[ad_1]
Explaining a meme usually takes the wind out of a joke’s sails. Not so on this case. A current Xi Jinping quote revealed by Xinhua, China’s official state information company, has breathed new life right into a long-running meme mocking the Common Secretary’s braggadocio.
A 2017 CCTV report on Xi Jinping’s time as a sent-down youth featured an outdated clip of Xi boasting: “I’d carry 200 jin of wheat on a ten-li mountain highway with out even switching shoulders.” The declare beggared perception. 200 jin is equal to roughly 220 kilos, and 10 li to roughly three miles. Netizens instantly mocked the declare: “OK, you’re sturdy,” wrote one individual, “I received’t argue. However not altering shoulders? That’s simply silly.” A bunch of Taiwanese strongmen tried—and failed—to duplicate the feat.
The declare quickly grew to become shorthand for mockery of Xi’s burgeoning character cult and thus an object of censorship. The phrase “200 jin” has triggered algorithmic censorship on WeChat, the tune “Fragile” was censored after mocking the declare (amidst different jabs at Xi Jinping and the Celebration), and in 2019 a person was summoned to “drink tea” after saying he hoped Trump would “beat ‘200 jin’s’ mind out quickly.” The phrase has additionally spawned a bunch of delicate nicknames, together with: “Wheat-Carrying Man,” “Wheat-Bearing Donkey,” “With out Switching Shoulders,” and the Chinese language character 奭 shì, which resembles a single individual carrying a heavy load throughout their shoulders (the 2 radicals 百 bái at left and proper imply “100.”)
The query of why Xi (ostensibly) by no means switched shoulders whereas carrying wheat remained unanswered—till now, that’s. In a current Xinhua report on Xi Jinping’s “inspection journey” to Hunan, the state-run outlet quoted Xi explaining that it was all within the curiosity of “meals safety,” a prime present political precedence:
On the morning of twenty first, whereas listening to experiences from the Hunan Celebration Committee and authorities, the Common Secretary spoke on the connection between meals safety and meals loss and waste: “Again after I was on the village manufacturing staff, we couldn’t change shoulders whereas carrying wheat. One slip-up whereas switching shoulders and the grain would spill and thus be wasted. These days, most meals loss occurs throughout mechanical harvesting. We should enhance our equipment and give attention to intensive agriculture.”
He directed that Hunan’s Celebration and authorities ought to bear equal accountability for attaining complete meals safety, specializing in the essential inputs of seeds and arable land, firmly defending cultivated land, and resolutely banning the conversion of arable land to non-agricultural use and the the conversion of farmland to any makes use of aside from the manufacturing of meals. [Chinese]
Xi Jinping is tremendously involved with meals safety. A brand new research by CSIS finds that Xi Jinping has personally engaged on meals safety matters 67 occasions, principally by means of inspection excursions just like the current journey to Hunan but in addition by means of conferences, letters, and directions. Xi personally “pointed the best way ahead” on “meals safety” in September 2023. A July 2023 article from The Economist explains why the Celebration is obsessive about “meals safety” as a prime political precedence:
Officers in Beijing are obsessive about meals safety. Many Chinese language are sufficiently old to recollect the famine brought on by Mao Zedong’s insurance policies within the late Fifties. That disaster killed tens of thousands and thousands of individuals. Right now the legitimacy of the Communist Celebration rests partly on its capability to offer inexpensive meals to the folks, who’re consuming an more and more wealthy weight-reduction plan. China’s chief, Xi Jinping, has due to this fact pushed for extra self-sufficiency within the meals provide.
That was all the time going to be a problem. China accounts for about 20% of the world’s inhabitants, but it surely has lower than 10% of its arable land. In current a long time, because the nation developed and urbanized, its farmland shrank. Imports nonetheless play an necessary function within the meals provide. However they threat being affected by testy relations with international locations similar to America and Australia, or by conflicts just like the struggle in Ukraine.
Climate-related shocks will make life even more durable for Mr Xi and the farmers on which he relies upon. Take the staple grains that provide about half of the common Chinese language individual’s energy. Extra droughts may scale back yields of maize, wheat and rice by 8% by 2030, in accordance with analysis funded by the agriculture ministry. Heavy rainfall may have an identical impact on some crops. Greens and fruits are simply as weak to excessive climate—and more durable to retailer for lengthy durations, making it tough for the federal government to stockpile reserves. One huge impact of a extreme drought final yr in southern China was a spike within the worth of cucumbers and lettuce. [Source]
On Weibo, “with out switching shoulders” stays a censored time period. However on X (previously Twitter), Chinese netizens joked about Xinhua’s publication of Xi’s clarification for the declare: “Appears to be like like Lil’ Ping simply can’t recover from the ‘switching shoulders’ joke.”
[ad_2]
Source link
