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Posted via Alexander Boyd | June 18, 2024
Chinese bookstore shelves rarely go viral, unless they include a hidden message calling for Xi Jinping’s resignation. Since Xi came to power, pasting one’s works together with other books to make a political argument has become a discreet and relatively common way. of political dissidence. It’s unclear whether the juxtapositions are created through bookstore workers or whether they’re the product of blatant exchanges between politically savvy consumers, or just plain accidental.
The most recent incident occurred last week. A photo taken in a Hangzhou bookstore showed the novel “The Changing of the Guard” on display next to the 2023 edition of the “Syllabus of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” a juxtaposition that some interpret as a implicit call to the Xi will resign. Below:
The novel itself is not a painting of secret dissent, but a hymn to Party governance. Written by Zhang Ping, former vice president of the Party-dominated Chinese Writers Association, the novel is set in the fictional city of Linjin. The plot of the novel centers on unprecedented rains and floods that hit the city just as the provincial and municipal governments are about to undergo a leadership transition. However, if we compare Xi’s paintings, the implication is obvious.
Previous examples have pointed to Xi’s books related to the works of Karl Popper, Ernest Hemingway’s novels, psychology books from his formative years, Winnie the Pooh, books on Hitler, and studies of the Chinese imperial formula. CDT produced a slideshow of the work:
Xi’s books are essential in Chinese bookstores. In fact, the Party has already made its acquisition mandatory for its members. In 2018, a Party organization in Fujian asked subordinate organizations to order enough copies of “30 Lectures on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” to ensure that 50% of Party members they had a copy. A local propaganda workplace in Yunnan province went even further and demanded that each and every Party cadre have a copy. Efforts to sell Xi’s books abroad have backfired. In 2018, the Chinese stand at the London Book Fair, a primary publishing industry fair, was dominated by advertisements for “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China. ” The exhibition was widely ridiculed on the Chinese-language Internet.
In 2023, David Bandurski of the China Media Project investigated the phenomenon of Xi Jinping’s prolific publishing output and jokingly attributes the name “His Fatherhood” to Xi:
The gap I detected between Xi Jinping and his predecessors in this area is considerable. During his first decade in power, Xi published an average of 12 exclusive titles per year, all of which received fairly significant policies in the People’s Daily. For comparison, Hu Jintao only published 1. 5 titles per year. Jiang Zemin? Only 1. 4. […] Xi Jinping’s books have consolidated his “discussions” and “speeches” on virtually each and every topic, from his concepts on the media and journalism to economics, diplomacy, the history of party and even women and children. Some were “examination plans” (学习纲要) [xuéxí gāngyào] when the country was gripped – or so it seemed in the PCC headlines – by a XiArray examination fever. There were special volumes for his official tours: Xi Jinping in Zhejiang; Xi Jinping in Ningde; Xi Jinping in Fuzhou; Xi Jinping in Xiamen. In 2021, the year before the 20th National Congress, 28 Xi titles were announced in the People’s Daily. Many of them were also foreign language editions, as the CCP sought to publicize Xi Jinping’s concepts, such as “building a network with a shared long term for humanity,” as a visionary not only for China but for the world at large. . [Fountain]
Xi’s penchant for publications is perhaps not a surprise. After all, he has “shown the way forward” on more than 240 topics as varied as the global economy, cyberspace, sports, the long-term Hong Kong and pandemic prevention in Africa.
Categories: Featured CDT, Culture & Arts, Article 2, Politics, Society
Tags: autocracy, CCPArray dissidence, fiction, humor, photos, political humor, novels, politics, propaganda, protests, publication, succession, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping image, Xi Jinping thought