There is a hustle and bustle around the Qiaoergou Church in the heart of Yan’an. The Gothic style church was founded by Spanish missionaries in the early 1930s. “A place that attracts many artists, writers and filmmakers,” says Huo Xiangpeng, 86. He is a painter himself and shares his work with his 30,000 Tiktok followers.

“When Chairman Mao came here, it became a university,” says Huo, leaning over his easel. Mao and the Red Army men were looking for a large space for party and study meetings, and the fledgling Catholic community in Yan’an was expelled.

Seminars are still held in the former church, where the altar cross has long since been replaced by a hammer and sickle flag.

Not religious

Often dressed in white shirts and equipped with folding stools, party members from the region come to Yan’an for lectures. “We come here to study revolutionary history,” says one of them about the trip, which is almost like a pilgrimage.

“No, I’m not religious,” he says, pointing to his communist badge. When asked to what extent the party is now taking on almost religious forms, he shakes his head. “Absolutely not.”

Since taking office, Xi has been pushing for a strengthening of the ideology. This is also evident from the name of one of the core themes of the education system: the Xi Jinping idea of ​​a socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.

Who is Xi, how did he become so powerful and what does he want with China? You can see it in this video:

Party members are tested on their knowledge in the Xuexi Qiangguo app, also known as the modern version of the Red Book. The party is the leader in everything, is the credo. And the party is Xi, who not only wants to be Mao’s equal, but wants to get over him.

“It’s a cultural revolution in a different form, a form of purification. Not just the party cadres, but society as a whole,” Wu Qiang describes the developments since party leader Xi Jinping replaced his more pragmatic party predecessor Hu Jintao ten years ago.

In 2015, Wu lost his job as a political science teacher at the prestigious Tsinghua University after conducting field research on the Hong Kong protests. “China has changed from an authoritarian to a totalitarian society. The country is closing, as we saw during the Qing Dynasty and the Cultural Revolution,” says Wu.

A process that has been accelerated by Corona and has largely left China in lockdown since the beginning of 2020. As a result, there is hardly any travel.

There are hardly any tourists in Yan’an either. The plane from Beijing has only 20 passengers, and the return flight has been cancelled. It’s mostly people from nearby towns who are still venturing out. There are hardly any tourists, not even on Yan’an’s newly built Red Street. An employee of the extinct cinema regularly asks people to be rejected: Nobody can get in without a PCR test.

The few people out there at first glance disagree with Wu’s interpretation that this is a new kind of Cultural Revolution. “I don’t think so,” says one of them. “We don’t know what the future will bring, but mere mortals can still accept it,” she says of the strict corona measures and recurring lockdowns.” Then: “I only said good things?” But when the camera is off, take that .Grumbling and frustration.