In about a week’s time it will be China’s former leader, Deng Xiaoping’s 110th anniversary. Deng took the reins of China after turmoil of the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976 and ushered in the first phase of the economic opening up and reforms that slowly began to turn the Communist country’s wheels of growth.
In a lead-up to it, China’s state television is airing a television serial focused on him. It is rare for China to depict its leaders on screen; in this case, more so Deng’s political career and path is inextricably linked to Mao Zedong, China’s icon, whose legacy of the Cultural Revolution is gradually being looked at with critical outlook.
The state media immediately hailed as another opening up: this time that of China’s space for showing periods and issues that have long being considered super sensitive.
“In recent years, China’s restricted areas of speech have obviously decreased. This series marks significant progress,” the Global Times, a state-controlled newspaper said in an editorial earlier this week.
Though reports in the state media did not mention it, according to Reuters, the show becomes more contentious is the portrayal of the late reformist Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, who Deng ousted, after an ideological struggle.
It was the death of Hu – who died of natural causes – that ignited the student-led protests that led to the Tiananmen massacre of June, 1989. But conveniently, the show, according to state media reports, focuses on the years between 1976 and 1984 and, therefore, has the alibi of not having to show some of the more contentious events of the 1980s. The Global Times newspaper editorial touches upon it.
“Chinese society has reached a consensus about the reforms before 1984, but remains divided over what happened afterward. The significance of Deng perhaps lies not only in the fact that he led the Chinese people to overcome tribulations and walk toward a path of reforms, but also that the country has become accustomed to this path.
The people’s admiration for Deng is closely associated with the complexities China experienced after 1984. Some issues still remain sensitive, which the TV series didn’t touch upon. Deng initiated a package of reforms, and the twists and the turns during this grand process were only interludes which Deng managed well,” the editorial commented.
The television serial – telecast every night since last Friday at prime time, 9 pm – also portrays Hua Guofeng, who was Mao’s successor.
He is shown as announcing the arrest and trial of the “Gang of Four” including Mao’s wife.
But whether the serial will go on to portray Hua’s ouster few years later by Deng remains to be seen.
Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Renmin University in Beijing, told Reuters, that it is “perhaps a signal that events in this era are no longer as sensitive”.
Of course, the makers did not take any chance. According to China Daily, more than 10,000 copies of the $19.4-million production were distributed among leaders, officials and academics “to seek their opinions”.
