Recently, several media in China wrote about "Olympic pigs" [1] and how they were raised, as well as how the vegetables for the 2008 Olympic Games will receive special attention while being grown.
The Chinese government's original intent was to reassure foreign visitors and athletes that food consumed during the Olympic Games will be safe. They were not prepared to hear comments from Internet users such as, "We'd rather be Olympic pigs than Chinese people."
Facade in Chinese History
This type of "facade project" reminded me of a story about Emperor Yang [2] during the Sui Dynasty (581 – 619 AD). Emperor Yang wanted to annex neighboring regions and sought to attract merchants from other countries to come to China. Having conquered a new region to the west, he ordered that the restaurants in towns and cities located on the main road leading west to treat all merchants from the west and give them prizes. In year 610, Emperor Yang decided to launch an unprecedented "facade project": Starting on January 15, folk opera shows would be put on by the Duan Gate of Luoyang to welcome tribal leaders from western regions and show off the wealth of the Sui Dynasty. The music could be heard for miles and around the clock. It went on for about a month and the expenses were extraordinary.
At the same time, Emperor Yang ordered that all the shops in these towns and cities be decorated with gems and luxurious fabrics. The residents were required to dress in nice clothing. Even trees were draped with colorful silk banners. When a merchant from the western region went to a restaurant, the owners would give them food and wine for free. The owners were also required to lie and say, "Our country is so wealthy that we never charge people to eat at restaurants." However, the merchants were not stupid, either. They saw that the trees were wrapped in silk, and asked, "There are poor people who can't clothe themselves in the Sui Dynasty. Why doesn't the government give them these fabrics, instead of using them to wrap the trees?"
Emperor Yang was forced to kill himself and his dynasty ended abruptly. The story of dressing up the town has become the laughing stock in history.
Historian Fan Wenlian, who Mao Zedong initially trusted and relied on, wrote about this story in the book "Encyclopedia of Chinese History" in the 1960s. Mao thought Fan was using a historic reference to express his cynicism about the present, since Mao announced earlier that the People's Commune would provide free meals [3]. Since then, Mao began to distance himself from Fan. It was fortunate that Fan passed away before the Cultural Revolution, otherwise his fate would have been predictably miserable.
History Repeats Itself
Yet the Chinese government, under Mao's rule, was far more superb than Emperor Yang at putting up "facade projects." When the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party was still in Yan'An, Shaanxi Province, Mao created an image of an ideal "Yan'An Utopia." It successfully fooled the American Journalist Edgar Snow and the American Military Delegation. The book "Red Star over China" gave the Communist Party credibility in America. Having had a taste of the gains from deception, the CCP perfected it as an art, and "facade projects" grew in number and scale. During the Cultural Revolution, I had witnessed several myself. Here is just one example.
In the 1970s, I had a neighbor, Dr. Zhang, whose father and brother lived in the United States. Dr. Zhang and his wife were sent to the "May 7 Cadres Academy" [4] for having relatives who live overseas. After Nixon visited China in 1972 and the relationship between China and the United States improved, Dr. and Mrs. Zhang were released. In the spring of 1975, Dr. Zhang received notice that his brother was going to visit China and wanted to see him. However, since Dr. Zhang's brother was now a "guest of the country," his visit was no longer a private matter, and everything would need to be organized and screened through the government. That was why the government decided to give a "facelift" to Dr. Zhang's apartment. They re-painted all the walls, and brought in some very rare and expensive products at the time, including a "Forever" brand bicycle, a "Red Lantern" brand radio, a "Shanghai" brand sewing machine, and some new furniture.
When a neighborhood woman saw that Dr. Zhang's family had all new furniture, she wondered if she could have some of their old furniture. Mrs. Zhang did not let her, and she was quite upset. When Dr. Zhang's brother came, during his entire two-hour visit, he was accompanied by two foreign affairs officials. The brothers could not talk about anything in private. When Dr. Zhang's brother left, he embraced Dr. Zhang and whispered in English, "I know everything. You just wait for the good news." After his visit, the bicycle, sewing machine, radio, and all the new furniture were taken away. That was when the neighbor realized they were all just for show. Later, when Mrs. Zhang visited the United States, she told others what happened. She had tried to turn down the arrangement of the faked prosperity, but was told, "Do you want to shame Socialism?"
From Emperor Yang to the Olympic pigs, the "facade projects" have spanned more than 1,300 years. Although the forms are different, the tactics remain the same. In a day and age when human rights concepts have become more and more common, ridiculous "facade projects" such as the Olympic pigs only illustrate the hypocrisy and shamelessness of the Chinese government. I don't think the international community will give the Chinese government any credit for having promoted the "Olympic pigs." Instead, they will reflect more deeply on the serious human rights and food product safety problems present in China.
[1] Beijing Secretly Breeding Olympic Pigs, http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-9-1/59288.html.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Yang_of_Sui
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_commune .
[4] The "May 7 Academy" was a series of farms located in remote locations in the 1960s and 1970s. The program was initiated following Mao Zedong's "May 7 Directives" to centrally detain and "re-educate" government officials and intellectuals. It was viewed as a form of labor camp.
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