Through FreeWeibo, CDT editors found a censored Weibo thread about Sunday’s “Collective Red Wedding” in Mao Zedong’s hometown of Shaoshan, Hunan:
@我爱围观: 100 Newlywed Couples Vow To “Reject Frivolity in Marriage” Before Mao Statue: Yesterday, 100 newlywed couples rode the “Shaoshan No. 1” train to Shaoshan, where they took part in a mass wedding ceremony. Jiang Hanyu and Peng Shuqing, known as “China’s Most Happily Married Couple,” led the newlyweds in a vow before [Shaoshan’s famous] bronze statue of Mao Zedong: “From this day on, you must reject materialism, selfishness, and frivolity in your marriage. Define your marriage with sincerity for the rest of time.”
【百名新人在毛主席铜像前宣誓：拒绝婚姻随意化】昨日，百名新人集体乘坐“韶山一号”列车到韶山参加集体婚礼。被誉为“中国第一幸福伉俪”的蒋含宇、彭淑清夫妇带领新人在毛主席铜像前宣誓：从今天开始，拒绝婚姻物质化，拒绝婚姻自私化，拒绝婚姻随意化，用诚挚注解婚姻到永远。
Jiang and Pen were apparently destined for a future together when they presented flowers to Mao as children, when he visited their Shaoshan elementary school in 1959.
Outspoken “Big V” Ren Zhiqiang simply replied:
@任志强: It’s over!
完了!
Another Weibo user pointed out that these couples ignored the Great Helmsman’s womanizing ways:
@Fly的向日葵: These newlyweds sure lack common historical knowledge. They don’t even know about the tragic end to the stories of Yang Kaihui, He Zizhen and Jiang Qing…
这群新人真缺乏历史常识。连杨开慧、贺子珍、江青的悲惨下场都没有看到……
As the New York Times’ Adam Century puts it, “The fact that the Chairman himself wasn’t exactly a ‘forever and ever’ kind of guy seems to have been lost on the participants.”
Read more censored weibo at CDT Chinese.
Translation by Little Bluegill.
When something disappears from the Internet in China, netizens joke that it has been “river-crabbed,” a play on the euphemism “harmonized.” River Crabbed is a collection of blog post titles, weibo, and other materials censored from their original sources on Chinese websites, either found by CDT or brought to our attention by outside projects. Read more at CDT Chinese.
