Recently, Xi Jinping drew some red lines for the art and literature in China. In addition to “spreading contemporary Chinese values and telling China’s stories well,” he instructed that art and literature should not take the “vulgar” route, and “cannot be tainted with the stink of money and be the slaves of the market.”

On Tuesday December 14, Xi, as well as other Politburo Standing Committee members, spoke at the congresses of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) and the China Writers Association (CWA), where he gave the above instructions to the delegates.

CFLAC is an umbrella organization composed of nationwide associations of writers and artists in various fields. Although CFLAC claims it is a non-governmental organization whose mission “is to unite and serve writers and artists, to train literary and art talents, and to promote the development and prosperity of literature and the arts,” It is under the direct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department. With a national, provincial, and city-level hierarchical organization structure, CFLAC aims to control millions of Chinese writers and artists so that their work toes the Party line. CWA is a subordinate organization of CFLAC.

At the congress, Xi expressed the hope that “the vast number of artists, remember their mission …  and make new and greater contributions for the comprehensive construction of a modernized socialist country and the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

Peng Liyuan, Xi’s wife and Vice President of CFLAC, was also sitting on the podium alongside other Politburo Standing Committee members.

Xi drew some red lines for art and literature work. “Literature and art should be popular, but should never be vulgar; be lifelike, but not promote unhealthy culture; be innovative, but not engage in strange and ridiculous things; it should be rewarding, but not be tainted with the stink of money or be the slaves of the market.”

Source: People’s Daily, December 15, 2021
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1215/c1024-32308066.html

Fang Fang, the author of the “Fang Fang’s Diary” that recorded the epidemic during the outbreak in Wuhan City, has been missing from the list of the presidium of a recent nationwide congress of the Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA).

Fang, born in Wuhan, is a member of CWA and was once on its national committee, the association’s governing body. CWA is a government affiliated organization that the Chinese Communist Party uses to control Chinese writers.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan from late 2019 to early 2020, Fang wrote daily from January 25 to March 25, 2020, detailing her observations and personal reflections during the city’s closure. The diary was once an important source of information about the development of the epidemic in Wuhan, as it was closer to the truth than the official media reports.

During the publication of her diary, public and private pressure were already mounting against her. In April of 2020, after the announcement that her diary would be published overseas, she immediately became the target of nationwide criticism from pro-Beijing forces.

In an interview with foreign media, Fang did not back down in the face of pressure. She said that she had been ostracized by the Chinese authorities and the literary community, and that her literary career had changed forever. This was the first time she had encountered such a situation since she started her literary career in 1982. Fang believed that this shows that “far-left nationalism” is deeply rooted in China, especially in the minds of government officials.

In addition to Fang Fang, another famous Chinese writer Zhang Kangkang, who once supported Fang during the incident, was also excluded from the list of the presidium of CWA.

Source: Central News Agency, December 16, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202112160295.aspx

The state media, China Report, published an editorial on November 23, 2021, urging Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to have three children. The original article was removed the next day, and major Chinese media followed suit. Screenshots, however, have gone viral on social media. 

According to the China Report editorial, CCP members have a personal obligation to help tackle the country’s plunging fertility rate by having three children.

Each CCP member is required to “align his thoughts and actions and those of his family with the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, and proactively and consciously take action to implement the three-child policy.”

“No Party member should use any excuse, objective or personal, not to marry or have children, nor can they use any excuse to have only one or two children,” said China Report. “Every Party member must bear the responsibility to implement the three-child policy for China’s population growth. Every Party member must also fulfill his obligation to grow China’s population.”

To the extent that some Party members can no longer have children due to age, health, and other reasons, the editorial urges them to “actively educate, guide, and encourage their family members or those around them to implement, actively and consciously, the three-child policy.” “You must never ignore or allow your family or people around you not to marry or have children, and you must never ignore or allow your family or people around you to give birth to only one or two children using this or that excuse.”

China Report is a state-owned media under the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, also known as the China International Publishing Group (CIPG).   

Source: China Report, November 23, 2021
Screenshot at https://news.creaders.net/china/2021/12/10/2428749.html
Full text at http://huaitu.cn/news/68886.html