Propaganda for China’s young students

Millions of Chinese schoolchildren have been made to watch a propaganda broadcast about the Olympics and May's devastating Sichuan earthquake, reports the Telegraph.

China's Education Ministry ordered more than 170 million school kids to watch a two-hour broadcast on Monday this week, the first day of the new school year.

The compulsory event, called The First Lesson of the New Term, was a "brightly-lit variety show which skillfully weaved together China's "Olympic spirit" and its fortitude in the face of disaster", says the paper.

The Telegraph writes that the broadcast was designed to fill the students with pride about the Olympics and the country's response to the earthquake, which claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Lessons or mythology?

From the article:

" … Parents were required to sign a chit to certify that their child had watched the spectacle.

" The state media said the show would teach children practical lessons for "self-protection in such natural disasters as earthquakes, fire, snowstorm or floods".

" However, the effect of the show was rather to mythologise the strength and ingenuity of the Chinese …"