China Beyond The Wall

The World Cup is almost over, and it has been a good tournament all in all. Besides the atrocious noise of the vuvuzelas, there are at least three things that none of us will forget about the 2010 World Cup in South Africa:

• The Coca Cola advert/song “Wavin’ Flag“, which became an instant hit in most countries of the world and has been constantly played by every radio and TV of the planet for the last month (along with “Waka waka” by Shakira).
• The poor performance of the Italian team.
• The utterly appalling performance of the Italian team.

The song used in this World Cup’s Coca Cola advertisement is the highlight of a grand marketing campaign, as the Atlanta-based company reminds us, and a true global success for the producers of the most recognisable formerly cocaine-based soft drink. So much global that the song got translated in many other languages: 18 localisations, according to Wikipedia, including a version in Mongolian and Nepalese.

Here is the Chinese version of Wavin’ Flag

Here is the English version of Wavin’ Flag

And of course there is a Mandarin Chinese version of the song titled “旗开得胜” (Raise your flag). This bilingual edition, thoroughly and evenly aired on most of China’s national TV stations,  features some bits of the English version sung by K’naan and original lyrics sung by the local pop-idol Jane Zhang (a promising rising star born out of the Chinese singing contest Super Girl) and the renowned Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung.

The Mandarin lyrics are very different from the English ones: it seems that the state-censors had eliminated any semantic reference to freedom, self-empowerment, and liberation that the original lyrics clearly try to convey. Specifically, the Mandarin version is an extremely cheesy copy of the original song. Here are the lyrics in my very rough translation:

Original English lyrics:

Give me freedom, give me fire,
Give me reason, take me higher

See the champions, take the field now,
you define us,
make us feel proud
In the streets our heads are lifting, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration, it surround us, every nations, all around us

Singing forever young, singing songs underneath that sun
Lets rejoice in the beautiful game,
And together at the end of the day.
We all say

When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag
When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag
So wave your flag, now wave your flag, now wave your flag

Oooohhh, Oooooooooh wooooohh, Oooooooooh wooooohh

Harmonised Chinese lyrics:

The long hand of state censorship strikes again and I cannot but giggle when I think about these advertisement executives who had to cope with some censor’s requests: “Please, eliminate every mention of freedom, for the sake of our unified and harmonious country… You know, there’s only one China, so why don’t we sparkle the lyrics with some nice keywords from this list provided by the party… you know… the harmonious society and scientific development theory…”.

To be honest, the two songs sound completely different and not because of obvious linguistic reasons. The message is not the same, and the Chinese version tries to convey it by using the official propaganda discourse. If you spend five minutes coding the lyrics and doing some content analysis, elements such as the “one China” discourse, and the dream (i.e. the Chinese “socialist” planned development and the forecasted “harmonious growth” of the PRC) easily emerge. Think about the audience as well: millions of Chinese watching this year’s hottest event (the Shanghai Expo? Who cares…).

Although I am not entirely sure that the censors were this much sophisticated, it is clear that the core message of freedom embedded in the “unofficial” song for the South African World Cup has been harmonised for the Chinese audience. Once again, “freedom” is a much dreaded concept that cannot reach the wider population through the state-controlled media. My take is that the audience is considered unable to even hear the word “freedom” from a TV commercial, as it had been framed in such a way that it seems to be a strongly reclaimed value, all around the world (I picture a random Chinese person saying “Hey! This African guy is saying freedom! Something I don’t understand… What is freedom? I never got told in school…”).

Well done China, your censorship system is cleverly amazing.

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