张哲瀚母亲的发言

Translation: 

Hello everybody! I am Zhang Xia, artist Zhang Zhehan’s mother, also someone who was a member of the the Chinese Communist Party for 36 years. Due to the sakura pictures he took on March, 2018 while travelling in Japan, on August 13th, 2021, my son went through detrimental cyber violence that was not seen in previous history. I want to discuss the traumatic effect this event had on myself and my son. 

On August 13th, my son was still working in Shanghai. Previously, there had always been all sorts of ridiculous rumours aimed at defaming him. But it reached climax after Aug 13th, all one sided rumors and verbal abuse all over the internet, calling him names like national traitor and spy. Amidst the stormy distorted opinions on the internet, he was totally cancelled on all social network platforms within 3 days. The abuse included changing Baidu encyclopedia, changing national history, making up stories, digging into the private matter of family members, making up rumors about family members. They have even included the rumors about him in textbooks in many elementary and middle school education. His name became a taboo on multiple social media networks… More than ten years of hard work for his dream was completely erased while every article denouncing him and making rumors about him circulated widely on the internet. All the positive words he expressed previously loving his nation are totally gone. They have also removed all his acting work. He told me he ever went into Yasukuni Shrine. He didn’t even go visit, let alone worship. Everything about him on the internet is not true and he agrees to be inspected by the government. I thought, if people can decide his character based on a few pictures, then he had many pictures that showed he loved his nation, he fought for the pride of his nation. There were countless records of how he participated in charity organizations to help the people and the nation. These aspects show that he is positive, hardworking and loves his nation. Are those not enough to show that his positive energy and has a nationalist heart? He was ruled by public opinion and trialed on the internet. Most of the accusations towards him are based on information circulated on the internet without any verification. Facing such widely circulating information, we do not have any chance to explain. As a result, we feel depressed and helpless. But considering the situation of the whole society, we try no to the a burden to the country, to the government. We have been keeping all the pains inside and force ourselves to not say anything. We believed that after the Party and government finished their investigation, the facts will help them to achieve the just conclusion. However, as a mother, I can’t accept that my son’s name is denounced like this. He is only 30 years old! His future, his career was destroyed by some pictures from 3 years ago! That is not enough, he also has to live in other people’s accusations and prejudice! This time when he came home, his first words when he saw me was: “Mama, I am ashamed, I am 30 years old and you still have to worry about me.” I was in tears but he said, “why are you crying? I am still very healthy.” His health and positivity was my greatest comfort! But his favorite nephew was only 4 years old, didn’t want to face him. The boy said that uncle is a bad man and covered his face as he was afraid to see him. As soon as my son saw that, he went to his room and was in tears… He is such as strong man normally, but he broke down at that moment. When I saw it as his mother, at that moment, I felt my heart was shredded into pieces! I am mother, I raised him up, our nation guided him, but at the best age he is able to repay his nation, he was cancelled by the fierce competition in his field and cancelled by internet opinions. 

My son was raised in a party member family, his parents are both members of the party (his father passed away due ot illness at 2016). His maternal grandfather was an official in justice department who was loyal to the party and hardworking. Early in his career, he passed away due to coronary artery disease while on the job. In my generation of 6 siblings, 4 are members of the party. In my son’s generation, 5 of them reached adulthood and 3 are members of the party. They all work hard at their jobs for the party. Our whole family loved the party and loved our country! My son was raised in the warmth of the party’s arms. I always educated him to love the party and country as well as the best qualities of the older generation. We educated him to the kind, honest, brave, strong, and hardworking. My son grew up in a positive environment. He is not perfect. He has deficiencies, but he doesn’t have a stained history. Those rumors saying that I am some Japanese’s mistress, that he is a mixed Japanese, also that my company Yatarou has Japanese investments (it was a small enterprise, with absolute no Japanese elements, and business was stopped because it was losing money), all Japanese elements they tried push on us were absolutely false. They did it on purpose to slander and insult us. 

During these past 3 months we lived in fear, despair, anger, and depression. My son was afraid to go outside. I envy every other person in this society. I feel living in this despair was too hard to handle. I even thought about ending my life to awaken other people’s kind hearts. But my son always comforted me, he told me to believe the party and believe our nation. He even tried to educate me: you are suppose to me a seasoned party member, we have to believe that justice may be late, but will never be missing! My son’s words reminded me, made me strong! We believe the party and nation will reach the righteous judgement, will find out the truth about the whole event and allow us to have a way to continue our lives and careers. 

Once again I swear: if my son went into the shrine, our whole family can go die! I swear on the name of our party and people that everything I say is the truth! Thank you everyone, thank Li Xuezheng for taking the courage to speak!