The Zhao family () refers to dignitaries in China, such as the top bureaucrat, the rich, leaders in-system and their offspring. The phrase originates from

Lu Xun Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. W ...

's "

The True Story of Ah Q ''The True Story of Ah Q'' is an episodic novella written by Lu Xun, first published as a serial between December 4, 1921 and February 12, 1922. It was later placed in his first short story collection ''Call to Arms'' (吶喊, Nàhǎn) in 1923 ...

". In December 2015, an article in

WeChat WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has bee ...

public account described dignitaries as the Zhao family. Immediately, the phrase "the Zhao family" became an Internet meme. Soon after, the

Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, also known as the Propaganda Department or Central Propaganda Department, is an internal division of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in charge of spreading C ...

prohibited the use of such words as "the Zhao family". Medias which have used such words got punished. Accordingly, such words as "the Zhao family" are no longer visible from main websites in China.

Sources

The phrase "the Zhao family" has its origins in Lu Xun's "The True Story of Ah Q," published in 1921. In the story, old Grandpa Zhao () spits out, when Ah Q (who shares the same surname) dares to cheer along with the Zhaos: "You think you're worthy of the surname Zhao?" () On December 19, 2015, a public account in

published an article titled "''The argument between

Vanke Vanke () is a large residential real estate developer in China. It is engaged in developing, managing and selling properties across more than 60 mainland Chinese cities in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai-Rim Region, with th ...

and Baoneng: Barbarians in the front, and the Zhao family in the shadow''" () which divided the hierarchical China capital market into 4 ranks: retail investor, banker, plutocrat and the Zhao family. The Zhao family is in the highest rank which refer to dignitaries. The barbarians refer to people who are rich but powerless. This article made the word "Zhao family" attract extensive attention.

Derived usages

As the word spreading widely, there have come up derived usages such as "the Zhao family empire", "the Zhao king". Here are some examples: While having words with 50 Cent Party, some people used "You think you're worthy of the surname Zhao?" as a taunt and response.

Commentaries

* Qiao Mu, associate professor in

Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU; ), is a public university in Beijing, China. BFSU boasts the oldest language programs in China offering the largest number of foreign language majors on different educational levels. Located in Haidia ...

, said that "the word 'the Zhao family' is a subversive deconstruction in Internet era. We called officials 'People's public servant' whereas in fact they are still dignitaries. There are just princelings in China. It's sensitive to say so frankly, thus people use words like 'the Zhao family' as a taunt." *

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Oriental Daily News ''Oriental Daily News'' is a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. It was established in 1969 by Ma Sik-yu and Ma Sik-chun, and was one of the two newspapers published by the Oriental Press Group Limited (). Relative to other Hong Kong ne ...

noted the word expresses both resistance of fake

patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...

propagandize and dissatisfied with the fact. * Hu Ping, the honorary editor of Chinese magazine

Beijing Spring The Beijing Spring () refers to a brief period of political liberalization during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It began as the Democracy Wall movement in Beijing, which occurred in 1978 and 1979, right aft ...

, believed that princelings, represented by

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader o ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

, were now gathering politics and economy resources without restriction, which obviously contradicted with the claim of right in civilians.{{cite news, url=http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/jz-01052016103622.html, title=中共权贵阶层独揽天下被网民冠以"赵家人"称号, publisher=自由亞洲電臺, date=2016-01-05

Sources

Derived usages

Commentaries

References

See also