[The Epoch Times, August 1, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Xu Menger comprehensive report) The online short video “Second Uncle” became popular due to the efforts of the CCP’s mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency. A few days later, another CCP state media jumped out and said that the film was fabricated in many ways. The back and forth of the storyline has become a hot topic on the Internet. Some analysts believe that the popularity of this incident is not simple, and that it is controlled by the CCP official behind it.
On the evening of July 25, the blogger “Yi Ge Guess” released the video “Three days back to the village, my second uncle cured my internal mental problems”, telling the story of the disabled people in the countryside ” The life story of “Second Uncle” reflects the plight and injustice faced by Chinese farmers.
The nephew described in the video that the second uncle, who is excellent in school and known as a genius boy, had a fever in junior high school and was disabled in his left leg after four injections by a barefoot doctor. Later, the second uncle relied on self-study to become an excellent carpenter and a craftsman who could repair everything, so as to be self-reliant and support his family. The second uncle has never been married. In order to take care of the old mother who cannot take care of herself, the 66-year-old second uncle also stopped working, gave up the idea of earning more money to save the pension, and took care of the 88-year-old mother full-time.
This 11-minute video quickly became popular due to the rare vigorous propaganda by the official mainstream mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China. Since its release, it has been viewed more than 37 million times on station B, triggering discussions among hundreds of millions of people.
After the second uncle became popular, Xinhua News Agency immediately interviewed the “Yige Conjecture”, intending to expand the publicity of the second uncle’s story; “People’s Daily” also published an article praising “the second uncle did not lie down”, “It is not the suffering that made the second uncle, but the He thwarted the suffering”, “Second Uncle lived the full life we yearn for”.
However, the subsequent report of the mainland Red Star News seems to have slapped Xinhua News Agency in the face. According to reports, “Second Uncle” was not misdiagnosed and disabled by a barefoot doctor, but suffered from polio. “Second Uncle” had already obtained a disability certificate. The video shooter was not “Second Uncle”‘s nephew, but his nephew’s son-in-law.
Earlier, some mainland netizens said that the copy in the “Second Uncle” video was plagiarized from an article by Wu Biaohua, a middle school teacher in Yueyang County, Hunan Province. Reading test questions for the Chinese Mock Exam.
In response to the outside world‘s suspicion, “Yi Ge Conjecture” responded that the short video “Second Uncle” was “not adapted”, and he had not read Wu Biaohua’s article. “Every word is true”, and the copy was “written in two nights”.
When “Second Uncle” became popular, the production team of the video raised doubts from the outside world. “Yi Ge Conjecture” responded that there was no team for filming and copywriting. The video was shot and produced spontaneously by him and his daughter-in-law.
Mainland netizens “Motivation Capital” said that video is more like the product of a professional team’s assembly line operation, including shooting, production, scripting, and post-production promotion, rather than a common creator can complete it.
Someone in the industry posted that people who understand video production can see at a glance that the “director, screenwriter, actor, editing, and post-production of the “Second Uncle” video are all first-class. Behind this is a huge team, a large number of professional equipment, relatively The result of prolonged filming, huge funding and organized promotion is simply not something that we-media bloggers can afford and initiate.”
Some netizens found that the official media Xinhua News Agency ranked first in the “creative team” of the “Second Uncle” video, not the “nephew” (player) “Yi Ge Conjecture”. Screenshots from netizens showed that Xinhua News Agency was identified as the “UP master”, while the “Yigo Conjecture” was just a “participant”.
On August 1, current affairs commentator Yue Shan analyzed the Epoch Times reporter and said that on the Internet controlled by the CCP, it is not that simple to come out and become popular, and there is an official hand behind it. The video of “Second Uncle” quickly became popular and was highly praised by the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China. It should be part of the political task of propagating the so-called positive energy internally before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Netizens broke the news that the official media Xinhua News Agency is the top of the “Second Uncle” video “creative team”. If it is true, now Red Star News has disclosed that a large number of videos are fake. Is this a slap in the face of Xinhua News Agency? In my opinion, at least it slapped the face of the previously hyped official media.
Yue Shan believes that, in fact, Red Star News is just a role in fighting fire, because the previous “Second Uncle”‘s “inspirational” story was discovered by netizens, but it confirmed many problems that the CCP system does not guarantee the people at the bottom, including the misdiagnosis and disability of barefoot doctors, and I didn’t get the government’s care and help, etc. So, now the official may see that the public opinion has burned the system, so they hurriedly put out the fire. But Red Star News interviewed the town cadres and the former director of the local health center, and they provided “testimony” and “evidence” , it can’t be said to be true, why can’t “Second Uncle” himself speak? This is a big problem.
The story of “Second Uncle” fermented heated discussions among netizens
The story of “Second Uncle” flipped back and forth, which once again caused heated discussions among netizens.
“Lin Ge observed” said, “That is, the second uncle has completely overturned. The more inside information, the more criticism…”
“-Lureee-” said, “There is a real ulterior motive behind the push.”
“edwededwededwed” said, “I just wanted everyone to stop complaining at first, but everyone didn’t drink this poisonous chicken soup, and then went on the hot search with Zhou Jie, which did not conform to the core values of ‘common prosperity’, so… simply Fake, how can we have such a miserable second uncle here.”
“A Fei of Cai Cai” said, “The local government said: Most of them are true. Why is it fake again now? How is the wind blowing?”
“3bell” said, “There is only one reason for continuing to be dug up. The core content has reached the bottom line. Therefore, to be popular nowadays, it must conform to the theme of the times.”
Current affairs commentator Tang Hao said on his program “Crossroads of the World” that an ordinary folk village story can be alarmed by the three major party media of the CCP to report together? Behind this, it is obviously not the normal logic of journalism, but the unique logic of the CCP’s political stability maintenance. The CCP must have discovered that this story can earn political benefits, so it has to increase the propaganda and harvest the second uncle’s story for itself. used.
Tang Hao believes that the party first creates many sufferings of the people, and then steals “chicken soup for the soul” from the suffering of the people, and uses it to anesthetize more people and achieve the goal of maintaining a stable regime. To put it bluntly, the CCP wants people to look at the sufferings of others, so as to reduce their own relative deprivation, fill their own relative satisfaction, feel that they are living happily, so as to accept the current situation of life, and dispel the idea of resistance and dissatisfaction.
Tang Hao said, in fact, to put it bluntly, the CCP is appropriating the second uncle’s life of self-reliance and self-improvement, to cover up all kinds of suffering the CCP has brought to the people; the CCP is appropriating the spirit of kind people and traditional culture, using To cover up the people’s supervision and reflection on the Communist Party. This is another new example of the CCP’s oppression and harvesting of the people.
Responsible editor: Lin Congwen#