US humiliated in eyes of Chinese by song used to inspire anti-Americanism
Matthew Robertson
Epoch Times
1/22/2011
Lang Lang the pianist says he chose it. Chairman Hu Jintao recognized it as soon as he heard it. Patriotic Chinese Internet users were delighted as soon as they saw the videos online. Early morning TV viewers in China knew it would be played an hour or two beforehand. At the White House State dinner on Jan. 19, about six minutes into his set, Lang Lang began tapping out a famous anti-American propaganda melody from the Korean War: the theme song to the movie “Battle on Shangganling Mountain.”
The film depicts a group of “People’s Volunteer Army” soldiers who are first hemmed in at Shanganling (or Triangle Hill) and then, when reinforcements arrive, take up their rifles and counterattack the U.S. military “jackals.” …
…“My Motherland” having been played at the White House will be seen as a propaganda triumph in China.
“In the eyes of all Chinese, this will not be seen as anything other than a big insult to the U.S.,” says Yang Jingduan, a Chinese psychiatrist now living in Philadelphia who had in China been a doctor in the Chinese military. “It’s like insulting you in your face and you don’t know it, it’s humiliating.”
Yang sees Lang Lang choosing this tune as an expression of the deeply anti-American propaganda that is constant in China.
“This deeply anti-American chauvinism has been fanned by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] for years; Lang Lang is expressing the feelings of this generation of angry young people,” Yang said.
A well-known example of such feelings was seen on Sept. 11, 2001, when Chinese chat rooms were filled with young people celebrating this act of terror as an American defeat.
Excited at this coup, patriotic Chinese have been circulating the clip for the last several days. One netizen wrote “the right place, right time, right song!”
The phrase “right place, right time, right song” echoes Chinese propaganda and is a declaration of victory over the United States. Chinese have been taught that the United States lost the Korean War. A U.S. general is quoted in the propaganda as describing the Korean War as being “the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place with the wrong enemy,” which is taken as an admission of defeat. In fact, the quote is from Gen. Omar N. Bradley testifying to Congress as to why the United States should not extend the Korean War into China.
Another Chinese commenting on a forum responded to the Lang Lang performance by writing, “Defeat America, defeat Obama” (writing Obama’s name with the wrong first character, one meaning “sunken” or “dented.”)
Others wrote comments like: “omg!”; “Didn’t they know?”; “Where was the U.S. foreign affairs?” and “Very good. My impression of Lang Lang has really changed.”…
Read the entire article at The Epoch Times.
Update: Also at The Epoch Times, US Congress Gets Adversarial with Hu Jintao
WASHINGTON—It all started when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), made a gaffe during a televised appearance, calling China’s top leader Hu Jintao a dictator.
During an interview with Jon Ralston onFace To Face, Reid had been discussing the tactics of bipartisan compromise that resulted in lawmakers extending the Bush-era tax cuts last December.
“Jon, I am going to go back to Washington tomorrow and meet with the president of China. He is a dictator,” Reid said. “He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have.”
Reid was comparing the sometimes messy politics of American democracy with the quick decision making achievable through one-party state rule, such as in China.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said dictator,” Reid said in retrospect. “But they have a different type of government than we have, and that is an understatement.”
The two most powerful legislators, Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), reportedly declined invitations from president Obama to attend the lavish state dinner honoring Hu Jintao on Wednesday night, opting for separate meetings with Hu on Thursday…
CAJ note: 1.) Reid tells the truth for once, for which we are grateful 2.) Adversarial is fine, and we appreciate Speaker Boehner’s gesture, but maybe they should stop spending Chairman Hu’s money.
Update 2: Althouse highlights a comment from one of her readers:
William says:
Didn’t the Red Chinese lose tens of thousands of men in the Korean War in order to insure the prolonged rule of one of the most fucked up regimes in that region’s long history of fucked up regimes? I would think that playing that tune is more likely to remind the world of the stupidity of Communist rulers than humiliate the United States. I think Obama should get Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen to write a commemorative song about Carter’s failed rescue mission to Iran. He should play that song at all state functions. Same deal as this.
Update: Obama White House Defends Anti-American State Dinner Music.
