Witches: new target in Chinese campaign

Press, 11 April 1979, Page 24

Witches: new target in Chinese campaign

By

JOHN GETTINGS in

The ‘Guardian,’ London

A revival of witchcraft and fortune-telling in China is being denounced in the Chinese press, including one case where two young children were burnt alive by a witch who claimed supernatural powers. Chinese witches, the official Communist Party newspaper “People’s Daily” complains, have even argued that they are protected by the new Chinese Constitution which guarantees freedom of religious belief. The “People’s Daily” says that this clause only applies to “world religions” such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. These are “idealistic convictions” which will take a long time to wither away, and must be tolerated in the meantime.

However such practices as “witches, wizards, divining water and medicine, divination by lot, fortune-telling, prayers for rain and children, curing diseases through exorcism, physiognorny, phrenology and geomancy” are all feudal superstitions which must be “strictly outlawed.”

Two young children were beaten and burnt to death in Haimen County, in the central province of Jiangsu according to a report by the provincial radio. They had been killed by a witch who “resumed her superstitious practice” last September and posed as a divine spirit who could “capture demons” — in this case presumably by human sacrifice.

The provincial newspaper in Hunan has published readers’ letters complaining that fortune-tellers and headreaders have set up stalls in

the streets of Changsha city, and that fake medicines are being sold at village fairs. Blame for the revival of these “feudal” customs is officially laid upon the lingering influence of the ultra-left Gang of Four leadership who were ousted more than two years ago.

But a similar revival to this one appeared in China in the early 1960 s after the Great Leap Forward. Then, as now, policies stressing the moral and collective aspect of socialism had been reversed and stress was laid instead upon individual effort and materia] achievement. It is in this laxer sort of political climate that the old feudal customs seem to creep out from under the stones heaped high upon them in years of greater commitment.

An attempt has also been made by the Party leadership in Zhejiang province — a centre of radical activity during the Cultural Revolution — to link the revival of these superstitions with the new wall-poster movement for democratic rights which has spread to the provincial capital of Hangzhou. The leading Party Secretary, Li Fengping, has accused a “handful of counter-revolutionaries” of “flaunting the banner of democracy” in order to attack his own leadership. Li claimed that this was the same sort of anti-social phenomenon as the practice of “seeking divine guidance and help, repairing temples and building ancestral tombs” which had recently emerged in the province. Students’ demonstrations last month have provoked a

widespread emphasis on the need for law and order by party and police authorities in many parts of the country. Some details have emerged of the limitations placed upon the display of wallposters which apparently should only appear in public with official permission. This is laid down in the “Regulations Governing Public Order, its Administration

and Punishment” which remain unpublished but have been referred to several times in Chinese newspapers. We are told that Article 15 of the Regulations places “some restrictions” on putting up wall-posters. These may be displayed inside government buildings, schools, factories and other places of work, but must not appear on the streets.

Demonstrators in Shanghai have protested that new city by-laws to this effect have trampled upon their democratic rights. But the party newspaper says that this is not the intention. The real purpose is simply “to keep the streets clean, reduce congestion and ensure traffic safety.” The same regulations have been invoked in

Hangzhou where four “black sheep” were recently arrested by the Public Security Bureau and “given the punishment they deserved.” They were accused of “flaunting the banner of democracy” in order to “undermine political stability” and to sabotage the official policy of modernising the Chinese economy.