China’s top TV series in 2023 on Tibet said to be CCP propaganda
By Yungdung Tsomo
DHARAMSALA, 10 July: A TV series on Tibet parroting Chinese Communist Party propaganda has become the most successful series of the year on Chinese Television.
“The most successful series of the year on Chinese TV promotes a false “old Tibetan spirit” and ignores real Tibetan culture,” reports Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights around the World, with a special focus on China.
“Where The Snow Lotus Bloom” a 32-episode series aired from May on Chinese state-run CCTV1 of China Central Radio and Television Station is “just another piece of CCP propaganda,” the report added.
The series, co-produced by Henan Radio and Television and Tibet Radio and Television with CCTV depicts China’s version of Tibet in the old days, without the context of Tibetan culture and its traditional background.
In an attempt to sell Chinese propaganda and to reinforce their narrative on Tibet, the most-watched TV series of 2023 in China “Unfortunately tells the usual lies.”
According to the report, “Tibetans are depicted as unhappy and backward until the Chinese liberators arrived.”
The report further added that the series painted Chinese soldiers, the CCP Han Chinese cadres and students who “voluntarily” came to Tibet after the invasion as “selfless heroes whose main purpose was to revive the old Tibetan spirit.”
The TV series has been approved by the United Front Work Department, a Chinese communist party agency overseeing its influence campaign worldwide. China usually deploys the agency to co-opt and neutralise sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling CCP.
China has produced numerous Television series, films and movies about Tibet- all aligning with China’s version of Tibet and its propaganda.
China’s one of the most successful and famous TV series on Tibet in the past titled ‘Secret of Tibet’ featured many Tibetan actors swearing their allegiance and singing praise of the party.
However, the Tibetan actors in the series were at the receiving end of criticism from Tibetan intellectuals for their participation in China’s propaganda TV series.
