The Rise of the C P

So as not to incriminate myself further than need be to the authorities, I will refer to the ruler ending in “ao” instead with the word Muffin.

I have been having lunch with my now former assistant, L, which has really helped me to see (and eat) more like the non-expats do in Beijing. She suggested that we go for a movie, and when we looked at the list I noticed that many of the theaters were playing, “The Rise of the Communist Party.”

This, she told me, was the number one movie in China, specially released on July 1st, the 90th anniversary of the communist party. L’s husband is a party member, as is her best and only friend in Beijing, but she is not because she “doesn’t like to write reports.” Apparently being a member involves many meetings and report writing of how you are and what you’re thinking/doing. Her husband and friend, who work with the government, have no choice but to be party members.
As the only movie in English playing was “Kung Fu Panda II”, I readily agreed/insisted that we see The Rise of the C.P. L made sure there were English subtitles, and we bought our tickets.

Before going in, we got some tea and I asked her what I should know before seeing the movie. She explained to be how in the beginning of the 20th century, China was “like a cake” and everyone wanted a piece, to divide it up for their own country. She explained that this movie was about the people deciding to stop following the last emperor, who was a small child at the time, but without knowing which country’s method of government to follow. The movie, she told me, follows Muffin from just a teenage nobody to his founding of the C party.

Sometime later in this same conversation, Hitler came up, and I dared to point out how the German people had taken down all of his statues, etc., but Muffin can be seen everywhere from the Forbidden City to every bill of their money to the #1 movie in China. She looked right at me and said, “Why would you compare these two? There is nothing the same about them.” I didn’t want to press, but ended saying something like, “Well, Muffin did many not nice things.” She answered that you must do not nice things while in war, in order to win.

I didn’t want to prod her, least of all about the not nice things having been done to her own people by Muffin. I found it most interesting, however, that she said every year on holidays the only thing on TV is historical documentaries replaying the terror that the Japanese caused, and the Chinese lives that they wasted, “So we don’t forget.”