'The Same Song'—Theme Song for Persecution and Propaganda

Whenever Ms. Na Gan hears the Chinese song called "The Same Song," she remembers a fellow Falun Gong practitioner's heart-wrenching cries filling for two hours the Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in Beijing. Her friend broke down after having been forced to sing it as a sign of her "reeducation."

"The Same Song" is a well-known pop song in China. It is also the theme song and name of a popular musical variety TV show that began on the state-run China Central TV (CCTV) in 2000. And it is the name of a musical show that CCTV will stage in several North American cities around the time of the Chinese New Year.

The saccharine lyrics of "The Same Song" may seem harmless, but the uses to which the song and the popular entertainments that share its name are being put are not.

Falun Gong practitioners view the song as an odious symbol of hatred and persecution. The New Tang Dynasty T.V. network sees the traveling variety show as yet another attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to undermine any independent Chinese-language media.

Some China watchers see the song and its related entertainments as part of a more sophisticated propaganda effort coming today from Beijing to the West.

Tool of Persecution

"The Same Song" was written in the early 1990s. Its lyrics describe the reunion of those long separated. The song concludes: "The spring murmurs those beautiful stories/ The same feelings give us the same desire/ The same joy gives us the same song/ The same song, ours, the same song."

In 2000, according to the accounts of several Falun Gong practitioners who have survived stays in China's notorious forced-labor camps, this song was incorporated into the torture and abuse used by the Chinese Communist regime to force adherents to give up Falun Gong—what the CCP calls "transformation."

Ms. Changzhen Sun describes being tortured in the Xin'an labor camp until she weighed only 88 pounds and "had lost all human form."

Ms. Sun says "when any Falun Gong practitioner wrote the guarantee to renounce their belief in Falun Gong, the prison policemen and those who participated in the 'transforming' would sing 'The Same Song' immediately. If any practitioners' cell started singing 'The Same Song,' it meant that one more Falun Gong practitioner was 'transformed.'"

Ms. Gan reports being forced to sing this song "takes away the spiritual life of the imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner" and inflicts a pain "worse than death that makes life hard to bear."

Ms. Xin Li says that the use of "The Same Song" in the labor camps imprinted in her mind "the perversion of human nature and enormous psychological pain."

The tour by "The Same Song" variety show means that Ms. Gan, Ms. Xin, Ms. Sun, and other Falun Gong practitioners will have to stomach this song being performed in the democratic nations where they are free from persecution.

Learning that "The Same Song" variety show would perform in her new home of Toronto caused Ms. Sun to relive "the humiliation I suffered in my innermost heart" when she was tortured into renouncing Falun Gong and her torturers sang this song in triumph. "Once again I feel mentally and physically exhausted and in the deepest of sorrows."

Ms. Li Dongwen is the Cultural Affairs officer for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. She says that she is not aware of Falun Gong practitioners being forced to sing "The Same Song," and the song has no particular significance.

'The Same Song' in North America

According to the website for "The Same Song" variety show, there will be performances in New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles. These shows are scheduled to perform on dates very near to the performances in those cities of the New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) Chinese New Year's Gala, a show of traditional music and dance (a show for which The Epoch Times is a media partner). For instance, the New York City New Year's Gala will perform on Jan. 20 and 21 in Radio City Music Hall. On Jan. 23 "The Same Song" will also perform in Radio City Music Hall.

Carrie Hung, the spokesperson for NTDTV, says that this scheduling is no coincidence. "The CCP has opposed NTDTV from the very beginning—they oppose any independent Chinese-language media. Promoting a CCTV variety show in North America—something never done before the NTDTV gala began—is part of that." When asked if "The Same Song" was brought to North America to compete with the NTDTV gala, Ms. Li Dongwen said she was not aware of that. She says "The Same Song" is "just a show."

According to its website, NTDTV is an independent, non-profit Chinese-language TV network that began broadcasting in 2002.

The CCP's opposition to NTDTV burst into public view in the Spring of 2005, when China was found to be pressuring the European satellite provider Eutelsat not to renew NTDTV's contract to broadcast into mainland China. After support from EU officials, the U.S. Congress (which threatened not to renew the U.S. military's sizeable contracts with Eutelsat), and a strong outpouring of public support from around the globe, Eutelsat eventually renewed NTDTV's contract.

Ms. Hung says "NTDTV provides the Chinese people with accurate, truthful reporting. Moreover, we report the stories that the CCP does not want covered. For instance, we reported on SARS when the CCP was still denying its existence. We report on those in China who support the rule of law, such as Gao Zhisheng, on the environmental crisis in China, on the activities of democracy activists, and on the resistance to persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, house-church Christians and others."

When asked about interference with the NTDTV Gala, Ms. Hung produced a 29 page report that documents instances of the Chinese regime putting pressure (sometimes successfully) on performers not to take part in the gala; of the Chinese Consulate sending letters to elected officials urging them not to attend or give congratulatory messages to the gala; of interfering with broadcasts of the gala; and of staging shows on dates very near to the NTDTV gala.

For instance, the first NTDTV gala was staged in New York City in January 2004 with only three months notice. In those three months, the Chinese regime managed to throw together a competing variety show that was held in New York City on the same date as NTDTV's gala.

Ms. Hung says, "This year we learned that 'The Same Song' first went to Madison Square Garden, intending to book their show there. But when they learned NTDTV's Gala would not be there, they did not book there. When they learned we were at Radio City Music Hall, they booked themselves in there.

"The CCP does this because they want to upstage our gala."

The competition with the NTDTV gala does not occur only in Manhattan. At the University of Chicago Prof. William Wu decided to organize a showing for interested students of the DVD of the 2004 NTDTV gala. Prof. Wu says that most of the advertising for his showing was done by posters around campus. However, the afternoon of the day the DVD was to be aired, an e-mail message was sent out announcing the show.

Prof. Wu learned later that within one hour of his e-mail message being sent out the Chinese Consulate in Chicago had arranged for a video showing of the state-sponsored show on campus. The message advertising that showing was sent to all Chinese students at the University of Chicago. It was scheduled to begin half an hour before Prof. Wu's showing of the NTDTV gala and to end after his showing ended.

When asked why he thinks the Consulate scheduled its showing opposite his, Prof. Wu said, "The Chinese regime wants all Chinese to know that they are being watched. By scheduling their showing opposite mine, they forced the students to make a choice. The students would assume what I did, that a spy would attend the showing of the NTDTV gala to take names. It is an issue of control and of not allowing any Chinese media independent of the state-controlled media to exist."

This year, Prof. Wu sent an e-mail to Chinese students groups at various Chicago area universities, informing them of the Chicago performance of the NTDTV gala on Feb. 4. He quickly got a polite decline from the head of one university's student organization: he could not attend because the NTDTV gala "conflicts with the Lunar New Year performance held by the Ministry of Education."

Competing Cultures

Beneath the competition of the NTDTV Gala and the CCTV's traveling show lie fundamentally different visions of China.

The New Year is the most important festival in China. It is a time for families to unite, celebrate and give thanks. CCTV has annually broadcast a New Year's Gala, and getting together to watch this Gala has been an annual rite for all Chinese families.

There has been only one problem with the CCTV show—like Stalinist art, it has been heavy and uninteresting. The organizers of the NTDTV gala say they came together to produce their show to fill a need for the Chinese people. But that need goes beyond entertainment.

Ms. Hung explains, "Part of the mission of NTDTV is to promote traditional Chinese culture, and to build bridges between East and West. The gala helps Chinese understand their own roots better and helps introduce Westerners to the great civilization of China.

"The first thing the CCP did on taking power was to destroy that civilization. Culture is the soul of a people. The CCP understood that. They wanted to destroy China's culture and replace it with the CCP's culture. That way they would be sure of controlling China. The NTDTV gala is a small effort toward revitalizing China's authentic culture. That culture is really rich and very interconnected.

"This year the contrast between NTDTV and CCTV could not be clearer—we celebrate the best in China's civilization, and CCTV features a song used to celebrate the successful use of torture."

Culture and Propaganda

In 2003-2004 France and China had a massive cultural exchange that included the import into Paris of numerous Chinese performers who took part in an unprecedented Chinese parade down the Champs d'Elysées, visits to China by French performers, and reciprocal state visits.

On October 26, 2005, Chen Weiyuan, an editor for a government department, the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, wrote an article titled "What the 'Chinese-French Cultural Year' Brought to Us." That article says in part, "The success of the Chinese-French Cultural Year is quite an inspiration for our overseas propaganda work. Taking the approach of cultural exchange in overseas propaganda will have a far-reaching and lasting effect and will be well received by the audience…

"Culture is a 'soft' component of our nation's power. Cultural diplomacy is a 'soft' dissemination of our nation's will. Compared with economic diplomacy and political diplomacy, cultural diplomacy is able to have our target audience unknowingly accept our propaganda. Such cultural infiltration through subtle influence cannot be underestimated."

The Chinese-French Cultural Exchange year is just one of several instances in which the Chinese regime has recently adopted a more sophisticated approach to propaganda.

The Epoch Times has reported on how China bankrolled Phoenix TV. Begun in 1996 in Hong Kong and in 2001 in the U.S., Phoenix TV fills an important role in Beijing's propaganda effort. CCTV was perceived by Chinese outside mainland China as having low production values and being heavy-handed in its treatment of the news. Phoenix TV is no less a government mouthpiece than CCTV, but it appears to be an independent network. And it provides overseas Chinese with a media outlet with Western production values and a slicker approach to the news, while also providing those in mainland China the CCP's propaganda from a trusted, "independent" source.

The Epoch Times has also reported on how the Chinese regime helped provide support for the award winning movie "Hero." That gorgeous movie makes almost beautiful the disturbing story of an exceptional individual sacrificing himself for the sake of the unity of a totalitarian nation. It advances the main theme of Chinese propaganda since 1989, that patriotism, defined as devotion to the state, is the most important virtue.

This year's attempt by CCTV to compete with the NTDTV gala is more ambitious—and more expensive—than the previous attempts. It is said to feature a number of top Chinese performers.

Mr. Weiguo Zhang, previously the editor and reporter of the former Shanghai-based newspaper World Economy Pioneer , is a news commentator who follows Chinese media closely.

Asked about the CCTV's show "The Same Song," he said: "The CCP would use this kind of method to get into the overseas market. It is worthy of the investment. It directly aims at the elite. The CCP has a long history of this—the United Front. The Chinese overseas community is so diverse, but the propaganda effect of a variety show penetrates everywhere."

Mr. Erping Zhang, the President of the Association for Asian Research and a veteran China watcher also sees the "The Same Song" variety show as an attempt to create a "united front."

"The CCP is going through the most challenging time in its existence. Last year there were over 70,000 protests throughout China. There is a lack of social stability and the economy, while apparently booming, is full of serious problems. Most importantly, over seven million people have renounced the Communist Party—a peaceful, direct challenge to the Party's existence. A show like "The Same Song" gives a false, beautiful picture of the social situation in China. It invites the overseas Chinese once more to trust the CCP. It is a new version of the old CCP trick—the united front.

"At the same time, it is not an accident that CCTV has chosen to feature 'The Same Song' in the way it did. The lyrics are sappy but deliver the message of those separated coming together and speaking with one voice. The CCP has always tried to indoctrinate the principle of 'one hall-one voice'—the Chinese people should speak as one under the leadership of the CCP. This is the message the CCP wants to deliver to those who dare to think differently, like Falun Gong practitioners, and to the people in China, and to overseas Chinese. The message is that all must follow the CCP's line."

Mr. Weiguo Zhang notes, "The fact that the CCP is doing this means that NTDTV's Gala has done beautifully. It is because NTDTV's influence is spreading. Otherwise, the CCP would not care what NTDTV did. Now NTDTV needs to rise to the challenge."

While "The Same Song" variety show may be viewed as part of a more sophisticated propaganda strategy, it is at the same time undeniably crude. The Falun Dafa Information Center in a statement on its website quotes victims of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. Their view: a variety show named "The Same Song" –much less the performing of this song—is seen as a "flaunting of power" and akin to "burning crosses by the KKK."

Mrs. Na Ga cannot forget the long cry of the practitioner in the labor camp forced to sing "The Same Song": "That cry betrayed her helplessness, her sense of guilt, and the death of her real spirit after true belief is abandoned."