In a story that itself seemed like it may be an April fool’s joke, the WSJ writes that China’s official Xinhua News Agency has issued a warning on its viewpoint commentary microblog that antics over April Fool’s Day – a tradition it was first exposed to only in the late 1970s when it gradually opened up to foreign cultural influence – are “inconsistent with core socialist values” and at odds with Chinese cultural tradition.
As the WSJ poignantly puts it, “top-down Communist regimes are not known for their rollicking sense of humor. Building a perfect society is hardly a laughing matter, especially when hostile foreign forces are trying to undermine your efforts with lightness and frivolity.” As a result the Xinhua post, seemingly concerned that objective criticism could pass under the guise of humor warned “please don’t believe, spread or create rumors.”
Somewhat predictably, this sparked a hail of interest and commentary by China’s vibrant online community, much of which does appear to have a sense of humor. According to the WSJ, Xinhua’s message was reposted more than 11,000 times as of early Friday evening. As reaction mounted, Xinhua disabled the story’s comments function. But other state media outlets published screenshots of the original posting on their websites, where they continued to accept feedback.
Some examples:
“News released every day makes a fool of ordinary people, so what’s wrong with celebrating April Fool’s Day?” wrote one online commenter named “WuGang” on the website Huanqiu, an online news portal run by the official People’s Daily and its affiliate the Global Times. WuGang apparently is not familiar with US economic data.
“This must be Xinhua’s April Fool’s Day joke,” added another user identified as “Xie Xingsheng_Big Dipper Academy of Finance Research.”
Some, however, took the government’s side, such as a netizen identified as “Wilderness” who wrote: “I strongly agree with Xinhua. Chinese people should have our own cultural confidence”, of which it appears humor is not a part.
One reason why China’s bureacracy is so afraid of humor is due to its unnatural inability to distinguish fact from humorous fiction. Despite efforts to discourage humorous pranks, China’s straight-laced official media has repeatedly found itself caught out on the humor front. In June 2002, the Beijing Evening News picked up a story from The Onion claiming that the U.S. Congress was considering moving out of the Capitol building to newer digs with a retractable roof, better refreshments and more luxury sky boxes.
A decade later, The Onion struck again when the People’s Daily fell victim to another of its spoof stories declaring that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un had been voted the “sexiest man alive for 2012.” The Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece even included a 55-photo slideshow and an Onion quote that “this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true.”
TV stations have not been immune either: according to the WSJ, in 2013, state broadcaster China Central Television took an April Fool’s Day story from the British tabloid the Daily Mirror at face value, according to the South China Morning Post. The Daily Mirror story claimed that Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. had unveiled a new aircraft featuring a glass floor so passengers could watch the scenery pass by underfoot.
What makes China’s crackdown on humor particularly ironic, is that the media is already so controlled by the government apartus, it is difficult to distinguish where truth begins (or ends), and is replaced with absudrity. WSJ explains:
While China’s people are as quick to enjoy a good laugh as any, the country’s leadership culture tends to favor the stiff and formal, making it rather unusual for state media to walk on the lighter side.
This is particularly the case lately as President Xi Jinping has championed core Communist Party orthodoxy, said Barry Naughton, a professor at the University of California, San Diego. In a recent widely publicized tour of state-run media outlets, Mr. Xi urged reporters to pledge strict loyalty to the party under his leadership. “Everyone’s supposed to fall in line,” Mr. Naughton said.
Xinhua’s admonition against rumormongering — whether amusing or not — echoes a tradition going back centuries, political historians say. Emperors often feared gossip, particularly in times of disaster, which could signal that the leadership no longer enjoyed a “mandate from heaven” to rule, they say.
“In the past, many rumors were about plagues, natural disasters or government affairs,” said Renmin University professor Zhang Ming. “In fact, many rumors in China are not rumors, but words the government doesn’t want to hear or information the government doesn’t want released.”
Late last year, China amended its criminal law in an effort to quash rumors, especially those leading to “serious disruption of social order.” This followed a crackdown on people accused of spreading unauthorized information regarding a deadly chemical fire in the northeastern city of Tianjin and state intervention in a slumping stock market.
But what is most profound is the following statement by Naughton “Rumors weaken the official message. You suddenly notice that the official narrative isn’t the whole story.”
“Rumors” like “the US economy isn’t doing nearly as well as the official propaganda wants you to believe”, which in turn are met with such derision from none other than the president as “peddling fiction.”
Or even better: “the Fed is a naked emperor” – because nothing would crush the credibility of the Federal Reserve more or send the stock market sliding faster, than one of the privileged reporters at one of Janet Yellen’s pressers bursting into laughter.
And speaking of that, after China made the selling of stocks illegal, it appears that laughter may be the next thing that sends you in jail.
When will the U.S. follow?
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