Lately, I read the book Goerge Orwell's "1984". That's a widespread, highly known work in the world. I had never touch it before then but as reading some books and watching some movies, having learned the symbol or concept quoted by the "1984", such the words like "Big Brother", or "Newspeak". Especially the word "Big Brother" that seemed to be modeled by Joseph Stalin, is quoted here and there in numerous cultual context. Do you know him? Well, it's a story about the went-too-far world of surveillance and suppression. So if you have stepping into the Russian, or rather Soviet Union's history, that would help your understandings of that book.
Talking of its content, I really love the first half part, ironical depiction of socialistic dystopia. With a distanced humor, It tells how the people's life goes and what the things seems like, I mean, the distorted people in the distorted world surrounded by Surveillance camera and wiretrap. Restriction for the behavior and speech and thought. Victory coffee and Vctory gin. Fake war. Fake history. Everything, even the past and the taste of Coffee, is made up by the Party which dominates the living of Proletariat. There's a lot of metaphors and symbol that's so suggestive. I really had a fun of it and wanted to know more about the world of Big Brother. But the latter half of a book, which includes the boy-meets-girl things and the ruining after the Party found them breaking bad, is a bit tedious. I felt that the story in the first half nicely shows the misterious surface of the misterious world, spreading its implicit branchs up and down, here and there. On the other hand, the latter half seemed to be firmly set to the narrow mold where nothing happens that stimulate your imagination. But I also think the latter half was the key to makes this work a masterpiece. And even if I'm complaining so hard, I really like its atmosphere and details that building the strange world.
And a few day ago, I saw the news that tells USA banned the TikTok and WeChat because of its potential pitfall manipulated by China. In these months, China seemed have made some big steps to push futher one-party-ruling. It has begun by new security law on Hong Kong, and many citizens judged to be ideologically dangerous has been arrested on one sided, so to speak. The article says the people in China is practically under the surveillance by the party which handls all kinds of informations on the internet. They see what the pary want to show, they hear what the party want to tell. And if one want things which the party won't, he has to be found and be treated. Treatment? What's that? Hmm, I don't know, but it reminds me the things in the world of "1984". I want to kind of ask them: add 2 to 2, what do you get?
Along with this SNS ban, US also stepped to ban 5 Chinese network tech companies including Huawei and ZTE from goverment contracts. US seems to intent to shut China out of their world. It's a big economic war. What would happened the next? Watch out.