Red culture movement

• Singing revolutionary songs, commonly known as singing red songs, is singing songs that praise the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the People's Republic of China and socialism. Bo aimed to instill patriotic feelings through the promotion of "red songs." As of the end of 2010, Chongqing had organized 155,000 events for singing red songs. • Reading classic books simply means reading classic quotations, poetry masterpieces, and excellent prose. Chongqing residents sent 170 million messages of "red classics" via mobile phones and QQ. • Telling stories specifically means telling stories about the history of the CCP, the PLA, and the PRC. • Spreading mottos means spreading famous sayings, maxims, aphorisms or new creation of text fragments via text messages, microblogs and so on. In May 2009, Bo Xilai sent 13 million phone Chongqing mobile phone users his most inspirational Mao quotations. ==Reactions==

This emphasis on red culture was intended to counter the negative effects of commercialism and consumerism. A group of retired participants in a red song routine told the Los Angeles Times "We know these songs from our youth. We grew up with revolutionary spirit and we want to pass that on to our children." Another noted that he felt compelled to participate in order to express appreciation of the CCP for the country's strong economy. Another critic wrote, "[S]ince China's 'spectacular economic rise,' an aspiring hegemonic power consisting of late capitalism and new authoritarianism emerges onto the global scene to conduct a grand finale to the finale of the very concept of historical progression. ... The new Mao of the twenty-first century has at moments ceased to be as much a pop-consumerist icon as anything else and as it was in the 1990s." In September 2009, a mid-level official in the city committed suicide after being pressured to organize his work unit to participate in the red songs campaign. The official, Xie Dajun, reportedly disagreed with the campaign, which evoked painful memories of the Cultural Revolution. ==See also==