, balance and continuity.” He believes that this caution by the foreign policy elites is the one reason why the government is holding back.
On these platforms, Chinese academics describe “cooperation with Moscow in international organizations as important, and Russia as key for a global strategic balance.” However, many also argued that Russia’s actions were harming China’s interests. “They describe Russia as a potentially bigger problem for China-EU relations than the US.”
The platforms also describe the EU’s strategic importance for China in the context of competition with the US as “no less than that of Russia.” If this is true, the government should listen to Feng Yujun. Beijing must prevent the West and other parts of the world from transferring their dissatisfaction with Russia onto China.” That is currently the threat, especially in Europe.
Visable has been under the Alibaba umbrella for over six months now. What is your impression so far?
Alibaba is, of course, a huge company compared to us. We have 500 employees and are still a small company in comparison. There are some interesting situations when a large corporation and a medium-sized company meet.
Such as?
Alibaba wanted to have 20 of our employees in China for two weeks. Including flight tickets and accommodation, that costs several hundred thousand euros. As a medium-sized company, it’s not as easy to manage financially as it is for a large corporation. The big and the small still have to get used to each other. That also applies to new ideas: When Alibaba has ten new ideas for our collaboration, we often have to say, ‘Great, that’s fantastic, but our teams can only tackle three ideas for now.’ I would say that this is not unique to China, but is more due to the different sizes of the companies.
How does the partnership work regarding expertise and technology?
The European market is entirely different from the Chinese market. Firstly, it has to be said quite clearly that the reason why Alibaba invested in our company is that they have tried it with their own platform in Europe, and it has not yet been successful. We know the European market and are well established. However, Alibaba has technological expertise that can accelerate some of our processes and improve our services. We are also learning more about online marketing, such as how AI can be used in our processes.
Was there anything that surprised you about the Chinese approach?
This is less Alibaba-specific and more general: How do you deal with project deadlines? In the tech world, we work agilely, with dynamic goals, which I think is great on the one hand. However, I see a little more commitment on the Chinese side when it comes to meeting deadlines. I have to say that it impresses me. The Chinese side is very disciplined and precise. On the other hand, there are rarely meetings with fewer than ten participants. That’s less efficient. I also find interesting how competition-driven this country is in the Internet sector and how innovative: a hardcore market economy and competition-orientated even though Europe is actually the free-market continent.
Visable is also setting up in China. How is the status there?
Let me emphasize that we are in China for the expertise and talent, not to save costs. Many in Germany still think that China means outsourcing. Salaries for the highly qualified personnel we need in Hangzhou, where Alibaba is based, and Shanghai are at least on a par with Germany, if not higher. We have software developers there but are not planning to set up a business there. We are already planning a European champion, with employees throughout Europe, now also in Italy and Spain, which is approaching the size of Alibaba in China. We want buyers from all over the world for European SMEs on our platforms, that is already our goal.
The German government has spent a good six months reviewing Visable’s acquisition. Are there any rules that you now have to adhere to when working together?
It has been scrutinized very intensively, including at the hearing. I was there at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and it was clear that there would be restrictions on the data side. They have to stay with us. Of course, we assured them of this from the outset, not least out of self-interest. The second was the nature of the cooperation: We don’t allow the people from Alibaba access to our code because it is, of course, our property. It’s the same the other way around. It must also be said that Alibaba itself is extremely sensitive.
What is on the agenda for the next six months?
We want to expand our Chinese company. We now have 25 employees there and aim to have 40 by the end of the year. We have appointed a Chinese colleague to the management team who previously worked as CTO at Miravia in Madrid and will now move to Hamburg with his family. With so many employees in China, having someone in management who speaks the language is important. We will also open an office in Italy and are planning another one in Madrid. On the product side, we want to take the software to a whole new level and bring new products to the platform. I will travel to China again in the summer to intensify our cooperation on-site and gather new impressions. That is very important. Because the perception of China in Germany is not wrong, but it is not complete either.
Peter F. Schmid has been CEO and Managing Partner at Visable (previously “Wer liefert was”). After studying business administration at the LMU in Munich, he initially worked as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble. In early 1999, he joined the online car dealership Autoscout24 shortly after its foundation, later eBay Classifieds and then mobile.de. In the interim, he was Managing Director of the online dating agency Parship.
Following the publication of the FES study “Municipalities: the core of German China policy” and Benjamin Creutzfeldt’s position, “China is more open than it seems,” the dispute has flared up again: Is it okay to cooperate with China? How repressive are state actors in the People’s Republic of China and how do we keep academic freedom open? The Confucius Institutes are often cited as a prime example of dependency and influence.
As managing director of the Confucius Institute in Leipzig, Creutzfeldt calls for an exchange with China, arguing that “cancel culture” is useless. The FES study (p. 27) also highlights the Confucius Institutes as an underestimated opportunity that meets a social demand that is otherwise not being met.
After all, China competencies do not fall out of the sky and must be trained and tested. And the Confucius Institutes at our universities can take on this function.
Where are our training camps for Chinese competence? As far as the “full sinologists” are concerned, it is the academic subject and the stay abroad in a Chinese-speaking country. However, we will not be able to get top researchers from the STEM disciplines to spend several years in China. Instead of immediately initiating cooperation in a high-tech field, Confucius Institutes offer a training field here in Germany in non-critical areas: It is “only” about learning the language, cultural events, exchange formats and lecture series. At the institutes, we can try out and test ourselves on German soil under German law:
The Chinese partners at the Confucius Institutes, generally renowned universities with whom we want to be in contact, cannot simply withdraw when things get complicated.The developments at the institutes in Dusseldorf, Erfurt and Frankfurt/Main show the will on the Chinese side not to close any institute if possible. Don’t we have the upper hand and can practice our Chinese competence?
Despite sanctions, Merics speakers gave lectures at the Confucius Institute in Leipzig. Documentaries with socially critical content are shown at the Chai Film Festival, and a reading on Xi Jinping has also been held. Much is possible without upsetting your partner. However, in every partnership, exploring options and negotiating acceptable compromises to both sides is important.
Naturally, we must not outsource grounded sinological training and teaching to the Confucius Institutes – then we are in a state of dependency; they should and must only be a supplement and institutionalized training camp!
Only if we fail to develop cooperation on an equal footing and a strategy for preserving “our values” in the “Confucius Institute” training camp – then the quintessence should follow: No more cooperation or exchange at any university with China!
Linus Schlueter is project coordinator for developing regional China competence in the German state of Thuringia (ChinaKooP) and former managing director of the Confucius Institute Leipzig.
China has a problem with naked cadres! If you’re now thinking of nudism in the NPC (goodness gracious!), then I must stop you there. Because the undressed civil servants we are talking about are isolated cases, not a mass nudist movement. What’s more, in this scenario, civil servants don’t really strip naked. It’s more about Adam and Eve costumes in a figurative sense.
To shed some light on the textile darkness: 裸官 luǒguān (from 裸 luǒ as in 裸体 luǒtǐ “naked” + 官 guān “official, civil servant, cadre”) is the derisive language label that has become established in Mandarin for a certain type of civil servant. It describes shady functionaries who carefully park their family and assets overseas in order to protect their children and children’s children from the authorities and, if necessary, to make a quick exit. While partners and offspring sometimes even acquire foreign citizenship, the officials at home hold their ground. Of course, in lucrative positions, for example, in government agencies, state-owned companies, or the military. The reason for the strip at home: naked cadres are usually involved in crooked deals and corruption.
Of course, such financially frivolous nudists are a thorn in the side of the communist leadership because they incur the anger of the people. For this reason, attempts are being made to put a stop to this misguided form of personal freedom, particularly at the lower levels, for example, by tightening the monitoring of financial transactions abroad and travel activities.
However, the naked official is by no means the only nude buzzword streaking through everyday Chinese vocabulary. A few years ago, the “nude wedding” already achieved linguistic fame. While in some parts of the world (for example, in Austria, as a quick Google search reveals) people have actually said “I do” in the nude, the Chinese buzzword is once again misleading. Because in China, naked marriage (裸婚 luǒhūn) simply means stumbling into the bond of matrimony without the usual essential financial equipment (i.e., without 房子、车子、票子 fángzi, chēzi, piàozi – pad, car and cash).
By the way, in Germany, author Sven Haenke already did some linguistic educational work in 2015 with his book “Nackte Hochzeit” (Naked Wedding). In this humorous, autobiographical story, the “naked groom” from the Federal Republic of Germany depicts his experiences of dealing with his wife’s Chinese family.
Some other cheeky expressions with the character 裸 luǒ that scurry undressed through everyday and internet speech are:
On the other hand, nudism, and especially mixed-gender nudism, is something you will look for in vain in China. In China, naked bodies do not belong in the public. Interestingly, the character for “naked” itself is somewhat obfuscated. It is a flowery combination of the meaning 衤 for “clothing/covering/skin” and the phonetic component 果 guǒ for “fruit, result.” In other words, nudity is what remains after a fruit has been peeled from its skin.
Verena Menzel runs the online language school New Chinese in Beijing,
