Abracadabra! Come per incanto, le manifestazioni anti-giapponesi sono finite. Di punto in bianco, come erano comiciate. Il patriottismo e' stato messo sotto vuoto spinto, verra' resuscitato alla prossima occasione. Ripensando alle manifestazioni delle quali sono stato testimone (a Pechino sabato 15 settembre e a Chengdu il 18), la presenza di alcuni ritratti di Mao Zedong mi ha dato da pensare (e non solo a me, come si puo' dedurre dal pezzo che riproduco qui sotto, scritto da un reporter dell' Associated Press e pubblicato dal South China Morning Post). Il ritratto di Mao continua a campeggiare su piazza Tiananmen e davanti al suo mausoleo, sempre sulla piazza centrale di Pechino, centinaia di persone fanno la fila ogni giorno. Vengono da tutti le parti della Cina, molti sono giovani. Intervistandoli, si ottengono risposte simili. L' epoca di Mao e' vista come un periodo felice, una sorta di ''bel tempo andato''. E' vero che tutti erano piu' poveri, ma la competizione per un posto al sole non era feroce come oggi, non era un problema far studiare i figli (oggi si batte senza esclusione di colpi per trovare un posto nel sistema scolastico a tutti i livelli, dall' asilo all' Universita' ), non si pensava solo ai soldi e c' era una solidarieta' diffusa.
Chiunque abbia letto un libro, o sentito un racconto, sui tempi del maoismo sa che non e' vero, ma le persone che fanno la fila per onorare il cadavere imbalsamato del Grande Timoniere non lo sanno. Non lo sanno perche' nessuno glielo ha detto. La versione ufficiale, elaborata da Deng Xiaoping piu di 30 anni fa, e' che Mao aveva fatto cose giuste per il 70% e sbagliate per il 30%. Nessuno ha cambiato questa versione ma sotto sotto, un mattone per volta, e' stata costruita una narrativa mitologica su Mao e i suoi compagni - cioe' i padri e i nonni degli attuali dirigenti, che cercano di giustificare la propria posizione con i meriti degli antenati.
Oggi le percentuali sarebbero grosso modo 95% contro 5%. Nessuno dice che fu lui, Mao, l' ispiratore della disastrosa (su questo giudizio in Cina c' e' in largo consenso) Rivoluzione Culturale. I colpevoli furono gli estremisti della Banda dei Quattro e in particolare la cattivissima Jiang Qing, la moglie del Presidente (questo mi fa venire in mente che tutti i media cinesi, quando parlano della cattivissima moglie di Bo Xilai non la chiamano ''Gu Kailai" ma "Bogu Kailai", per sottolineare che e' sposata a Bo Xilai. Non ho mai sentito ne letto "Maojiang Qing" invece di "Jiang Qing"…). Della carestia che provoco' milioni di morti tra il 1958 e il 1961, causata dalle sballate idee di Mao sull' economia, nessuno parla. Se il Giappone non ha fatto i conti con la sua storia la Cina non e' certo da meno. E se oggi il Grande Timoniere viene usato per mettere sotto accusa il regime, i mandarini al potere a Pechino hanno da rimproverare solo se stessi.
Ecco la storia dell' Ap:
In protests, Mao holds subtle messages for Beijing
Thursday, 20 September, 2012, 6:24
The face of dissatisfaction with China’s Communist Party is the face of the man synonymous with it: Mao Zedong.
Portraits of the revolutionary leader often led packs of demonstrators in protests over Japan’s effort last week to bolster its hold on islands claimed by China. Many were hoisted by people born after his death 36 years ago.
Mao, widely revered by Chinese and praised by Communist Party leaders, is supposed to serve as a unifying symbol, but it often isn’t so.
To some he represents a condemnation of corruption and inequality under a government that long ago abandoned his radical policies. More frequently this week, his image was a subtle slap by nationalists who accuse leaders of being too weak in the territorial dispute.
“Mao Zedong was tough. He never backed down when it came to the national interests,” said Lu Lei, a Beijing salesman who went to the Japanese Embassy with his friends to protest on Tuesday. “Our current government is spineless. If Mao were alive, we would have already attacked Japan.”
Mao has become a safe way for Chinese to criticise a government bent on stifling dissent. His giant portrait still looks out to Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, and his name is etched into the country’s constitution and the party’s charter, even if his ideology has been abandoned in practice.
His image has rarely been displayed in such numbers as during the protests this week. Rows of his portraits floated through the parades – often in the company of a sea of red flags – in an eerie resemblance to the scenes from the fervent days of the Cultural Revolution when Mao was worshipped as a god.
Behind the scenes of the angry protests that rippled across more than two dozen cities this week runs an undercurrent of grievances, many of them critical of the government.
Protesters held up signs that touched on broader social issues such as corruption, food safety and the widening gap between poor and rich. Some protesters even joked that urban code enforcers – resented by the Chinese public for their brutality against unlicensed street peddlers – should be sent to fight the Japanese military.
Those messages mixed with anti-Japanese slogans on a rare occasion where the government tolerated and at time abetted public demonstrations.
“This movement has multiple purposes. Nationalism is only part of the protests.” said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. “More people are angry about the current government, and they wanted to use this opportunity to vent.”
The government, normally inclined to crush protests, allowed these of public anti-Japanese fury to gain leverage in its latest tiff with Tokyo over small uninhabited East China Sea islands called the Senkaku by Japanese and the Diaoyu by Chinese.
Japan controls the islands and purchased them from their private owners last week, thwarting plans by Tokyo’s nationalistic governor to buy and develop them. China responded with furious rhetoric.
Both countries have sent patrol ships to the waters surrounding the islands, and there is no sign of progress in resolving the dispute between the two Asian economic powerhouses.
Allowing the protests, however, carries risks for China, as protesters can bend the intended message. They sent a quiet critique with a sign seemingly hard for the government to quarrel with: “Chairman Mao, we are missing you very much.”
After his death in 1976, Mao was much criticised for radical excesses in which tens of millions killed and persecuted in mass movements. Laid-off workers, however, eventually began parading his portrait at protests as a plea for more egalitarian policies.
Mao first became a protest icon about a decade ago during mass layoffs that accompanied privatisation of state industries. Social injustice, corruption and a yawning rich-poor gap have only worsened since and were themes amid the anti-Japan protests.
Many Chinese are worried about the chairman’s re-emergence on the scene. His most ardent supporters tend to be stridently nationalistic and advocate an authoritarian populism. Some protesters called for the release of Bo Xilai, the disgraced politician and a populist who was ousted from the leadership in a political scandal.
Wang Zheng, a Beijing teacher who has been detained for her support of Bo, said the public remembers Mao as a resolute man who showed no ambiguity on sovereignty issues.
“Our government has been spineless on many things – Diaoyu being one of them,” she said. “The diplomatic protests are meaningless when they are not backed with actions. The government has behaved the same year after year, making the public more nostalgic about Mao.”
Some protesters employed other methods to use the outrage against Japan as a jumping-off point to deliver other messages.
In Beijing, some held up signs saying they would be willing to eat unsafe food to reclaim the islands. Food safety is a big public concern in China.
In Changsha, a small group of protesters at an anti-Japan rally held up a hand-written sign calling for the ouster of corrupt officials. Some of them wore mouth covers marked with an “X”.
“That means we cannot freely speak our minds,” local protester Wu Qingjun said.
Wu said his group did not catch police attention, but the rights group China Human Rights Defenders reported at least three cases when activists were taken away.
It said Jiao Guobian, a former college teacher, was arrested on September 12 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”, allegedly for saying the government should have kept an eye as close on the islands as it does on dissidents.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento