Word of the Day: China Dream (中国梦)

What is the word? No, in China, “the bird” is not the word.* “China dream” is the word in China today.  Echoed in the media, on screens in Tiananmen Square, in Ministry of Foreign Affairs press briefings, in lectures, in children’s art displays at local museums, in posters hanging in hotel lobbies or fences surrounding construction sites, the message rings clear: “China dream” is here to stay.  The scions of the national vision are none other than the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

Propaganda includes variances of “China dream,” including “the people’s dream” and “my dream,” effectively tying society and the individual together into one sweeping theme sponsored by a CPC-led nationalist narrative.
The poet Li Bai (李白) declared, “I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves. (长风破浪会有时， 直挂云帆济沧海。)” President Xi Jinping has referenced the line in an effort to inspire the Chinese people to pursue the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation (Liu 2014).

A variety of opinions exist as to what exactly the China dream is and signifies. This week I asked a municipal bureaucrat in Shanghai what he thought of the China dream. “It’s critical,” he replied. “If a country has no dream, then it doesn’t exist.”

When asked whether the China dream campaign is mere rhetoric or will translate into tangible derivatives, one American diplomat smiled wryly. The diplomat went on to explain that, unlike in the U.S. where policy-makers write and pass detailed, down-in-the-weeds legislation before implementation, in China policy-makers are prone to unveil a sweeping vision and then go on to define the program along the way.

Although there can be no doubt the China dream is sweeping China, what deliverables will result in businesses, communities, schools, and elsewhere is still unknown.

Benjamin J. Hayford