China: a musical to counter criticism in Xinjiang
Image from the trailer for "The Wings of Songs".
The film tells the story of three young people, Uyghur, Kazakh and Han Chinese who try to break into music.
© YouTube / The Wings of Songs / Screenshot
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Far from the repression of Muslim minorities in western China, the film released at the end of March depicts the Uyghur Autonomous Region as a haven of tranquility.
It is part of a vast propaganda campaign launched by the Chinese authorities following Western sanctions.
Publicity
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
Magnificent oases against the backdrop of mountains of the immaculate sky, Uyghurs and Kazakhs who dance and sing in colorful clothes, welcome to
The Wings of Songs
which could be translated as "Songs which give wings", the musical supposed to offer an alternative vision to Xinjiang.
The film tells the story of three young people, Uyghur, Kazakh and Han Chinese who try to break into music.
Here barbed wire, facial recognition cameras, roadblocks have disappeared from the landscape.
Beer, shaved beards and songs
In this official account, there is no question of re-education camps or of Islamic influence, but on the contrary of a "harmony" between the majority ethnic group and the Muslim minorities leading the latter to shave their beards, to drink. beer and not to wear the scarf.
This appeased version, not to say sanitized of reality, echoes the words of Chinese diplomacy which for several weeks denounces what it qualifies as "
rumors
" propagated by "
anti-Chinese
"
institutions, personalities and media.
.
A message repeated in several languages by an army of vloggers, such as a
Canadian from Shenzhen
or a
Briton
who went to Xinjiang.
Great propaganda orchestra
The whole orchestra is out: "
English teachers, boomer cyclists, bartenders with VPN
(to bypass the great Chinese computer wall, Editor's note)
and lost people back home are now all in agreement: he There is no genocide in Xinjiang
”,
writes Nathan Atrill,
researcher at the Australian Institute for Strategic Policies (ASPI).
State media producing programs for foreign destinations have also posted their star reporters and presenters
on the ground
who also describe landscapes that are much more cheerful, and in any case far from the reality experienced by these minorities under surveillance.
Not to mention the ambassadors of "countries friends of China" who have also been invited to visit Xinjiang, such as
Pakistan
or
Iran.
A vision that has so far not captured the attention of the public, the box office receipts of
The Wings of Songs
being so far far from those hoped by the producers, according to the figures of the sales of tickets
reported by the
New York Times
.
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