This new piece in The National from Jamie Kenny is genuinely fascinating but sadly paywalled. One of the most interesting phenomena of the Arab Spring was the role of football fans in the front line, firms like the Ultras White Knights, who had copied British terrace subculture in loving detail and then weaponised it as the revolution’s hard-nut stewards/stormtroopers.
JK’s shtick has always been that he’s the blogosphere’s expert on Chinese rage, on the vast tidal force of the thousands of mass-group incidents, the Party’s euphemism for riots, that sweep the country every year. Each one is different, rooted in local context, erupting or not depending on chance and the personalities involved, but they all share common features – a loathing of the chengguan or “urban management police”, indignation directed towards officials who step out of the traditionally-defined rules and customs of a low-trust society, serious violence, and a surprising degree of tolerance from the higher levels of authority, which may mean that Beijing tolerates the mob as a means of disciplining its officials.
Now, it turns out that this emerging industrial workers’ movement, like the Egyptian casuals, is increasingly adopting the style tropes of British working-class anger. Chinese punk is already a thing, but I never imagined we’d encounter Chinese 2-tone or northern soul. The kicker for me, though, was the emergence of the first amateur Rugby League clubs, a Reebok Classic testosterone den for people who are as mad as hell and won’t take it any more.
Anyway, go here to read more.