Several times over the past year, Xinhua made fun of Song Zuying (宋祖英), a famous singer of Chinese folk songs. It is widely known to the Chinese people that Song, though married, is Jiang Zemin’s mistress. When Jiang had power, defaming Song in any Chinese media, not to mention the official media Xinhua, was unimaginable. It never happened, even when Hu Jintao was the head of China.
A recent Xinhua blog wrote about the relationship between Song Zuying and the Chinese actor Zhao Benshan (赵本山). It is rumored that Bo Xilai chose Zhao to be his Minister of the Ministry of Culture after Bo’s coup to overthrow Xi Jinping. The blog said that Song and Zhao are like brother and sister and they are “even closer than brother and sister.”
What is most interesting is that the blog also mentioned “big brother.” It said that in 2000, there was a rumor that Song has special backing (implying Jiang). To support her, Zhao said, “With the backing of big brother, what are you afraid of? If there is any problem just tell big brother. Even if the sky falls, big brother will hold it for you.” On the surface, the “big brother” here seems to mean Zhao, but in reality, Song’s political power (from Jiang) would have been much stronger than Zhao’s. So Zhao would not have said this to her.
What this blog did was directly make fun of Jiang Zemin, who claimed himself to be the “big brother” to Song. According to the book “The Real Story of Jiang Zemin (江泽民其人),” Jiang watched Song’s performance and felt attracted to her. He then gave her a note which said, “In the future if you have any problem, you can come to big brother. Big brother can solve any problem for you.” The “big brother” in the note referred to Jiang himself. Thus Song became Jiang’s mistress.
On another note, this “big brother” story from “The Real Story of Jiang Zemin” book was, of course, banned in China. Some Chinese found a creative way to publish it though. On a 163.com blog, the author published the exact same story by replacing Jiang’s name by Ma Yingjiu (the President of Taiwan) and Song’s name by Lin Zhiling (a Taiwanese singer). It went on to say that Lin held a performance in Sydney and sang in Korea for the 2002 Soccer World Cup (Chinese know that it was really Song who did that) and that Ma built the National Center for the Performing Arts for Lin (Chinese know that Jiang built it for Song). The readers’ responses show that they understand who the two people really are.
Sources:
[1] Xinhua Blog, “What Is the Hidden Secret That Song Zuying and Zhao Benshen Swore to Be Brother and Sister?”
http://yuyu26.home.news.cn/blog/a/0101007C4C310CEF1F9188FA.html
[2] Epoch Times Online, “The Real Story of Jiang Zemin,” Chapter 18, “Love Beautiful Ladies and Have Many Mistresses.”
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/5/6/17/n957853.htm
[3] 163.com Blog, “Come to the Big Brother when You Have Problem,” November 24, 2010
http://bbs.news.163.com/bbs/zhongmei/192313326.html