Censors Delete Viral “Kong Yiji Literature” Anthem

Each motion wants its anthem. Within the now-censored musical parody “Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji,” the emergent “Kong Yiji literature” wave appears to have discovered certainly one of its personal. “Kong Yiji literature” is a style of self-deprecating on-line writing that compares unemployed school graduates to the eponymous protagonist of Lu Xun’s 1918 brief story, an impoverished scholar who’s the article of ridicule on the village pub. The unique brief story is a critique of state and society’s apathy in direction of the marginalized. The fashionable offshoot tilts its lance on the Chinese language state’s hoary perception within the “bootstrap mentality,” whereby mere effort is supposedly a recipe for monetary success. 

The music was initially uploaded to video sharing website Bilibili by consumer @鬼山哥. It was a direct response to a rash of current state-media studies admonishing youth to work exhausting and cease complaining. Individuals’s Day by day instructed youth: “Work Arduous & Your Days Will Turn into Ever Sweeter.” CCTV posted a WeChat article, “Going through As much as the Anxiousness Behind ‘Kong Yiji Literature,’” that misconstrued the “Kong Yiji” style and pooh-poohed youth issues about struggling an identical destiny to Lu Xun’s famed protagonist. CCTV additionally aired footage of an impoverished “bang-bang” porter working as a Porsche drove previous, whereas the cloying voice-over narration praised the supposed peace of thoughts earned via guide labor. These studies reveal official unease with youth dissatisfaction as expressed via the “lie flat” and “involution” memes, and now, the “Kong Yiji literature” pattern. 

“Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji” instantly went viral. Its extremely sarcastic lyrics think about an incongruously optimistic modern-day Kong Yiji, an informed patriot condemned to a lifetime of working as a supply boy:

In my tattered scholar’s robe, I head to the Lu Village pub

Barman! Heat two bowls of liquor, right here’s 9 coppers for some grub

Spouting scholarly babble in my ragged robe, I roll into the pub

Barman! Heat two bowls of liquor, right here’s 9 coppers for some grub

They mock my erudition, my face is popping pink

You dare impugn my honor? I’ll go on consuming and butting heads

Rickshaw Boy didn’t work exhausting sufficient, that’s why he’s lifeless

Every thing Lu Xun wrote was stuff that shouldn’t be stated

Chen Sheng and Wu Guang had it tough as a result of they wouldn’t work for his or her bread

Accusing eyes flip to me and ask: “What’s gotten into your head?”

I look down at my robe and say I’m—

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

The Man has the nerve to write down, “It’s time to knuckle underneath, see?”

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

I’d somewhat slack off than allow you to exploit me

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

You drive a Lamborghini, but chortle and name me lazy

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

This corrupt society’s bought fuck-all to do with me!

I hold my face clear, however my pockets are at all times empty

So I throw on my robe and write copy for the powers that be

I assumed work can be a breeze, nevertheless it’s 996: six days every week, twelve hours a day

When I’ve the nerve to “maliciously” ask for my pay, the cops drag my hungry ass away

How is there no labor regulation on this evil society?

Why’s it really easy for the elites to trample on our dignity?

The tales nobody dares to inform are past perception

The opposite patrons stare and ask, “How come you aren’t scared?”

I chortle and say it’s as a result of I’m—

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

The weakest department, I ended combating again way back

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

Time weathered my edges, now I’ve solely bought scars to point out

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

Optimism’s my armor, however behind the masks the tears move

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

You ask if I’m completely satisfied, however all I wish to do is curse

The tavern begins buzzing after I end my verse

What does all their negativity and mockery need to do with me?

I went to highschool to assist China rise, to not be some supply man

Listening to this, everyone smirks

Aside from that one silly jerk

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

I tear via this crumbling wall, on the lookout for justice and light-weight

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

All of us want the applause, whether or not it’s criticism or reward

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

Within the censored remark part, what number of embers of dissent nonetheless blaze?

Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji, Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji

I’d hoped to be a Zhuge Liang, as an alternative they’ll take me out like Shang Yang. [Chinese]

“Sunny Aspect Kong Yiji” bought over 3 million views earlier than it was censored. @鬼山哥’s Bilibili account was additionally suspended for 15 days. On the favored question-and-answer website Zhihu, @鬼山歌 defined his motivation for writing the music and expressed his shock and dismay at having his account banned. Most tellingly, he quoted his personal lyrics to check himself to Shang Yang, the Qin dynasty philosopher-politician who was executed by being torn aside by 5 horses after falling afoul of that period’s ruling households: 

I anticipated that the music can be censored, however I by no means imagined that my account can be shut down, too.

[…] Life’s been robust just lately. I’ve been out of labor for a very long time, and my mother’s hospital payments have worn out all the cash I saved in Shanghai. On high of that, I’ve bought a number of excellent money owed. I’d been planning to earn some cash delivering takeout, however then my automobile bought tousled. Then I assumed I’d proceed singing on Bilibili, however I examined optimistic for COVID just some days later.

Then I occurred to see CCTV’s scorching takes about “youth clinging to the robe” and “life turning into ever sweeter,” and all that stuff, and it bought me so mad I made the video, simply to blow off steam and share my frustration.

Everyone is aware of what occurred subsequent.

The video was censored, my account was banned, and my solely technique of creating wealth has been shut off.

[…] The iron fist got here down on my final income stream, and now I do not know what I’m going to do.

They’ve pressured me right into a lifeless finish, and for what? Simply because I informed the reality?

“I’d hoped to be a Zhuge Liang, [but] as an alternative they’ll take me out like Shang Yang.” [Chinese]