HIGH Ambitions
CHINA'S BOOMING HEMP INDUSTRY HAS GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS
Though there are many industries where China now commands a leading presence, cannabis production probably isn’t the first that comes to mind.
The South China Morning Post recently shone a light on the relatively low-key hemp industry, and how China now accounts for approximately half of the world’s legal hemp production: The stems are used in fabrics, leaves are used in medicine, and seeds produce oil which becomes a food ingredient.
It’s not legal everywhere in China, but where it is, it’s lucrative. A hemp field reportedly nets about 10,000 RMB per acre, compared to just a few thousand RMB per acre of corn. Heilongjiang and Yunnan provinces make up the key growing areas, but an underground market for illicit hemp is also reportedly thriving in locations where enforcement is lax.
World Intellectual Property Organization figures indicate that over half of the world’s 600 cannabis patents are held in China. In 2014, Quartz reported that Chinese companies were anticipating a growing market, amid increased legalization overseas, and listed a number of related patented products, including a cannabis drink designed to help relax the bowels, and various Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatments.
Cannabis has long had a presence in TCM. A report published this year in the US National Center for Biotechnology Information analyzed texts dating back over several millennia, trying to discern the ways in which cannabis was used for health treatments. It found that the seeds have been used in medicine for at least 1,800 years— primarily as a laxative.
In regard to the more popular use of cannabis today, the report found that “further research is needed to probe whether the medical applications of cannabis in ancient Chinese literature may relate to non-psychoactive cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD), which may have been present in ancient fiber biotypes as well as drug biotypes.”
This suggested that it’s possible the ancient Chinese used strains of cannabis that were not conducive to getting high—the chemical compound responsible for that is tetrahydrocannabinol, or Thc—but still contained active drug ingredients, such as CBD, which many now claim now help with an impressive range of ailments, from insomnia to depression, Alzheimer’s to rheumatism.
Chinese use of hemp for non-medicinal purposes goes back even further, with evidence to indicate that it was used in some of the earliest forms of paper in the Shang dynasty, around 3,400 years ago.
Today, there are several big players advocating further research into the drug properties of cannabis, and plenty of good reasons why that research should continue. Tan Xin, president of the Hemp Investment Company, told the SCMP that his company was working with the People’s Liberation Army to develop a drug for treating posttraumatic stress disorder. – DAVID DAWSON
Chinese media has long had a menagerie of hapless animals that stand in for countries in political comic strips. Russia is a bear, China is a panda (of course), and the US is occasionally an eagle, though more often an angry-looking Uncle Sam. They’re hideously dull. Chinese nationalists— or at least, those on the internet—have been eager to latch onto a relatively recent creation: a feisty, militaristic rabbit.
Created by 33-year-old animator Lin Chao, “That Rabbit” is the star of various animated shorts that have gone viral. In April, Lin received 20 million RMB in investment from online streaming site Bilibili, for a third animated series and a feature film to be screened in October 2018.
So what is That Rabbit? Well, it really depends who you ask. To fans, it’s the embodiment of a modern, strong, militaristic China that isn’t afraid to stand up for itself and right historical wrongs. To critics, who have organized on Baidu Tieba and Facebook, it’s an aggressive little fascist known disparagingly as “Nazi Rabbit” (a play on na, or “that,” which shares its pronunciation with the first character in “Nazi”).
The rabbit has appeared in various online forms since 2011, all staunchly patriotic and with the none-too-subtle tagline “Every rabbit has its dream of becoming a big power.” But it was Lin’s Year Hare Affair, a web comic later adapted into an animated series, that kicked That Rabbit into strange stardom.
Now in its fourth season, each episode is an allegory of various historical events significant to modern China—such as the unequal treaties and the Cold War—reenacted by rabbits meant to represent Chinese historical figures and other countries’ avatars. In the first episode, the rabbit is stabbed by a bald man (representing the Nationalist Party) and vows to feed many rabbits and bring them honor. In the third season, the eagle accuses the rabbit of harboring chemical weapons on its container ship, the Yinhe, and forces it to stop in international waters for more than a month, whereupon the rabbit vows that it’d rather starve on the sea than submit to this humiliation—mirroring a real-life incident in 1993 (the Chinese government allowed the real Yinhe to be searched by a joint Us-saudi team after three weeks, and the accusations were disproven).
That Rabbit has gained a fan in high places: the Central Communist Youth League of China has retweeted its image several times, and Sixth Tone reported last year that Lin had been approached by various official bodies interested to incorporate That Rabbit into official promotion. Lin has steadfastly resisted, arguing that he is an artist and wants to deliver patriotism his way. – D.D.