An anatomy of Chinese: rhythm, metaphor, politics

Abstract

When hundreds of thousands of young Red Guards assembled on Tiananmen Square at the height of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), they shouted ‘We want to see Chairman Mao!’ (Women yao jian Mao zhuxi!). Their rhythmic chanting, Perry Link observes, closely follows an age-old seven-syllable pattern (qiyan) found in much of Chinese classical poetry, as well as in nursery rhymes, ditties, and other popular art forms. Mao answered the calls of his youthful followers, asking them to ‘destroy the four old, and establish the four news’ (po si jiu, li si xin), using a similar rhythmic pattern. Neither seemed to sense the irony in taking recourse to the very traditions that the Cultural Revolution was supposed to destroy.