季風人文講壇第69期：Perry Link

How the Anaconda in the Chandelier Induces Self-Censorship Both Inside China and in the West

with Perry Link (林培瑞)

September 5, 2025｜In English  

An “anaconda in the chandelier” is my metaphor for a fundamental method that repressive authorities (not just in China) use in order to make people censor themselves.  In it, a vague threat looms overhead; people below are warned not to make mistakes, or terrible consequences might follow; instructions are left deliberately not clear, which causes people to self-censor even beyond what is necessary for avoiding punishment.  The Communist Party of China has used this technique inside China since the 1940s; by now people in China have become so accustomed to it that it seems a fixed part of the natural order.  In the 1980s the CCP began using the technique world-wide and foreigners, too, have been self-censoring because of it. 

About the Speaker 

Perry Link (林培瑞) retired as the Chancellorial Chair for Teaching Across Disciplines at the University of California, Riverside, and Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. He specializes in modern Chinese language and literature and taught these fields at Princeton University (1973-77 and 1989-2008) and at UCLA (1977-1988), as well as at Middlebury College in summers.  He has published in the fields of modern Chinese language, literature, popular culture, intellectual history, art and politics, and has been a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. He has been banned from traveling to China since 1996.