Tiffany in Never-Never Land

The occasional chronicles of a student of languages in Northwestern China.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Justice and a Harmonious Society in Ruins?

I'm not making a political statement with the title of this post; please don't misunderstand. I'm simply offering a literal description of an odd scene that recently appeared next to the building I work in.

On Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, I overheard a coworker telling someone else in the office that a nearby building had "collapsed". I had seen no signs of anything unusual that day, so I figured it couldn't have been too big of a building, and if it were a disaster of some sort I'd probably hear more about it.

On my way home from work (I come in the front way, go out the back way), I saw that indeed, an old two-storey edifice was in the beginning stages of being torn down. I wouldn't say it collapsed as it looks quite purposeful, but the next day something strange appeared.

Shiny new banners strung up across the rubble, proclaiming "No matter how savage, the harmonious society cannot be destroyed" and on the right, "Justice will never bow its head to evil forces".

I'm used to banners with slogans on them. It's a central part of the government's plan to propagandize the masses and steer them in the desired direction. The city is full of pithy little things like "Be civilized", "Don't spit", "Build a harmonious society together"; the list goes on. Harmonious society has become a pet phrase of Hu Jintao's in the last several years, but these slogans are worded rather strongly and I doubt it's a coincidence that they appeared in a pile of rubble.

I asked my coworkers what it was about (who are all local), but they just shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders, and laughed. The day the banners appeared there were small crowds of three or four scattered around the area, checking out the new developments and talking amongst themselves. I'm sure it's not a big deal, whatever it is, because nobody cared that I was standing around taking pictures. I saw a local guy taking pictures the day the banners went up. Online searches revealed no news on buildings being torn down or having collapsed in that area, and searches on those phrases came up with no exact matches.

So, I'm still left to speculate.