Film extolling Xi Jinping’s ideology, Hold Your Hands, won’t be last to benefit from promoting the Chinese president’s ‘thought’
Movie about an ex-soldier’s battle to pull his family out of rural hardship, inspired by Chinese president’s 2013 launch of anti-poverty strategy in a Hunan village, has benefited from relentless promotion by state media
Since the Chinese Communist Party enshrined President Xi Jinping’s newly proclaimed ideology in its constitution last week, officials and universities have been rushing to find ways of embedding the leader’s doctrines in their work and elevating his historical standing among the young generation.
Speaking on the sidelines of the party’s 19th national congress on Monday, education minister Chen Baosheng said “Xi Jinping Thought” will “go into textbooks and into classes” and be promoted through “specific teaching methods”.
Meanwhile, Renmin University of China announced on Wednesday the establishment of a research centre dedicated to the study of Xi’s “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era”.
Away from the hallowed halls of power and academia, however, the state’s propaganda machine has also begun a more populist campaign to consolidate Xi’s status as a visionary leader through cinema – in the shape of a small and seemingly unglamorous film set in a village in Hunan province.
Opening on October 13, Hold Your Hands was overshadowed by its more commercially driven counterparts during its first week on release. Against the odds, however, the film’s share of total screenings in Chinese cineplexes increased in its second week, doubling on October 20 and reaching a high of 7.4 per cent by October 24. Its share of ticket sales peaked at 6.6 per cent on the same day.
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Hold Your Hands’ untypical second-week surge coincided with the confirmation of Xi’s “thought” as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s ruling dogma. It’s hardly a surprise, given that Miao Yue’s film is a celebration of one of the leader’s first fully fledged ideological directives issued after he assumed office in 2012.
