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Lunar New Year: why a skit about lying-flat cadres is China’s Spring Festival gala hit
- Comedy group Mahua FunAge lampoons official inaction as part of the country’s annual prime time holiday show
- Graftbusters and the public see the funny – and serious – side of the show
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A televised sketch taking aim at bureaucratic inaction has been the hit of this year’s top Lunar New Year show – and prompted a pledge from the country’s apex anti-graft body to tighten cadre selection and appraisals.
“Pothole” became a trending topic on social media soon after it was broadcast nationwide on state television on Saturday night as part of the Spring Festival gala, an annual four-hour show on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
The performance resonated with internet users, with some drawing parallels with official inaction around a deadly fire in the country’s far west two months ago.
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The sketch performed by comedy group Mahua FunAge centres on civil servant “Director Hao”, who leaves a pothole in a road unfilled for six months and spends much of the sketch trying to foist the task onto others and complaining about other departments.
His approach is to avoid work and responsibility.
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“My motto is if I do more, I make more mistakes; if I do less, I make fewer mistakes; if I do nothing, I make no mistakes,” Hao says.
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