China’s Internet has started a trend of low-key “C” to show off its wealth, which scholars observing the changes in China’s online trends call “Versailles literature. Xinhua, the official media, quickly issued a commentary criticizing it for “falling into a misunderstanding”. Internet observer Zhu Xueheng pointed out that “Versailles literature” is a bit like “doomsday literature”, which implies the meaning of “the stench of wine and meat at the gate of Zhu”, but if we follow the next line of the idiom However, if we connect it with the next phrase of the Chinese idiom “there are frozen bones on the road”, we will find that it is a serious threat to the ruling power of the Chinese Communist Party; and the official countermeasures also show that the rejuvenation of the Communist Party machine has become more efficient, and the evolution of official speech control has surpassed that of the private sector, which is worrying.
“The Unintended and Intended Meaning of the “Versailles Literature
“Versailles literature” has recently become a hit on the Chinese Internet, conveying a noble and luxurious “upper class” look in reverse or inadvertent words. The reason it became a hot topic, according to Chinese media, is that Weibo blogger “Meng Qiqi” often shares posts about her luxurious life in Beijing on the Internet, and her new book is rumored to have been banned. Some netizens say her extravagant posts are fictional, but Meng Qiqi clarified that the content of her microblog is basically true, only the text is processed.
File photo: A woman stands next to a Lamborghini sports car at the 2012 Shanghai Auto Show.
Regardless of whether the content is true or not, it is an undisputed fact that it has become a trend in China’s online world, with more and more netizens posting articles imitating this “style”, such as: “The Lamborghini my husband gave me is too ugly! and “Ugh! There are a lot of exams in school lately, and I can hardly cope with them, so I feel pretty stupid. I really don’t know how I could get into Harvard in the first place. I doubt my ability!” They even set up a “Versailles study group” to exchange and learn about “Versailles”.
From “Small Times” to “30 Only” to “Versailles Literature”
Although “Versailles literature” is a brand-new term in China, it has already been seen in the works of the popular “Little Times” and “30 Only” earlier on.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Taiwan Internet observer Zhu Xueheng said, “Earlier, “Little Times” was actually “Versailles literature,” but it did not attract the attention of the authorities at that time because it was very It was just that it didn’t attract the attention of the authorities because it was very flashy back then. Guo Jingming’s “Little Times”, at that time, was more of a tribute to Sex and the City, but since there couldn’t be too many Sexes in China, he focused on and the City, and the development of these young people. You see his direct descendants later on like “30 Only”, or describing the phenomenon of contemporary youth, which is very popular. But his accidental offshoot was to come out with this ‘Versailles literature’.”
“What is the worry of the authorities?
The reason why it was named “Versailles” is that when one hears of Versailles, one immediately associates it with the image of French aristocrats dressed in gorgeous costumes enjoying luxurious food and wine in a spacious and magnificently decorated castle. However, Zhu Xueheng thinks: “‘Versailles literature’ is a bit like a kind of ‘apocalyptic literature’, that is, the eve of the French Revolution, and then people feel a lot of pressure, but the aristocracy is still singing and dancing, and then the folk have a There was a lot of tension among the people. Why the authorities would later be angry to ban it, because it implies a ‘stench of wine and flesh’, but ‘the road has frozen bones’ it is not explicitly written, but you feel that people are cool into this, what Shanghai to buy a villa ah, drink where the five major wineries ah, it does exist in many places, but it is also a lot of places. It does exist in many places, but when you write it like that with sugar-coated packaging, it has a little bit of reporting literature in its bones, and stressed that sorry, you these losers, you can only look at these people in the Palace of Versailles from afar.”
File photo: a disabled beggar on the streets of Shanghai
In other words, if “the stench of wine and flesh” can turn into “frozen bones”, it is understandable why the Chinese government has to pay attention to “Versailles literature”. No wonder the Chinese official media Xinhua News Agency commented: “Some people say that life is often easy to fall into two major misunderstandings, one is to see others live, the second is to live for others to see. Show superior, sun life is personal freedom, self-indulgence is not wrong, but if led by the values contained in ‘Versailles literature’, will inevitably fall into a misunderstanding, and even go off the direction of life.”
Zhan Jiang, a professor at the School of International Journalism and Communication at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said in an interview with the Voice of America, “Showing off may be the psychological state of a significant portion of our people in mainland China. Let me give you an example, now talk about what you bought, what you ate this is okay, there are even people who did something illegal or even illegal, for example, he drove a very nice car, but he did not have a license, and as a result, he posted photos of such a car on the Internet, which eventually led to being reported, the police came to his door and punished him, such things are there.”
The authorities are worried about the discontent of the eating public
The danger of “Versailles literature” is that it is only to satisfy a group of onlookers who want to see something upscale and interesting when they are not so rich, but this group of people may become more and more discontented when they look at it. Such a mass mentality would threaten Chinese Communist Party rule. He said that the Chinese Communist Party clearly sees the evolution of the next phrase “the road has frozen bones”, and so it has pre-empted the enemy’s opportunity to prevent it.
Zhu Xueheng observed that the CCP’s censorship and control mechanism over online speech is constantly evolving. He cited this year’s release of the movie “Ya Bai” as an example, saying that the reason for the opening up is that the CCP needs nationalism, but other than “Ya Bai,” there are no new nationalist-oriented films on hand, so they prefer to put the Chinese Nationalist Party’s resistance or the Republic of China flag in the movie. Therefore, they would rather turn a blind eye to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s resistance or the Republic of China’s flag in the film, and let it pass, and it seems to be a success at the box office.
The Communist Party’s speech control mechanism is evolving faster and faster
Zhu Xueheng said, “So we must say that the censorship or speech control mechanism on the other side of the Taiwan Strait has evolved and evolved again, and it can even predict that this will have a positive impact on the national public opinion and the commercial success of the country. He saw the real pressure behind the crackdown. So “Versailles Literature” is a very good case of containment on the side of the old Communist Party, that is, to control the enemy first, before it grows up, before it finishes spreading, and then to kill it. Now there is an implicit situation that the evolution of the party machine is getting faster and faster, so the netizens on the other side of the border may have less and less chance to be flexible. For example, the B station, Bili Beili (bilibili) has quickly entered the control of the party machine.”
Zhu Xueheng observed, “Their party machine is evolving, and more and more young people are participating, so when the generations start to change, he is able to prevent ‘Versailles literature’, it looks like their party machine is getting younger and more efficient, and more and more new generations are starting to join, I I think that’s the advantage they have in terms of evolutionary leadership, but it won’t always be that way.”
If the “Versailles literature” has the CCP’s shadow behind it, then the official Top 10 Internet phrases of 2020, released earlier this month, are buzzwords that the CCP “encourages” and wants to present to the nation. What they have in common is that they are both subject to the CCP’s speech censorship.
China’s National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center, using intelligent information processing technology and taking into account the opinions of experts in the field and search engines, has compiled a list of China’s top ten Internet buzzwords for 2020, in order: retrograde walker, first cup of milk tea in autumn, bring goods, cloud supervisor, CD-ROM action, Oli give, good guy, win the championship, not about the same, and Jimei.
The term “retrograde walkers” first appeared during the Tianjin explosion, when everyone rushed away from the fire, but a group of firefighters went backwards to put out the fire, hence the name; it was used again during the new pneumonia epidemic to refer to the young medical volunteers who volunteered to go to the front line of the fight against the epidemic. The resurgence of the word suggests that the Chinese government wants to turn it into an inspiring concept.
According to People’s Daily Online, the “CD-ROM campaign” aims to get people to develop the habit of saving, cherishing food and opposing waste, remembering that “who knows how hard it is to eat a grain of food?
In light of China’s food shortage from last year to this year and the release of war pork for emergency purposes due to African swine fever, Zhan Jiang, a professor at the School of International Journalism and Communication at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said that although the “CD-ROM campaign” is related to environmental protection, it is not primarily about environmental protection, but rather about policy advocacy. In addition, life includes happiness, anger and sadness, but the top 10 phrases officially announced by the Communist Party of China are all positive phrases.
Scholar: China’s annual Internet buzzwords are carefully chosen by officials
The official filtering of it is the result of careful official selection, because we know that life is certainly not one-sided, but when we look at these ten Internet phrases, they are basically happy and joyful, and this is the tone, which makes people happy, happy, positive and sunny, so there is a strong propaganda meaning in it. For China, the first thing is the epidemic, which has caused so many disasters, sorrow and grief, none of which can be seen, and they are carried over in retrograde. The whole tone is a tone of propaganda, positive propaganda, do not have negative emotions, positive, is such a product, so the top ten (network hot words) is not a folk selection results, but an official selection of results.”
The term “cloud supervisor” was used in the early stage of the outbreak of the New Crown epidemic, the construction of the Vulcan Mountain Hospital and the Thunder God Mountain Hospital was broadcast live 24 hours a day, and millions of netizens watched through the Internet. Liu Zhengshan, a professor at the Institute of Political Science at Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, said in an interview with the Voice of America that netizens are eager to see the hospitals built quickly, but they do not want them to be built indiscriminately either. This is also the case with “CD-ROM Action”, especially when the word “action” is added, it forms a collective concept.
Community action means collective action
Liu Zhengshan says, “The Chinese expression of group action means that the individual expresses his approval to the group, saying that I am part of the group and cheering each other on. This kind of melting me into the community and also shouting through the community to produce a feeling of warmth towards myself, this is the spirit that can be seen in the first few places.”
Liu Zhengshan said that the Internet buzzwords reflect the social demand of “even if we don’t meet, words need temperature”. The public online communication typing “short and evocative” is the goal of the use of phrases. Among them, the best way to express oneself with warmth and smooth communication is humor, therefore, in a group-conscious society, such words are often widely used, borrowed and spread. From the perspective of the top ten Chinese Internet buzzwords, they carry a stronger implication of calling groups, affirming the masses and shouting warmly.
Almost all of China’s top ten Internet buzzwords are used in China’s own closed network, except for the word “bring goods” which has crossed the Taiwan Strait and the Pacific Ocean, and many foreign live broadcasters have joined the ranks of “bring goods” sales.
“Bringing goods” is the buzzword of the year
Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping presents the award to Zhong Nanshan. (Sept. 8, 2020)
Zhan Jiang, a professor at the School of International Journalism and Communication at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said “bring goods” is very, very popular in China and is definitely the king of the top 10 terms of the year: “‘Bring goods’ is very popular, and you can say it’s both in a positive sense and in a positive sense. You can say it’s boosting the economy in a positive sense, or in a general sense it’s a new way of selling, and there’s an increase in consumption through live webcasting. There are also negative cases, my personal opinion, related to the epidemic, China came out with a great god, Zhong Nanshan academician he was originally a doctor, but now he sells everything, herbs, drinks, from drugs, health products to some popular household items, he sells, he turned himself into a salesman, which also brings goods, that also brings goods. The word ‘bring goods’ is a new type of business and definitely the absolute king of the year in buzzwords.”
Taiwan Internet observer Zhu Xueheng analyzed that the Internet, anti-epidemic and resources are the main themes of the official Chinese Communist Party’s 2020 annual buzzwords, but it is not enough to just look at the official announcement.
The main theme of China’s annual Internet buzzwords and the rubbish
Zhu Xueheng said: “The focus of the compilation should be on the Internet, the fight against the epidemic and resources, these three have become their main themes. The reason is that this year, there are not many buzzwords that can become buzzwords without being presumptuous about the central government. We can’t discuss whether SMIC is cheating or not, or whether huawei is being sanctioned or not, so I think the top 10 buzzwords are marginal, but the real kind of strikeout or a home run is actually avoided by everyone. So when you look at the top 10 buzzwords, sometimes we have to look at things that clearly should have appeared but didn’t, so your intelligence inference and overall environmental judgment will be more accurate.”
He also said that the Chinese Communist Party is already laying out themes such as Chang’e or new research and development technologies, as well as international pride, as the new year’s theme, and judged that the new focus of the 2021 Internet buzzword is likely to focus on the theme of “recovering unity and building pride.
From the suppression of “Versailles literature” to the official announcement of the top ten Internet phrases of the year, the Chinese Communist Party’s party machinery is behind the censorship of speech. When the development of the Internet and the control of the media compete with each other, the difference is that the people have the creativity, but the Party machine has the public power, and it is not clear which side will win in the end. But let’s not forget that the Western world used to think that allowing the CCP to enter the international arena would help China’s globalization and democratization, but it ended in failure. It will be interesting to see how this excellent field of study of media and polity will develop in the 21st century.
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