Maoists and Wall Street

Maoists and Wall Street
毛派分子和华尔街

Long march, longer memories
长征，久远的记忆

Maybe the revolution is around the corner after all
或许最后革命即将来临

Oct 22nd 2011 | LUOYANG, CHINA | from the print edition
 
NODDING his head towards a picture of Mao Zedong hanging from a large ornamental rock, an elderly man declares loudly: "This is our Wall Street". A group of greybeards, some sporting Mao badges, murmur in assent. Public displays of dissent generally fare poorly in China. But on Zhouwangcheng Square, in the central city of Luoyang, the "big rock", as locals affectionately call it, has been tolerated as a meeting point for former workers in Luoyang's state-owned enterprises. Perhaps because they are advocating a return to Communism's roots rather than its overthrow, Mao-lovers, sometimes numbering several hundred, are able to gather and bemoan China's slide into the abyss of capitalism.

一位长者朝一块巨大的观赏性岩石上的毛泽东画像点了点头，大声宣布道："这里就是我们的华尔街"。一群老人――其中一些自豪地佩戴着毛泽东像章――轻声表示赞同。总体而言，在中国公开表示异议相当困难。但在洛阳市中心的周王城广场，这个被当地人亲切地称为"大石头"的地方已被容许作为洛阳国企前工人们的集合点。可能是因为他们这些人提倡回归共产主义的本源而非颠覆它，这些有时数以百计的毛派分子能够聚集、哀叹中国坠入资本主义的深渊。

A foreign visitor is quickly surrounded by bitter Maoists (one offering a badge of the Great Helmsman as a token of welcome). They raucously complain about China's growing gap between rich and poor and its "bubble" economy. The watchful eyes of people suspected to be plainclothes police, and the towering presence of Luoyang's futuristic police headquarters at the far end of the square, seem not to inhibit them. A man laments that in China people are "not allowed" to stage protests on the lines of those in New York and elsewhere.

一位外国游客迅速被满面愁容的毛派分子包围（一人拿出伟大舵手的像章表示欢迎）。他们粗声抱怨中国不断加剧的贫富差距和"泡沫"经济。有人睁大警惕的双眼，这极有可能是便衣警察。广场远端高耸入云的是洛阳市未来派公安局，似乎并没有禁止他们的活动。有人悲叹说中国人"不准"按照纽约或其它地方那样举行抗议。

Now the diehards see common cause with anti-capitalist protesters around the world. On October 8th they put up a large red banner in front of the rock. "Resolutely support the American people's great 'Wall Street revolution'", it said. "We belong to the 99% who will no longer remain silent", said a placard held up by one man, echoing a common slogan of the Wall Street movement's participants. Utopia, a Maoist website in China, published photographs of their protest. The website also said that in Zhengzhou, the nearby capital of Henan Province, several hundred people staged a similar gathering on October 6th in a park. Judging from its photographs, most of them were elderly, too.

现在这些守旧派认为世界范围内反资本主义的抗议者们与他们志同道合。10月8日，他们在岩石前面举起大面红字条幅。上书"坚决支持美国人民伟大的华尔街革命"。有人举起告示牌，上面写着"我们是那些不再保持沉默的99%"，与华尔街运动参与者共同的口号遥相呼应。中国毛派网站乌有之乡发布了抗议的照片。该网站称，10月6日，在附近的河南省会郑州，人们在公园举行了相似的集会。从图片看，参与者大多数也是老人。

Luoyang's Maoists are proud of their activism. Several years ago their complaints, they say, helped save large statues of Mao that stand outside two large state-owned factories in the city. The government, they allege, wanted to remove them to improve a road. Undeterred by the arrests and harassment in recent months of several of their number, their choir still sings paeans to Mao by the rock several times a week. They tie string between trees and peg to it samizdat reports about issues ranging from government corruption to transgenic crops (a particular bête noire). "Revisionists, traitors," fumes an old silver-toothed Maoist about today's officialdom, as a friend tries to calm him down. Luckily for the authorities, China's youth is far more restrained.

洛阳的毛派分子对他们的行动主义颇为自豪。他们说，数年前他们的抗议帮助挽救了两尊洛阳市国有工厂外面的大型毛泽东塑像。他们宣称政府为改善路况想移走塑像。近几个月他们的成员被逮捕和骚扰，他们不为所惧，依然每星期数次在岩石前高唱对毛的赞歌。他们在树间系上绳子，用夹子固定住他们的秘密出版物，议题覆盖政府腐败到转基因作物（特别让人憎恶的一种东西）。一位年长的镶了牙的毛派分子对当今的官场极为愤怒："都是些修正主义份子，叛徒！"，他的朋友试图让他平静下来。对当局来说，值得庆幸的是中国的年轻人们要比老人们克制得多。

from the print edition | International