The film “Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils” (in Taiwan “The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon”) is used for mobilizing Christians against “cults” and “illegal religion”—misinterpreting it.
by Wang Zhipeng
The Taiwanese film “The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon” became in Mainland China “Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils,” with a reference to a righteous Medieval general who had to kill a tiger, a dragon, and the third and greatest evil, the memory of himself when he was a ruthless and violent young man. In the film, Zhou Chu is indeed mentioned by the main character, a gangster called Chen Kui-Lin. When he learns that he has terminal cancer, Chen decides to rescue himself by killing the two most notorious criminals in the country (the third is himself).
The film has been a national box-office hit in Taiwan. It has been embraced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because one of the criminals Chen decides to kill is a “cult” leader who “brainwashes” and defrauds his followers. The CCP promotes the movie as a lesson on the evils of the “xie jiao,” its catch-all term for religions it does not like, sometimes translated into English as “cults,” although its Medieval original meaning, when the label was first used by Taoists against the Buddhist, is “heterodox teachings.”
Paradoxically, it is possible that the CCP has it all wrong. Several netizens and critics from Taiwan have interpreted the “cult” in the movie as a metaphor of the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping.
However, these comments are suppressed in China and even Christians are taught to meditate on the movie and reinforce their vigilance against “xie jiao,” as well as “heresies” and “illegal religion,” by which the CCP means churches not affiliated with the government-controlled Three-Self Church.
In fact, on April 16, 2024, the Three-Self Church issued a curious document directed to all government-controlled Christian churches. It starts by stating that “Recently, the content about a ‘cult’ in the Taiwanese movie ‘Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils’ has aroused great concern and discussion about ‘cults’ in society. In view of the fact that many Chinese churches and believers currently lack the ability to identify heresies and cults, they are deeply troubled by heresies, and even individual pastors and believers are seduced by heresies.”
The Three-Self Church, obviously under the guidance of the CCP, wants to use the film as an opportunity “to organize each church or pastoral staff to actively participate in the fight against heresies.” To start with, each province or autonomous region should send to the Three-Self Church at least two “theoretical articles or specific practical experience in preventing and resisting heresy” before May 31. A symposium and other initiatives will follow.
It would be as interesting as it is unlikely that somebody will submit to the Three-Self Church an essay suggesting that the “heretical” organization depicted in the film is in fact the CCP.