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An Evaluation of the Chen Jingyuan Case Based on Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Philosophical Core Ideas

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009), the founder of structural anthropology, drew from Saussurean linguistics to argue that human thought operates through unconscious binary oppositions (e.g., nature/culture, raw/cooked), resolving cultural contradictions via myths and rituals. In The Raw and the Cooked (1964) and The Savage Mind (1962), he posits the “bricoleur”—the tinkerer who creatively recombines available elements—as the epitome of human ingenuity, contrasting engineered systems with mythical thought’s fluid mediation. Lévi-Strauss viewed society as a sign system where oppositions generate meaning, but unresolved tensions perpetuate structural violence. The Chen Jingyuan case—a doctoral scholar sentenced to 20 months for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (PRC Criminal Law Article 293) over Twitter forwards—through Lévi-Strauss’s lens, exemplifies a structural impasse: the judiciary’s engineered binary (order/disorder) mythically represses inquiry’s bricolage, failing to mediate contradictions and entrenching cultural rigidity.

1. Binary Oppositions and Mythical Repression: The Judiciary’s “Order/Disorder” as Unresolved Structural Violence

Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism sees myths as mediating binary oppositions to resolve societal tensions, transforming raw chaos into cooked harmony.

The verdict constructs a stark binary: Chen’s forwards (e.g., Hayek critiques or the “Trump-kneeling Xi” cartoon) are raw “disruptive rumors,” cooked into orderly “crime” via the “high education implies discernment” mediation. Yet this myth fails mediation—no causal “disorder” (zero ripple from <100 retweets) resolves the opposition; instead, it represses the raw (inquiry’s fluidity) under cooked authority. The closed-door trial enforces this violence: Chen’s prison letter, bricolaging “rumors” (art/emotion/reason/fact) and avalanche theory, challenges the binary as mythical artifice, but is silenced (“shut up” directive). Lévi-Strauss would diagnose structural impasse: the judiciary’s myth, like Amazonian tales, conceals contradictions (selective enforcement of unpunished shares), perpetuating violence—raw intellectual freedom cooked into compliant stasis, unmediated and thus unstable.

2. The Savage Mind and Bricolage: Chen’s Resistance as Creative Recombination Against Engineered Rigidity

Lévi-Strauss contrasts the “engineer” (systematic planner) with the “bricoleur” (tinkerer using scraps for immediate needs), celebrating the latter’s mythical ingenuity in the “savage mind.”

The judiciary embodies engineering rigidity: Article 293’s “picking quarrels” systematically codes forwards as threats, with the “evidence chain” as prefabricated blueprint—presuming intent without bricolage (no fact-checks or contextual recombination). Chen, however, is the bricoleur par excellence: his letter recombines scraps—scientific avalanche theory, legal taxonomy—into a mythical counter-narrative, tinkering raw anomalies (unverified posts) into coherent critique. The non-oral appeal suppresses this ingenuity, privileging the engineer’s blueprint over savage creativity. Lévi-Strauss would see redemptive potential: Chen’s bricolage, like Bororo myths, mediates oppositions (inquiry/order), exposing the engineer’s sterility—yet judicial monopoly risks cultural atrophy, where mythical thought yields to lifeless structure.

3. Unconscious Structures and Cultural Totality: The Case as Failed Mediation of Societal Contradictions

Lévi-Strauss views culture as an unconscious code resolving binary tensions, with myths ensuring totality; unresolved oppositions breed crisis.

The case’s structural code fails totality: the “disorder” binary mediates nothing—evidentiary voids (prosecutor’s admission) and selective enforcement reveal unconscious rifts (state control vs. intellectual freedom). Chen’s forwards bricolage these contradictions into mythical harmony (global-local discourse), but the verdict’s engineered resolution enforces stasis, perpetuating crisis. Lévi-Strauss would critique this as cultural pathology: like Nambikwara rites, the trial’s opacity conceals the code’s fragility, risking explosive mediation—suppressed anomalies as latent myths awaiting eruption.

Conclusion: Lévi-Strauss’s Lens on the Case—An Engineered Myth on the Brink of Bricolage

From Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structural anthropology, the Chen Jingyuan case is a stalled mediation: binaries repress rather than resolve, engineering crushes bricolage, and unconscious rifts threaten totality. As of October 22, 2025, no retrial or exoneration has occurred; Chen’s account remains dormant, its silence a bricoleur’s quiet recombination. This case cautions: without mythical fluidity, structures rigidify—yet the savage mind endures, poised for rupture. As Lévi-Strauss observed, “The savage mind totalizes”—may it yet reshape the code.