Anth230: Anthropology of East Asia

The effects of Communism

Both movies that we saw on Tuesday depict the rise of Communism in China. My country, Bulgaria, has also been under Communism at about the same period of time (1944-1989) and I could not help, but think that the situation in China and back home has been almost identical. People should realize that what we saw in both movies is very real and Communist types of propaganda have been very similar in many different parts of the world. In Bulgaria we used to have the exact same manifestations, carrying red flags and singing communist songs. Our Labor day was pronounced the greatest holiday in the country, even greater than our Independence day. Christmas was not celebrateted at all and believe me we are a Christian country. The anti-propaganda of foreign western influence was so strong that nobody would show or read any western movies or literature. Just like in China we had artificially-created national heros, people who had passed away and the government had exaggerated thier love of labor, their fight against the western culture, and their fanatic obedience to the leaders of the BCP (we had a Bulgarian Communist Party, just like the CCP in China). Kids would read about those people in school as soon as they were able to read at all. At the same time, the whole country was ruled by fear and repression, even religion was somehow banned because it still propagates some form of individualism. What many people don't know is that there were concentration camps in many communist countries, I bet China had them too. Those camps had nothing to do with the Holocaust or Nazi Germany, they were for poeple who would rise against the party. We had them in Bulgaria, but nobody ever talked about it because everybody was scared. People would just disappear and the government would seize their property. You could be sent to a camp immediately if your words or actions were interpreted as anti- party and pro- western. As incredible as it may sound, people would go to concentration camps for TELLING jokes about party leaders, not publishing or discussing them in front of a crowd, but just telling jokes among friends.