The Democracy Wall Movement

1. The Democracy Wall Movement By LasyaRangavajjula, SoJeongPaek, Deb Peifer, Jenna Nienius Mod 3 May 30, 2014

2. What Is This Movement? • The Democracy Wall began in 1978. • This movement was part of the Beijing Spring, a time where the public under the government of the People’s Republic of China had the freedom to criticize and express their opinions about the government. • It was an extensive brick wall located in Xidan Street in the Xiecheng District of Beijing.

3. The Beginning • The Democracy Wall movement began under the support of the Chairman Deng Xiaoping. • Using large posters, essays, messages, and poems, people would vent their frustrations towards the government

4. A Turning Point • The Democracy Movement is considered a turning point in the history of China as it was the first time people fought for their political right in the country. • Previously, the people of China have been voiceless and commanded by a monarchy, dictatorships, and communism. • The people of China followed the Cultural Revolution and clearly expressed their opinions.

5. Methods of Expression • Aside from large posters and messages posted on the wall, the people of China created unofficial groups. They read underground politically charged magazines as well. • Even after the Democracy Wall, these magazines represented the voices of the Chinese Democracy Movement. • However, at the end of the Democracy Wall, the government began to suppress any type of Democracy Movement. • The Democracy Movement took several years to gain strength after its end.

6. Increase in Awareness • The movement began to spiral out of control when an essay posted by Wei Jingsheng called for a ‘Fifth Modernization’ on December 5. This essay called for China to become a democracy. • This essay took the attention of several people, including students and intellectuals. • As a result, more posters advocating democracy were put up on the wall.

7. How the Movement Was Terminated • The sudden uproar and push for democracy in China concerned the government. • As a result, the Wall was shut down by the government in December 1979.

8. Metaphoric Title • Assembly lines are used for manufacturing processes, where parts of the product are added on as the assembly line itself moves. The purpose of assembly lines is to produce exact copies of a product through the same process. The title of this poem by Shut Ting is “Assembly Line”, which metaphorically conveys the image of conformity in society. Just like identical trees lines up and the similar starts stretched across the sky, people under the communist rule are considered facsimiles of one another; no one is unique or better than anyone else. Similar to a factory assembly line, communism systematically develops each person or group of people the same way, so that all people “share the same tempo and rhythm” (line 17).

9. Theme • The theme of Assembly Line is how communism is forcing people to conform to a false façade of perfection. Assembly Line talks about how people seem to no longer be human beings that they have now conformed to a manufactured statuesque. The theme of conformity is shown by how much people do not care that they have changed because they cannot fix it unless everyone works together. “I'm unable to show concern; for my own manufactured fate. (Kizer)” Assembly Line shows that it is wrong to conform to this type of life, and that people should be free to be who they want to be.

10. Losing Hope (last passage) • The poem explains through the metaphor of an assembly line the conformity of China. The poet in the last passage loses hope that he will ever have his own identity. “I am numb to my own existence(Kizer)” the poet has lost his own feeling and emotions, he has become so used to the conformist way of life he has lost himself. “Perhaps just out of habit, perhaps just out of sorrow, I’m unable to show concern(Kizer)” the poet is now unable to express his feelings of concern. He is unable to do so because of communism taking away his individuality this could be the reason he has lost his ability to show emotion.