Maoist overtones in Beijing concert raise red flags; By Chun Han Wong in The Wall St Journal, May 8, 2016

A recent concert featuring Maoist “red songs,” staged in China’s most high-profile political venue just weeks ahead of the Cultural Revolution’s 50th anniversary, has sparked a backlash over its perceived memorialization of the decadelong mass upheaval unleashed by Mao Zedong.
Touted by organizers as a “celebration of socialism,” the May 2 concert featured Chinese girl group 56 Flowers performing revolutionary anthems cheering Mao and modern-day ditties dedicated to President Xi Jinping.
After images and videos from the concert appeared online, however, many social-media users condemned the show as an attempt to glorify the Cultural Revolution and whitewash its contentious legacy.
Among them was Ma Xiaoli, daughter of Communist revolutionary Ma Wenrui, a former labor minister who was purged and imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. In a letter widely shared on social media and cited by a party-controlled newspaper, Ms. Ma called the concert a commemoration of the Maoist upheaval, contradicting official party condemnation of the movement, and a “deliberate subversion of political discipline.”
For many observers, the staging of the concert at the Great Hall of the People, where China holds top-level legislative and diplomatic events, suggested that its organizers had official backing. The billing of China’s largest state-run theater and a purported Communist Party publicity office as co-organizers fueled the perception.
As the controversy escalated, the theater and a municipal agency that approved the event appeared to deny the Communist Party’s involvement, saying the purported party publicity office was fictitious. The performers, for their part, have pushed back against critics.
“Those who say we’re reviving the Cultural Revolution are creating something out of nothing,” Chen Guang, the 56 Flowers troupe leader, told China Real Time. “There was absolutely nothing of the sort, and the audience didn’t express such sentiment at the time.”
The group publicized concert images and videos on its official Weibo microblog for two days after the show, but has since taken them down. A nationalistic song-and-dance troupe backed by a Beijing-based private investment firm, 56 Flowers debuted last yearwith its theme tune, “China Dream, Most Beautiful”—a nod to Mr. Xi’s call for national renaissance, featuring lyrics borrowed from Mao’s 1933 poem, “Dabaidi.”
Their May 2 concert was titled “On the Fields of Hope,” the name of a 1980s folk tune first popularized by Mr. Xi’s wife, onetime folk singer Peng Liyuan. That song was the penultimate item at the concert, according to a program reviewed by China Real Time.
The audience had representatives from the party, government agencies and the military officials as well as the general public, according to 56 Flowers. Seats were priced from 380 yuan to 2,080 yuan ($58 to $320), according to a ticketing website. The Great Hall of the People, while primarily a state and party venue, has been leased for cultural performances from time to time.
One song that drew particular opprobrium was the 1950s piece “Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman,” whose lyrics laud Mao’s leadership and describe his revolutionary theories as “the sun that never sets.” The show also featured a folksy tune titled “How should I address you,” which showcased Mr. Xi as an avuncular leader who cared for China’s rural poor.
During the show, a giant screen splashed images of Mao, Mr. Xi, Communist model worker Lei Feng, as well as Maoist-era slogans and propaganda posters, according to photos on social media.
It wasn’t clear what lay behind the staging of the concert or its timing. Some observers say such a show—with its controversial content and high-profile venue—could only have come about with high-level party support.
“The performance looks so over the top that one wonders if it were meant as caricature,” said June Teufel Dreyer, a political science professor at University of Miami. She suggested critics of Mr. Xi’s concentration of control in his own hands might have tried to use the concert to play up a comparison with Mao.
The Global Times, a tabloid published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, said in a Friday commentary that the concert likely didn’t have official support, given that the party would avoid staging any “controversial activities” that could be linked to the Cultural Revolution. That article has since been taken down.
Organizers gave a first indication of the concert’s program when they revealed a partial songlist at a news conference on April 13, including “Sailing on Seas Depends on the Helmsman,” according to the state-run China News Service.
According to promotional material, the organizers included the China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater, the China International Culture Exchange Center, an office under the Communist Youth League, and the “Office for Promotion and Education of Socialist Core Values under the Communist Party Central Committee’s Propaganda Department.”
In a statement late Friday, the CNODDT said fabricated documents were used to dupe the theater into accepting the purported propaganda department office as a co-organizer. Beijing’s Xicheng District Culture Committee, which on April 7 gave approval for the concert, said it would investigate and that the fictitious office wasn’t added as a co-organizer until the day of the concert.
A video of the April 13 news conference, however, showed that the “Office for Promotion and Education of Socialist Core Values” was already listed as an organizer at the time.
The CNODDT and the Communist Party’s propaganda department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A person who answered a call to the Xicheng District Culture Committee said relevant officials weren’t immediately available for comment. Efforts to reach the China International Culture Exchange Center and the Communist Youth League office weren’t successful.
The Cultural Revolution, which ended shortly after Mao’s death in 1976, was condemned by the Communist Party in a 1981 resolution, which chiefly blamed Mao for the upheaval while defending his revolutionary credentials.
Mao’s successors have generally avoided discussing the Cultural Revolution, while curbing attempts at a public accounting. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2016/05/08/maoist-overtones-in-beijing-concert-raise-red-flags/