"The East is Red" and "The Internationale": Two Discourse Systems

When I was young, the morning program of the radio station in my hometown started at about 6:30 with the singing of "The East is Red"; the evening program ended at 8:30 with the singing of "The Internationale". I don't think anything is wrong.

Suddenly one day, I may be enlightened, I can think about problems, and I feel very puzzled: "In "Dongfanghong", it says: "He is the great savior of the people, hu'er hey, he is the great saviour of the people! "However, "The Internationale" said: "There has never been a savior, nor a fairy emperor. "Isn't this contradicting each other? Could it be that there is a problem with my understanding, "Great Savior" and "Savior" do not mean the same thing?

Later, after the "Gang of Four" was overthrown and personal superstitions were eliminated, this problem was solved.

But at the same time, another problem remains unresolved for a long time. That's why the Chinese accept these two very different narratives at the same time? They don't think about the problem? Or do they not have the ability to think logically? Or drowsy in the morning and clear-headed in the evening? A subject in the morning and a communist fighter in the evening?

For this question, my current interpretation is that there are two sets of discourse systems. "The Internationale" is a set of discourse system, and "The East is Red" is another set of discourse system. "The Internationale" was a discourse system at the beginning, used to appeal to the social elite; and "Dongfanghong" was a later discourse system, used to appeal to the masses at the bottom.

For social elites, especially those who have received some enlightenment education, using "The East is Red" to impress them and mobilize them to participate in the revolution is undoubtedly ineffective or even counterproductive. And with "The Internationale" it's quite possible.

But for the working people, for the people at the bottom who have not received enlightenment education, what kind of international song you use to impress them and mobilize them to participate in the revolution will not have much effect. Because they are still confined to traditional culture and believe in the "true son of heaven". Therefore, the "myths" that you say that whoever has colorful clouds above their heads and whoever survives the catastrophe are more attractive to them.

Therefore, we will see that at a certain stage, after a certain interest group is formed, in order to seek greater power and interests, this group will abandon its original demands and cater to the bottom people instead of changing the bottom people. because it takes too long, the task is too arduous, and interest groups are likely to disintegrate. Therefore, the group will unanimously advocate, approve, support or acquiesce in the election of a leader, following the usual practice that this country has used repeatedly, in order to gather strength. Only in this way can we survive and develop. Even if this kind of survival and development has deviated from or deviates from the original direction.

For those people at the bottom, they can only understand "The East is Red", or they only need to understand "The East is Red". And for those elites, they understand both, but then they make a choice among them. For the sake of the group and their own interests, they also chose "The East is Red", and instead regarded "The Internationale" as a symbol.

However, the most bizarre and most deplorable thing is that those who contributed to the "addition of yellow robes" will definitely not be able to avoid a tragic end.

December 25, 2008