Does Chinese leaders' animation debut signal a revamped propaganda strategy?
The professionally-produced animation has drawn over one million views since its release on Monday
Chinese state leaders who are known for their poker faces and uncharismatic demeanours have finally received a facelift in the form of a viral animation clip in which they appear as amicable cartoon figures.
The professionally-produced animation movie that calls the country’s leadership selection a “meritocratic screening that requires years of hard work like the making of a kung fu master” has drawn over one millions views since its release on Monday.
Yet despite the light-hearted presentation, which is nothing like the party’s usual blatant and tedious propaganda stunts, the impeccable production of the movie, which is available in both Chinese and English with subtitles and narratives, has given rise to speculation that the country’s ideology department is quickly adapting to the Web 2.0 era by employing new and more sophisticated methods of communication favoured by a younger generation.
The movie, posted by a Beijing-based studio named "On the Way to Revivification", opens by introducing the presidential running process in the US as a “super complex business” that requires a good team, a glib tongue, extraordinary stamina, and an unending flow of greenbacks". In fact, becoming the US president is even “more difficult than winning American idol,” it says.
To become the prime minister in the UK is no easy task either, suggests the movie, since your chances of success are "lower than Susan Boyle's of winning Britain’s Got Talent".
The movie then goes into great depths elaborating on the fiercely competitive path to leadership in China, where a candidate has to “go through decades of selection processes and tests”.