Welcome to Sisyphus Highway: In Depth.

In the final episode on elite narratives and social stratification, we discuss a term we witnessed firsthand: gongzhi, or “public intellectual.”

Today gongzhi is distinctly derogatory. Twenty years ago, however, it represented expertise, public participation, a critical spirit, and moral responsibility. Intellectuals were expected to enter public life, respond to social problems, and even help change reality.

Beginning with Yang Xiao’s “Past and Present Lives of the Public Intellectual,” we review changes in Chinese elite narratives over the last two decades:How did intellectuals move from the cultural center to the margins, then recover influence through market-oriented media and the early internet? How did “public intellectual” change from an idealistic identity into a label met with mockery and suspicion?

From print magazines to Weibo, from “spectating changes China” to “position before argument,” and from Han Han to entrepreneurs, influencers, and tech elites, both the speakers and forms of public expression have changed. Finally, we ask:Why do people expect elites to bear public responsibility while remaining wary of their arrogance and hypocrisy? As public intellectuals leave the stage, who will become the next era’s elite?

 

- What did gongzhi once mean, and why did it become derogatory?

- From scholar-officials to intellectuals: the public tradition of China’s intellectual elite

- The 2004 list “Fifty Public Intellectuals Influencing China”: expertise, public engagement, and critical thought

- From print magazines to Weibo: how did 140 characters change knowledge production?

- “Spectating changes China”: the internet’s spiritual legacy to a generation

- “Citizen Yao Chen”: why were celebrities once unafraid to speak about public events?

- Han Han’s twenty years: from rebellious youth and public intellectual to commercial film director

- Why did journalists leave the media, and why did they join internet giants?

- From “intellectuals” to “influencers” and “Big Vs”: who produces public opinion today?