Beijing Newspeak

Ah, do you remember those days when, as children, we would gather together pockets full of posies, skip along country lanes and yodel traditional rhymes in celebration of International Children’s Songs Day on March 21? Funny that, neither do I.

But when I received a story on the eve of March 20 previewing the event, I didn’t really think much of verifying the historical details of such a prestigious day. They have international days for anything now anyway (I’ll be munching All Bran on April 12). I set about changing the story from a dry, humourless showcase for Chinese “literary experts” to slag off pop music to: ”Chinese literature buffs lambast pop culture in time for Children’s Songs Day”. I think my main beef was the lack of any quotes from the kids of today. I don’t like R&B either but I’m not going to campaign for its extinction. On close inspection, it should be obvious a pesky foreign editor has been chucking his own opinions into this story, if only because it proved light relief from nonsensical diplomatic stories on the six-party talks.

Fan also seems to have little time for creativity, criticizing today’s younger generation for “mocking some pop songs and ancient poems to create rhyming spoofs”.

I felt like a standard bearer for the younger generations of China. Keep on downloading ridiculous pop songs from the Internet while we mock those stuffy academics. Hao ting!

The next day, I googled International Children’s Songs Day on the Internet. It only came up on the English language websites of Chinese media. But, according to my Xinhua story, it was:

“… established in 1976 in an international poetry conference in Belgium and approved by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999.”

A quick inspection of the list of international days on the Unesco website. Nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t even next to “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” or “World Poetry Day”, which both fall on March 21. Surely Xinhua hasn’t written a story about a day that doesn’t exist..

 I can’t read Chinese but apparently news on the International Children’s Songs Day was all over the Beijing newspapers and Chinese news sites. Nobody could explain what had happened. Where had this god foresaken celebration of mindless melodies originated from? And what about stories on “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” and “World Poetry Day”? These bona fide celebrations had been snubbed. One colleague speculated that someone had made a translation mistake somewhere along the line. She referred to an event reported by Xinhua two years ago called “World Toilet Mountain” instead of the “World Toilet Summit”. Images of stockpiles of lavatories on desert islands ..

Was there something wrong with World Poetry Day? Are all Chinese poets so subversive in their art, the event can not be discussed? And what is it about the Chinese media that loves to celebrate international days the rest of the world has barely heard of? World Sleep Day on March 20 anyone (although I did see a story from Greece about this event)? This post has raised more questions than answers. It reflects a tortured wretch of a sub-editor babbling in a corner of a office on the seventh floor.

Incidentally, after the “international” children’s songs day had been exposed as a sham, I received a story at 10.30 pm on March 21 which began:

Chinese adults are striving to create more songs fit to children and do all efforts to encourage the country’s next generations to sing their own songs, a government official told Xinhua on Wednesday, the World Children’s Songs Day.

No way. Rejected. Binned. “Not polished”, as we say. Roll on World Press Freedom Day on May 3.