The Korean War and Xi Jinping

A few months ago I wrote a post about the Korean War and how the dominant narrative here in the PRC about the start of that bloody conflict has changed over time.  While it’s true that the nitwits in the CCP (and the academics who shill for them) frequently rely more on “truthiness” than actual evidence when discussing history, in the case of the Korea even the most hardcore sheep couldn’t continue to bleat the previous party line that it was the US and the American ROK puppets who invaded the north and started the war.

Well, as any partially housebroken border collie can tell you — herding sheep is a hard way to make a living.

Speaking at an event commemorating the 60th anniversary of China’s ‘volunteers’ entering the Korean War, CCP heir apparent and hair product aficionado Xi Jinping once again let the gel do the talking:

In his address on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, Xi said that the Chinese movement 60 years ago was “a great and just war for safeguarding peace and resisting aggression.”

“It was also a great victory gained by the united combat forces of China’s and the DPRK’s civilians

October 29th, 2010

‘Ignorant Incurious Certitude’: The sordid and twisted connection between the American Right Wing and the nitwits who run Xinhua

Most people have seen the “2030″ advertisement produced by Citizens Against Government Waste.  It’s an atrocious ad — not the least of all because it’s factually wrong — and sad proof that no matter how you dress it up, ‘Yellow Peril’ and ‘Fu Manchu’ are alive and well and lingering in the American psyche.

Fortunately, not everybody is taking the ad seriously, a campus group has released their own version, one which mocks the xenophobia and factual inaccuracies of the original.  CAGW was unamused and has gone to great lengths to have the offending spoof removed from video sharing sites like YouTube, in a campaign against dissent that the WSJ Real Time China Report points out seems eerily reminiscent of the CCP circa 2010.

It’s hardly surprising, really.  It’s a political axiom that the extremes often have a lot in common, and this is certainly true of the CCP and the American Right.  In a recent piece on the desperation of the conservative media to smear President Obama for any slight or wrongdoing no matter how trivial, James Fallows remarked, “The combination of ignorance, lack of curiosity, and certitude is a very difficult one to offset.”  Anyone who has spent even a few

October 27th, 2010

The Mao Row: Zhang Tielin, Citizenship, and Patriotic Movie Making

It’s amazing what people will choose to care about.  As yet another CCP film/wankfest (“Red Army Expedition East”) commences production, the actor selected to play the role of heroic, young-ish Mao is causing a bit of a stir.

Zhang Tielin, the 53-year old actor perhaps most well-known for playing various and sundry Manchus, has been deemed insufficiently Chinese to play the role of the Great Helmsman-in-training because Zhang is a British citizen. Oh, the horrors.

As usual, the nationalist nitwit brigade has been in a tizzy over this scandalous situation.

Peter Foster reports on the uproar in the Telegraph:

“It’s an insult to Chairman Mao. I strongly protest and suggest that the relevant State Administration authorities intervene,” said one contributor to ifeng.com, the news website of China’s Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV.

“It is not enough to resemble Mao in outlook and temperament,” said another on a site called the Voice of China, “the actor must be politically qualified in terms of identity. Otherwise it will be a blasphemy to Mao and will hurt the feelings of billions of Chinese.”

Leaving aside that there are only one billion (and change) of Chinese, does it really matter?

After all, looking at the

October 25th, 2010

The Burning of the Yuanmingyuan: 150 Years Later

150 years ago this month, troops from an Anglo-French expedition torched the imperial gardens located in Northwest Beijing.  The multiplicity of meanings associated with the site and the complicated circumstances of its destruction make for fascinating history as well as an opportunity for the CCP’s educational minions to leech that history of any real substance — other than as a crude device to teach ‘patriotism.’

Author, scholar, and fellow IES faculty member Sheila Melvin has a great piece in last week’s New York Times discussing the history of the Yuanmingyuan.  She writes:

On the low end of the scale was a free performance called “The Legend of Yuanmingyuan,” which was held weekend evenings on the Yuanmingyuan grounds last summer. Staged by the Beijing Dragon in the Sky Shadow Puppet Troupe and considered “patriotic education” for children, the show alternated shadow puppets and costumed dwarfs in a reenactment that saw invading troops bravely staved off by local villagers using kung fu and bayonets. Foreigners — played by dwarfs wearing curly yellow-wool wigs — were depicted as venal and stupid barbarians who could not even speak their own languages. Eager to aid the emperor, the brave Chinese villagers repeatedly shouted, “Kill the foreign

October 24th, 2010

Image of the Week: Windmills over Xinjiang

A wind farm along the highway outside of Urumqi, Xinjiang. Taken September, 2010

October 23rd, 2010
 
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