China Communist Party 90th Anniversary: 'Red Song' Campaign Becomes National Phenomenon Before July 1

Although China doesn't officially mark the 90th anniversary of its Communist Party until July 1, the nation's citizens appear to already be getting into celebratory mode.

In an effort to pay homage to their political party, Chinese officials recently launched the "red song" campaign, which urges citizens to dance and sing along to patriotic music. As the Los Angeles Times is reporting, "red songs" (or songs written in praise of the Communist Party) are now experiencing a nationwide fad, with elaborate public performances, singing contests and even karaoke playlists now including the pro-revolutionary ballads. Among the most popular musical offerings are titles like "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No China" and "Follow the Party."

China Daily quotes several Chinese residents, including several youngsters, as saying they are especially fond of the songs. "When I sing red songs with my classmates in a chorus, I feel my heart vibrating and feel deeply touched," said Bao Lan, a 14-year-old middle school student in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. "I sing loudly, and the songs make me more curious about what happened in those days." Meanwhile, others say the campaign is a cruel throwback to a dark period in Chinese history.

The unusual campaign is just the latest phase of the "red culture movement" begun by Bo Xilai, who started promoting the singing of red songs soon after he became Party chief of Chongqing at the end of 2007. "Red songs won public support because they depicted China's development path in a simple, sincere and vivid way," Bo said.

View photos of China's "red song" movement, including lively performance shots, below:

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Comments

[beccaliao]

03:29 AM on 07/06/2011

The first step towards legitimizing a social movement is to glamorize it: in promoting the memory of a revolution fueled by anger towards injustice and oppression, the Chinese government should be careful what it wishes for.

http://thealephmag.com/2011/07/05/thoughts-on-beginning-of-the-great-revival/

[Pod-gers]

11:14 AM on 06/22/2011

It is the absolute truth that the CCP led the people of China to stand up and throw off the Japanese, Americans and Europeans, releasing themselves from a century of humiliation!

Happy 90th Birthday, indeed!

[StephenBP]

03:02 PM on 06/18/2011

The following opinions are... opinions...

Before I was born, America struggled with fascist Germany and Japan, and won that technological contest against two small nations with big egos and poor long range planning.

When I was a child, America struggled with the Soviet Union for Technological superiority. The ponderous stupidity of authoritarian communism eventually destroyed the Soviet Union. We developed the technology of electronic miniaturization and put people on the moon, and they collapsed economically. We took the spoils of that war and invented the microcomputer.

Today, people like Michele Bachmann are trying to bring us back to the middle ages or worse with creationism and other anti-scientific bull and right wing religious ideology. Do not forget that both Germany and Japan were rife with religiosity at the start of WWII.

The US right wing is preventing a necessary dialogue about where the US needs to go to survive in a world containing human waves of awakening Indian and Chinese technologists.

Stay up tonight thinking about that, why don’t you?

Cheers.

[DAE]

06:55 PM on 06/17/2011

Tired of replying to the individual comments. The ignorance displayed is more than usual. Really quite pathetic. People here are as brainwashed as they think the Chinese are.

[Edy Kel]

07:33 PM on 06/17/2011

"God, how ignorant can you be? Have you seen Chinese TV? The Chinese celebrate all their traditional holidays with gala festivities on the TV and in the streets. Guess what, they have a more vibrant nightlife in their major cities than 90% of American cities. Why people here who know nothing, absolutely nothing about China feel the need to display their total ignorance is, well the only word I can think of is hysterical or perhaps more aptly pathetic. "

Son, there are two different Chinas. One is communist controlled, the other is democratically controlled - sort of. Anyways, communist China does not celebrate as many holidays as it's more Democratic counter part does, nor are they as varied. Most Chinese celebrations in communist china are filled with what you see above, promotions of communist Chinese nationalism, everything else you probably seen on Chinese celbratiioons were probably filmed in the Democratic region of China.

[DAE]

01:56 AM on 06/18/2011

Well boy, you've just shown your lack o knowledge. Let's see, two different China's. I suppose you mean the Mainland with 1.3 billion people and the break away province of Taiwan with 23 million. And how pray tell do you know which holidays are celebrated on the mainland and which in Taiwan? I've been in China for extended periods of time and seen all the traditional festivals celebrated with specials on TV and with decorations in the parks and elsewhere. And no, most Chinese celebratio­ns in communist china are NOT filled promotions of communist Chinese nationalis­m. See, when people say these sort of things based on nothing but what they think they know and then I compare it to what I have personally experienced it leads me to laugh with scorn and derision.

[roydoe]

06:38 PM on 06/17/2011

Guns and faceless marching goons. GOP convention preview.

[Vantunow]

05:19 PM on 06/17/2011

CINOs - Communist in Name Only.

[Luis Soto]

04:51 PM on 06/17/2011

of course 'communism' died when it became just nother nationalist=military meme with stalin. Little is left on china of the social ideals of a rational history - not the book of history of the bronze age for mentally handicapped peasants, slaves of the levy bankers-priests that we follow in the west. Ultimately humans are slaves of the memes of metal that are terraforming the planet: mechanism (machines as the meaning of progress) nationalism (borders and armies as the solution to problems) and capitalism (money as the language of truth). There was an age though in which organicism (man as the measure of all things) humanism (all humans same species) and scientific economics (money as a language of information tht regulates the economy and must be produced and handled by elected governments) were still ideas worth to fight for because they meant to fight for mankind. no longer so mankind will be substituted by the memes of metal in a deja vu terminator/matrix finale... and the chinese will sing its song and the americans its hymn good luck
www.economicstruth.com

[DAE]

09:39 PM on 06/17/2011

I like your fantasy world, but I think you should revise your vocabulary. Terraforming means remaking a planet to be earth-like. The Earth cannot be terraformed. A better play on words would be terror-forming an apt description of the destruction of the planet that is now occurring.

[glen11555]

03:02 PM on 06/17/2011

You mean Obama wasn't there as the master of ceremony

[bryanzth]

04:03 PM on 06/17/2011

Oh you got that from the green 3-ring binder at the GOP/TPer call center? Today we are using the RED binder.

BZ.

[DAE]

06:36 PM on 06/17/2011

very original. hardy-har-har

[flossophy]

02:45 PM on 06/17/2011

Nothing like singing old Communist hymns. 

Is this unsettling to anybody?

[DAE]

06:39 PM on 06/17/2011

Um, its the People's Republic of China and the ruling party is the Chinese Communist Party. They've ruled China for over 60 years. It's not like it's a secret. What may I ask do you expect?

[tksensei]

07:36 AM on 06/18/2011

Leaping to the defense of your masters yet again?

[loki]

02:19 PM on 06/17/2011

Nowadays China is only Communist by name mostly. really, they are about as much Communist as we are Democracy. Both us and them are run by a few elitist, and all the rules and laws are made by the richest and most powerful in the land. There isn't that much difference really.

[flossophy]

02:52 PM on 06/17/2011

^ relativism run am0k ^

If you can't tell the difference between the most liberal democratic society on the planet and a totaIitarian one-party regime... please stay away from the voting booth for the next few cycles.

[loki]

06:14 PM on 06/17/2011

Now Flossophy, you know I have a great deal of respect for you, but I have to ask you. Have you ever been to China? Do you really know what happens there, or do you go by what our gov , or capitalist publications say?
Ive been there, I have many family members who have lived there all their lives. Im half Chinese you know. And if you really know how it works, with the exception of a few who are placed politically for life, there are elections, there is so called"representation:" and , the gov and the elected representatives do just like they do here. They cater to the wealthy and screw the populous. I know that is really simplifying this, but at the core, its really not much different than here in that respect.
And as you know, I am fine with others opinions, and you have the right to yours. But you really need to visit there and not buy into all the propaganda we get here about China. No, its not perfect. Yes, it is still called Communist, but like I said, that is mostly in name, just like we are called a democracy ,even though no where in the constitution does it say democracy, but it does say Republic. And really, China is called " The Republic of China so that is much the same as us. In name at least.

[loki]

06:14 PM on 06/17/2011

All I am saying is they kiss the butts of the rich, just like we do here. and more and more our elections are getting to be jokes. Often the majority votes do not win. We have electoral votes, who are, mostly rich people hand picked by other rich people who can trump the so called "democratic" vote.
Main point, you need to visit and see just how non communist they are. They are still kind of communist in many ways, just as we are still democratic in many ways, but we are not a pure democracy, and they are not pure communist.

[bryanzth]

04:04 PM on 06/17/2011

Capitalism is owned by the Communist Party. In the US Capitalism owns the government about 3/4.

So, then who owns the Communist Party? Oooooo.... Stay tuned for 2025.

BZ.

[loki]

06:16 PM on 06/17/2011

Not really. There are millions of privately owned companies in China. Yes, there are may gov owned companies, but many more private ones by far.

[DAE]

09:24 PM on 06/17/2011

The Chinese idea is that socialism is a long historic transitional period between capitalism and communism. The mistake that the Soviet Union made was to try to build socialism via a "command economy" on an inadequate economic base. They also wanted to transition to communism prematurely. They thought they could out compete the West which had a couple of hundred years of capitalism and had enriched themselves by colonialism They made a good run of it but their attempts to bury the West ultimately failed. The Chinese are a lot smarter, given their thousands of years of nation building experience. They realize that they have to go through a period of accelerated capitalist economic development. They have accomplished in 30 years what took western nations hundreds of years to accomplish. And they have done it without slavery, foreign wars, conquest, and colonialism. There have experienced the same abuses that all developing capitalist economies have had to go through including our own, but they have occurred in a very short time span and now the Chinese are at the stage of building a social democratic infrastructure. They are implementing regulations to stem pollution and contaminated foods, they are revising residency laws for migrant workers, experimenting with collective bargaining, expanding the social safety net etc. While they are progressing we are regressing.

[Edy Kel]

12:34 PM on 06/17/2011

I guess if this is the only real type of celebration they can have, I guess some would be happy for small things.

[DAE]

02:01 AM on 06/18/2011

Don't talk about things that you have absolutely no knowledge of.

[Edy Kel]

03:11 AM on 06/18/2011

It's funny, you're the second person to use that phrase to me this week. The other was some Russian Nationalist, living in the U.S. who was pissed off at NATO bombing the crap out of Tripoli, believing that Qaddafi was a wonderful, peace loving guy, which every Libyan loved and worshiped. This coming from a guy who defended Stalin sending millions to perish in work camps in Siberia. You might have something in common with him, I'm thinking.

[Reston]

07:31 PM on 06/18/2011

Edy: I can't help but respond to you. It is very difficult to fake the mood of the people to a careful observer. The American people in general think America is on the wrong path, unlike in the 50s. In China, aside from reports from the Ex-patriots, now the people are happier as you can see the number of comedies/good natured clowning in the shows and laughter in the audience. If you visit the reports on the cultural revolution: people looked sad and worn out. No government can hide with any propaganda even with the same songs. With the economy growing at 10% yearly for 30 years, I can understand why. I only describe things in relative terms.

[Edy Kel]

09:47 PM on 06/18/2011

I don't pretend they're faking the mood that their in at this festival, or during times they show their patriotism and happiness during special events, but at the same time I don't think it's anything to really get excited about... not from an American point of view. While things have changed in China over the last decade, and the people of the communist portion of the Republic of China - not including Hong Kong or Macau - have a lot to be happy about, with more freedom and wealth in their hands, they're still tied to a government that heavily censors everything and crushes any dissent against it from it's own people. If history is any guide, China is building a powered keg that is going to explode in their face as people put more value on their lives and begin to promote more more human rights for themselves, better work conditions, and more wealth for themselves and others, as they are exposed to the outside world and ideas of freedom and self expression. And no matter how much state sanctioned propaganda their government enforces on them, it going to look more as oppression.

As for The U.S., yes, people are unhappy, but we're so divided on what the right course in a a changing world, and the things we have practiced are now looked down upon in a globally connected world.

It's true that people

[Chrystal Ji Davey]

10:37 AM on 06/17/2011

Well if it makes them happy!

[gtoya1331]

12:03 PM on 06/17/2011

what choice do they have?

[netzwerg]

12:13 PM on 06/17/2011

iPads?

[DAE]

06:47 PM on 06/17/2011

And what do you know about the subject. Nada. If you don't know what you're talking about don't talk about it.

[Kiz boy]

10:24 AM on 06/17/2011

Agree or disagree with their politics, I think the greatest thing the communist party has done for China is to give the Chinese a sense of global identity. They feel that this is their century and they will not stand to be treated as anything less than a world player, which they are. But Western condescension won't get you far over there.

[flossophy]

02:46 PM on 06/17/2011

It should be sobering to any free society when a one-party fas_cistic State starts fanning the flames of nationalism. 

We've been around this block before.

[DAE]

04:03 AM on 06/18/2011

Yeah, I remember it well. When we invaded Iraq.

[sergal stew]

03:01 AM on 06/17/2011

China has national pride despite what the USA media says..sure they have dissenters but America has it's own dissenters..

[Tristan Luther]

10:00 AM on 06/17/2011

And the Chinese government has a much higher public approval rating than the American government.

[gtoya1331]

12:04 PM on 06/17/2011

Tiananmen Square? Anyone remember?

[flossophy]

02:48 PM on 06/17/2011

When the government 'removes' people who are not happy with the government... usually the rest of society 'loves' the government.

Or they will quickly learn to love it.

[Reston]

11:16 PM on 06/16/2011

What it is like a born again christian revival gatherings. Pump people up to sacrify without paying them to deal with many problems that are appearing, corruption, income inequality, vices etc. It worked before during the many wars they had. But when carried to the extremes, it worked awry during the culture revolution. But I don't think they are going to repeat the same.

[DAE]

04:32 AM on 06/18/2011

Born again Christian revival gatherings (Bachmann, Palin, Beck,etc.) corruption (Wall Street scandals, etc.), income inequality (tax cuts for the rich and foreclosure for the rest of us, etc.), vices (Weiner, etc.), the many wars they've had (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc.). You must be talking about the US I assume.

[tksensei]

07:50 AM on 06/18/2011

More anti-American drivel from the CCP's employee of the month.