I’ve lived in China now for almost a month, and when walking about you will see many political slogans plastered everywhere including stuff about socialist construction and great rejuvenation. The thing I see the most however is the ‘socialist core values’ which list the following:
富强、民主、文明、和谐 prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony 自由、平等、公正、法治 freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law 爱国、敬业、诚信、友善 patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendship
I always found these a bit weird and I don’t really understand their purpose and I also don’t quite see why they should be plastered everywhere. I have some ideas but I would like to hear all of your guys’ opinions.
Btw, I don’t need a vpn to access lemmygrad funnily enough
If you study Chinese culture and history these become much less weird, they are the 12 pillars of historical, cultural, political and ideological narrative currents popular in China for thousands of years, some new and modern, others ancient. China Today has an excellent write up on the topic I think and suggests a great book on the topic that deep dives into why these words we chosen:
http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/br/201803/t20180308_800120759.html
As for why it is plastered everywhere, that’s how propaganda works, in every country of every ideology in the history of the world. Especially now, with so many different interconnected methods of information dissemination its crucial to be spreading a unified message about the goals, dreams, and aspirations of the national peoples.