If regular CCP propaganda does not work with Hongkongers, the Party believes that perhaps karaoke would for adults—and cartoons for children.
by Gladys Kwok
“Patriotic Education” is the name of the most massive campaign of domestic propaganda in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) recent history. Hong Kong is regarded as being particularly in need of this medicine, which is at the same time reluctant to take.
A “Working Group on Patriotic Education” has been established, with pro-CCP legislator Lee Wai-king (Starry) as its leader. The Working Group has both “official members” and “non-official members.” However, the “non-official members” are officially listed in its official web page as well.
One of the “non-official members” is veteran singer Kwong Mei-wan (Cally), another well-known CCP loyalist.
It seems that the CCP believes in music as a tool of “Patriotic Education” in Hong Kong. With great fanfare, a song by Cally Kwong has been launched both in a regular and a karaoke version. The song, called “Our Home,” was introduced at a press conference of the Working Group on Patriotic Education on September 3, to coincide with the 79th anniversary of the Victory Day of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The lyrics hail the unity of all Chinese around the Beijing government and its leaders.
Last month, the Working Group on Patriotic Education inaugurated a new thematic gallery at the Hong Kong Museum of History, presenting the necessity and alleged benefits of the repressive National Security Law.
The National Security Gallery also teaches children through cartoons to become “young guardians of National Security.” For example, a video shows a beetle who violates the National Security rules and ventures away from the Butterfly Garden (China), ending up in a hostile land (the West, or a mental locus where Western ideas prevail). There, the beetle is about to be eaten by a huge spider (Western imperialism). Happily, armed with the National Security Law, the young Guardians of National Security from the Butterfly Garden come and save it. The beetle cries profusely and promises that it will always respect National Security Law in the future. A good lesson for young Hongkongers…
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
