China Business Journal’s post on the “Chinese dream, the dream of prison.” (Weibo)
President Xi Jinping’s signature slogan is the “Chinese dream.” Hinting at the American dream of individual success and happiness achieved through hard work, the Chinese dream simultaneously embodies a nationalist, state-centered ideal. The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos has called the Chinese dream “the first Chinese political slogan that makes sense in a long time.”
But that clarity is getting muddled as government bodies adapt the Chinese dream for their own use. On July 7, the China Business Journal posted to Weibo screenshots of articles on Chinese dream educational activities in prisons throughout the country, all based on the theme “the Chinese dream, the dream of prison, my dream.” Even as they laughed, many readers found the weibo a tragic commentary on life in China:
壹读: The Chinese dream, the dream of prison. “One wakes suddenly from one’s dream to find oneself confined to a cage.”
中国梦，监狱梦 “梦乍醒，见牢笼”。
小寒一直在路上: There aren’t many left who tell the truth these days!
这年头说实话的不多了！
隆裕太后: Prisons are dreaming the Chinese dream.
监狱正在做中国梦。
陈龙棋: Doesn’t having a slaughterhouse equal slaughtering dreams?
要屠宰场那不成了屠宰梦啦？
马克能: Funeral homes will be holding a series of “Chinese dream, the dream of cremation, my dream” events.
殡仪馆将举办“中国梦，火葬梦，我的梦”系列活动。
天天向上的三好哥哥: Here comes another laughingstock. It’s just like back in the day when Chongqing launched its red song campaign. Monks, nuns, psychiatric patients, and prison inmates all opened their mouths and sang, “We are the successors of socialism…” It’s all a mockery. Inmates dream of early release. Will their dreams ever come true?
又闹笑话，现在这一出，如同当年重庆开展唱红歌，和尚尼姑唱红歌，精神病人唱红歌，监狱服刑人员唱红歌，开口就唱：我们是社会主义的接班人……完全是讽刺，服刑人员梦想提前释放，能梦想成真？
Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing Party secretary who fell from grace last year, launched a “red song” campaign in the summer of 2011.
张华1226: The sanitation department will be holding a “Chinese dream, rubbish dream” essay contest.
环卫所将举办“中国梦 垃圾梦 我的梦”征文比赛。
刘和说: China = prison? So this is the truth! Prison comrades, you have been under the tender loving care of the Party and the people!
中国＝监狱？真理原来在这里！监狱里的同志，你们一直在党和人民的关心下！
被愚者: Actually, we are all in prison. This statement, ever so pragmatic, is the most conscientious official pronouncement. The Chinese dream, the dream of prison.
其实我们都在监狱里。这个说法是官方最有良心的说法，说的好实在。中国梦，监狱梦。
思行郎: Will there be a dream of accidents, dream of hospitals, dream of the ICU, dream of the funeral, and dream of the graveyard?
思行郎：以后会不会出一条龙出来事故梦、医院梦、ICU梦、殡仪馆梦、墓园梦的啊！
这个队长有点2: Anything, no matter how absurd, seems normal in the Celestial Empire.
再荒唐的事发生在天朝都显得很正常。
柳絮2009: Isn’t this deliberately discrediting the Chinese dream?
这不是成心给中国梦抹黑吗？
钢铁蝙蝠蜘蛛侠: I have tried to comprehend it for almost a year before I finally saw the authoritative interpretation of the Chinese dream.
理解了快一年了，终于看到中国梦的权威版解释。
Xenophon: Many Chinese people have similar dreams: to scale the wall, to jailbreak.
很多中国人的梦跟他们差不多吧：翻墙，越狱。
Read more about the Chinese dream and China’s prison system from CDT.
Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Cindy.
