Kris Yang, Editor with GuanCha 观察者网, is interesting to listen to. Eugene is a bit of a gas bag.
Kris explains how American culture war stuff is received by Chinese ppl & misinterpreted a bit.
Spoiler: many Chinese reject extreme woke stuff too but for a slightly different set of reasons.
I'll try to give a speed history lesson for better understanding.....
Qing Dynasty China was quite comfy thinking they're the inevidable badass until western colonialism (and the British navy) came to their hood, forcing opium on them etc.
the British & their mates rekt China in the 19th century since the 1st opium war around 1840 ... the peak of the humiliation for China came when they lost a war to Japan in 1895
at that point they decided to swallow their pride & learn from foreigners, at first by sending out academics to all corners of the world
there was a revolution in 1911 that overthrew the monarchy resulting in political instability that lasted until 1949
a key turning point was the Treaty of Versaille where China got dicked (they expected to have Qingdao returned from Germany since they were on the winning side but it was gifted to Japan due to a secret deal the Japs & Brits made years earlier)
on May 4th 1919 a lot of these students, academics etc having returned led hardcore demonstrations that spread across the country & were aimed at overhauling the status quo. This became known as the May 4th Movement & the spirit of it lives on til today.
from the May 4th movement came the CPC & the idea was to discard a lot of the old ways (eg. Confucianism) & embrace the new shit, learn from foreigners & regain their sovereignty. KMT also tried to embrace new stuff but in a more half-assed way.
China's general attitude of learning from foreign ways remains to this day but it's a case of "take the good, leave the bad", not swallow western liberalism unthinkingly, which seems to be what western countries insist on.
long story short, if you want to understand China's political culture & ideology beyond commienism, learn about the May 4th Movement, it's still referenced & celebrated to this day & is about energy of youth, embracing new shit, advancing the national cause, rising up etc. ..... Mao used this energy/ideology for his own political reasons in his stupid cultural revolution in the 1970s which is widely condemned in China incl by the state.