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CCP fails to ¡¥wash
brains¡¦ in Hong Kong
By Hugo Tseng ´¿®õ¤¸
The demonstrations in Hong Kong against the proposed introduction of mandatory
Chinese patriotism classes in the education system, which protesters say are
tantamount to brainwashing, have rapidly heated up.
As Hong Kongers continue to demonstrate with rallies and hunger strikes, their
protests have accumulated an astonishing force. Hong Kong¡¦s liberal media, which
fully support the protests, are reporting how the public¡¦s anger is boiling over
and being directed at the government for violating the people¡¦s wishes in order
to carry out Beijing¡¦s instructions and force the implementation of the
pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) classes in primary and secondary schools.
Opposition to being brainwashed lies at the core of this series of protests.
Interestingly, the Oxford English Dictionary says that the English word
¡§brainwashing¡¨ is a loanword from the Chinese term xi nao (¬~¸£), which literally
means ¡§to wash the brain.¡¨
History does not lack examples of acts of brainwashing, either domestically or
internationally, but the word has entered the world stage, spreading to many
different languages through the English translation of the original Chinese
word. That means that the Chinese language has not only contributed to the
English language in this instance, but that the term has also been accepted by
many other languages through the spreading of the English language, a fact which
is highly ironic.
Taking the investigation deeper, the person generally credited with translating
xi nao into ¡§brainwash¡¨ is US journalist and intelligence agent Edward Hunter,
who is said to have done so during the Korean War. After the war broke out in
June 1950, Hunter first mentioned the term ¡§brainwashing¡¨ in relation to the CCP
in an article published in The New Leader, a US liberal, anti-communist magazine
about politics and culture.
In 1951, he published Brain-washing in Red China: The Calculated Destruction of
Men¡¦s Minds, a collection of intelligence information about the CCP that he had
gathered. In the publication, he revealed to the world for the first time that
when the CCP was established, Beijing had attempted to systematically change the
minds of ¡§imperialist reactionaries¡¨ across China, forcefully implanting
communism into their brains through various means.
The point of this etymology lesson is that the CCP regime after 1949 could
possibly be the originator of political brainwashing. Based on the
aforementioned historical and political background, the Oxford English
Dictionary has added a note to its comprehensive definition of the word
¡§brainwashing,¡¨ noting that it is a method some totalitarian states utilize to
oppress political dissidents.
Hong Kong has long been a city beyond the reach of Beijing, so how could it
suddenly be willing to allow itself to be brainwashed and tamed, thereby losing
its freedom and vitality?
As for the Chinese media, it does not mention the Hong Kong protests at all.
However, despite the tight censorship on China¡¦s largest microblogging site,
Sina Weibo, over the issue, many enterprising Chinese have managed to find
loopholes in the Internet controls to launch stringent attacks against the
Chinese authorities in a show of support for Hong Kong. Some Chinese netizens
have portrayed themselves as trapped in a dark and subjugated place, praising
the freedoms of Hong Kong and Taiwan as a sharp contrast to their own country,
as in those countries people are at least allowed to see a distant light of
hope.
Hugo Tseng is an associate professor in the English Department at Soochow
University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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