On Thursday morning dozens of young Chinese could be seen snapping selfies outside the Uniqlo outlet where the sex tape was shot.I don't know what's most interesting here. Certainly not that a sex video went viral, that the Chinese government disapproves of pornography, or that a couple had sex in the fitting room of a clothes store. What interested me was the idea of "socialist core values," which turn out to be perfectly anodyne — patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendship. So I guess it's the selfie taking. The viral video has made a branch of a big chain store something that people want to be pictured in front of, like it's a sexy celebrity.
Across the street, a Communist party propaganda poster outlined the “core socialist values” on which the video had trampled in bright red Chinese characters. “Patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendship,” it said.
July 16, 2015
"The vulgar video had spread like a virus online and clashed with socialist core values."
Said Xu Feng, a director at the Cyberspace Administration of China, about a video of a man and a woman having sex in a Beijing clothing store that went viral.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
Where is this video?
This is why I like online shopping
Commies are very puritanical.
The die was cast by the experiences of the Soviet Union.
After the Revolution, there were all sorts of artistic, social, & political movements afoot that wanted to start society anew, as had the French Revolution. From free love to (my personal favorite) making a new God, all sorts of weirdoes crawled out of the woodwork.
And Lenin quashed all of them. Lenin turned out to be so conservative in so many ways that he'd make an Orthodox babushka role her eyes.
How are any of those values trampled on by sex in a semi-public place?
Progressivism, of the US or Chinese variety, is the fear that somewhere someone is making her own choices.
Can't have that, comrades.
Ironic that the state media person was named Suk Mi Dong.
That the story quoted Mi Long Wang.
That Yu Kum Nao was outraged.
"socialist core values" are defined as whatever supports the socialists who are currently in power.
"Socialist core values" will be broadly and vaguely defined, so government can declare its enemies lack them (and thus must be Enemies of the People).
One must never admit that "socialist core values" change as required to meet the needs of power (Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia).
"Socialist core values" define which is to be master — that's all.
I hope a Chinese Speaker would offer a translation of the slogans. Remember that Chinese as written is not 'words=ideas' like we think of here in the post-Plato west.
The character that is written is more like a Tarot Card with various impressions and emphasis of meaning based on tone and placement. In short I would like to know what a Mandarin speaker would make of it.
When you can still be imprisoned for counterrevolutionary thoughts, which is indeed the case in China, a minor act of rebellion like a selfie in front of a store associated with anti-government activity is a fun, but safe, release of anti-government feelings.
Hey, its not like the selfie-takers are doing anything as dangerous to the regime as doing forbidden-sect Tai Chi in groups (2 year prison sentence).
'Patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendship' are anodyne, perhaps, although patriotism is a target for some people: I'd be interested to know what part of the contemporary Chinese mind continues to hold these 'socialist core values' together with or mixed with the traditional Confucian/Daoist/Buddhist ones (or with the imported Aristotelian and Christian ones) and which part is pure new thought reprogrammed since the Revolution; I suppose some blending of both the traditional and the Maoist.
Core values always sound anodyne.
There's nothing in liberty, equality, and fraternity that immediately leads you to think of blood in the streets and the guillotine.
Everyone's for "good things." Some are for talking people into agreeing with their idea of good things. Others are for mass executions and secret police to ensure their good things.
I like Uniqlo. They have well-made stylish clothing for decent prices.
Post a Comment