Line-by-line critique of @jqr's favorite Luo Tianyi song "When the Snow Comes"

[1967.1]

@jqr
Chasing after the snow, covering the footprints again
Footprints symbolize the development of things and can also indicate the success of a revolution. Chasing symbolizes revolutionary struggle, while snow covering implies the restoration of capitalism. In summary, it represents a defeatist revolutionary attitude that mourns the loss of spring and autumn and is unwilling to fight. At the same time, this denies that history develops through movement, as if a failed revolution at a certain stage ceases to exist in history, fundamentally denying the materialist view of history.

How should the belated me proceed?
Defeatism. As revolutionaries, our goals are clear, and our faith is the invincible Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. This phrase completely denies the inevitability of socialism replacing capitalism and the victory of revolution, embodying defeatism.

The direction you once walked alone
Individual heroism. Revolution is not a one-person affair; it is a mass movement, written by the people.

When will it revive? The withered flowers in winter
Using withered flowers to symbolize failure. Even if the proletarian revolutionary movement fails, it ends with great momentum and heroic sacrifice, profoundly influencing later revolutionary struggles, such as the 1905 Russian Revolution. This is defeatism.

Curling up in the palm, especially fragile
The leading force may be weak at times, but that does not mean it will always be weak. When objective forces are weak, for example, if a revolution breaks out in China in the future amid imperialist wars, the objective forces of revisionism will be weak. At this time, the revolutionary leading force can take the opportunity to move, grow stronger, and welcome the revolutionary climax until victory. This also denies that things develop through movement, viewing things as unchanging, which is a reactionary idealist view of history.

Only relying on the heart
Denies the subjective initiative of the masses. For example, during the anti-Exceptional Laws period, grassroots party members of the German party quickly restored connections between party bases after Bismarck’s brutal repression.

Just wait
Also denies subjective initiative. For imperialism, revolutionaries must take the initiative to mobilize the working masses, not passively wait for uprisings.

When spring returns, hope will sound
Revolutionary defeatism, denying the development of things in motion and the possibility that a weak leading force can grow strong and achieve victory.

Shaking off the boundless snow vastness
Defeatism, believing that imperialist reactionaries are always strong, failing to see the increasingly sharp internal class contradictions, which is an idealist view of history and worldview.

Give it an inch of soil
Reformism, refusing class struggle and hoping for imperialist mercy. The Bloody Sunday massacre before the 1905 revolution and subsequent Dumas prove that relying on imperialist reformism is wishful thinking. It aligns with reactionary, anti-proletarian Mensheviks, Kautsky, and Bernstein.

Are all beautiful dreams like pure white fluttering?
Starting to daydream, fantasizing about a good life. Ultimately, this is petty-bourgeois individualism and selfishness, thinking that speculation without revolution can bring a good life, so they stop fighting and indulge in dreams.

The wind that cannot be grasped
Promotes speculation, believing that grasping it means victory, and when speculation fails, they lament and whine without cause.

Finally within reach, clouds cover
Speculation succeeded, leading to sighs. Believing that without revolution, becoming bourgeois can still lead to a vampire-like good life. Denies class struggle and revolutionary progress, engaging in reactionary counterrevolution.

Only see
Narrow-mindedness.

When snow arrives, nowhere to hide
Defeatism and pessimism. When imperialism suppresses, scattering and fleeing is petty-bourgeois fanaticism. No need for pessimism, thinking imperialism is too strong, ignoring its internal sharp contradictions. Chairman Mao said, “All reactionaries are paper tigers.” This phrase is also anti-Mao. After the fifth failed encirclement campaign, Mao used contradictions between comprador government and warlords plus excellent tactics to defeat counterrevolutionary forces and reach Shaanxi via the Long March.

Don’t imagine me as the same coldness
Imagining a second person.

Crossing thousands of miles like moonlight condensed into frost
Romantic reactionary nonsense, literary youth style, detached from the masses, engaging in bourgeois “romance.”

The answer I seek is on the road
Individualism, opportunism. One person seeking answers means one person speculating and becoming a big capitalist.

Searching for the unfading remedy of love
Bourgeois reactionary view of love, portraying patriarchal oppression and sexual exploitation of women in bourgeois marriage as love, catering to lustful men’s fantasies. Having a virtual girl sing this is reactionary, satisfying male fantasies. In bourgeois marriage, men bind women as subordinate household slaves, calling it “love that never fades,” extremely reactionary and physiologically disturbing.

Let the withered flowers bloom again
Reactionary, continuing the previous lyric’s beautification of bourgeois love, portraying sexual exploitation and slavery as the remedy that lets “withered flowers bloom again,” with sexual innuendo. Using withered flowers to refer to unmarried women, claiming only women enslaved by patriarchal men as household slaves are good, promoting feudal Confucian ethics, extremely reactionary.

When reunited, offering is but folly
Portraying men exploiting women sexually, making women travel thousands of kilometers just for sex as romantic, and calling male exploitation “women’s offering,” insulting working women. This is no different from lustful men who fantasize about women being “cheap” and seducing them. To uphold patriarchy, it reverses right and wrong and insults women.

Sinking in a sea of lies
The producer himself knows bourgeois love is male deception of women.

I only need memories, that’s enough
Reactionary, insulting women. This line and the previous one imply that after being deceived by lustful men, women are portrayed as infatuated, dependent on men even after being abandoned, extremely reactionary.

Summoning courage to surface
Even more reactionary, this line brainwashes women to keep seeking lustful men even after being abandoned.

Repeated middle section

Chasing a single answer
The answer is the same as above, speculation, reactionary nonsense.

Chasing a direction
Starting to split. Our revolutionary direction is to pursue Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. Why seek a direction? This is no different from leftist circles that frequently split. Of course, Marxism-Leninism is not static; it develops according to revolutionary conditions and party actions, e.g., Lenin’s theory of socialist revolution and vanguard party during imperialist war, Mao’s theory of revolution in semi-colonial semi-feudal countries and Third World. Theories that refuse to develop revolutionary forces and instead split are extremely reactionary.

Chasing the light that does not extinguish when snow falls
Starting to be literary youth style, abstract, petty-bourgeois self-indulgence, despised by working people!

When snow falls, lights blaze brightly
Denies the increasingly sharp class contradictions at home and abroad during imperialism, limited to petty-bourgeois rightist bourgeois perspective, summarizing society by their hedonistic lifestyle, ignoring the increasingly brutal exploitation and oppression of the proletariat, promoting “well-off society” filled with petty-bourgeois individualism and hedonistic dregs.

Noisy passing by, asking when to return home
Petty-bourgeois individualism. Those who have joined the revolution and risked their lives to overthrow the emperor do not speculate to improve personal life. How is this different from Woodlee? Once in revolution, no turning back, no return to petty-bourgeois life, must be ready to sacrifice.

Stretching thousands of miles
Footprints covered by white snow
Same as the first line of the lyrics, revolutionary defeatism, idealist view of history and worldview.

No one ever thought to look back
Denies the historical role of failed revolutionary movements. Failed revolutions are to summarize experience and reflect, ultimately launching new revolutions, like the 1905 revolution preparing for the October Revolution.

When snow falls, no more hiding
No revolution, helping imperialism suppress.

Withered body long dry, soul rekindled
What soul? Idealist nonsense. Human cognition is determined by practice, not abstract idealist soul concepts.

Circling for millions of years seeking shoulders to land on
Opportunism, preferring to speculate to death and find someone to depend on, becoming their running dogs, extremely reactionary opportunism. Brainwashing petty bourgeois to depend on imperialist reactionaries even if speculating to death.

The answer is tightly held in the palm
Starting to be abstract, theoretical stuff, how can it be material? More idealism, believing existence just exists.

My longing falls like snowflakes, no more hiding this cold
Returning to the reactionary theme of slandering working women longing for lustful men.

[红术]

Actually, I think what you wrote is very strange. While it is certainly not wrong to criticize the reactionary bourgeois art of virtual singers, literary criticism should be serious, careful, and well-founded, rather than arbitrarily labeling and forcibly associating things just because one believes their stance is correct. Many of your criticisms are very far-fetched, for example, interpreting the word “footprint” as “the development of things” or “revolutionary success,” and then concluding that the phrase “the snow covers the footprints again” means “the restoration of capitalism” and “fundamentally denies the materialist view of history.” However, the theme of this song itself is not about revolution; the lyrics and the intention have nothing to do with revolution. Forcibly linking it to revolution and then criticizing it is actually criticism for the sake of criticism, shooting the arrow first and then drawing the target.

There is a passage in the Outline of Marxist Philosophy:

“In short, although idealism itself is an erroneous and anti-scientific ideology, when struggling against idealism, one should not adopt a crude metaphysical attitude but should take a concrete analytical dialectical attitude; one should not merely declare idealism nonsense but should study why it is nonsense, study through which links and paths in the process of cognition such nonsense conclusions are drawn, and study how to overcome and defeat it.”

Having the correct stance alone is not enough; only well-founded and sufficient argumentation can convince people and achieve the effect of criticism. Otherwise, it will only make people laugh and cause a very bad embarrassing impact. You can refer to the criticism of Xu Song in the second issue of the magazine “Dawn,” which quotes some original lyrics of Xu Song’s songs for criticism. It uses a materialist approach, combined with Xu Song’s own reactionary experiences, the historical background of his activities, his political and economic status, as well as the intention and theme of the songs he wrote to conduct criticism. When mentioning specific songs, it does not quote the entire text but only some classic sentences that can concentrate and highlight the theme of the song, which most exposes Xu Song’s reactionary thoughts, to carry out criticism. This is the most effective way to conduct literary criticism. Because in these artistic works, criticizing every sentence would be redundant and unnecessary; the core ideas may only be present in some sentences. It is not that other sentences do not express reactionary thoughts, but they are not concentrated enough, and forced criticism is unnecessary.

[红术]

Actually, general literary criticism should be combined with the specific content of the literary work, the ideas it aims to express, the purpose of creation, the historical background, and so on; the criticism should also select typical and meaningful examples to carry out. I feel that 1967.1 might have wanted to take the opportunity of criticizing virtual idols to show off, so this post was written in a very far-fetched and forced way. Moreover, 1967 speaks very firmly and revolutionarily, but in reality, it is empty talk, like looking for an opportunity to recite phrases to highlight their firm stance. Coupled with 1967’s previous harsh style of attacking people, I wonder if this time writing this also had the intention of showing off or flaunting oneself. Because the purpose is wrong, the result is also not good.
Mainly, if these “criticisms” are done with personal motives, they may appear revolutionary, but in reality, such behavior is harmful. It’s like if JQR sees this, it would be equivalent to finding a “war excuse” and could take the opportunity to say you are talking nonsense and making arbitrary associations to defend the reactionary nature of virtual idols.

[jqr]

It really is

[1967.1]

Actually, my original intention in writing this was that I had previously told jqr to specify the songs he listened to so that we could critique them one by one. Now that he posted it, I wrote this.

[jqr]

Unbelievable..

[1967.1]

Really guessed the red technique correctly, jqr

[jqr]

This article seems to hardly seriously analyze the author’s intentions; most of it is a clumsy distortion and fabrication of the author’s emotions and will… shooting arrows at a target drawn on a wall…

[1967.1]

I admit I made a mistake in this regard; my analysis was too one-sided and basically just a wild guess. But you, someone obsessed with virtual singers and even able to change your profile to that phrase, make people feel that your criticism has ulterior motives.

[校长-布]

I agree with Hongshu’s viewpoint. Of course, we should be angry and critical of bourgeois literary and artistic works, but your criticism lacks strength; it is very stiff and forced. Criticism of literary and artistic works should be conducted from both political and artistic standards, with the main focus on political criticism. For any literary or artistic work, one should examine the environment in which it was created and the class of the creator, analyze the creator’s subjective motives and the actual effects of the work, and criticize from this perspective. However, your criticism does not mention the environment in which this song was created, nor does it analyze the class position and creative purpose of the lyricist, making it difficult to produce a strong, reasonable, and convincing critique.

Unlike your analysis, the article criticizing Xu Song in the second issue of “Dawn” achieves the above points. For example, at the beginning of the article, it points out under what conditions Xu Song’s works and he himself became popular:

In a class society, different classes have different lives and naturally different arts—bourgeois art vigorously promotes the decadent and corrupt lifestyle of the exploiting class, spreads bourgeois reactionary ideas, and serves to maintain the capitalist social order… In the 21st century, with greatly improved scientific and technological levels, bourgeois art uses new communication channels like the internet to spread various bourgeois reactionary ideas at an astonishing speed. The bourgeois “traffic star” Xu Song, who entered the public eye as an online singer, rose to fame riding this countercurrent.

Later, it also analyzes his motives and the actual effects caused:

In the song “Crow,” Xu Song arrogantly claims to “harbor surging and bursting enthusiasm” and therefore “cannot be pleasing,” portraying himself as a “refined scholar” who “does not conform,” is aloof, and maintains high moral integrity. Is Xu Song really, as he claims, an “unconventional,” “unambitious for fame and fortune,” yet simultaneously a “talent” who has achieved both wealth and fame? The fact is far from it; all this is just a ridiculous lie he fabricated… As one of the most famous representatives of Chinese “musicians,” Xu Song certainly lives a life of extravagant parasitism. He now lives in the Xinghewan community in Beijing, owns a duplex apartment worth 25 million yuan, wears luxury watches worth 4 million yuan, and once boasted that his annual income is “conservatively estimated” at 25 million yuan (the actual amount is likely much higher). Like any other bourgeois, Xu Song is certainly not satisfied with his current lavish lifestyle. He tries every means to expand his influence to gain greater benefits. On December 31, 2022, at the Hunan TV New Year’s Eve Gala, Xu Song, under the pretense of “giving gifts to fans,” deliberately compiled “classic excerpts” from his widely circulated sixteen songs, combined with the current popular short video music style, to piece together a reactionary song “medley”—“Unexpected.” At this time, Xu Song’s intention to promote his reactionary works was already clear, and his “aloof” image of “indifference to fame and fortune” was completely shattered… In “Midnight Bookstore,” Xu Song covers up the fact that “he” attempted a crime and helps “him” escape from the charges, opening the door for scoundrels in society who plot against women. Even more infuriatingly, Xu Song fabricates an inner monologue of a female character in the song: “Are you reading the book or looking at me? Your eyes are full of curiosity, and your heart ignites like fireworks, daring to say whatever you want.” This portrays the followed woman as a “promiscuous” figure who “accepts anyone,” thus distorting the fact that a perverted man molested an innocent woman into a transaction between a client and a prostitute.

I will not paste more of the original text here. In summary, criticism of literary and artistic works should always start from facts (not speculation), analyze the social environment of the author’s creation, the author’s own class position, and creative motives from both political and artistic perspectives (mainly political). Only in this way can the nature of the work and its impact be revealed, serving to call on people to resist or support a certain literary or artistic work and the political line behind it.

Additionally, 1967 seems not to have responded much to Hongshu’s mention of the “showing off” issue, only replying that the original meaning was “I previously told jqr to specify the songs he listened to so we could criticize them one by one; now that he posted, I wrote.” I still want to ask this question: When 1967 was writing, did he think about using this opportunity to show off or highlight himself?