Why would a cheeky cartoon about the real estate market be deleted from all domestic Chinese websites?
(Click “CC” on the bottom of the YouTube window to view English subtitles.)
[youtube]http://youtu.be/1NRHk7iTMbE[/youtube]
It could be because the opening sequence of “Who Made Us the Proletariat?” waxes nostalgic for property rights under the Republic, the government that was ousted by the Communists in 1949. Even Lu Xun–the author who carefully depicted China’s social ills and who was heralded by Mao Zedong for helping to lay the groundwork for communism in China–bought a home in 1919, as the cartoon shows. Or perhaps it’s the sequence when a toad laughs the viewer off as “too young, too simple” for thinking home prices have soared simply because of demand. Former President Jiang Zemin, or “The Toad” in common parlance, infamously told Hong Kong reporters (in English) they were “too young… too simple, sometimes naive” in their line of questioning.
Or could just be that the message of the cartoon is that ordinary homeowners are losing in China’s great real estate game.
Translation by Little Bluegill.
