Chinese State Media Publish Sesame Street-Style ‘One Belt, One Road’ Propaganda Video
With the big Beijing One Belt, One Road Summit nearing, Chinese state media have sent out a “Sesame Street”-style propaganda video on Weibo, in which singing children praise the Belt and Road initiative. Many netizens think the video is “awkward.”
With the big Beijing ‘One Belt, One Road’ Summit nearing, Chinese state media have sent out a “Sesame Street”-style propaganda video on Weibo, in which singing children praise the Belt and Road initiative. Many netizens think the video is “awkward.”
Chinese state media spread a promo video on Wednesday in which a group of children happily praise China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative in English, subtitled in Chinese. The clip comes days before the Beijing One Belt, One Road Summit (May 14-15), which will welcome leaders from around the world.
In the video, fifteen different children sing and dance to a Sesame Street-style song with cartoon graphics of various countries. According to the opening line, the children come from different countries along the Belt Road, also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt.
The title of the song is “The Road and Belt is How.” As noted by Sixth Tone, the word ‘how’ here alludes to the word ‘hao 好’, meaning ‘good’ in Chinese.
Mixed with laughter, the children sing:
The belt connects the land
The road moves on the sea
The promise that they hold
Is joint prosperity
We’re breaking barriers
We’re making history
The world we’re dreaming of starts with you and me
The future’s coming now, oh oh oh oh
The Belt and Road is how
We’ll share the goodness now
The Belt and Road is how
Officially announced by the Chines government in 2013, the Belt and Road is an economic initiative focused on connectivity and cooperation between China and the rest of Eurasia, meant to integrate the development strategies of dozens of countries.
The political video was made by Fuxing Road Studios (复兴路工作室), a company that often produces English-language propaganda videos on China’s policies, apparently seeking to appeal to both Chinese and Western audiences.
Quartz magazine wrote in 2015 that with its native English singers and slick productions, Fuxing Road Studios has covered numerous major China-related events, including state leaders’ overseas visits.
In 2015, Fuxing Road made headlines when it launched a curious video about the 13th Five-Year Plan in which American singers paid tribute to China’s latest policies (“Every five years in China, man / They make a new development plan (..) / It’s a huge deal, man! / Like how huge? / Huge!“).
The latest Belt and Road video was shared on Weibo by major state media outlets, including China Daily, People’s Daily, PLA Daily, Communist Youth League, China National Radio, and CCTV.
“What’s the purpose of this video? It’s awkward,” many Weibo commenters said. “It makes me feel like a kid again,” some write.
Many people commenting say they find the use of English in the video somewhat strange. “Why is it not in Chinese?,” a typical comment read: “I would have expected there to be at least a few sentences in Chinese.”
“The Road and Belt is How” is not the only ‘Belt and Road song.’ Another song was shared on social media today with a cartoon clip showing people of various countries dancing together. The video, issued by China News, has an English segment but is mainly sung in Chinese:
“Try to try to try to find good friends along the Silk Road / Saluting and shaking hands / We can be good friends / The Belt and Road oh oh / Over land over sea oh oh / It’s three years old oh oh / It joins the world oh oh.”
Although the second video also received some criticism, it seemed to be appreciated more by Chinese netizens than the Fuxing Road’s children’s song.
Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.
Look at their faces … like a group of kittens following a swinging ball.
Does Fuxing Road Studios actually get paid for all the awkward stuff they release? Couldn’t the budget be used for something more useful … like … making the food chain safer?
I’d say it’s more damaging to China’s image than supportive.
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Op-eds authored by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were published in the other countries’ government newspapers ahead of Xi’s three-day state visit to Russia. Both articles emphasized the importance of partnership, mutual trust, and friendship between the two nations.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on Monday, March 20, for his scheduled state visit to Russia.
During his three-day Moscow visit, Xi will have one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the first time Xi visits Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On the first day of the top-level meeting, the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily headlined that Xi Jinping published an article in the Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on the occasion of his state visit, while also featuring the news about Putin’s signed article on the front page (the actual article was published on page three).
Meanwhile, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta did the same: they also featured Xi’s publication on the front page of their digital newspaper, while also turning Putin’s contribution to the People’s Daily into one of the main headlines. The newspaper also published a special section dedicated to Sino-Russian friendship.
Xi’s article, in Russian here and in Chinese here, was also translated to English and published by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on their website here.
The article, titled “Forging Ahead to Open a New Chapter of China-Russia Friendship, Cooperation and Common Development” (“踔厉前行,开启中俄友好合作、共同发展新篇章”) mainly stresses the strong bond and mutual trust between China and Russia and the future of Sino-Russian relations, with the word “cooperation” being used 22 times and the word “friendship” used 8 times in the text. The most-mentioned word in the text is “China” (24 times); “Russia” was mentioned 22 times.
“Ukraine” was mentioned three times in one paragraph about the ‘Ukraine crisis,’ which emphasized China’s “impartial position” and its active promotion of peace talks.
Word cloud of Xi’s text for Russian newspaper (What’s on Weibo/Word Art).
The article by Putin is titled “Russia and China – A Future-Bound Partnership” (“俄罗斯和中国——面向未来的伙伴关系”) (link in Chinese, link in English) and it is similar to Xi’s op-ed in multiple ways, and also focused on stressing the special friendship between both countries and how similar they allegedly are in their culture, tradition, and foreign policy.
The article was actually also very similar to an earlier article titled “Russia and China: A Future-Oriented Strategic Partnership” published by Vladimir Putin for Chinese state media outlet Xinhua just before the Winter Olympics and Putin’s visit to China in 2022 (link in English).
The current article condemns America’s role in the international community and thanks China for its approach to the Ukrainian issue. The word that comes up most often in the text is “Russia” (20 times); “China” is mentioned 18 times. Words such as “cooperation” and “partnership” also come up a lot (7 and 5 times respectively).
Word cloud made from Putin’s text for People’s Daily, by What’s on Weibo via Word Art.
The hashtag “Xi Jinping Published Signed Article in Russian Media” (#习近平在俄罗斯媒体发表署名文章#) was posted on social media site Weibo by Xinhua.
China Daily posted images featuring several quotes from Xi’s signed article in Chinese and English.
While it was not the first time for Putin to post an op-ed in a Chinese state media newspaper, it was also not the first time for Xi Jinping to publish a signed article in a Russian government newspaper. He also posted one in 2015 (link in Chinese).
Xi previously also published letters or bylined articles in the media of other countries.
Ahead of his state visit to Finland in 2017, the Finnish newspaper Helsinki Timesfeatured Xi’s article titled “Our Enduring Friendship” (“穿越历史的友谊”). Xi also stressed bilateral relations in letters to the foreign media of countries such as Myanmar, Greece, Nepal, North Korea, and others.
The term used by Xi in the article, “starting a new chapter” (“开启时代新篇章”) was repeated by many commenters replying to the topic on Weibo, where Xi’s Russia visit is covered by many media accounts in videos, text, and images.
In a recent post, political commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) noted how Xi’s Russia visit made international headlines, underlining the major significance of the meeting. Hu wrote that no third party could hinder the “steady development of Sino-Russian relations.” At time of writing, only three out of more than a hundred replies to Hu’s post were displayed – the three replies consisted of hearts and thumbs up emoji only – with the other comments being filtered.
Although the meeting between Xi and Putin was promoted in the Weibo trending lists, most posts about the state visit only allowed some selected replies in the threads below, or simply closed the comment sections. This was also the case went Putin’s annual address in Moscow was featured by various accounts on Weibo.
For more articles on China-Russian relations and related Weibo discussions, check our archives here.
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Ren Xiaorong (任小融) joined the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily as a virtual presenter/news anchor this week.
Ren Xiaorong is the AI-powered host of an app allowing users to ask questions related to the Two Sessions, the annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that have been taking place this week.
Through the People’s Daily app, you can ask Ren Xiaorong to tell you more about various topics covered during the Two Sessions, including education, epidemic prevention, housing, employment, environmental protection, and many other issues.
According to the introduction video launched by People’s Daily, Ren is also available to discuss other news topics people would like to know more about.
Ren Xiaorong is interactive to a certain (very limited) extent; users can select the topics they want to learn more about, but the app does not yet allow to ask specific questions.
A related hashtag went viral on Weibo on Sunday (#人民日报AI虚拟主播#), triggering discussions on the use of virtual news presenters.
Ren Xiaorong is not the first People’s Daily virtual news anchor. In 2019, the very first AI-powered presenter was unveiled at the 2019 Big Data Expo (#人民日报首位AI虚拟主播#). Guo Guo (果果), aka Little Guo Guo (小果果), was based on the real-life Chinese reporter Guo Xinyu (果欣禹).
Guo Guo and Guo Xinyu
China’s state media outlets Xinhua, Beijing TV, Hunan TV, and CCTV previously also unveiled their own AI-powered virtual news anchors at a time when China’s virtual idol market started to explode.
During the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, there was also a virtual host and China’s first AI sign language presenter.
Although news media outlets have started experimenting with virtual presenters for some time now, some netizens are still not convinced about the actual purpose of having virtual TV hosts and news anchors, especially when their AI-driven interactive functions are still limited.
Weibo blogging account ‘Media People Online’ (@传媒人在线) writes: “I’ve never really understood this, is there a shortage of broadcasting talent, or are AI anchors better at it? Why would you use a robot to broadcast the news? Are you spending so much money on an AI presenter just to show technological progress?”
But other bloggers (@夏日之阳新闻传播考研) think that virtual anchors could improve the quality and availability of news, since they could broadcast around the clock while saving on manpower, alleviating the pressure on newsrooms.
Whether people approve of virtual news readers or not, most agree Ren Xiaorong, along with her virtual colleagues, is a harbinger of the digitalization of the media at a time when artificial intelligence has already come to play a pivotal role in everyday activities.
Want to see Ren Xiaorong at work? Click this link on mobile.
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Ed Sander
May 11, 2017 at 11:07 pm
Look at their faces … like a group of kittens following a swinging ball.
Does Fuxing Road Studios actually get paid for all the awkward stuff they release? Couldn’t the budget be used for something more useful … like … making the food chain safer?
I’d say it’s more damaging to China’s image than supportive.
[主页]
September 5, 2017 at 1:19 am
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a
doubt donate to this brilliant blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed
to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook
group. Chat soon!
admin
September 5, 2017 at 3:42 am
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February 19, 2018 at 10:32 am
Implantado em 1996. Pesquisa Mensal do Emprego – PME.