Update | ‘Whole world should unite to defeat the American invaders and their lackeys’: controversy sparked online by ‘red songs’ at concert in Beijing
Music from the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution featured prominently at event at the Great Hall of the People
A concert that featured “red songs” praising the Communist revolution and Mao Zedong, staged in a style reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, has sparked controversy and criticism from the daughter of a revolutionary after it was held at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
The show, which staged songs from the Cultural Revolution against a backdrop of propaganda posters from the period, comes at a politically sensitive time ahead of the 50th anniversary of the start of the movement on May 16.
The political mass movement was responsible for some of the mainland’s most violent upheavals since the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949.
Ma Xiaoli, daughter of Ma Wenrui who was persecuted for being a leader of an “anti-party clique” with President Xi Jinping’s father Xi Zhongxun during the 10-year turmoil, called the show a recurrence “of the culture of the Cultural Revolution” and accused it of “taking a step back in history”.
‘Red Culture’ beamed non-stop into schools
Ma lashed out at organisers in a letter, accusing them of violating the Communist Party’s political discipline by honouring the memory of the Cultural Revolution with the show.