At the beginning of this month, Clubhouse had a video called “Is there a concentration camp in Xinjiang?” was extremely hot.
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“The Hui are different from the Uyghurs, the Hui are better, unlike the Uyghurs, who engage in terrorism and pose a security threat to the country.”
When these words came out of the mouth of a Hui intern from mainland China two years ago, Lu Haoran was shocked. Lu Haoran, also from mainland China, is an independent filmmaker who has studied and lived in the United States for more than a decade.
He told the girl that millions of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang were being held in government-run internment camps, and recommended that she read some Western media reports, but the girl’s indifferent attitude disappointed Lu Haoran. Or to put it another way, how do we go about counter-brainwashing someone who’s been brainwashed so much?” He asked himself.
Lu Haoran didn’t know, and had almost given up.
But two weeks ago, a room he started on Clubhouse to discuss the Xinjiang issue – “Is there a concentration camp in Xinjiang?” — unexpectedly exploded in popularity after he felt he had found the answer.
Clubhouse is a U.S.-based, voice-chat social media App that has suddenly gone viral recently. The Chinese government blocked it this week after a series of topics that touched on Beijing‘s red lines sparked heated debate in the Chinese-speaking world.
On the morning of Feb. 6, Lu Haoran, who had just woken up, was slipping on his phone in bed when he noticed that an old classmate who works in the Chinese system had also signed up for Clubhouse, and as they exchanged pleasantries, a friend from the U.S. East Coast came on board.
“I say, how about we get a Room and talk about the Xinjiang concentration camp that the BBC just reported on?” Lu Haoran suggested. Everyone said yes. Three people from different backgrounds and different political spectrums just started talking.
After a few minutes, Lu Hao Ran felt that it was not enough and suggested that we open this private chat room and let more people in the Clubhouse to talk together.
What happened after that was beyond his expectations: for 12 hours, there were thousands of people online at each Time on average, and at its peak, it exceeded the 5,000-people limit set for the chat room, so it was impossible to squeeze in. And a day earlier, a room he opened to discuss working in the Hollywood film industry had only 2 or 30 participants.
What Lu Haoran didn’t expect was the influx of Uyghurs from all over the world sharing their stories, Family and friends’ personal encounters.
At that time, WeChat could not build groups, and whoever built a group would drink tea.
The worst time when two people could not walk side by side on the road and the police would open it with a stick if they walked side by side.
my own brother was sent to a concentration camp and we never heard from him again, five years ago now.
I was abroad, and my grandmother told me not to come back.
I don’t know if I will see my family again in my lifetime ……
Halmurat Harri Uyghur is one of the Uighurs who spoke in the Xinjiang Room. The Finnish-based physician and activist told VOA that he couldn’t believe it the day a friend told him about a group of Chinese speakers discussing the Xinjiang concentration camps at the Clubhouse, and even wondered if it might be some kind of fishing expedition by the Chinese government.
He raised his hand and told the tragic story of his Parents‘ imprisonment in the camps and the heartbreaking testimonies he had collected during his #MeTooUyghur campaign.
“The thing that made me especially emotional and excited and brought tears to my eyes was that many Han Chinese said we are sorry, we are helpless that so many things happened to Uyghurs, don’t blame us, we are sorry,” he said.
Hari said he always had an idea that there could be a platform to tell Han Chinese what happened to the Uighurs. For all that has happened in Xinjiang, there has never been a massive outpouring of Han Chinese solidarity. When he and other Uyghurs and Kazakhs came forward to speak out for their loved ones, they were under siege on the Internet.
“On Twitter, whether it was pinkos or keyboard warriors attacking us, we felt so alone at that time,” he said. “No one stood up for us.”
Hari said the Chinese government wants to use these people to extinguish their hopes for the Han Chinese and to demonize Uyghurs by any means possible, but in Clubhouse, Uyghurs can show their true side and prove to their fellow countrymen that “so many people among the Han Chinese sympathize with us.”
“We are all human beings, and although we have different ideas, different beliefs and are different nationalities, we can still sit together and drink tea and talk,” he says with a smile.
Harry can’t remember how many more rooms he went to on Clubhouse after that to discuss ethnic issues. On those days, he cried a lot, laughed a lot, slept very little, and had dark circles under his eyes, but he was full of happiness.
“It was especially good,” he says, “the best few days I’ve had in recent years. It was like getting so many of my old friends back.”
For Lu Haoran, who hosted the room for four hours that day, although he had read countless times in the press about the tragic stories of Uyghurs, he still felt a tremendous shock when one real voice, unabashedly and in an extremely vulnerable way, shared their experiences and feelings.
“The impact of this emotional and affective touch is very, very great,” he says. “One of the most amazing things about this Room is that slowly and slowly people are able to share their most genuine thoughts.”
What’s even more amazing to him is that this Room made him realize that people can change their minds!
“There are a lot of Han Chinese friends who may have come into this Room with one viewpoint, but left this Room with some changes in their thoughts, or even a complete break from a stereotype they had when they first came,” he told Voice of America.
He remembers one Han Chinese man saying that while waiting in line to speak, he originally wanted to defend the Chinese government, but after hearing much of what was shared, his thoughts had completely changed. When it was his turn to speak, he uttered sympathy, regret, guilt, and asked, “What can we do?” He asked, “What can we do?”; another Han Chinese brother, who was also originally a supporter of the government, listened to the discussion in the room while driving, and was so moved that he pulled over to the side of the road and burst into tears.
Many people were in tears that day in different corners of the world. One of them left a comment online saying that after spending a day in the room, “I cried a lot while holding my phone. For the first time in a long time, I felt full of warmth and strength.”
These days, Michael Berry, a professor at the University of Los Angeles, has also fallen prey to Clubhouse’s “poison. In an impromptu performance at the Pepper Club, the room where he mocked Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, he repented of working for the CIA as “a member of the evil American empire.” In an impromptu performance at the Pepper Club, the room where he mocked Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, he repented of working for the CIA as “a member of the evil American empire.”
-After his translation of Fang Fang’s Wuhan Diary, the usual narrative of the water warriors who attacked him, he talked in his room until 3 a.m. with Ai Weiwei, an artist he respects.
The beauty of Clubhouse, Bailiff said, is that it’s a chance to hear the authentic voices of people from all walks of Life, from all walks of life, with differing perspectives. He described it as a “miracle.
“It’s a place where all the different voices come together, laughing, arguing, exchanging ideas, and more importantly – listening,” he writes.
In his opinion, in today’s world, people too rarely have the opportunity to really listen to others.
These days, Lu Haoran has been thinking. He thought again about the Hui intern, and the question that had plagued him for so long: How on earth do you change someone who has completely different values from your own?
“I actually used to enjoy discussing many issues tit-for-tat with others because I always thought I was a rationalist who could convince people with reason, but then I realized that this method didn’t work.” He admits that over the years, he has never succeeded in convincing anyone around him.
“It took this room to make me realize that when you really want to go out and change someone’s mind, the most effective way is actually not to reason with them, but to empathize with them so they can relate and feel. Through the emotional connection to slowly accept and understand you,” Lu Haoran said.
He said that when you throw some theories and theories in front of people, their first reaction is to avoid and resist; but when you open your heart, people will come to your side voluntarily – and this is the magic of Clubhouse.
At the request of the interviewer, “Lu Haoran” in the article is a pseudonym.
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