Althouse: "In the original... the couple’s teenage son... seems standoffish, and like his mother, pessimistic about the future."

August 13, 2023

"In the original... the couple’s teenage son... seems standoffish, and like his mother, pessimistic about the future."

"The new song flips the sentiment of moody adolescence entirely, instead exalting a city working hard and 'living up to its prime years.'... [T]he two versions end in completely different places. One is bleak and despondent. The other, overflowing with optimism.... A music video that the Communist Youth League made to accompany the new song features glossy shots of saluting schoolchildren and smiling workers."

From "Rock ’n’ Roll According to the Chinese Communist Party" (NYT).

12 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...: China is going to need some serious luck in the next 25 years. I hope they find it because cataclysms in that country shake the whole world.; 8/13/23, 7:45 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: It beats Lizzo; 8/13/23, 7:57 AM
Narr said...: The East is Dead, and serious luck left the building ages ago.; 8/13/23, 8:23 AM
mikee said...: There is nothing good propaganda can't fix. And if that constant brainwashing doesn't work, there are always the forced re-education camps to fill and rural rice fields to tend. And if that forcible suggestion to obey doesn't work, the People's Liberation Army, already re-educated and propagandized, can just drive their tanks over any resistance to the CCP.

See? No problems in China!; 8/13/23, 8:53 AM
Sebastian said...: "The new song flips"

So they're learning from prog rewrites of un-PC western lit?; 8/13/23, 9:01 AM
Temujin said...: "A music video that the Communist Youth League made to accompany the new song features glossy shots of saluting schoolchildren and smiling workers."

Eerily similar to the early days of Obama and the Children's Chanting Choirs.
BTW- those kids turned out to be the screaming Antifa clones we see today.; 8/13/23, 9:08 AM
JAORE said...: Bet they could crank out a doozy on Bidenomics....; 8/13/23, 9:36 AM
Rusty said...: In order for communism to work you need capitalism.; 8/13/23, 5:54 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: Reminds me a bit of the Democrats theme song:

So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

All together shout it now
There's no one
Who can doubt it now
So let's tell the world about it now

Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
There'll be no more from now on
From now on

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy times, happy nights
Happy days are here again

Send in the clowns might be more appropriate for the current administration.; 8/13/23, 10:16 PM
Bill Befort said...: I have to wonder if the Dems knew their brazen lawfare attack on Trump would have the collateral benefit (from their standpoint) of discrediting all his rivals. As it's working out, Trump, who should have been a GOP kingmaker, is going to take all the others down with him.; 8/14/23, 9:35 AM
Bill Befort said...: I have to wonder if the Dems knew their brazen lawfare attack on Trump would have the collateral benefit (from their standpoint) of discrediting all his rivals. As it's working out, Trump, who should have been a GOP kingmaker, is going to take all the others down with him.; 8/14/23, 9:36 AM
Baffled in Buffalo said...: The Chinese thing is insipid Up With People hogwash. But let me add, it appears there's nothing the Althouse [small mountain] [dimunitive of Bill]'s can't turn into an attack on "the Democrat Party".; 8/14/23, 5:18 PM