{"id":6591,"date":"2020-09-30T15:30:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.jomec.co.uk\/life360\/?p=6591"},"modified":"2020-09-30T15:30:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:30:47","slug":"when-chinese-climb-over-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/life360\/when-chinese-climb-over-the-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"When Chinese climb over the \u201cwall\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

No matter how strong is a \u201cwall\u201d, there must be people who climbed over it. How they managed to do that and then what?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A young \u201cwall\u201d climber Zhao<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the 30-year-old Zhao Jia calling back the past, he cannot imagine the young version of him who was singing the Mao-era songs and marching on the street for his country. Been in the \u201cwall\u201d for some two decades, finally, he climbed over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you come to China, the Great Wall is a must-go\u2014without a doubt, it is the greatest treasure all over the world. However, when people who speak Chinese talking about the \u201cwall\u201d, it may not be the historic site over 2000 years old. It is not easy, but also unnecessary to give the \u201cwall\u201d a precise definition. Unlike the Berlin Wall, the \u201cwall\u201d in modern China is invisible and untouchable, while many like Taiwanese do believe its existence as on the internet, they call their mainland neighbour a quite sarcastic and subtle name –\u201cThe country of Wall\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mainland people may feel uncomfortable about this name but meanwhile, the lack of confidence would stop them making a rebuttal, especially during the rule of Xi Jinping. Compared with his predecessor Hu Jintao, Xi obviously, is a more industrious \u201cwall\u201d builder. When people migrate from an old to a new environment, they would face a lot of uncertainties\u2014so does Zhao. But a decade ago, he was still a firm believer of Chinese dream \u201cleading by the great Communist Party\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhao was a big fan of Chairman Mao. Influenced by his grandfather, Mao had been the man Zhao Jia admired the most. Loads of Mao\u2019s portraits could be seen in his home. Zhao was quite proud of his birthday as it shares the same date with Chairman Mao\u2019s. \u201cI thought there is something special connecting us\u201d. Zhao also liked the songs popular in the Mao-era. \u201cNanni Bay\u201d \u201cMy motherland\u201d \u201c99 sunny days\u201d\u2026 he could sing them since very little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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