Powerful poetry
Back from a bit of a post-Olympic break...
China's leaders sometimes do their best to look as stolid as possible (they wear identical black suits and blank expressions, they sit in oversized chairs and clap politely). But many of them are known for more than just staring straight ahead and signing decrees.
Deng Xiaoping, who was China's ruler in the 70s and 80s, was "widely known as a master of the game of bridge" according to the official media here. It's not documented whether or not anyone dared to beat him.
China's former president Jiang Zemin enjoyed singing (both other people's and his own). Last year, when he visited the newly-built National Grand Theatre in Beijing, reports say that he sang arias from Western and Chinese operas. Sadly, his songs don't appear to be available to buy in the shops.
The current president, Hu Jintao, doesn't appear to sing in public (apart from the national anthem, presumably). But it's mildly worth knowing that he took a dance class when he was at university. And, as noted here before, he's pretty good at ping-pong.
The current premier, Wen Jiabao, is also a successful poet. One of his poems has been used in a new film about reform in the forestry industry, Drawing the Border. It's not exactly a Jackie Chan martial arts action film, but it'll no doubt attract a loyal audience of Communist Party members and people intrigued by the latest developments in the forestry industry (there are always many).
The film tells the story of how party officials successfully persuade local villagers to take part in the reform of the forestry industry. The film-makers have used one of Mr Wen's poems, called Looking up at the Starry Sky, as the lyrics of their theme song.
I’m 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~52~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
James:
I hope you had a nice holiday....
Complain about this comment
James:
i would like to something to the desk:
jChina's
Could someone correct this error....
Complain about this comment
Interesting.
But Jiang's singing and his initiative of constructing the Egg Thertre is a shame. Luckily but not sadly, his songs are not available in the shops.
I thought you had packed up for England, but it seems I was too optimistic! :P
Anyway, hope you had a great holiday. Now you might have to work harder because after the games, you will find it harder to find topics to bash China
Complain about this comment
James, I understand you difficulties. "Dam if you do dam if you don't." If you are too nice to China, you'll lose your job. If you are not nice, you got yell at by the Chinese people. It's very tricky to find that delicate balance. You are getting there.
Complain about this comment
so what's your point?
Complain about this comment
Yes, James the leaders do have a similar look to them, I think it`s the black glasses that do it; but I’m told the Chinese find it hard to tell westerners apart.
But WASN`T THE PARALYMPIC OPENING CEREMONY WONDERFUL?
Completely different in tone to the first one with its emphasis on individual virtuosity and western classical music and dance.
I was really impressed by the Bolero sequence with the 12 year old dance student that lost a leg in the Sichuan earthquake; what I didn`t realise until later was that all the other dancers (apart from the 2,000 children dressed as mascots) in the ceremony were completely deaf and that they all come from the same troupe, the China Disabled People`s Performance Art Troupe which is composed of performers with sight, hearing, mental and motor disabilities or speech impairments. The blind musicians came from there too.
These are the pioneers; founded in 1987 by a headstrong individual to release the potential of artistic youngsters with disabilities, provide them with a living and to showcase them to the world.
I realise they don`t reflect the reality for all disabled in China, but appearing throughout such a high profile event should help change attitudes. I’m told even the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony was a sell out, so attitudes, amongst sophisticated Beijingers seems to be changing at least.
For others wanting to find out more, this troupe tour internationally, have visited the UK and now a documentary has been made of them called `My Dream`.
If you keyword search some well known video sites (e.g. chinese deaf dancers) you`ll find other videos.
Complain about this comment
And in the Democratic world, speechcraft is the only thing you need to learn.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Nice article James, shows that leaders of China have a willingness to have other interests and learn new skills.....
So James, how are the chinese mandarin and history lessons going ?
Complain about this comment
Among all the Communist leaders, Mao is the epitome of master of poetics and politics--should give him credit for being extremely studious consider his unfortunate background.
His sucessors tried to follow in stilted fashion, only to find themselves stumbling over grandiose words.
Besides, neither Jiang nor Hu has a good voice; their public speech often inflicts too much pain on ears.
Maybe they should at least learn to speak in measured tones. Chinese is indeed a beautiful-sounding language on condition that one has to get the intonation patterns right.
Complain about this comment
Very interesting post, James. You need to take vacation more often.
Wait Wait Wait.. No, you can't. Even you said you were "Catching your breath", there are 23 comments so far. Some of them are so lengthy that they can be published as books. Could you believe it? And they all talked like they knew how to govern a developing country with population of 1.3 billion.... All you do is giving people more free speech, more protests, .... more .....what else? I forgot already. Man ... so many geniuses out there.
You know, we Chinese have an old saying. It goes something like ..."Criticizing others is easier, criticizing yourself is a lot difficult". I am wondering if that's true to those geniuses. Hmmm...Maybe not.
Nice to see you back, James.
Complain about this comment
James.
Deng Xia Ping is best known as a heavy smoker.
Complain about this comment
Hi:
It makes me sad these days cos i didnt see your blog :( :(. i missed your blog so much :)...
cos your blog is simply brillant..haha..
as a university student i enjoy reading your blog for several reasons:
1. A neutral political stand- not biased towards either country (well, in contrast to other media)
2. Keep a positive environment (no swearing, no racist comments)
3. Most importantly, i like your blog image (a pair of glasses making you look very professional, this gives a better impression compared to other BBCs blogs..they look dull, impersonal :( )
well.. this is a rather complimentary post..just to reassure you, someone out there on this planet do read your post and will keep reading it..:)
:0)
Complain about this comment
I've been told that all these "artistic pursuits" are simply vanities of highly educated men with too many cronies. I've also been told (by many) that Mao was the only famous CCP leader who actually deserved to be called an "artist". Like his politics or not, the guy's got poetic talent, and good calligraphy. Of course I wouldn't know really, since my Chinese is crappy at best. This is really just what I've heard.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
James, hope you had a good break.
How could you have got the name wrong for the Minister of Foreign Affairs in your previous blog? Is he Mr Yang? Why You called him Mr second name? A laughing stock to your colleagues now, is it?
Keep blogging, please.
Complain about this comment
@Onjournalism:
Quote, "Among all the Communist leaders, Mao is the epitome of master of poetics and politics--should give him credit for being extremely studious consider his unfortunate background."
Did you know Mao was also a great dancer? His personal doctor (forgot his name) wrote that Mao used to have ballroom dancing in the compound every night after dinner. He would invite the young female cadres for a swirl on the floor, then he would retire to his room, bring along with him a favorite for the night.......
His doctor reported that the Chairman was infected with syphallis, which he promptly passed on to these young women as a parting gift.
It is good to know the leaders of China of recent past have good moral grounding and to have some ordinary hobbies to make them like everyone else. Go for it, Jiang, Hu and who else that comes along in the future.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Nice One James but I think you have not included one person the founder of CCP…Chairman Mao.
There is a book written by his personal Doctor about Chairman Mao and am sure you will not believe him if you read the book.. Chairman Mao is said to be like pretty girls so much and many more things that can’t be discuss here. Anyway, he is a human.
Complain about this comment
James:
Just read it!
???·??
????,
????,
?????
?????,
????;
????,
?????
????,
????,
????????
???,
?????,
?????
??????,
???,
??????
?????,
????;
????,
?????
????,
????,
????????
???,
?????,
?????
Complain about this comment
????,????,?????
?????,????;
????,?????
????,????,????????
???,?????,?????
??????,?????????
?????,????;
????,?????
????,????,????????
???,?????,?????
Complain about this comment
And one of them is a singing baffoon
Complain about this comment
no,Deng was famous for his mice theory
Complain about this comment
jhyzhz, did you type this (22, 23) in Chinese? My computer only shows question marks.
Complain about this comment
Sexy photograph! Romantic poetry! Sad it's more smoggy than starry nowadays.
No downloads found when you type in a search for jiang zemin + song + mp3.
It will certainly become a hit if any of them had a single out in shops. Its sales might even help boost Chinese economy(prividing all copies and downloads are legal).
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS