The Economist July 10th 2021 China 43Forprofitpatriotism
F
ive or sixyears ago, when many Chinese still associated Amer
ican culture with novelty and fun, Halloween was big business
in Caoxian. This rural county claims to be China’s largest source of
cheap costumes for children’s parties and school concerts as well
as for dramatic galas that are sometimes staged in Chinese work
places, from small factories to government ministries. Not long
ago, Caoxian’s entrepreneurs could live for a year on one month’s
sales of pumpkin costumes, witches’ robes and other Halloween
paraphernalia, says Ren Yafeng, a local costume merchant, per
haps exaggerating just a little.
In the past three years, however, America’s image has darkened
and consumers have become more nationalistic, nudged by Com
munist Party propaganda and four years of Trumpian bluster. The
market signals were swiftly received in Caoxian, for this light
manufacturing hub in the eastern province of Shandong is linked
to customers by ecommerce. Officials in Mr Ren’s home village,
Sunzhuang, report that almost threequarters of households sell
goods on such online platforms as Taobao, 1688 and Pinduoduo.
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the party’s found
ing. All year, orders have poured in to Caoxian for replicas of the
Red Army uniforms that were worn by Communist guerrillas.
Schools have been buying childsized ones for more than a de
cade, for use in performances. But it is not only children who don
them. Such costumes are now allbutrequired wearing for groups
visiting partyapproved “red tourism” sites, such as bases used
during the Long March and battlefields where the Communists
suffered ghastly but inspiring losses. Since January Mr Ren has
shipped 100,000 Red Army uniforms from his warehouse, located
at a crossroads between cornfields and a duck pond. He hopes to
sell the same number again before the year is out.
The sight of grown men and women dressed as soldiers from
the 1930s, in powderblue or grey tunics, trousers and octagonal
caps bearing a red star on the peak, is one of the spectacles of mod
ern China. They can be seen panting up Red Army supply trails in
Jinggangshan, a mountain in southern China called the cradle of
the revolution. They can be heard reciting Mao’s poems in Yan’an,
an old party headquarters, and singing red hymns around vats of
thin soup that troops might have eaten long ago. These are pilgrims,fortheparty,thoughatheist,unabashedly talks about “sa
cred” sites, “martyrs” and filling hearts with revolutionary fire.
The costumes are an aid to faith. Official documents talk of tour
ists being inspired by “wearing Red Army clothes, eating Red Army
meals and walking Red Army paths”. Some visitors are bureaucrats
on governmentpaid study tours, or workers from private firms
eager to show loyalty to the party. Commercial guides also rent out
or sell uniforms to individual tourists. Devotion to authenticity
varies, with some visitors pairing uniforms with trainers and plas
tic bags full of modernday snacks. Those attentive to detail sport
oldfashioned cloth slippers, canvas satchels and toy guns.
Children’s costumes still make up most of Mr Ren’s sales, but
adult orders are booming. The cheapest Red Army suits sell for 25
yuan ($3.90) while more durable uniforms can go for 100 yuan, in
cluding a belt and cap. He reports seeing a first surge in 2015, the
70th anniversary of victory over Japan, and evergrowing orders
from revolutionary bases in the past two or three years.
Especially last year, when covid19 lockdowns forced the can
cellation of performances, lots of Caoxian’s costumemakers di
versified into another patriotic fashion, selling the supposedly
ancient robes known as Hanfuto individual buyers. These floaty
gowns and tunics are largely invented, based on a mishmash of
historical styles. Still, they are embraced by many Han Chinese,
who make up over 90% of the population. They had lacked an eth
nic costume they could call their own, unlike Tibetans or other
minorities. Even children’s costumes are becoming more patriot
ic. Those based on “Journey to the West”, a famous folk saga, are
brisk sellers, as are some based on a cartoon series from the 1980s
about seven brothers born from magic gourds. In Sunzhuang lo
cals call national pride a sign of progress, suggesting that as the
Chinese grow richerand no longer worry about their next meal,
their minds are turning to “higher things”, such as their own
history. The village party secretary, Sun Xueping, used to encour
age locals to seek jobs as migrant workers. Now he urges them to
stay and make more money selling goods online. If those products
reflect love of the country and party, “that’s a winwin”, he beams.Red tourism, golden opportunities
Down the lane from Mr Ren’s warehouse, a line of beige uniform
trousers drying next to a stack of corn cobs reveals a still more spe
cialised business. Through a farmhouse gate lies a backyard work
shop employing a dozen people to make costumes worn by enemy
troops decades ago. Inside, workbenches are heaped with caps
bearing the blueandwhite insignia of the Nationalist regime,
which the Red Army overthrew in 1949. Boxes hold the blackand
white uniforms of Nationalist police, who hunted down under
ground Communists in Shanghai and other cities. These are used
by extras in videos or stage shows, guesses the workshop’s owner,
Ren Gen. He only receives orders for adult sizes, perhaps because
parents do not want children playing villains.
It is revealing that blue or grey uniforms from the party’s earli
est decades dominate the replica trade. There is less demand for
the green uniforms worn in Mao’s later years, including by Red
Guards during the Cultural Revolution in 196676. In Caoxian, as
elsewhere, that dark period saw temples smashed and people with
the wrong class background, or even a slender connection to the
outside world, tortured by mobs. “People don’t really want to men
tion such things,” saysanolder local who remembers those hor
rors. Nostalgia is bothpartyapproved and profitable in today’s
China. It is also selective.nChaguan
Donning old-style Communist uniforms is surprisingly popular. Many are made in a single county