Millions of Chinese people who have been subjected to the feared lockdowns have turned to Hindi film legend Bappi Lahiri’s superhit song “Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja” from the 1982 film “Disco Dancer” to convey their outrage and displeasure at the country’s strict zero-COVID policy.
Under President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy, cities and localities are subject to rigorous lockdowns, and residents are relocated to quarantine centres whenever positive cases are reported.
The song composed by Lahiri and sung by Parvati Khan is sung in Mandarin “Jie mi, jie mi,” which translates into “Give me rice, give me rice,” by people in the videos mockingly showing empty vessels to show how they are deprived of essential food items during the lockdowns on the Chinese social media networks Douyin – the Chinese name for TikTok.
The song is being transliterated into Mandarin as “Give me some rice?” Who can help me? I had run out of it. No need to give much rice, my family has only a few members.”
So far, the video has escaped Chinese censors, who are fast to erase any post deemed unflattering of the country’s administration.
From the days of cinema hero Raj Kapoor in the 1950s and 1960s to recent years when films such as “3 Idiots,” “Secret Superstar,” “Hindi Medium,” “Dangal,” and “Andhadhun” earned remarkably well at the Chinese box office, Indian films have always had enormous popularity in China.
According to observers, the Chinese have devised a clever way of using “Jie mi, jie mi” to stage soft protests in order to emphasise the public outrage over the zero-COVID policy, which has effectively cut China off from the rest of the world.
China has been weighed down by the zero-COVID policy, which has kept dozens of cities, including Shanghai, with a population of over 25 million, under lockdown for weeks, with residents confined to their apartments.
Testing is required for all citizens in practically all cities, including Beijing. People in cities are unable to enter public locations such as restaurants and markets unless they have negative test results.
Hundreds of recordings have emerged showing security officers harshly repressing people protesting the lockdowns.
Workers employed to construct Apple Inc.’s newest iPhone staged a walkout from a factory in Zhengzhou, central China, following a virus epidemic and accusations of unsafe working conditions.
According to reports, workers began leaving the Foxconn factory after several of them became unwell in mid-October and were not treated.
China reported 2,675 cases on Sunday, up from 802 the day before.
According to Reuters, localities in central China have devised strategies to segregate workers fleeing to their hometowns from an iPhone-maker Foxconn assembly plant in outbreak-hit Zhengzhou.
Reuters reported, “photographs and videos widely circulated on Chinese social media since Saturday showed Foxconn workers hiking over fields during the day and along roadways at night.”
According to social media posts, neighbours in the area left bottled water and food next to key roadways with messages such as “For Foxconn workers going home,” in an apparent show of support, the Reuters report added.
(With Inputs From Agencies)