Do you ever wonder how Chinese children are being educated in nationalism? The following video, which is spreading through Chinese cyberspace, will give you a clue. It shows a group of rural grade-school students performing a poetry reading. The lines are apparently written by adults, and refer to news events in 2008. No name of the school was mentioned in the original video post.
“This is truer than Zhang Yimou’s Opening Ceremony [of Beijing Olympics].” — a Chinese netizen’s comment on the performance, translated by CDT. Click here to read more netizens’ comments, translated by Bob Chen on Global Voices:
2009, GO CHINA!
Lead: Snowstorm, freely falling down to earth, like western values
Lead: Despair fills the sky, ice covers the earth
Lead: Did China retreat?
All: No. The Olympics were a success! We are victorious!
Lead: Hot blood and iron will of Chinese people, lighten up the dark world like burning the holy flame
All: The rivers and mountains, ever more colorful and beautiful
Lead: Earthquakes, shifting back and forth like the positions of Sarkozy, with his dirty tricks, trying to shake the great China
Lead: Did China retreat?
All: No. The Shenzhou-7 launched. We are victorious!
Lead: Pathetic Europe will never stop the insurmountable force of the Celestial Empire
All: Just the aftershocks from the earthquake would destroy France!
Lead: The happy flowers flourish in the oil fields on Tarim Basin
Lead: The suona [musical instrument] sings aloud in the Tawang district of the Himalayas
Lead: Historically accumulated resentment fill the Ryukyu Trench
All: Smiles in Sun Moon Lake became a miraculous flower in the Pacific Ocean**
Lead: “Do not sway, Do not slacken off and Do not flip flop”***
Lead: “Do not change the flag, Do not change the label, Do not turn back”****
All: Step ruthlessly over all anti-China forces
Lead: The giant ship full of patches, raise up the brand new sail
All: Spirits are high, crash through the waves, the wind is at our back
Lead: 2009
All: Go China
Lead: 2009
All: China the Greatest
* Read also In Short: How Chinese Nationalism is different from the justrecently’s beautiful blog.
** Tarim Basin is located in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, where ethnic conflicts have broken out between members of the Uighur minority and the Han majority and some groups advocate independence from the PRC. Tawang district is an area in the Himalayas whose ownership has been under dispute by China and India; Ryukyu Trench is an ocean area whose ownership is under dispute by Japan and China; Sun-moon Lake is in Taiwan
*** & **** Words from President Hu Jintao’s speech during a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of economic reform at The Great Hall of the People on December 18, 2008 in Beijing, China; translated by Dr. David Kelly, China Research Centre; University of Technology Sydney.
UPDATES:
Right at the time that the internet is in search of the teacher/organizer and debating on the recitation, unexpectedly, the man showed up voluntarily, and not in anywhere else but right in Bullog.cn, a turf that is well known for its intimacy to liberalism and pro-democracy thoughts, and where the work is under the most relentless attack.
The organizer, named 左左右右 （left-left-right-right), explained how the story happened:
快期末了，我发现孩子们提前好几天都在忙着过圣诞，还有专人组织捐款买东西，国庆节也没这么上心啊，于是我问孩子们对圣诞节有何理解。他们摇摇头
“It is approaching the final week of school year, and I found the kids busy with Christmas preparation, and someone organizing a donation for decoration. They were even more excited than in National Day. So I asked how much they knew aboutChristmas. They shook heads.”
我问几个学习非常努力的孩子理想是什么，他说，好好学习，将来考上好的大学，最好能去留学，我问留学什么好，他说，外国的学校就是好。好在哪里呢，他说不上来。
“I asked some very diligent kids what their dreams are, and they told that to study hard and go abroad for university in the future. I asked why. They told the foreign education is just better, but told no reason.
……”但是，是谁教给他们不分来由的崇洋媚外呢呢，对外国不加思索的盲目崇拜，从物质到言论难道对西方没有一点质疑？
“But, who teach them such an indiscriminate favor of all the foreign stuff, and the admiration without a deeper thought? Don’t they even have a grain of doubt towards all the western world, from its material to ideas?”
哪些事情让你最难忘？他们答：雪灾、地震，圣火传递，奥运成功，金融危机。在值得中国人骄傲的圣火传递和奥运举行期间，也充满了刁难，2008年何止一个郁闷可以形容的！然后就想开一个主题班会，做一个视频给即将离去的2008做纪念
“（I asked) what impressed you the most in the past year? They said: “The snowstorm in January, Si-chuan Earthquake, torch relay, the success of Olympics and financial crisis. ” In the most pride-worthy torch relay and Olympics, turbulence and harassment against China has never stopped. How gloomy was 2008! So I came up with an idea to hold class meeting and make a video to memorize the past 2008.”
Then, in an open letter, he apologized to all those being “thundered”, and all the French people angered.
He insists that it is for not a single bit of education of hatred.
写这首“诗”的初衷是回顾2008年的历史，并没有宣扬对西方的仇恨，也不是宣扬暴力，更没有针对普通群众，一切以作者本人解释为准。在大家认为仇视西方民众的地方是在警告外国：2009年，不要再以任何借口挑衅中国！历史问题我们也一直记在心里！
My initial will to write the “poem” is to review the 2008, instead of a propaganda of hatred against the western, without any call for violence, and not directed to any civilians. Only my explanation is the standard interpretation. In points that many people think that show hatred to the western is actually a warning to them: in 2009, don’t provoke China by any excuse! We have always kept the historical issues in mind!
—–
《2009，中国加油》
甲：大雪，像西方的价值观，自由的飘洒，
乙：漫天哀愁，一地冰碴 !
甲：中国退缩了吗？
全：没有！奥运成功了！我们胜利啦！
甲：炎黄坚毅的热血，如炽烈的圣火，燃烧灰暗的世界，
全：万里江山，又嵌上五彩的画夹！
甲：地震，像萨科奇的立场，用猥琐的伎俩，摇晃着巍巍中华。
甲：中国退缩了吗？
全：没有！神七飞天了！我们胜利啦！
甲：瘦瘦的欧罗巴，挡不住天朝的金戈铁马，
全：地震的余波也能把法兰西催垮！
甲：塔里木的石油盛开幸福之花，
乙：达旺的唢呐奏响在喜马拉雅。
甲：中山世土的积怨填平了琉球海沟，
全：日月潭的微笑成为太平洋的奇葩！
甲：不动摇、不懈怠、不折腾
乙：不改旗、不易帜、不回头
全：将反华者狠狠的踏在脚下
甲：打满补丁的大船，挂上崭新的桅帆
全：乘风破浪，意气风发！
甲：2009
全：中国加油
甲：2009
全：中国最大
