International Law

Using Cultural Heritage to Promote Patriotism

By Stan

A senior Chinese leader on Thursday called for the use of historical and cultural heritage as a platform to promote patriotism, particularly among the country’s young people. (Xinhua)

I’m not a big fan of either culture or patriotism, so I can’t say that this type of policy fares well with me.

On the other hand, I was happy to read this article as it explained a lot of mysterious goings-on, such as why that fake terracotta warrior statue standing outside that restaurant near the Jinsong subway station has a red scarf around its neck. (Well, it does if you apply the policy broadly.)

You know, it’s not at all easy to figure out how to hop up the kids on patriotism by promoting only the “good” culture without having them polluted by the “bad” culture. China has been struggling with this for the better part of 60 years.

Usually at this point in a post I would draw upon an analogous situation from my experience as an American. Unfortunately the U.S. doesn’t really have its own culture per se, so I’ve got nothing to work with here.

Perhaps a cautionary tale about cultural pollution regarding Texas and the manna from heaven known as Mexican food? Maybe I’ll save that for another time. It’s rather late, and I don’t want to get the munchies.

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on August 07, 2009 (boomark / email).