In the Name of Hu Yaobang

choi

Banyan is the name of a column in The Economist, commemorating the ubiquitous banyan trees in southeast Asia, Taiwan (where they are called 榕樹) and southern China.

Banyan | In Hu’s Name?  Old-time Pekingology makes a comeback; old-time party rule never went away. Economist, Nov 28, 2015.
http://www.economist.com/news/ch ... -went-away-hus-name

Quote:

Celebrations of "the centenary on November 20th of Hu’s birth * * * has prompted speculation about the leadership’s intentions. Is Mr Xi, having spent three years in power cracking down on dissent, about to emerge as Hu’s political heir, a closet liberal? Might it even presage a “reversal of verdicts” over the Tiananmen protests, no longer to be seen as the work of traitors but of misguided idealists? Both of these explanations seem unlikely.

Hu Yaobang's "small stature prompted jokes that he was the only Chinese leader who literally looked up to the diminutive Deng Xiaoping.

"His [Xi Zhongxun's] rehabilitation is said to have owed much to Hu’s intervention.

"That Zhao’s image remains taboo [as demonstrated in photo doctoring of 3-decade-old People Daily] gives little hope of a reassessment of Tiananmen.

"Under Mr Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao (no relation), the party also marked Hu’s 90th birthday in 2005.

"Not to praise Hu, but to bury him

"They [the conflicting views of an esoteric phenomenon] served as a reminder that the party’s ideology is not monolithic but, in an old-fashioned phrase, the result of a two-line struggle. That is another way in which Chinese elite politics has not changed: it is a black box, and however rational the analysis, the opposite may also be true.

Note:
(a) "The encomiums to Hu omit his role as an (unwitting) emblem of political reform."

encomium (n; Latin, from Greek enkōmion, from en in + kōmos revel, celebration; plural: encomiums also -mia): "glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise; also :  an expression of this"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encomium

(b) Regarding the heading "Not to praise Hu, but to bury him."

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2:

Antony’s eulogy opened with: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

(c) "Mr Xi can present himself as one of Hu’s ideological successors and nobody dares gainsay him."
(i) gainsay (vt; from Middle English gain- against)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gainsay
(ii) dare as a verbal auxiliary:
(A) “to be sufficiently courageous to <no one dared say a word> <she dare not let herself love — GB Shaw>”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dare
(B) "(3rd singular present usually dare before an expressed or implied infinitive without to) [this rule does not apply when followed by an infinitive WITH to]:

“*/ In a society of individualists nobody dare admit to being a conformist.
* A more obvious explanation stares European governments in the face, but nobody dares to act.
* Almost nobody dares to walk there, due to the snow.
* When Hampson closes his eyes at the end and bows his head, nobody dares to clap
* The buildings are dark and lifeless; nobody dares to light any lanterns or candles.
* And suddenly I had the impression that there is an invisible line surrounding our cardinal that nobody dares to cross.
*/ At a time when even the secret services are bound by the demands of openness and transparency, nobody dares put their name to any demand that might be construed as underhand.”
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... erican_english/dare


Take notice of "usually"--not always, as shown in Oxford's own (first and last) examples listed above.