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Yijing Shen

Alcott Wei

Xintiandi in downtown Shanghai used to be the name of a subway stop known for its chic restaurants and boutiques.
Three years ago, the stop was rebadged as the Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xintiandi Station, to mark the party’s centenary.
At the same time, just a few minutes’ walk from the station, an expanded memorial to the party’s origins in the city opened, housing a permanent exhibition to the organisation’s founding.
Since then, a steady stream of visitors – many of them students – have bypassed the shops to make their way to the patriotic-themed memorial, particularly on public holidays.
As part of summer holiday school assignments, students are required to visit patriotic exhibitions, and the one at the memorial is on a list of options they can choose from.
The idea is to inspire greater loyalty to the party through stories of its struggles and success but while some visitors say the approach is motivating, others are looking for a more diverse view of history.


Patriotic education has become a national priority with the introduction of a law in January that spells out the responsibilities of everyone, from children to adults, and schools to families, to the drive to build a strong, rejuvenated nation.
The effectiveness of the patriotism drive is difficult to measure, but one of those won over at the Shanghai memorial was Wang Xinning, a student at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Visiting the exhibition before the summer holiday, Wang said she was impressed by the stories of party martyrs who sacrificed their lives at a young age.
“[Their stories] contrasted sharply with my life, and made me rethink my purpose of joining the Communist Party,” she said.
It was a similar story at the Red Building on the Peking University campus in Beijing, where a young student of Marxism said she felt “fired up” when she visited the historic party site.
The site is often regarded as the cradle of the student-led May Fourth Movement of 1919, an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement in early modern China. The Red Building, a four-storey red brick house, reopened in 2021 to serve as a memorial to the party’s early revolutionary activities.
“I feel like I am in the company of those students [in 1919], and I am motivated to relearn Marxism and theories about the Communist Party,” the student said.
[Their stories] contrasted sharply with my life, and made me rethink my purpose of joining the Communist Party
Wang Xinning, university student
But there were also visitors to these exhibitions who came out of obligation.
At the Communist Party Museum near Beijing Olympic Park, some parents said they came to help their children fulfil school requirements. One mother said her son needed to complete a worksheet about the Red Army and write the story of a Red Army soldier.
“These tasks are troublesome, but they are requirements from the school. How can we refuse to do that?” she said.
An undergraduate student at the Red Building said the visit was just “a waste of time”.
“It’s so boring and all propaganda, and there’s nothing new in any of these [exhibition] rooms,” he said. “I could have spent my time better studying for the postgraduate entrance examination.
“We waste too much time in ideological and political courses – even when we are on summer holidays.”
Yuan Bo, who has completed her graduate studies and is working at a start-up in Shanghai, said she was often more interested in observing other visitors’ reactions rather than the exhibits.
On a humid and hot Sunday afternoon in July, she visited the Sihang Warehouse Memorial of War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in central Shanghai, which houses an exhibition documenting a battle by Chinese soldiers against the invading Japanese army that started in 1937.

Yuan said she was indifferent about the memorial since the exhibition was similar to other patriotic education sites she had visited.
“We are told how we should feel about history and the motherland, instead of having our own thoughts and ideas. We won [the war against Japan’s invasion] because of all the great work by our country and our people,” she said.
Watching small children running and shouting “defeat the Japanese” at the memorial, Yuan said she was like them when she was their age but had since experienced a shift.
“Before I could form my own values, I was often fed with different ideas by others, and it’s difficult not to be influenced by all those anti-Japanese films and TV series.
“But I don’t want to blindly follow others now.”
She said while patriotism was important, it should not be at the expense of independent thinking.
“Patriotic education is indeed necessary, but there should be room for discussion,” Yuan said. “Promoting peace may be more important than promoting patriotism.”
Jonathan Sullivan, an associate professor specialising in Chinese politics at the University of Nottingham, said that in China, “control of representations of the past represents an ideological battleground”.

Just outside the Sihang Warehouse exhibition, a coffee shop called The People’s Cafe continues the patriotic message in its decor, which features red stars and other Communist Party icons. A stereo plays patriotic songs on a loop, and revolutionary posters on the walls carry slogans such as “Taiwan independence is a dead end”.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
The cafe sells two types of cappuccino – one with foam in the shape of China’s territory and the other topped with foam in the shape of the word “China” in Chinese characters.
Its pineapple-flavoured latte, a new introduction in July, is decorated with the shape of Taiwan island and the words “must be returned” on top.
“I felt I was living in magical realism,” said Yuan, watching the chocolate foam dwindling from the cappuccino she ordered.


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Patriotism-themed exhibitions attended by young Chinese have become a common sight in recent years, particularly during public holidays. Photo: Yijing Shen

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The People’s Cafe serves up a patriotic coffee. Photo: Yijing Shen

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Museums seek to inspire students with stories of the party’s early days – but not everybody is won over


Museums seek to inspire students with stories of the party’s early days – but not everybody is won over.


Communist Party exhibitions lean on honour and obligation among young Chinese

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Museums seek to inspire students with stories of the party’s early days – but not everybody is won over

Museums seek to inspire students with stories of the party’s early days – but not everybody is won over