(Minghui.org) Singing is a popular art form often used to express appreciation of beautiful things and joyful feelings. In oppressive regimes, however, song is also used to influence and brainwash the people. Such is the case in China, where songs praising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are permeated with subtle poison.
Children forced to sing at executions
The Party usurped state power through murder and terror, so as to force people to submit to it. Even then, Party officials knew very well how to gloss over their criminal conduct with songs. The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party quoted an excerpt from the book Enemy Within by Father Raymond J. de Jaegher:
“….one day, the CCP required everyone to go to the square in the village. Teachers led the children to the square from school. The purpose for the gathering was to watch the killing of 13 patriotic young men. After announcing the fabricated charges against the victims, the CCP ordered the horrified teacher to lead the children to sing patriotic songs. Appearing on the stage amid the songs were not dancers, but rather an executioner holding a sharp knife in his hands. The executioner was a fierce, robust young communist soldier with strong arms. The soldier went behind the first victim, quickly raised a big sharp knife and struck downwards, and the first fell to the ground. Blood sprayed out like a fountain as the head rolled on the ground. The children's hysterical singing turned into chaotic screaming and crying. The teacher kept the beat, trying to keep the songs going; her bell was heard ringing over and over in the chaos. The executioner chopped 13 times and 13 heads fell to the ground. After that, many communist soldiers came over, cut the victims' chests open and took out their hearts for a feast. All the brutality was done in front of the children. The children went completely pale in terror and some started throwing up. The teacher scolded the soldiers, and lined the children up to return to school.
“After that Father de Jaegher often saw children being forced to watch killings. The children became used to the bloody scenes and numb to the killing, some even started to enjoy the excitement.”
This is how the party used songs to corrupt human nature.
“Red Songs” sung daily to praise the Party
During the ten-year Cultural Revolution (1966-76), human nature in China was completely perverted and morality was destroyed. During that time, the Chinese people hardly had any form of entertainment, except for the eight “Revolutionary Model Plays” which were repeatedly performed on stage. People's minds were instilled with the false concepts of class struggle and proletariat dictatorship. At least twice a day, they had to sing “Red Songs,” which praised the communist leadership. It was estimated that there were at least one billion Chinese people singing Red Songs every day. When the people sang these songs, such as “There Wouldn't Have Been a New China without the Communist Party,” “Socialism is Good,” and “The Cultural Revolution is Absolutely Good,” their minds were totally controlled by the CCP.
During that destructive period of time, husbands and wives became enemies of one another, children broke away from their parents, students criticized and beat up their teachers, and different fractions fought with one another. From cities to the countryside, from civilians to the military forces, the entire society was in utter chaos—even the state chairman couldn't save his own skin. However, after the Party had dragged the entire country into such chaos and misery, no complaints about the CCP were heard; instead, people were still singing the Party's praise. This is how thoroughly the Chinese people had been brainwashed!
“The Same Song” deflected attention from Tiananmen Square Massacre
The Party created Red Songs from time to time to suit its needs. Other songs, whose writers might not have had any ulterior motives or political agendas themselves, also ended up serving the Party. Because the writers had already been indoctrinated by CCP propaganda, the songs they wrote were unconsciously influenced by Party ideology, and could easily be used to influence the people. “The Same Song” is one such song appropriated by the CCP.
“The Same Song” was written and composed in 1990. It sings about the happy life people enjoy together. Just one year earlier, the regime had massacred thousands of students on Tiananmen Square, and China was still shrouded in an atmosphere of terror. A democratic movement had been brutally put down, and the regime was being severely condemned. Many western countries took measures to punish the Chinese regime and some even proposed taking measures against the Asia Games to be held in Beijing in 1990. The CCP chose “The Same Song” to ease the tension and to shift people's attention away from the massacre. The Party spent huge sums of money promoting this song across China and used it as the host country theme song during the Asia Games.
When singing the “The Same Song,” because of its melody and sentimental lyrics, people reflect upon their life experiences and appreciate precious reunions with friends. When the Party led people from all walks of life, especially those with a particular CCP background, to sing the song together, it made people gradually forget the bloody massacre on Tiananmen Square, and even unwittingly express their approval of the regime. Under the strategic planning and packaging by the Party's propaganda departments, the song led many Chinese people to side with the CCP without realizing it.
The song was further utilized after the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999. The central 610 Office spent huge sums of money and hired psychological experts to work out how to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners. At the beginning of 2000, officials began to use “The Same Song” at Beijing's Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp to brainwash detained Falun Gong practitioners. Soon afterwards, the song was quickly promoted in all forced labor camps across China. Detained Falun Gong practitioners were forced to sing “The Same Song” and to watch a performance of “The Same Song” on the state-run CCTV every Friday evening. During that time, the first thing Falun Gong practitioners were forced to do after being brainwashed was not to write a so-called “repentance statement” but to sing “The Same Song.” Falun Gong practitioner Shi Shengying from Shenyang City died from torture at Liaoning Women's Prison after she refused to sing the song. “The Same Song” came to symbolize the psychological persecution of Falun Gong and became a musical accompaniment for the CCP in covering up its crimes.
Songs used in the torture of Falun Gong practitioners
Singing is also used as a form of persecution by the Party. A typical example is the “A Song A Day” torture at Xishanping Forced Labor Camp in Chongqing City: The victim is pressed down to the concrete floor, with his or her hands pulled, twisted and pressed down to the floor, while three or four inmates step on the victim's legs. Then, one inmate grabs the victim's head and bashes it with a plastic stool. Another inmate hits the victim's back, stomach and ankles with a wooden stick, while others bash the victim's ankle joints with plastic stools or food containers. They kick and hit the victim hard. Some also use shoes to beat the practitioner. While the victim is being beaten, a few inmates sing loudly by the window so that others cannot hear the sounds of the beating and the victim's screams.
Torture reenactment: Violent beating
Apart from forcing the detainees to sing songs, forced labor camps also broadcast songs at very high volume to cover up their criminal conduct. Falun Gong practitioner Huang Zhenglan, who was severely tortured in Maojiashan Women's Forced Labor Camp, said that each time they tortured Falun Gong practitioners, the guards played music at a very high volume so that people could not hear the torture or the victims' screams.
Some police even sang songs themselves while torturing Falun Gong practitioners. Practitioner Lu Xingde from Linyi, Shandong Province was arrested along with his son in Beijing on December 28, 1999 when they appealed for justice for Falun Gong. They were taken to the Linyin Representative Office in Beijing. The police cuffed their hands behind their backs, and started drinking and singing madly, then they began to slap Lu Xingde hard in the face. When the police became tired, they would go and drink some more, return and continue slapping Mr. Lu in the face. This went on for several hours, until the police had “enjoyed” themselves to the fullest.
In forced labor camps, the guards not only made the detainees sing, they broadcast songs through loudspeakers, and also sang songs themselves. They forced Falun Gong practitioners to sing songs that praise the Party. Practitioner Zhao Xiuyun from Yilan County of Heilongjiang Province was detained at Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in Harbin for a long time. She said every night, the head of Division 7, Zhang Boqiang, forced Falun Gong practitioners to sing songs which praised the CCP. If a practitioner refused to sing, she wasn't allowed to sleep, and instead was dragged out and beaten.
Apart from songs which praise the Party, the police also forced Falun Gong practitioners to sing evil songs. At Xishanping Forced Labor Camp in Chonging City for example, drug addicts were instructed to force Falun Gong practitioners to sit next to their beds. Their hands and shoulders were tightly held, while other inmates grabbed their hair and pulled their heads up, forcing them to look at pornographic pictures. A few other inmates stood behind holding wooden clubs, ready to hit the practitioners. They also forced practitioners to sing songs with words such as “chop you into a meat lump, chop you to death knife after knife......” Team leader Li Qiwei shouted loudly, “Force Falun Gong practitioners to sing ruffians' songs, force them to look at pornographic pictures. This is to help them return to society.”
Bo Xilai launched new “Red Song” campaign
Bo Xilai, former CCP secretary of Chongqing, now a prisoner himself, launched a “Red Song” campaign a few years ago. Suddenly, all the media and newspapers started to propagate the movement, with reports saying that by singing Red Songs, one could have one's prison term reduced. Reportedly, one man placed such importance on singing the Red Songs that he missed his mother's funeral. Other reports claimed that singing Red Songs could treat mental illnesses, etc. During the campaign, people also saw a most bizarre scene: adherents of the five major religions singing Red Songs together on the same stage. Theists came together and sang in praise of the atheist CCP, severely threatened or brainwashed by the cult of the CCP.
Longterm effects of propaganda through song
Brainwashing people through song is very subtle, as songs can deeply poison a person for a long time without them even knowing it. For example, a Chinese chef immigrated to California after his family suffered severe persecution under the regime. While he prepared food, he would happily hum songs. However, even though he hated the CCP, he sang lyrics such as “Chairman Mao's works are the ones I love reading most; I read them thousands of times...” When others pointed this out to him, he found it both funny and extremely embarrassing. Over decades, the Chinese people's minds have been deeply poisoned by Party ideology.
Recently, the Party's propaganda department made a joint statement with four other departments to officially stop the broadcast of “The Same Song.” Perhaps even the CCP itself has realized that Chinese people are no longer willing to sing the same song with them and are now ready to leave the stage. Bo Xilai, who launched the “Red Song” movement, has been put on trial, as he himself has also become a victim of the Party's endless internal power struggle. It is clear that the Chinese people are waking up and the regime is reaching its end.
We hope that more people come to realize the moral depravity that is wrapped up in the CCP songs, see through its true evil nature and quickly step away from it.
