Xi Jinping gave a brisk two-hour speech yesterday at an arts forum, stating his views on the current situation of China’s art and reflecting on his artsy days as a “Zhiqing”. (Spoiler alert: it’s fun facts galore.)
According to the People’s Daily's report, it is “known nationwide” that President Xi loves to read. “For me, reading is a lifestyle,” says the president, who generously shared his reading list with the public this February in Sochi, Russia and once again in March in Paris.
The list includes works by no less than 30 of the president’s favorite poets, novelists and philosophers, such as Aleksandr Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Jean-Paul Sartre and Alexandre Dumas, just to name a few. You can find the complete list in almost any literature textbook in your neighborhood bookstore.
As a fan of The Old Man and the Sea, he specifically visited the locale where Hemingway wrote that novel on his first visit to Cuba, and on his second visit, he went to a bar Hemingway frequented and “ordered Hemingway’s favorite drink- rum with mint leaves and ice cubes” - presumably referring to a mojito.
Also a fact “known by the entire nation” is that the beloved president loves films and has a “solid grounding in Sinology.”
However, like any good film, there is a twist at the end, in this case being President Xi Jinping also used the occasion to call for a ban on “weird architecture.”
Xi singled out the CCTV building (a.k.a. The Big Pants) in Beijing, and also is not a fan of the People’s Daily's own headquarters (a.k.a. the penis building) or the tacky Fangyuan Mansion in Shenyang.
CCTV Building
People's Daily Headquarters
Fangyuan Mansion in Shenyang
Beijing Tianzi Hotel
If you want to learn more about where Xi stands on the role of art in society, just peruse this helpful summary written 72 years ago.
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