The Shadows of Empire by Samir Puri

Author:Samir Puri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Celebrating communism’s centenary on the moon

Given the visual spectacular that was created at the Beijing Olympics, imagine what kind of party will be thrown for the centenary of communist rule in 2049. It will be the moment at which China can take stock of its rejuvenation at home and the immensity of its various roles abroad. By 2049 perhaps Chinese astronauts will celebrate the centenary from the vantage of a future moon base, their red flag with its yellow stars fixed and erect in the lunar vacuum.

By then, further technological advancements will no doubt have rendered China’s remaining vestiges of agricultural labour even further into history than it already seems today. The Chinese peasantry is still vast, and in some provinces is still very much akin to those in a developing country – something that China has made reference to in its appeals for solidarity with its modern client states in Africa.

At the other end of the technological spectrum, in China’s online presence – and in its attitude to the so-called ‘great firewall of China’, which blocks access to websites that are deemed to be inharmonious with CCP values – questions remain as to whether Chinese society will become more open to ideas and attitudes from elsewhere in the world by then.

Regardless, their past legacies of imperial success will remain a reference point for how the Chinese frame and rationalize their role in the modern world. History, culture and empire are far too interwoven for this not to be the case, no matter what the future has in store for China.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms conveys how its characters feel the pressure of their lineage bearing down on them: ‘They walk side by side through the imperial gallery, where the portraits of the former emperors hang. Walking from portrait to portrait, the emperor reflects upon the fortunes of the former rulers and bemoans his own weakness.’66

Weak no longer, the CCP has its eyes fixed firmly on its own position in the gallery. The CCP in 2049 may not look back to Mao so much as it looks back at the grander sweep of China’s imperial history as the legacy to emulate.

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