Nothing's same now, Comrade_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Nothing's same now, Comrade

The widespread adoption of "comrade" as a form of address took off in the early 1950s, as Communism was the mandated ideology and theoretically every citizen was a "comrade".

Unlike the underground use of the word "comrade", which must have involved a great deal of risks, the early phase of nationwide usage must have given rise to a delirious sense of euphoria. The term seemed to encapsulate the promise of equality. Gone was the Confucius tradition of strict hierarchy. No more superiors and subordinates. Everyone was equal. Chairman Mao would call you "Comrade", and you could call him "Comrade"... OK, maybe not. Actually, you still had to call him "Chairman Mao", even using his name "Mao Zedong" sounded like blasphemy.

In 1959, Chairman Mao made the pronouncement that the public address among all the Chinese people should be "comrade", and in 1965, the Central Committee of the Communist Party ordered every member to address each other as "comrade".

This was reiterated in 1978, as an encouragement not to use official titles such as "Minister", "Bureau Chief" or one of the endlessly varying "Directors".

In my own early memories of the 1970s, the use of "comrade" was a fact of life and it did not really convey anything, certainly no respect or sense of bonding. Unless you were denounced as a class enemy, which would turn you into a pariah, you were by default a comrade.

It would sound strange for someone close to you to call you "comrade". It was too formal and rigid. My parents would call me by my first name and my teachers by my full name. If they said "Comrade Zhou Liming", it meant I was in trouble.