Film praising Xi is quite literally a must-see
With workers being forced to attend, it is no surprise a movie idolising the Chinese leader is breaking records Two men sitting near the popcorn stall were compiling a list so that the authorities would know who did not show up to watch the film
HE has a nickname praising his paternalism, a song depicting him as the ideal husband, and now president Xi Jinping has his own box office-breaking movie which hails his leadership.
But while authorities claim that Amazing China is a “smash hit” and a widely-loved “epic” that will have a “huge social effect”, its success at the box office is in fact the result of people being forced to watch it.
The 90-minute documentary film was created by state broadcaster CCTV to highlight the country’s achievements since Mr Xi assumed leadership in 2012.
It has become the top grossing factual movie ever in China, raking in more than 300million yuan (£27.5million) at the box office opening on March 2.
But when watched the film this week – at one of only eight daily screenings that wasn’t shown as “sold out” at Beijing’s Blue Island Tower cinema – most of the moviegoers had tickets which were given to them by the state-owned companies they worked for.
Indeed, two men sitting near the popcorn stall were compiling a list of teachers and staff from the local Chenlingjun Middle School, so that the authorities would know who did not show up to see the film.
“The teachers don’t need to pay for a ticket, the school pays,” one of the men told The Sunday Telegraph, before inviting his colleague to cast his eye over the list they had compiled.
“How are we going to report to our superiors that so few people turned up?” he asked the man.
Amazing China is the latest propaganda tool to be rolled out by Beijing as part of an intensifying cult of personality that is being built around Mr Xi.
The film fawns over a series of landmarks achieved by China in science, diplomacy, military advancement and poverty-reduction. He appears more than 20 times, congratulating workers on feats of engineering, meeting peasants and delivering slogans to the Communist Party faithful.
Authorities are encouraging grassroots adulation of Mr Xi, who is also known by many ordinary Chinese as Xi Dada, or “Big Daddy Xi”, a term which depicts him as a paternal father figure.
A number of songs praising not only Mr Xi’s leadership but also his qualities as a husband and lover to wife Peng Liyuan, have gone viral in recent months. If you want to marry, marry someone like Xi is among the most popular tunes, while Xi Dada loves Peng Mama has its own dance steps.
China has been rising on the global stage, but Beijing’s propaganda drive at home is seen as an important means of tightening the Communist Party’s rule.
It was no coincidence that Amazing China was released just days before the start of China’s rubber stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), where Mr Xi was last week handed powers to rule for life. “Xi is now everywhere,” said Steven Tsang, the director of the China Institute at Soas, University of London. However, he warned that such a position would leave him “feeling infallible” and “intoxicated by the grandiose hubris”.
The Sunday Telegraph saw many fans of Mr Xi at the screening. “I thought it was a brilliant film which made me feel very proud and warm in my heart at being Chinese,” said one, a Ms Wu.
A man named Mr Li, who was taken to the screening by his employers, said workers had little choice about going.
“It’s a bit like being taken somewhere to watch the news. Except that we were ordered to go,” he said.
Additional reporting by Christine Wei