{"id":56405,"date":"2023-08-18T17:06:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T09:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/?p=56405"},"modified":"2023-08-18T18:23:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T10:23:36","slug":"the-battle-of-brick-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/2023\/08\/18\/the-battle-of-brick-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"The Battle of Brick Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the morning of August 6, residents in London’s hip East End woke to find that the wall along Brick Lane, generally a riotously colorful canvas for local street artists, had been completely whitewashed. It was now adorned with Chinese characters in bold red paint spelling out the 12 “core socialist values” that have become central to the public community propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 12 “core socialist values” on a bilingual poster in Guangzhou.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The slogans stretched for nearly 100 meters, completely covering up the murals and graffiti<\/a> that had long made the wall an open-air gallery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work was the doing of a group of Chinese students from the Royal College of Art. One, Wang Hanzheng (\u738b\u6f22\u931a), who works under the pseudonym Yi Que (\u4e00\u9d72), shared images of their handiwork on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (\u5c0f\u7d05\u66f8), similar to Instagram. Despite its appearance as a mere reproduction of party-state propaganda, Wang wrote<\/a> that the piece \u201cused the framework of socialism to counter the false freedom of the colonial West.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work, Wang insisted, was \u201cjust a facade without political implications to speak of.\u201d But it nonetheless sparked intense debate online and on the wall itself, which was soon covered with new graffiti and posters. In the contentious spirit of much urban art, these undercut the slogans, criticizing the CCP, and voicing support for causes such as the Hong Kong democracy movement, the independence of Taiwan and Tibet, and the plight of China\u2019s Uyghur population. Seeing how the wall had become a battlefield, the local council in the Tower Hamlets borough moved to completely whitewash it<\/a> yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Chinese commentators have pointed to the “core socialist values” graffiti in Brick Lane as just another embodiment of freedom of speech in the West. Others have expressed pride<\/a> in \u201ccore socialist values\u201d as a kind of “cultural export.” But how should we understand the controversy that played out in Brick Lane, and what does it tell us about the vastly different understandings of these values that some have insisted are shared by China and the West?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socialist Constructions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Writing on Weibo<\/a> shortly after the controversy broke, Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times<\/em>, contended that Westerners were just over-sensitive. \u201cIn theory, the twelve words encapsulating the core socialist values could also hold weight in the Western world,” he wrote. “Terms like democracy, freedom, rule of law, patriotism, and more are universally recognized and familiar, transcending mere politics to represent shared human values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A wall on London\u2019s famous Brick Lane became the canvas for supporters and opponents of China\u2019s authorities, with graffiti echoing the regime\u2019s propaganda immediately covered by anti-Beijing slogans.

In full: https:\/\/t.co\/KRYgVlohLl<\/a>

Photos: Henry Nicholls\/AFP. pic.twitter.com\/cl07iLC0Qe<\/a><\/p>— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) August 8, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>