Lijian: Portrait of a Wumao
Copyright© 2021 by Kim Cancer
Chapter 8: Wumao's Words Deadlier than a Virus from Fort Detrick
八
“Wumao’s Words Deadlier than a Virus from Fort Detrick”
Lijian took to commenting like a fish to water. He’d already been doing so, anyway, on Sina, in Chinese, leaving supportive comments on international news stories involving China. But this was different. He wasn’t preaching to the choir any longer. He was broadcasting to the world! The whole world! And he felt honored to be serving his country in this capacity.
On weekends, evenings, after completing his school assignments, he’d sit hunched over his designated phone or laptop, his shoulders up, his tongue clamped between his teeth. Often, he’d send 15 to 20 tweets per day, comment on 10 or 15 Western newspaper articles and Reddit posts. On a rainy day, with little homework to complete, he could perhaps send 40 tweets, hit 20 to 30 articles and Reddit subs.
But it wasn’t always easy. As Comrade Zhang had warned him, some of the articles, commenters on social media were indeed horrible. They made his skin crawl. He hated them. He hated everything about them. He hated the names they’d call him. He hated their intentionally mislabeled maps, and the terrible things they’d say about his beloved country. He’d feel nauseous seeing them posting mocking memes, puerile pictures of his dear leaders.
Sometimes their libel would even seep into his dreams. He’d have nightmares or be unable to sleep, his mind racing, his mind like a dripping faucet, the revolting foreigners’ ugly words on endless repeat, running across his psyche like subtitles on a screen.
Sometimes he’d shake in revulsion, imagining the backward, drug-addicted, gun-toting barbarians, their flabby asses mushrooming over their seats, their greasy fingers, their fingers the size of sausages, their fat stupid fingers stabbing away at their phones. The dogs! The stinky, sloppy, disease-ridden filth in their ugly cities, with their crumbling infrastructure and their collapsing buildings! The corrupt capitalist, democratic, reactionary scum!