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Home Poetry Culture

‘Confucius Institutes’ by Damian Robin

September 7, 2015
in Culture, Poetry
A A
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poems 'Confucius Institutes' by Damian Robin

Confucius Institutes, which advance the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party, are found at universities in the United States and around the world.

In colleges and schools,
and blocks of universities,
academe has rules
for bringing in diversities.

On dube’us, ethnic grounds
there bloom Confucius Institutes *
that buy up plots in mounds
and softly graft their alien roots.

CIs are given room
for books like Party-building bricks
where born-Chinese find home
in status-quota politics.

Here, foreign-kind awaits
antique, exotic qualities
flown to them in crates
and magazines and DVDs.

And here they sit and smile
through each unique CI event
where paid-up staff beguile
with made-up culture they ferment.

Each talk and film-show states
some model of the CCP’s.
Each workshop confiscates
the tongues of vocal enemies.

Each cult’ral festival
in silhouetted lantern light
creates an interval
where minds are snuffed without a fight.

In shadows far behind
shifts communist idol-ogy
where Mao, so grand and kind,
is larger than equality.

— Expert Chinese too
read closed and doctored histories,
finding when and who
from CI-cloned authorities.

And children’s heads are turned
to learning red-dyed novelties,
their logic unconcerned
with twists or lies and certainties.

But masses are missed out:
the massacre at Tiananmen;
the dead head weeding out
of Standing Politburo men.

The deadly Long March trip
(with thousands dead concealed in it);
the Great Leap Forward slip
(with fallen mill’yons dropped from it) …

Purge and massacre …
The Wuxuan County cannibalism
(where humans ate each other
beneath the watch of communism.)

Buildings falling down
with fam’lies broke like eggs in them.
Cracked dams where people drown
as water breaks on top of them.

The list is cru’l and long
(Nine Comment’ries** is full of it)
and still there’s Falun Gong***,
central, in the thick it.

Go read the Epoch Times***—
it shows, in twenty language types,
the hardly hidden crimes
of China’s trumpeting and hypes.

Confucius Institutes
don’t tell the truth, just doctor facts,
use soft play substitutes
to nurture students through perverted acts,

NOTES
Confucius Institutes
Confucius Institutes are cultural promotion organizations around the world. They are run by the Hanban that has senior Chinese Communist Party officials at its head.
The Confucius Institutes (CIs) work in universities, colleges, and secondary schools providing funding, materials, and wages. Staff are vetted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attitude.
They use films, calligraphy and language classes, as well as culture talks, presentations, and festival activities to put forward the the CCP’s limited view of China.
Confucius was a prominent figure in Chinese culture until the establishment of the People’s Republic of China by the CCP in !949.
Filial piety and moral self-examination rather than strict rules imbue the teachings of Confucianism. These principles, as well as the life and reverence for the man, where viciously denounced by the CCP Chairman, Mao Zedong, especially during the Cultural Revolution of 1967-77. Now a prominent monument of Confucius and his birthplace have been reconstructed and Confucius’ name used to forward CCP soft power.
Pressure by academics, educators, parents, and students have made many CIs close down.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-30567743 There is a video interview with Xu Lin, head of Hanban in 2014
https://www.aaup.org/report/confucius-institutes

**  “The Nine Comment’ries”
 = The Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party
https://www.ninecommentaries.com/https://www.ninecommentaries.com/ (2004) Epoch Times

***The Epoch Times
An international media organisation in print and on the web in 21 languages and 35 countries.
It seeks to inform and inspire. It has had special coverage of China since 2003.
www.theepochtimes.com   English Language Edition  
www.epochtimes.com  Chinese Language Edition

****Falun Gong, also know as Falun Dafa, is the largest qigong practice in the world. It uses five slow, meditative exercises, together with teachings on the tenets of truth, compassion, and tolerance, to raise moral character, improve health, and increase understanding of the cosmos.
Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tried to eradicate the cultivation practice after first praising it and giving it prizes. When the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, there were over 70 million people practicing it, according to CCP estimates.
The persecution continues in China with brain-washing, torture, and organ harvesting.
https://en.falundafa.org
https://www.dafoh.org/unethical-organ-harvesting/forced-organ-harvesting-in-china/

 

Featured Image Courtesy of the Epoch Times.

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