China’s model operas explained

Hey wife, I want to spend all day doing nothing and playing with the boys. Will you allow that to happen? Over-the-top made-up scenarios, unbearable high-pitched voices, and a destruction of culture. These are CCP operas, not just any operas, they were the only ones available during the Cultural Revolution, hence they were called the revolutionary operas, or model operas. You know how these performances are supposed to portray how beautiful the lives of farmers were in China, when in fact they were actually starving at the time. Why are you consuming that bourgeois content when we could all be proletariats? Aside from the overall awkward expressions on their faces and dialogues that just doesn't make sense, praising Chairman Mao in every third sentence was essentially the nature of these operas. And your constant need to remind yourself that this is not the horror genre. Like I mentioned, they were also called model operas. Sounds kind of inspiring, right? Until you hear that the reason they were called model operas was because, well, part of it is they were mandatory viewings because essentially at the time they weren't showing any other sort of entertainment and you could only see these in theaters or on stage. But this was everywhere, it was in schools, it was on television, it was in the radio, so you could not avoid it. Even if you were not forced to watch them, you had nothing else. And of course, if you dared to criticize them at the time, that could land you in a struggle session. Think of all the North Korean videos you've seen, how bizarre it is in the Hermit Kingdom, well, that was what was on display in Chinese performance. Now, all of these took place during the Cultural Revolution which ran from 1966 to 76, which was when Mao died. But these clips have become this new internet sensation on Chinese social media for some of the reasons being that it was just so outrageously bizarre of a period that was back in China and people started to make memes out of this. This was one of the most famous now or the most viral and she just marches in with full-on energy which is being made fun of like who actually has that kind of energy. This is obviously brainwashing. She then goes on to defeat this nationalist spy in what essentially is a staged dance sequence. So as you can see, a lot of this is taking traditional Chinese culture performance genres like Peking opera, classical Chinese dance, turning them communist. But my favorite one has to be this one. I love the comments. This one says, anti-Japanese bizarre dramas cannot satisfy me anymore. I just like this kind of stuff now. It really hits the spot. This one says, comrade don't be afraid the landmine is flying. This one says, comrade let me drill oil for you. This one says, tomorrow this is how I'll say hi to my co-workers. This one says, enemy so dramatic? That's why they're the leader not you. If fake enthusiasm and high school drama classes had a baby named Chairman Mao, that's basically these model propaganda operas. Comrades, I've stepped on a landmine. I will now begin to demine it. The objective reason why their heads suddenly turn, their voices are really high pitch, and their movements are greatly exaggerated is because on stage which is was a lot of these actors and actresses where they come from is staged Peking opera. They don't have mics so they have to make everything loud and make everything high so that people in the audience can hear them. But then when you, especially in the later days, turn them into movies, that's why you get these awkward head changes and weird dialogues. Not only that, it was directly aimed at brainwashing people and so the kids who were born in the 70s, a lot of them can remember most of the dialogues in these stage plays. So the saying at the time was eight operas for 800 million Chinese people. These include five revolutionary Peking operas, two revolutionary ballets, and a symphony adapted from one of the so-called Peking operas. Model work was essentially referred to as controlled and directly in charge written from the top of the CCP and through the propaganda system. So what everybody around the country did when these performance troupes would go on to do their performance of one of the eight is essentially it was like a 100% copy, word for word, of the script, of the camera, the directions, and dialogues, and dances, and everything. The irony at the time was that Zhang Qing, who was Mao's wife, Madame Mao, what she did was she didn't like all of the entertainment at the time, like operas, or dances. She said it was too bourgeois and she wanted to turn it into a proletariat entertainment. But as we all know, entertainment, when it's sophisticated in its essence, is a higher version of life and essentially it's a performance. When you take out the beauty of it, leaving what essentially is just a skeletal behind, you lose the sense of that artistry. But it didn't matter to Zhang Qing. All she wanted was to make it revolutionary. So she turned everything into Red Guards, into communist soldiers, etc. And so it wasn't like anybody really wanted to watch them, but it was more like it was forced upon them. And this is quite typical throughout any of the scripts, which is there are happy peasants, there's revolutionary heroes, and they even try to make feminism seem cool in that period, except here's the catch, right? In The Red Detachment Woman, it's about peasant girls who pick up rifles and overthrow the bad guys. That sounds like female empowerment, except at the end, guess who has to come in and save the day? Chairman Mao, because of his guidance. So it's like, is that real feminism if at the end of the day you need a man to come and be your guidance? So that was the same message which boils down behind every single one of these plays or movies, is that Chairman Mao comes, saves the day, and everybody must have a little red book, which is like their Bible. Like I said, it was brainwashing, because during this time, it was millions of people being purged, people dying from hunger, and just in general, it was the darkest period of the CCP history, one of them. And meanwhile, they're trying to make a musical about it. It's like if they did a Broadway dance performance during the Great Depression, and called that a solution. The end of Jiang Qing, Madam Mao, was that after the Cultural Revolution ended, she was tried as one of the members of the Gang of Four, which was directly responsible for the Cultural Revolution. And the operas seem to have faded away, except now it's making a return in a very satirical sort of viewing experience. Alright, I hope you enjoyed today's video on China's model opera propaganda. If you enjoyed the content, leave a like, comment below your thoughts, and subscribe to our channel. Alright, until next time, buh-bye!