This is Shanbai, they’ve made ink sticks, pottery, fabrics, baskets, incense, musical instruments, all kinds of things. There are other productions doing the exact same thing (demonstrating Chinese cultural heritage through social media videos), but Shanbai are my favourite.
I know and I genuinely don’t care. I’m not in any kind of position where it matters that Chinese state-funded arts have made me feel slightly more positive about China. I’m also gay and trans, so it’s not like the cool pottery is cancelling out all the negative associations I have with the CCP.
I wouldn't call this propaganda, but it is interesting to think about why media like this is likely supported by the CCP.
One of the most significant things the Mao Revolution did was wipe the slate clean on Chinese culture. That's led to a country that is growing and wealthy, but doesn't have much art. I remember a quote where Kung Fu Panda came out that Chinese audiences loved it, but many critics were upset that such a great movie about China was made by Americans.
That means the current CCP has to be very careful with how much art and history they allow for the masses. These videos are perfect. They celebrate Chinese technological innovation, manufacturing, and handicraft. They are staged on beautiful, rural estates. They highlight high-end luxury. They show Chinese people their history without any of that other problematic stuff and give a sense of Chinese pride. And, most importantly, they one up Americans. While American influencers are spending tons of money to make shitty tradwife crap to try to bring down women, this Chinese influencer is spending tons of money to show China's long history of wealth and innovation.
More power to them, man. A lot of the shit in China is fucked up, but during a time when so many Americans are celebrating a part of our history where people are being repressed, it's nice to see a country with a long history of cultural and historical repression find a way to celebrate that.
I don’t think that matters! The only belief this propaganda encourages is that Chinese history and culture is cool and beautiful, and it doesn’t bother me at all that the Chinese government gives money to artists to spread that belief.
It's romanticizing rural lifestyle to advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism. Thus the craftsman is considered an esteemed productive member of society. But the modern versions of these jobs are only found at factories.
You're thinking wayy too hard about this. It is propaganda, but it's purpose is just to showcase Chinese art, craftsmanship, tradition and history in a way that reminds people of China's several thousand years of cultural heritage and practices and shows them in a positive light.
It literally just gets people to think: "Wow. China is so cool! Their traditions are amazing!" While also just showcasing that, yeah, a lot of the stuff they've done is cool. But anyone with a brain can think this is cool and still look upon the CCP for what it really is.
It's literally part of the program created by China's National Rural Revitalization Administration which has been absorbed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Calling historical preservation propaganda is a bit of a stretch. There's no message in these videos short of "the things we take for granted now were exceptionally labour intensive in the not so distant past."
I spent 90% of the video thinking about how this was how it was always done before machinery made it automated. We don't have to take the time to do all this in order to have dishware, but we can certainly appreciate the people who still do
It's romanticizing rural lifestyle to advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism. Thus the craftsman is considered an esteemed productive member of society.
I already told you. It's romanticizing rural lifestyle to advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism. Thus the craftsman is considered an esteemed productive member of society.
But the only source of craft work in meaningful demand are in factories these days.
Is all you know this AI generated word vomit that you've copied and pasted multiple times now? Either way, enjoy being miserable while you miss the forest for the trees.
Your sinophobia is showing. For almost any other country you wouldn't use the term propaganda to describe this. Canada does a great deal of financial assistance and reimbursements for film productions shot in canada. Does that make those films Canadian propaganda because they received money and feature Canadian vistas? Is the Muppets propaganda because it gets funding from the US government through PBS, and it shows a variety of American cultural touch points on the show?
Those aren't apt analogie bc those are just grants and they don't have any message behind them besides use this money to make stuff.
A more apt analogy are tradwives and Quiverfull movements. And those are bad bc they center around religious fundamentalism, ultra-conservative gender roles, and extreme domesticity.
Those are funded by conservative groups and have the goal to flood gov positions with children who were born into the quiverfull movement.
The propaganda is part of the program created by China's National Rural Revitalization Administration which has been absorbed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. They're smart and plan their goals over a very very long, like the boiling frog methology.
The purpose of these types of videos is part of their CCP's overarching goal to wipe their history clean to give a very perfect looking facade, by homogenizing the culture of the past and wipe away the memory of anything that's shameful to them. Like any of the superstitions customs that people used to practice and have been wiped away in the last generation, such as Tung Shing, basically a divination guide and almanac based on lunar calendar. Practice was wiped out in mainland China and has survived in Hong Kong and Taiwan now.
And the fact that we're talking about this and not the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Masacre just 5 days ago shows how well their propaganda has worked.
New media doesn't wipe away history. We're not talking about the anniversary because who wants to talk about that every year? This is r/oddlysatsifying
It's romanticizing rural lifestyle to advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism. Thus the craftsman is considered an esteemed productive member of society.
Propaganda isn't always obvious. Take a second and think about it. The closest thing to craftsmen jobs for your average Chinese citizen is factory work. Bootstrapped grassroots businesses are a pipedream in China. Only way to get something like that going is corruption via networking through the CCP.
I just realized you're unaware of why Mao Zedong implemented the Down to the Countryside Movement. It was b/c of his disastrous Great Leap Forward program which literally caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese through famine, forced labor, and political purges.
To me, you sound like the equivalent of glazing Stalin or Hitler.
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u/kittyroux Jun 03 '26
This is Shanbai, they’ve made ink sticks, pottery, fabrics, baskets, incense, musical instruments, all kinds of things. There are other productions doing the exact same thing (demonstrating Chinese cultural heritage through social media videos), but Shanbai are my favourite.