Was Lang Lang's Propaganda Song a Jab at White House?

Lang Lang

/ CBS

The Chinese pianist Lang Lang performed a widely-known anti-American propaganda song during his performance at the White House's state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao last week, the Chinese-American newspaper Epoch Times reports.

The song, "My Motherland," is the theme to film "Battle on Shangganling Mountain," about a communist "People's Volunteer Army" defeating U.S. military "jackals" in a Korean War battle.

"The movie and the tune are widely known among Chinese, and the song has been a leading piece of anti-American propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for decades," the Epoch Times reports."CCP propaganda has always referred to the Korean War as the 'movement to resist America and help [North] Korea.' The message of the propaganda is that the United States is an enemy--in fighting in the Korean War the United States' real goal was said to be to invade and conquer China. The victory at Triangle Hill was promoted as a victory over imperialists."

The newspaper further reports that the CCP very likely knew in advance that Lang Lang would play the anti-American song and that the pro-government Phoenix TV network even broadcast an interview with Lang Lang talking about playing the song shortly in advance of the actual performance.

"I thought to play 'My Motherland' because I think playing the tune at the White House banquet can help us, as Chinese people, feel extremely proud of ourselves and express our feelings through the song. I think it's especially good. Also, I like the tune in and of itself, every time I hear it I feel extremely moved," Lang Lang said in the interview.

But a blog post by the Wall Street Journal's Cathy Yan argues that "Lang Lang himself appears to have been blissfully unaware of the political minefield he was stumbling into," and cites some of the same comments cited by the Epoch Times as evidence of the slight.

"Born in China, Mr. Lang went to the U.S. as a teenager to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He is fluent in both English and Mandarin. He is probably equally adored by classical music fans in the U.S. and in China, and splits his time between the two countries," Yan notes.

She also quotes a Chinese film expert who says that song is primarily identified with Chinese nationalism and not some veiled insult to the United States.

[ILP111]

Hi Vkmo,

Are you doing propaganda or others? Could you be a little positive towards the feature of our world and be positive to others just like towards your neighbors or co-workers? Could you interpret this event from possible positive side? How much do you know about currency, Dalai Lama, etc? Could you do more your work to study all these facts? Myself, I did not think of LL's melody as anti-america. Otherwise, United States needs to change her anthem and P R China needs to change her anthem too. P R China's anthem was an anti-Japanese song during the war when China was invaded. The LL's melody is really melodious and the original lyric was desiring peace and prosperous China. If your head is full of anti-China mindset, then you will interpret LL's melody as anti-america. If you trust Hu's visit as cooperation between big countries, you will have opposite interpretation. That's my suggestions to you

[vkmo]

I am not doing propaganda. Song LL played is not the national anthem of China. It's a song about the Korean war, not about Japanese war. I know a lot about Dalai Lama - he never lifted a single knife, gun or other weapon in his lifetime. He shouldn't have been forced into exile. He has lived outside Tibet for 51 years - that's outlandish.

[bryce2045]

Lang Lang turned out to be a high ranking official of an affiliated organization of the Chinese Communist party.

Epoch Times, 01/30/2011
Lang Lang's Political Career: Following in the Footsteps of Chairman Hu

LANG LANG, the Chinese pianist, gives every impression of being a free and easy "musician, not a politician" when he's in the U.S.-but at all times he carries an important political task. As one of the 16 Vice-Chairmen of the All China Youth Federation, he needs to follow the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, be a good patriot, propagate socialism, and guide the young to study communist theory. Hu Jintao himself used to be the Chairman of this organization, an important entity in the world of Chinese communist politics.

Looks like Lang Lang is just performing his political duty for the Communist China. What a liar Lang Lang is!

[vkmo]

The combination of Hu and Lang Lang is H-LL for America.

Don't be soft on Hu and LL. Hu was tough on US regarding both the currency conversion rate and the NK-SK conflict. China treats NK as a nuke powered ally of China. US got no help on either issue. Nobel Peace Laureates Liu is still in jail, Dalai Lama has been kept out of Tibet for over 51 years. Their treatment is cruel and inhumane. LL is singing the victory song of Chinese forces over US forces in WH- and no apologies?? Wow!!

[John_Rational]

by BrianInCal January 25, 2011 8:17 PM EST
"I did provide specific examples. (1) The Obama Administration treatment of the PM and Queen of England;"

Neither the PM nor the Queen have given any indication that they felt mistreated. So this is a straw-man fallacy.

by BrianInCal January 25, 2011 8:17 PM EST
"(2) President Obama involving himself in the Louis Gate arrest without knowing the facts; and"

The fact is that Mr. Gates acted irresponsibly and the police officer responded by acting irresponsibly. The President's involvement sent the message that both should have acted better. This has probably helped to avoid similar situations, and was therefore entirely appropriate.

by BrianInCal January 25, 2011 8:17 PM EST
"(3) The Obama Administration claims of saving jobs."

The economy was hemorrhaging jobs when the President was elected. The President took measures he said were designed to stop that job loss. The rate of job loss started to decrease and is still decreasing. The stock market is considerably higher than it was when the President took office. Most economic indicators are stable or rising. I suppose that could all just be a co-incidence.

by BrianInCal January 25, 2011 8:17 PM EST
"I'll add a fourth. Proposing a "stimulus" package when a study of basic economics tells you that such an act will not stimulate the economy. It has never worked."

It has. Read up on the FDR administration to understand how government intervention can bring a bad economy back to prosperity. You probably don't think his administration created any jobs either.
If we enforced our anti-monopoly laws there could be no such thing as a business too large to fail. But the US hasn't done that for some time now so such crucial businesses must not be allowed to fail.
Their failure would cause the failure of a much larger section of the economy. The first stimulus was necessary to prevent a catastrophic cascade failure of the entire economy.

The patient has now been fairly stabilized and deserves a treatment aimed at improving it's condition and restoring health. If there is another stimulus I will be very disappointed if the President does not direct it at the middle class. The best way to stimulate the economy is to increase consumer demand.

If we put more money in the pockets of the wealthy, they will not rush out to invest where they see no demand for their product or service. They will hold onto their money (quite sanely) and wait to invest when consumer demand is high enough to give them an expectation of a reasonable profit on their investment. If we put more money in the pockets of the middle class they will buy services, stock, clothes, software and toys etc. They will pay bills and save some for retirement. Businesses will become more profitable. That is when the wealthy will invest. They will not invest to grow the economy. They will invest when consumer demand is growing.

I think the President has done remarkably well given what he has had to deal with.

[BrianInCal]

I did provide specific examples. (1) The Obama Administration treatment of the PM and Queen of England; (2) President Obama involving himself in the Louis Gate arrest without knowing the facts; and (3) The Obama Administration claims of saving jobs.

I'll add a fourth. Proposing a "stimulus" package when a study of basic economics tells you that such an act will not stimulate the economy. It has never worked. What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? The Obama Administration is approaching that definition.

[lordanson]

Mr. Lang Lang:---America defended South Korea. China defended North Korea. South Korea is prosperous today. North Korea is beyond destitute. You may not need to apologize to the Obama Administration for your conduct, but you certainly owe the American people and most especially American servicemen and the families of American servicemen who were maimed, killed or held in some Chinese hellhole prison fighting against Maoist/Stalinist Reds a heartfelt apology. Their blood enabled South Korea to be an oasis of liberty compared to those around them. As a matter of fact, American blood has enabled you to enjoy a prolific career! It appears that Chinese blood was wasted.

[bryce2045]

I agree that Lang Lang is lying about his ulterior motive for playing the anti-American song in state dinner at White House. It is well known that the Chinese Communist regime brainwashed every single Chinese citizen to hate America starting from childhood. Lang Lang, who grew up in China, is no exception.

Actually, this "Lang Lang Incident" exposes a much more serious national security issue for the U.S. Because these brainwashed, American-hating Chinese from China, who live among Americans, have the potential to become a "sleeper cell" should there be any conflict between China and America. And the prospect of a China-U.S. confrontation becomes very real with the recent news of rapidly surging military buildups in China.

This "Patriotism for China" has already been demonstrated during the 2008 Olympic torch parade where Chinese form China came out in droves to defend their "Grandfatherland" against international criticism of China's authoritarian regime.

[BrianInCal]

I didn't, but you missed my point entirely. The OP asserted that all "smart" people agree with Mr. Obama. If anything, the OP's assertion is extreme arrogance and stupidity. I am certain that there are millions of smart people who disagree with Mr. Obama.
On a different topic, if you actually looked into my facebook, you would have noticed that I haven't been on it for months. I don't use it except to log on to these websites.

[John_Rational]

An assertion of intelligence is not a demonstration of intelligence. I am still waiting for a well reasoned argument citing examples. That should be child's play for a person with a degree in law. You made four charges. Please give us your reasoning with examples to back it up.

[fantsin]

Lang Lang knew exactly what the song meant as did a half a billion Chinese who have listened to this song being played regularly for more than 50 years. It's ironic that a past illegitimate Nobel Peace prize winner is hosting a state dinner for the one who keeps the current Nobel Laureate imprisoned. It's doubtful that the Chinese Government did not know this music selection was to be played, since it was reported in the Chinese Media hours before the performance. Whilst Obama was giving this thug legitimacy on the world stage, Hu and many Chinese were laughing at this in your face humiliation of the # 1 jackal.

[rwsmith29456]

I think it's pretty iffy that he was trying to insult the U.S.. Was the song 'propaganda' or 'patriotic'? Or did he just like the tune? He seemed to indicate it was just the music.

[stn_sage]

WOW! And, the White House allowed an anti-American song to be performed there, huh? That, begs the question, WHO are those in the White House really working for?! Americans? It doesn't look like it...!
This was TOTALLY inappropriate!