America’s first propaganda project is its film industry

Chaguan (Teahouse) is the title of a lively weekly column on China, written by David Rennie, which appears in The Economist. Rennie is the Beijing bureau chief for this leading British weekly.

A recent column reviewed a new 24-part Chinese television drama titled, Rennie explained, County Party Committee Courtyard, which he categorizes as a form of patriotic propaganda. Chaguan does not emerge as a great fan. Rennie spends most of the review stressing how the lead characters seem rather too good to be true. Although it is a rather grouchy review, it is thoughtful in its own way and it concludes with an attentive insight: “Propaganda is revealing stuff.”

Countries worldwide are consistently enthusiastic about seeing positive aspects of themselves reflected in the media, perhaps most of all on film. And it is true: How this transpires in each case is illuminating.

All of which got me thinking that surely no one can challenge the United States when it comes to marketing patriotism to rally the masses around that grand old flag. Looking back over the last century, we can see how the popularized American patriotic propaganda regime, with Hollywood at its pivot, has been exceptionally successful. Much of this system is privatized, of course. And it is regularly entertaining and highly profitable. But it applies itself to the same fundamental task as this new Chinese series: reflecting a positive, ultimately uplifting view of America.

China plainly has some catching up to do when it comes to video-based, patriotic marketing. Does this mean that someday we may see the People’s Liberation Army shaping up on film to defeat, on behalf of planet Earth, a menacing global invasion from Jupiter, on Oct 1? I don’t think so. China is a more grown-up, less fantasy-dependent and far less warlike country than the US is

I can still recall the first time I saw, on black-and-white TV in Australia, a famed, 1939 American film crafted by renowned director Frank Capra. Mr Smith Goes to Washington was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won one. It made a star of James Stewart. Some commentators, perhaps extravagantly, have called it one of the greatest films of all time.

Chaguan confirms that he is somewhat skeptical about the number, in China, of “village-born paragons” like the lead character, Mei Xiaoge, as he explains that, in the reviewed series, “(The) locals believe that — as a village boy — (Mei) has their interests at heart.” As it happens, over 80 years ago, when Mr Smith went to Washington, he did so as a new, apparently naive junior senator. But his seemingly simple, countryside manner hid a straight, fine mind, and he eventually wins support in his battle against entrenched, corrupt politicians. Using the metric applied by Chaguan, though, I began to wonder if the famed Mr Smith was just another unlikely paragon. I soon discovered, searching online, that this is certainly not a view widely shared in the US.

I was reminded, too, as I searched, about the significance of July 4 in the US. It is a federal public holiday that is celebrated as Independence Day. It commemorates July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress declared independence from Britain and established the United States of America.

A further online investigation proved to be still more revealing. I discovered an American website titled Declare Your Independence: Hollywood’s Most Patriotic Movies. To help you celebrate Independence Day, this site lists more than 25 US films to watch (covering a period of some 75 years) dating from 1939 (Mr Smith) through 2014 (American Sniper). About two-thirds of these films are stories of America at war, where America most commonly triumphs, although Apocalypse Now, a 1979 graphic American anti-war film set in Vietnam and Cambodia, which some also consider to be one of best films ever made, is not on the list. Four of the listed films pivot around events or matters related to July 4. One of a number of similar US websites lists “35 patriotic movies that will fill you with American pride”.

In the home of The Economist, in Britain, if you are looking for some localized patriotic uplift, you will not be left wanting. You can, for example, visit 10 Patriotic Films to Watch This Weekend (curated by a sister weekly, The Spectator) or 10 Films to Watch Over the Platinum Jubilee Weekend.

We cannot finish this discussion, though, without paying attention to what is now arguably the mother of all patriotic movies, Independence Day (which naturally features in the lists noted above). In this 1996, high-budget, very successful Hollywood blockbuster, the US military saves not just America but the entire world from a forbidding global invasion by a powerful extraterrestrial species. The harrowing but ultimately successful US counterattack is launched, you may not be surprised to learn, on July 4.

China plainly has some catching up to do when it comes to video-based, patriotic marketing. Does this mean that someday we may see the People’s Liberation Army shaping up on film to defeat, on behalf of planet Earth, a menacing global invasion from Jupiter, on Oct 1? I don’t think so. China is a more grown-up, less fantasy-dependent and far less warlike country than the US is. There is, frankly, no comparable need in China for outlandish, lionizing, global-crusader films akin to Independence Day.

The author is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law at Hong Kong University.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.