There seems to be a (I’m guessing not very large, but who knows?) movement afoot to take Mao off of the 100 RMB note and replace him, apropos of this weekend’s festivities, with Qu Yuan.
Aileen McCabe of the Camwest News Service reports:
An open letter, drafted by author Ling Cangzhou and signed by 11 colleagues, says: “We young Chinese scholars look back on the festival’s origins and it’s hard to remain calm as we seek the truth behind a distorted history.”
They argue that traditional Chinese culture that was distorted during the Cultural Revolution by “demented opposition” now risks being hijacked by the “ideology” of power elites.
Legend has it the poet Qu drowned himself in Miluo River in today’s Hunan province in 278 BC. The distraught townspeople and fishermen raced in their boats, first to try to save him and then to sprinkle rice on the water to keep the fish from eating his body before they could recover it.
Current history paints Qu as a patriotic hero who despaired when the Qin state took over his homeland, a view the academics find hard to swallow.
“We do not deny that Qu Yuan had a patriotic side,