The video below is all over the China-related community but may not have made attracted the general awareness it deserves.
I'm tempted to make a joke about the video, because it is preposterous in 16 obvious ways. But as I watched it again, the humor started to drain away. It really is depressing to have the officials in China trying to shut off the country this way, and defending it with this kind of 1960s-worthy agitprop.
Thanks to ProPublica for retrieving the video, translating and subtitling it, and providing an informative background item. Sisi Wei and Yue Qiu of ProPublica, who did the translation, know a million times more about Chinese language than I ever will, but I thought I'd underscore one point about the translation for the fellow native English speakers in the crowd:
Time and again the song's refrain mentions 网络强国, wangluo qiangguo, which it translates as "Internet power." Eg:
English speakers might think of "Internet power" as comparable to "soft power" or "girl power." But to my amateur eye there is a more explicit connotation of China's becoming a national power in cyberspace. I'm sure Chinese readers will tell me if I'm wrong to read 强国 as meaning a powerful country, but the impression I got from this was of a strongly nationalistic message.
Overall the video is funny. And not.
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Many people have sent links to an item in The Guardian about the surprisingly light hand of Chinese net censors. Unfortunately this analysis seems to me significantly out of date, eg, similar to what prevailed back in the palmy pre-Xi Jinping era. I would prefer to be proven wrong. Meanwhile check out the video.
This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/fun-with-chinese-agitprop-presidents-day-edition/385532/
