The Lessons of Bo Xilai's Fall

The senior official from Chongqing, China’s largest city, suddenly looked uneasy. It was last summer, and I had just asked him about “red culture,” the drive by Bo Xilai, Chongqing’s now disgraced party boss, to instill revolutionary fervor in citizens by singing patriotic songs and reading communist classics. The official was a political ally of Bo’s. Like his polished mentor, he wore a suit of a fine fabric and a rather nice watch. Given that Bo had, according to the official, “turned red culture into Chongqing’s calling card to the world,” it was surprising that the top bureaucrat then proceeded to stumble on what the controversial campaign, which has drawn comparisons to the Cultural Revolution, actually meant. By the time he had finished his convoluted explanation, I had learned that red culture not only included communist values but also encompassed the wisdom of Confucius, Einstein, Shakespeare and Martin Luther King. Oh, and Michael Jackson too.