Your culture’s no good here
Xi Jinping wants China’s cultural and entertainment industries to flourish – provided they align with the Party's standards.
On Monday, Xi chaired a Politburo study session on developing China into a cultural superpower.
Some context: Under Xi, China has seen a significant tightening of controls over the media, religious freedoms, entertainment, academia, and social initiatives.
Despite his track record, Xi insists the Party must step up efforts to meet the growing and increasingly sophisticated cultural needs of the people, focusing on:
- “Enhancing the capacity for providing cultural services and boosting the supply of cultural products”
According to Xi, both domestic and international propaganda and cultural development efforts must prioritize:
- “Upholding the guiding principles of socialist core values…[and] Chinese values and Chinese strengths”
- “Proactively promoting China’s positions, disseminating Chinese culture, and showcasing China's image”
Translation: Not all culture is good culture.
- Lo and behold – on Saturday, Shanghai authorities ordered the police to clamp down on Halloween celebrations, blocking gatherings and requiring people to remove costumes.
Get smart: The Party's increasingly restrictive stance on domestic cultural freedoms and its stifling of homegrown cultural industries have significantly diminished China's cultural appeal abroad.
- Doubling down on Party-directed cultural development will only make things worse.