Some good light is shed on the tide of Chinese nationalism—a topic this column mulled over in April—by Evan Osnos's 28 July New Yorker article, "Angry Youth." It follows Tang Jie, a Chinese man in his 20s who studies Western philosophy at the graduate level, and who made an Internet-popular nationalistic video documentary. There are some quotable details: the fact that young Chinese commonly circumvent the national firewall, for example ("Because we are in such a system, we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed. We are always eager to get other information from different channels."). And Osnos reports that many young Chinese are familiar with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; one compares it with the Kent State shootings of 1970. Further he says that "many Chinese have concluded that the movement was misguided and naive," though I would have like more background on this.

We at "Letters to an Unknown Audience" recommend the article for anyone interested in nationalism, or China, or youth, politics and media.