[His administration has castigated propaganda
officials as ineffective, too slow to assert control over the internet and
lacking in their commitment to Marxist values. He is pushing them to master the
tools of digital media, resist foreign influences in popular culture and target
younger audiences, a key demographic that some in the party worry it may be
losing.]
By Javier C. Hernández
 |
|
Members
of the rap group CD REV, on the rooftop of a recording studio in Chengdu,
China.
The group has recorded music videos featuring songs about China’s claims
in
the contested South China Sea and Mao Zedong’s legacy.
Credit
Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
|
BEIJING
— The two-minute cartoon
opens with a folksy jingle and a smiling bobblehead of President Xi Jinping, dimpled
and cherubic. Then it cuts to a colorful montage praising his government for
improving the lives of ordinary Chinese with what might seem like a mundane
policy: regulations allowing taxis to be summoned online.
With vivid animation and quirky sound effects,
the video does not feel like propaganda. But its creators, a team of 15 people
hired by the state-run media, spent months obsessing over the details, down to
the shape of Mr. Xi’s grin. Their mission: to promote Mr. Xi and the ruling
Communist Party in a voice that resonates with China’s digitally savvy
millennials.
“There isn’t any dry language or political
jargon,” said Ma Changbo, 35, a former journalist who is the chief executive of
the multimedia studio behind the clip, which was published online by China
Central Television, the state broadcaster. “People can relate to it.”
Decades after Mao Zedong declared the pen as
important to political power as the gun, the party still churns out old-school
propaganda — colorful posters with wooden slogans, mawkish movies with
patriotic themes, meticulously censored newspapers written in dry, impenetrable
language. The evening news is as rigid as ever, almost always opening with Mr.
Xi and often featuring the reading of long party communiqués.
But Mr. Xi is demanding that the propaganda
apparatus step up its game.
His administration has castigated propaganda
officials as ineffective, too slow to assert control over the internet and
lacking in their commitment to Marxist values. He is pushing them to master the
tools of digital media, resist foreign influences in popular culture and target
younger audiences, a key demographic that some in the party worry it may be
losing.
The fruits of his campaign are already
popping up online. In addition to a more aggressive effort to stamp out
criticism and amplify support for the party on social media, the party has
invested millions in animated videos that cast Mr. Xi as a compassionate
champion of Chinese workers. Scholars have delivered TED-style talks that rail
against Western imperialism. New hip-hop songs pay homage to party history and
warn of America’s efforts to topple the Chinese government.
It is unclear how effective such tactics will
be in winning over a younger generation that is more skeptical of prepackaged
messages and increasingly connected to the outside world. Nor is the party’s
ability to modernize and reorient its vast propaganda apparatus — perhaps the
world’s largest — guaranteed. But there is widespread agreement that the old
methods are no longer enough.
“If the government wants to reach this
audience they have to use new media to do it,” said Anne-Marie Brady, an expert
in Chinese propaganda at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Mr. Xi is trying to increase public confidence
in the party as it contends with the challenge of a slowing economy. The
campaign also underscores his determination to shore up China’s image abroad as
it moves to capitalize on political discord in the West and win new allies. Top
party officials have called on news outlets to embrace digital media to help
“spread Chinese voices” around the globe.
Inside the offices of The People’s Daily, the
party’s flagship newspaper since 1946, editors are turning to video and
animation to enliven stories about government policies and appeal to foreign
audiences. When Mr. Xi visited the United States in 2015, for example, they
produced a video in which foreign students in China offered fawning assessments
of his performance. (“Xi Dada, so cute,” an Austrian student said, invoking a
popular nickname for Mr. Xi.)
Ye Zhenzhen, 40, who oversees “new media” for
the newspaper group and prefers not to use the word propaganda to describe his
work, said the videos were aimed at helping foreigners get beyond clichés about
political oppression and corruption in China. But he added that finding new
ways to talk about China was also a business necessity.
“We can’t simply rely on traditional forms of
content,” he said. “We need to diversify and put ourselves in our customers’
shoes.”
The government’s interest in new forms of propaganda
has created a booming market for digital media enthusiasts with a nationalist
bent.
Mr. Ma, whose multimedia studio, Shizhi
Media, produced the taxi cartoon, said about a fifth of its clients are party
or state entities. The video about the taxi initiative, for example, was
produced for China Central Television in September as part of a contract to
promote the work of a party body known as the Central Leading Group for
Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, 1,000 days after it was formed.
“Government agencies used to be content to
just get the message out. Now they care about persuasion,” said Mr. Ma, who
teaches at an academy that trains party officials. “Not only do they want
people to see their messages, they want to make you believe the messages are
true and to inform your judgment. This is a major difference.”
The party’s best propagandists, he said, are
students of politics and popular culture. Some have analyzed hit songs to learn
how to use musical repetition to convey key ideas. Others have looked for
inspiration in the speaking style of leaders like President Obama and President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Mr. Ma said he has sought to humanize Mr. Xi
by depicting him and his wife, Peng Liyuan, as animated characters, a technique
aimed at attracting people who are not interested in politics. He has also
tried to make political topics more appealing by using vivid imagery, producing
animations that depict officials scheming at bathhouses to promote Mr. Xi’s
anti-corruption campaign, for example.
The results have not been conclusive. While
some of these propaganda videos have gone viral, others have been passed around
only to be ridiculed. Few are able to summon the audiences drawn to China’s
most popular movies, television shows and songs.
Rao Jin, a technology entrepreneur who runs a
nationalistic website and media company known as April Media, has tried to take
a more substantive approach, starting a series of online talks in the style of
TED events.
The subjects range from the colonialist
history of foreign powers to China’s relative stability compared with the
United States and Europe, and each video is aimed to appeal to younger
audiences, using a conversational tone, sleek graphics and a minimalist set
featuring a leather sofa.
Some talks, including one by a political
commentator on how to resist the influence of Western culture, have been viewed
tens of millions of times. “A lot of Chinese people blindly worship everything
foreign,” said Mr. Rao, 31, who finances the project through advertising and
profits from his tech firm. “We want young people to have more confidence in
their own culture and in their nation.”
Mr. Rao is also working with the Communist
Youth League and a rap group known as CD REV to produce music videos that
denounce negative foreign media coverage of China and present the country as
peace-loving and prosperous.
“All we hear is, ‘China is poor, it’s a
dragon, it will eat us, it will beat us,’” Li Yijie, 22, a singer and lyricist
for the group, said during a recording session in Chengdu. “We want to show
people that China is not evil.”
Three of the four members of CD REV, who wear
ripped jeans and gold watches, were raised by parents who served in the
People’s Liberation Army. But Mr. Li said the group found inspiration in the
anti-establishment music of hip-hop masters like Eminem and Dr. Dre.
The group has recorded a half-dozen patriotic
music videos, most of them in English, featuring songs about China’s claims in
the contested South China Sea and Mao’s legacy. In one about American attempts
to spread democracy, they sing:
Democracy, hypocrisy, false liar
Trying to use invisible bullets to get money,
huh
The world is not yours, now you listen
Outta our homeland and get back to North
America
Some of their videos have been viewed
millions of times, thanks in part to the support of the Communist Youth League
and state news outlets. Others have had only mild success.
Mr. Li said the group saw itself as filling a
void where traditional propaganda had fallen short.
“Chinese patriotic education has failed —
it’s stiff and awkward,” he said. “I think we need to accept the responsibility
to make it better.”
Emily Feng, Owen Guo and Adam Wu contributed
research.