SUN
WUKONG The writing is on the
wall By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - Throughout his life, the late
Chairman Mao Zedong attached great importance to
propaganda. "Power comes out of the barrel of a
gun" is probably one of his best-known quotations.
But it was also his idea that led to both the gun
and the pen becoming indispensable weapons in the
Chinese Communist Party's seizure of power to rule
"all under heaven" in 1949.
Mao had
revolutionary slogans painted on walls, and
billboards
were
used to promote the party's line and policy, just
like outdoor advertising for commodities. Under
Mao, both in the civil war leading up to the
taking of power and afterward, outdoor slogans
were a highly effective propaganda instrument.
In the Mao era, the use of outdoor slogans
reached its climax during the Cultural Revolution
(1966-76) when the whole country was overwhelmed
by revolutionary slogans painted in red. In
addition, everyone carried a copy of Mao's "Little
Red Book" of quotations. Indeed, the country
became a "sea of red". Even today, some places
keep the red outdoor slogans of the Cultural
Revolution intact (or suspiciously repainted) as a
selling point to attract tourists.
With
Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms and opening up,
starting in the late 1970s, China has largely
departed from the road set by Mao after the death
of the "Great Helmsman" in 1976. Nevertheless, one
of Mao's legacies is that outdoor slogans are
still widely used as propaganda tools, though most
prime outdoor space in large cities has been sold
for revenue-generating advertising. For the
political messages, the difference nowadays is
that the slogans are much more diversified and
largely address local affairs.
In the
early 1970s, then-premier Zhou Enlai taught a
visiting Western journalist how to read Chinese
newspapers. He said that what was hailed in "our
newspapers" was actually what needed to be
improved.
This is certainly true of
slogans in today's China: issues that feature as
outdoor slogans are invariably problem ones.
Recently, I traveled with a group to
several cities in southern China's Guangdong
province. On a section of the Shenzhen-Shantou
expressway within the territory of Shanwei, a city
between the two special economic zones of Shenzhen
and Shantou, we noticed a slogan on a piece of red
cloth hanging from a flyover. It read, "To strike
hard on highway robberies." Another slogan on a
roadside billboard said, "Bad public order nearby,
don't stop and get off." Within minutes we saw the
same slogans repeated.
Our guide said
highway robberies had run wild in this section of
the expressway and the "don't stop and get off"
was meant to warn motorists to exercise extreme
caution. But the guide assured us that the
situation had greatly improved after repeated
efforts by the police. We were somewhat relieved
when the ominous slogans stopped.
In
Chaozhou, a city bordering Shantou, we came across
such slogans as "Drug-trafficking and drug-taking
are forbidden" and "To strike hard on underground
Mark Six" (a kind of lottery). Obviously,
drug-related crimes and underground gambling
activities are rampant in the area.
In
China, the state monopolizes the production and
distribution of cigarettes, but people still
manufacture fake cigarettes to get a slice of the
profitable business, especially in the
Shantou-Chaozhou area. It is common to read
slogans such as "To severely crack down on
production and sale of fake cigarettes" or
"Reward: xxxxx yuan for information leading to
smashing of a fake-cigarette production line."
As China's economy develops, electricity
and telecommunications networks are expanding
rapidly. In some poor areas, people cut cables to
take out the copper wiring, which they then sell.
Hence slogans warn, "Stealing cables interrupts
electricity supply" and "Imprisonment for cable
thieves." Some slogans have a bitter sense of
humor: "This is optical-fiber cable, no copper
inside."
Beijing has had difficulty in
implementing its one-child policy in rural areas,
as peasant families need as many hands as possible
to work the fields. The most common slogans in
villages across China thus relate to family
planning - about 80%, according to a report by
Xinhua News Agency.
Some of the more
popular slogans are encouraging and persuasive,
such as: "Both boys and girls are future pillars
of the country," "One child, more banknotes" or
"To become rich, give birth to fewer children but
build more roads." Some can be insulting: "To be
rich, give birth to fewer children and raise more
pigs."
The slogan "Building a socialist
new village" has become a must since President Hu
Jintao called for "building a socialist new
countryside" at the beginning of last year.
Most major hospitals hang such slogans as
"It is illegal to accept red packs." This
highlights the rampant practice of doctors taking
red packs with money inside from the families of
patients.
As slogans become increasingly
diversified and localized, they also become more
controversial through their vulgarity or
bluntness.
Worsening public order in
Shenzhen has been a headache for the authorities
for some time. Two years ago, a police station
hung a slogan across a street under its
jurisdiction that said, "Keep alert to guard
against robbers of Henan origin." Henan is a
relatively poor province in central China and many
of its natives have to work in other provinces.
The slogan obviously angered Henan natives and led
to a fierce debate on the Internet over the
discrimination. The slogan was withdrawn.
This year, a slogan was found near the
entrance of an underground railway station in
Beijing: "Looking for a prostitute is forbidden
here." It aroused public criticism after it was
reported by the local media. Some readers
questioned: "Does it mean that prostitution is
allowed elsewhere?"
All the same, slogans
remain an indispensable part of life in China, and
Chinese slogans have even become a book topic.
Kong Qingdong, a Peking University professor of
Chinese language, became famous after the
publication of his book Long Live Slogans a
couple of years ago. Another book, Slogans and
China, co-authored by Zhang Wen and Li Yan,
also sold well.
Despite growing
controversy over the role of government-sponsored
outdoor slogans in an increasingly market-oriented
economy, an investigative report by the
Beijing-based Legal Daily found that nearly all
officials interviewed considered such slogans
indispensable in promoting government policies and
works.
In some places, outdoor slogans
have been adopted as an indicator of the
performance of local officials, the Legal Daily
reported.
So even though the Chinese
Communist Party has a variety of channels for its
propaganda, such as newspapers, radio, television,
the Internet and even short messages on mobile
phones, it still needs outdoor (and also indoor)
slogans.
The party says, following Deng's
teaching, that it is striving to build a socialist
market economy with Chinese characteristics.
Slogans could be regarded as one of these unique
characteristics.
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