Eyes on China, Series 10.0
(2021 Series)
By
MG Paul E. Vallely, US Army (Ret),
Chairman of Stand Up America US Foundation
and the China Team
March 4, 2021
The Ultimate War against the CCP
“The Cultural War”
“Culture is the soul of a nation. It is as important a spiritual factor to mankind as such physical factors as race and land. The history of a nation’s civilization is defined by its cultural developments. The complete destruction of traditional cultures will lead to the end of a nation. No matter how glorious its civilization is, even if its race survives, a nation will vanish when its culture disappears.”
— Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party
Can you imagine the number of delegations that will be sent by the Chinese communist regime to America once the lockdown is lifted? We could, almost, be certain that it will be a cluster of CCP’s cultural delegations, such as dazzling performing arts groups and art exhibitions in the name of “Cultural Exchange”.
On Feb. 14, 2021, the third day of Chinese New Year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s State Department issued an important state policy which calls for a comprehensive revival of traditional Chinese Culture by 2025 (full text in Chinese: http://www.chinaxbfz.com/ News_read_id_380.shtml). The policy calls for “all departments in all regions to seriously implement this policy” and “follow a series of fundamental principles”. The No.1 fundamental principle is “to firmly grasp the direction of socialist culture (NOTE: the CCP always self-claims itself as a socialist regime, instead of a communist regime); adhere to the development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics; consolidate the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field… and promote the core values of socialism”. The overall goal is “by 2025, the foundation of the country’s cultural soft power becomes more solid, and the international influence of Chinese culture is significantly enhanced“. In essence, the CCP is launching a new wave of cultural war under the disguise of reviving traditional Chinese Culture. In the spiritual realm, this grave cultural war is as detrimental as a nuke war. Its goal is to replace the American culture with the CCP culture. In evil’s playbook, this is called defeating America using soft power or winning without a (military) war. Will America’s leaders and citizens see through the evil’s plot?
A Life-or-Death War
Culture is often viewed to have two aspects: the inheritance from the past (traditional), and the bearing of human values and moral codes.
The American culture, founded upon faith in Creator, incorporates many Christian ideals such as redemption, salvation, conscience, forgiveness, and morality.
The traditional Chinese culture, deeply rooted in three main religious teachings of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, venerates virtues and emphasizes achieving oneness with heaven through self-improvement or cultivation practice. But this glorious culture has been completely eradicated and replaced with the CCP culture in the last 70 years. So, when the CCP calls for a revival of traditional Chinese culture, it only means CCP culture or Chinese culture with CCP characteristics.
“Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religions and all morality”, writes the Communism Manifesto. From the very beginning, communists have shrieked to fight against God and destroy all traditions. The communists are never bashful about their wild schemes. They have repeatedly propagated their wicked ideologies in popular slogans such as, “there has never been any savior”, “smash the old world into pieces and build the new order”, “spread communism all over the world”…
Throughout its 71 years of ruling, the CCP has always viewed America as the biggest threat to its existence. The two incompatible cultures lead to two opposite value systems that have been at odds since Day One. Hence, the fight between the two powers far exceeds a normal competition. Rather, it is a war between life or death for the fundamental survival of our culture and traditions.
‘Culture Going Global’ Strategy
In the early 1970s, the Ping-pong diplomacy thawed the sour Sino-US relationship. The CCP began to adopt the ‘Cultural Going Global’ strategy. It became one of its top strategies starting in 2009 when the CCP first heavily promoted the “China Model.”
From to performing art shows to art exhibitions, from TV shows to YouTube programs, the CCP has taken every possible channel for its cultural invasion. All these cultural events are meant to glorify the CCP while condemning the traditional values. Yet the American public cannot possibly discern the CCP culture from the traditional Chinese Culture in these highly deceiving events. As a result, Americans become victimized and unknowingly assimilate to the CCP culture. We could investigate a few examples here. The CCP is a master of deception (brainwashing) that is well documented.
The CCP touted that Peony Pavilion made a breakthrough in the American performing arts circle in 2006. Among countless stories from 5000 years of Chinese history, the CCP deliberately chose just a few and twisted them to serve its own purpose. One is the Peony Pavilion. The story was originally written in the 16th century for staging as a Kunqu opera, a genre of traditional Chinese theatre arts. The play depicted a young girl Du who had a dream at the peony pavilion. In the dream, she met a young man Liu and the two fell in love. After she woke up, lovesickness consumed Du and she died. From the underworld, Du’s soul managed to direct Liu in real life to help her resurrect. After some struggles, the two became married.
Such a story was used by the CCP to condemn feudalism for the suppression of free love, meanwhile, glorifying the CCP for “liberating” Chinese women. The CCP claims that “through protagonists’ strong desire and unremitting pursuit of free love, the play uncovers the degeneracy of the society under feudalism at that time”.
In September 2006, The Peony Pavilion premiered at Zellerbach Hall, U.C. Berkeley. The Chinese Consulate San Francisco touted, “The show astounded the San Francisco.” Following Berkeley, the play was shown at UC Irvine, UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara, a total of 12 shows. In a blog by the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Troupe, it wrote, “the trip to America was a major victory…The attention it received from American cultural and academic circles was rarely seen before.”
A series of 10 books titled, “Such a Spring Beauty” (春色如許) was published to commemorate the success of the show. Author Pan Xinghua, a Singaporean news reporter disclosed some secrets behind the stage.
The book revealed, “the Peony Pavilion achieved great success during its tour of four American Universities… Mr. Liu Sheng Chien (a Taiwanese businessman doing business in China) helped make it successful at UC Berkeley. Once the play started successfully at Berkeley, it accumulated tremendous momentum, which made the shows at the following three universities relatively easier.”
“UC Berkeley is the head of the dragon – leader of UC schools. The other schools all follow Berkeley’s lead in many cases. Hence, Berkeley must be addressed first. Zellerbach Theater of UC Berkeley has over 2000 seats, hence, there were over 6000 tickets for three consecutive shows. The theater was not confident that the tickets could be sold out. Liu originally promised he would take care of all the unsold tickets. Even so, the university was still not so interested. Liu, on the board of UC Berkeley, often donates to school. As Liu ran out of ideas, he had to promise that if the show could be put on, he would donate $1 million to the school. This finally solved the problem. Besides the enormous amount of funding, there were also two-week-long forums about the play, which drove the critics to a zenith. Many professors, also, attended the forums. All these successes were attributed to Liu, who invested much money and with great efforts. He, also, mobilized all of his networks and connections that he had.”
The book went on, “The most significant impact from putting on this play in America was to walk into the American mainstream and influence the upper class. About 70% of the audience members were Americans with a majority from academia. He knew that they had a great influence on American society… This is the most significant cultural exchange between America and China since 1972 Ping-pong diplomacy“.
Lang Lang – CCP’s Cultural Ambassador
Lang Lang, a popular Chinese pianist, had been heavily promoted by the CCP as an iconic, cultural figure. The CCP appointed Lang as the Vice President for the 11th Committee of All-China Youth Federation; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) International Goodwill Ambassador; and the Cultural Ambassador for 2010 Shanghai World Expo, etc.
Even during the pandemic lockdown, Lang Lang’s music is still often played by American classical music stations. One piece is Jasmine Flower, an old song sung by prostitutes. Another one is Liu Yang River, a song glorifying Mao. The most popular one is My Motherland – a song glorying the CCP and demonizing the American Army.
When the CCP head Hu Jintao visited the White House on January 19, 2011, Lang Lang performed at the state dinner. One of the tunes Lang played was the song My Motherland from the movie Battle on Shangganling Mountain, an anti-America film on the Korean War. The song’s lyrics include the line “If the wolves come, shotguns will be welcoming them”. Wolves in the movie referred to the American Army.
Lang Lang put the photo of his White House performance on his blog, wrote, “then I played My Motherland, one of the most beautiful songs in the hearts of Chinese people. Being able to play this song that praises China in front of foreign guests, especially those national leaders from all over the world is like declaring to them the mighty power of our China, and the unity of our Chinese people. I am deeply honored and proud. Sharing this day at the White House with everyone”. When some people pointed out that playing such a song at this occasion was inappropriate, Lang Lang denied that he had intended to insult the United States. He responded resolutely, “Do not turn music political.” Ironically, both the Sina and Sohu news, two CCP’s media, posted a headline article: “Lang Lang Played My Motherland at White House, Flaunting National Power.”
The tune, Lang Lang played at the White House state dinner, was a combination of two anti-American theme songs, My Motherland and Heroic Hymn. Both came from Chinese communist movies on the anti-American Korean war.
After the media uproar, Lang Lang explained that as a musician, he did not understand the background of the music. The song My Motherland is ubiquitous in China, how could Lang Lang be so ignorant?
On May 29, 2011, at Lang Lang’s concert in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, a local Chinese holding white chrysanthemums requested the song, Candle in the Wind. At the beginning, Lang Lang happily agreed to play the song. Once an audience member further explained that this song would be dedicated to those who were killed in Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, Lang Lang suddenly changed his expression. He immediately stood up and left the stage. He, also, refused to accept the flower.
Lang Lang regularly performs at various high-profile political events hosted by the Chinese Communist Party. In 2007, he played Yellow River Piano Concerto at the concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s Return to China. Yellow River Piano Concerto was composed to glorify the military force of the CCP. Filled with hatred and killing spirit, the music incorporates the melodies from two popular communist songs: The East Is Red (glorifying Mao) and International.
“Borrowing Boats to Sail in the Sea”
In recent years, the CCP developed a new tactic called “borrowing boats to sail in the sea”. In this plot, the CCP sends its artists overseas to lead the production of performing arts shows. Collaborating with Western artists, the CCP’s artists created performing arts shows telling CCP’s stories in western art formats, which is more familiar to the Western audience and easier to absorb. On the surface, these shows were produced by the western performing arts companies, thus, the art patrons would put down their guards and not even think about the hidden agenda by the CCP.
In September 2016, San Francisco Opera, in collaboration with Hong Kong Arts Festival, held the world premiere of Dream of the Red Chamber, a Western opera based on a classic Chinese novel with the same name at San Francisco War Memorial Opera House. The show, sung in English, sold 6 shows at this second largest opera house of the United States. CCP’s mouthpiece, Guangming Daily called the play “a milestone in the attempt of telling our stories in the western art form”. Dream of the Red Chamber also tells a sad love story, which has been used by the CCP to condemn the “old society” and “old traditions”.
San Francisco Opera reportedly spent $3.5 million dollars in a 3-year-long production, making it one of the most expensive productions in history. According to San Francisco Opera website (https://sfopera.com/1617-season/201617-season/dream-of-the-red-chamber/), “The commission of Dream of the Red Chamber was initiated and funded by the Chinese Heritage Foundation Friends of Minnesota.
However, the tax return form of this foundation after 2012 cannot be located through the online search at https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/562618422 because the annual gross receipt for this organization is less than $50,000. Then who sponsored the show?
A scene in Western Opera “Dream of the Red Chamber” commissioned by San Francisco Opera and premiered at San Francisco War Memorial Opera House in September 2016. The production reportedly cost $3.5 million. (Photo: San Francisco Opera).
The main cast of the show were made of top-tier opera singers from communist China. The lead tenor was Shi Yijie, a well-known opera singer from China. The “Dream Team” consists of a handful of top Chinese artists around the globe to create the production, including Tony-award winner David Henry Huang (Zhelun) as the libretto, and Oscar-winning Tim Yip for the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” as the stage art designer.
In an exclusive interview with Guangming Daily, Xiao Xiayong, the Cultural Consul at the Chinese Consulate San Francisco said, “On a world-class stage of the San Francisco Opera House, the American audience has experienced the great charm of Chinese culture through this drama.” Xiao has been dedicated to the program of “Pushing Chinese Culture Out” for a long time. He said, “This success helps us find our cultural self-confidence – the 5000-year-old cultural heritage is China’s greatest advantage in the process of upgrading our ‘soft power’.”
In Xiao’s view, it is highly necessary to “borrow boats to sail in the sea”, meaning borrowing the Western art form to tell CCP’s stories. “We must encourage artists to tell Chinese stories well in a fusion of Chinese and Western art forms.” According to the article, the CCP plans to push the show elsewhere in the United States in the following years, including Kennedy Center in DC.
What Should Americans Do?
In communist China, all CCP’s performing art shows must be produced for the sole purpose of glorifying CCP and securing CCP’s power; thus, all the shows by CCP contain an inner core of communist ideology. Camouflaged in elaborate art forms, this sugar-coated-poison is nearly impossible for the general American public to discern. Once the minds of the civil society in the free world become massively brainwashed, the free world will no longer have the will to fight this propaganda campaign.
In recent years, the CCP has repeatedly boasted its new status quo of “counterbalancing America”. In the eyes of the CCP, it is just a matter of time for world domination. The CCP clearly understands that winning the cultural war is the ultimate stage of winning this new type of modern warfare. In response to this concealment strategy using soft power, the free world must be aware and develop counteracting measures. Vigilance and awareness is paramount to overcome this planned brainwashing of the US and Western world.
A groundbreaking book “The Ultimate Goal of Communism” (2017) systematically analyzed how the CCP can destruct a traditional culture. At this historical moment, the book provides insightful guidance to all facing the domination strategy of the CCP. We must defend our own culture and reading this book will pave the way for a deep understanding of the enemy’s intention.
Released and Distributed by the Stand Up America US Foundation
Website: www.standupamericaus.org
Contact: standupamericausa1@gmail.com
