Bread and Circuses is a millennia-old method of keeping the masses under control, which together with the "carrot and stick" approach is the way the CC State uses in order to create "harmony".
Last year was the Beijing Olympics, this year is the upcoming gargantuan parade for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist State this week.
The Big Propaganda Machine is again rolling - Stalinist and Hollywood style.
A video.
No Detail Is Overlooked as China Prepares to Celebrate (New York Times).
And Pictures showing preparations for the October 1st parade.
In addition to the Thursday 60th anniversary, this year is a year of other "sensitive anniversaries", Tibet, Tiananmen, etc, and observation makes one think deeply.
20 years on, on Tiananmen tanks will roll again, but this time there will be cheers and ballons - an indication of mass-amnesia of 1,3 billion people. It is very scary.
Also the escallated ethnic and social tensions (in Tibet and Xinjiang) are showing how far and deep are the exhisting problems and how things are far from "harmonious"...
Connected news articles:
About the social challenges that China faces today:
60 years on, China faces major social struggles (AFP)
China's Internet Censorship Gets "Worse And Worse" Ahead Of 60th Anniversary
China Clamps Down on Internet Ahead of 60th Anniversary
The National Day celebration follows the most violent and sustained unrest against Chinese rule in decades in its far western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet.
Ahead of the parade for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Chinese State which is on the 1st of October China bans foreign tourists from Tibet again!*
*China requires foreigners to obtain special permission to visit Tibet and routinely bars them from all Tibetan minority areas of the country during sensitive periods. The region has been periodically off-limits since riots in March 2008 saw Tibetans protesting Beijing's rule attack Chinese migrants and shops, and torch much of Lhasa's commercial district.
An UPDATE - After the Parade (3rd October):
News feeds about the spectacle:
video
pictures
articles:
Communist China marks 60 years with tanks, kitsch (AP)
China marks 60 years with spectacle of power (Reuters)
On China's 60th anniversary, Tibet wants quiet (The Christian ScienceMonitor)
Another UPDATE:
An interesting analysis of the State sponsored Hollywood-style 'docu-drama style' blockbuster film 'Founding of a Republic' (建国大业) - Reshooting History in a New China Film (TIME).
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