Mar. 28,
2018

ISSUE
No. 126

AMS Weekly Newsletter
Dedicated to the development of the future stewards of U.S.-China relations
This week we focus on Xi Jinping's consolidation of power, a chengyu delivered by Xi on March 20, and a documentary series on the restoration of various Forbidden City artifacts.
Weekly Readings

Former South China Morning Post (SCMP) China editor Wang Xiangwei wrote a provocative article for his former paper criticizing Xi Jinping and the propaganda surrounding his rise. Given the SCMP's Chinese ownership, such personal criticisms highlight Xi's unfinished business in consolidating power. The top page of the Central Party School's publication website (qstheory.cn) shows the kind of personalized propaganda that Wang is criticizing. Below are li nks to two of the four special pages on Xi's leadership. Both the presentation and one or two of the articles are worth examining.




俗语 in Xi Jinping's Speeches

波澜壮阔
bō lán zhuàng kuò

Meaning: surging forward with great momentum

In his March 20th speech concluding the first meeting of the Third Plenum, Xi used this chengyu to describe the development history of the Chinese people. In his opening few sentences of this speech he used somewhere around a dozen chengyus. Throughout the whole speech...well, more than we care to count right now The speech emphasized innovation, creativity, struggle, unity, the Chinese dream, and, of course, the importance of the Party. 

Original: 人民是历史的创造者,人民是真正的英雄。波 澜壮阔的中华民族发展史是中国人民书写的! 博大精深的中华文明是中国人民创造的! 历久弥新的中华民族精神是中国人民培育的! 中华民族迎来了从站起来、 富起来到强起来的伟大飞跃是中国人民奋斗出来的!


Video of the Week

This week's featured video is 我在故宫修文物, a documentary series about various artifacts in The Forbidden City and the associated techniques involved in their restoration.

Readers can view the series here.
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