Sam Yang

Period D

5/15/2019

1984

“Hey guys, let’s kill all of the Japanese people when we grow up!” I shouted to all of my

classmates with my fist up and waved my red scarf like a real revolutionist.

“We are the young pioneers of China!” they followed.

This happened only 7 years ago, just about the time when President Xi became the party

leader.

My grandmother told me about her experience during WWII, when Japan invaded and

their soldiers killed her father. The veins on her wrinkled hands were pumped. The sparks in her

eyes behind the glasses were darkened, filled with fury and painful memory. She told me the

evilness of Japan over and over again, in a victim’s perspective that I could never forget.

At my grandmother’s time, Mao propaganda was everywhere. Every poster was overly

praising that great leader who rescued China from invasion and civil war(the Mao Cult). His

perfect and undebatable authoritative figure was planted in every Chinese’s heart. They were

unable to get information from outside, yet, Mao and his party were all they have. Utilizing this,

Mao spread communist ideologies by forcing people to memorize his quotes: long live Mao; love

the country, love the Party; proletariat shares equal rights with the bourgeois. Absolutely no

variety of thoughts appeared. Many years past, people still lived under this huge shade of

surveillance, just by a different leader.

Apparently, this fixed mindset was like a designed trait carved into the DNA, inherited by

generations by generations.
 During spring break, I finally got back to China and invited my friends over at my house

to hang out and chat. They were in high school, studying Chinese politics—this is a requirement

of their graduation.

“What are you learning in politics class? I’m really curious about it.”

“Well well, not much. Just the main concepts of communism and Marxism. I am

surprised how those are heavily applied to China.”

“What are the values then?”

“Prosperity. Democracy. Civility. Harmony. Freedom. Equality. Justice. Rule of law.

Patriotism. Dedication. Integrity. Friendship.

I memorized all of these and a lot of Marx’s quotes!” she grinned and gave me a thumbs-

up.

“Do you think there are actual democracy and equality in China?”

“I Baidu a super popular ice cream store near us. Let’s go!” They dragged me out of the

seat, interrupted my “interrogation” right on time. I didn’t want to be awkward, so I forced a

smile and changed the subject. Wow! They seemed like an expert on those ideologies.

Although my friends didn’t go to a red-army school, the idea is unbreakable. Including

the pressure from other subjects and the maintenance of the grade, kids were gradually losing

personality as a person. All of the websites, outside sources, and others worded themselves

clearly to express their expectations on teenagers to carry on the responsibility of Chinese

traditions(New York Time). I feel so sad that the kids are carrying extra “dreams”, not for

themselves, but for their country.

 The same day, I was on my way back home. I was shocked by what I saw in the subway:

people’s faces were covered with the reflection of the lights on the phone. Their faces were

flashing through red and white, red and white—red is right, white is wrong.

I peeked over their phones.

It was a “patriotism-testing” application. A man in his twenties was staring at it,

scratching his head—what are the main values every Chinese should know and follow? What did

President Xi say at the national conference? What is the ultimate destination of the development

of China—those questions were hard. You will have to keep constant attention on it in order to

get all of them correct. When I looked over the compartment, my back shivered—nearly 70% of

people on this single compartment were using this app. One of them might be a real

thoughtpolice.

In fact, according to CNN, this app is the official standardized “test” for Chinese people,

especially for a party member. “Alleged government employees are forced to raise a certain

number of points every day” in this designed app. If failed, people may have the possibility of

losing the job. Non-party members are encouraged to do it daily.

All of years my hatred towards that president had changed. I no longer disliked that

single person who took the idea and made communism to the next level. I’m trying to figure out

why there are people who would do anything for their government even if it is not a

communism-based place and how the government takes over people’s attention, utilizes it and

turns that into patriotism and even nationalism. It is really interesting to notice that America,

probably the most liberal country in the world, also has a faint shadow of communism, in terms

of the variety of thoughts.

 My host parent is a Democrat. Ever since Trump became the president, she once in a

while will have an outburst; she just cursed this person and hoped he could be impeached as soon

as possible. Almost 90% of her time she has her TV opened on MSNBC, which is a democratic

channel. She loves to watch President Trump make a fool of himself. Sometimes it could get a

little bit scary to see the obsession inside of her. She never changes channel other than some

cooking shows and never takes a look at other perspectives on the same topics. She was

“controlled” by liberal thoughts.

Isn’t this another version of communism? The ultimate goal is to unify the thoughts of

the whole country and eliminate unbeneficial ideas.

I guess I’m changed. I don’t focus on people’s flaws anymore. 1984 is happening, yet, I

don’t have the ability to stop it.

Work cited

Buckley, Chris. "China Warns Against 'Western Values' in Imported Textbooks."

Sinosphere, 30 Jan. 2015, sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/china-warns-

against-western-values-in-imported-textbooks/?_r=0. Accessed 16 May 2019.

Comrade Mao Zedong is the greatest Marxist-Leninist of the present age. Chinese poster,

chineseposters.net/themes/mao-cult.php. Accessed 16 May 2019.

Hernández, Javier C. "To Inspire Young Communists, China Turns to 'Red Army'

Schools." New York Times, 15 Oct. 2017,

www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/world/asia/china-schools-propaganda-education.html.

Accessed 16 May 2019.

Westcott, Ben, and Serenitie Wang. "Chinese Communist Party propaganda? There's an

app for that." CNN, 15 Feb. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/02/15/asia/china-xi-jinping-

communist-party-app-intl/index.html. Accessed 16 May 2019.