Long March legend a mainstay of Chinese communist lore

In the National Museum of China, the cap which Mao Zedong wore on the epic Long March forms the centrepiece of an exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of the trek which established the "Great Helmsman" as China's most powerful leader.

Down the street at the National Centre of the Performing Arts, a new opera offers a stirringly patriotic take on the odyssey, while the China National Museum of Women and Children has an exhibition called Everlasting Female Red Army Soldiers, which tells the tale of 80 women who heroically fought and marched alongside the men.

For Chinese president Xi Jinping, the Long March is an "epic, human miracle". It is a tale steeped in communist lore. Facing complete annihilation by Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) during China's civil war in 1934, some 80,000 communist soldiers and leaders broke through encircling forces and embarked on a gruelling 12,500km march.

With 88.75 million members, the Communist Party of China is arguably in a stronger position than ever, but there are fears that slowing economic growth and grumblings about the pace of change could chip away at the core support.

The party is keen to harness that Long March feeling to remind everyone that the party is still relevant and retains legitimacy.

Powerful position

Central to the party’s current strength is the powerful position that Xi has carved out for himself. In the nearly five years since he came to power, he has instituted a popular anti-corruption campaign that has seen the demise of key rivals, including one-time rising star

Bo Xilai

and former security chief

Zhou Yongkang

.

He has assumed full control of the People’s Liberation Army and state security, and his position seems secure enough to encourage speculation that he may delay appointing a successor and seek to stay in power for five years beyond the traditional 10-year term. This would see him at the helm until 2027.

In tandem with the anti-graft campaign, dissent has been stifled and anyone who tries to question the party or its authority is quickly muzzled. Anyone casting doubt on the detail of the Long March narrative is accused of “historical nihilism”.

The party has overseen decades of strong economic growth – even fears that the economy might falter this year have proved false, as a real estate boom has underpinned continued expansion. Every year a different reason is given why the Chinese economy is doomed to fail, but every year it emerges with strong figures, albeit more moderate than the heady days of a decade ago, but in line with the party’s two “centenary goals”.

These are to establish a moderately well-off society in all aspects by the time the party celebrates its centenary in 2021, and then to transform China into a prosperous, democratic and harmonious modern socialist country in time for the People’s Republic of China centenary in 2049.

Changing values

By the time the communists reached Yan’an in

Shanxi

province two years after they began their trek, 80 per cent of their forces had died or deserted, but they formed a base there and went on to conquer the country.

Xi’s father Xi Zhongxun was a Long March hero who later became vice-premier, and Xi believes each generation has its own “long march” and they should proceed in their own way.

“No matter which stage our undertaking has developed to and how great the achievements we’ve made, we should carry forth the Long March spirit and advance in ‘a new long march’,” he has said.

And yet for all the stirring patriotism, there are signs of how changing values in an increasingly diverse and globalised China chafe against this kind of old-school propaganda and communist dialectic.

The party recently issued an order requiring cadres to address each other as "comrade", sparking widespread scoffing online as "comrade", or tongzhi in Chinese, is these days mostly used in the gay community to refer to friends and companions.

There was trouble when state broadcaster CCTV cast actor and glamour model Bai Ling in an eight-part documentary Long March Shakes the World. Her role in the film Red Corner, which is seen here as anti-China, and also features Richard Gere, a friend of the despised Dalai Lama, angered many online, as have her nude photo-shoots.

She also regularly speaks of how she was sexually abused as a teenage member of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) art troupe, which has not boosted her popularity either.

While Bai donned a Red Army uniform and wore pigtails for some scenes, she was also pictured leaning in a sexy pose in the doorway of Mao’s house in Yan’an. Not quite what the chairman ordered.