Understanding China and the World Through the Lens of Self as Method

Xiang Biao's*1 Self as Method is an unusual book. It was published in
China in 2020 by Dandu, a newish publishing house that promises to
"unite a new generation of authors and readers through text, audio,
video, and multimedia platforms."2 The project originated with Dandu
editor Luo Danni*, based on her observation that many Chinese people
appear not to be very happy as "China's century" dawns. At first glance,
this may seem strange because, after a century and a half of humiliation,
crisis, and struggle, China in the early twenty-first century seems poised
to reestablish its historical position as a (if not the) center of the world.
Reform and opening have succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of those
who initially conceived the policies, and China in 2020 is vastly richer and
more powerful than China in 1980.
Yet despite China's rise, many Chinese people, and particularly Chinese
young people-while patriotic and proud of China's rise-are anxious
and dissatisfied, at least with their individual lives and life chances. If the
policy of reform and opening has transformed the Chinese economy, it
has also brought intense competitiveness, sky-rocketing real estate prices, China's mega-cities like Beijing and Shanghai, young people often feel
like they are running in place-and running hard-as China's period of
high-speed growth threatens to sputter out.
Luo Danni recruited Dandu journalist Wu Qi* to work on the project,
and decided to address this issue in a volume that targets younger readers,
which surely made good sense. In addition to their economic anxieties,
young people in China might be forgiven for feeling somewhat lost in
general. Change in China has been blindingly rapid over the past few
decades, to the point that Chinese authors often speak of generational
groups of as few as five years (i.e., the "1995-2000 generation"). This
might be an exaggeration, but it is nonetheless true that while in 1980
there were almost no private phones in China, today everyone lives on
their smart phone; while in 1980, everyone rode their identical Flying
Pigeon bicycle (if they could get one) to and from work or school, now
they take a Didi* (China's Uber) to...the airport and hence the world (at
least in pre-pandemic times)