China: “Just the aftershocks from the earthquake would destroy France!”kids yell · Global Voices
Bob Chen

Thunder(雷 lei), verb, a natural phenomena. Now widely used by Chinese netizens to describe the effect of something which shocks or startles people with its hilarious, unbelievable and unconventional quality.
The latest stuff that has thundered thousands of netizens is a clip of video.
In the video, these kids, cute and pristine with red face, innocent smile, were reciting a poem nevertheless with the utmost fury and passion. The lyric, named “2009, Go China!” presents a roll call of Chinese achievements in 2008 under the siege of western enmity, and is most notable for its naked, uncovered antagonism against Sarkozy, Europe and anti-China persons, and a yell for nationalism.
The following lyric is translated into English by the China Digital Times
2009, GO CHINA!
Lead: Snowstorm, freely falling down to earth, like western values
Lead: Despair fills the sky, ice covers the earth
Lead: Did China retreat?
All: No. The Olympics were a success! We are victorious!
Lead: Hot blood and iron will of Chinese people, lighten up the dark world like burning the holy flame
All: The rivers and mountains, ever more colorful and beautiful
Lead: Earthquakes, shifting back and forth like the positions of Sarkozy, with his dirty tricks, trying to shake the great China
Lead: Did China retreat?
All: No. The Shenzhou-7 launched. We are victorious!
Lead: Pathetic Europe will never stop the insurmountable force of the Celestial Empire
All: Just the aftershocks from the earthquake would destroy France!
Lead: The happy flowers flourish in the oil fields on Tarim Basin
Lead: The suona [musical instrument] sings aloud in the Tawang district of the Himalayas
Lead: Historically accumulated resentment fill the Ryukyu Trench
All: Smiles in Sun Moon Lake became a miraculous flower in the Pacific Ocean
Lead: “Do not sway, Do not slacken off and Do not flip flop”*
Lead: “Do not change the flag,  Do not change the label, Do not turn back”**
All: Step ruthlessly over all anti-China forces
Lead: The giant ship full of patches, raise up the brand new sail
All: Spirits are high, crash through the waves, the wind is at our back
Lead: 2009
All: Go China
Lead: 2009
All: China the Greatest!
(Translator：Ryukyu Trench is an ocean area Japan and China dispute on its ownership; Dawang district is where China and India dispute on and used to battle on; Sun-moon Lake is in Taiwan)
On 26, Dec, as soon as the video was put on video-share websites, floods of comments poured in. Most of them, at their first glimpse, were astonished by the sharp contrast between the naive kids and the forceful hatred exuded from their recitation.
On the side of the video, the introduction writes:
内容包括：反西方自由主义，反萨科奇，反藏独，反台独，反日，反疆独，主张藏南和琉球是我国领土！诗歌普普通通，但从一群小学生嘴里出来，够震撼的！西方看来要失掉下一代的中国人心了…..
CoffeeTime, after posting the lyric along with video, says:
想起了巴勒斯坦小学数学课本：抓到七个以色列战俘，干掉五个，还剩几个？
The classroom is the most commonly seen in China. It's believed that it won't be the children that write the poem, but the teacher, who's the No.1 suspect that planned everything. Worry is not absent among netizens, who views it as an official indoctrination of hatred that has gone beyond simple nationalism. Words such as “aftershock”, “destroy” are not just bloody.
Dowei says;
又开始文革了么？
嘿嘿 then speaks:
靠，准备培养军国主义的下一代啊。有人想当希特勒？
On bullog.cn, FreeChina rails straight against the ruling communist party, which is thought to be the most blame-worthy for the hatred-education in his view:
中共这么无耻,是要遭天谴的!
这个世界上,还有比利用孩子天真无邪的心灵来实现自己的政治目的更无耻的行为吗? 这么小的孩子,就要他们混淆反共与反华的区别,培养充满专制思维的意识形态，中共难道是要绑架整个中华民族为自己的陪葬品吗?
And netizen moaned:
可怜的孩子，这么小的年龄，就成为政治的工具，被裹挟进肮脏的政治游戏中。
Many netizens called upon people to save the kids, and flesh search was likely to be launched again.
wuyong says:
们有什么资格去笑话韩国人呢，我们比他们还自大，让人又不禁想起了连战在山西的时候的小学生的视频，让整个台湾人民都笑话我们
Look at this. Are we qualified to laugh at Koreans that we are now even more arrogant than they are? It reminds me of the poem students recited in Shangxi to welcome Lian-zhan, which came to be a laughing stock of all the Taiwan people.
However, not all people flown upon the intimidating recitation. Not a small portion of comments, actually, side with the unknown recitation organizer.
aaa commends:
我们的民族就是需要这种精神，汉奸们你们的讽刺，辱骂，代表你们内心的恐惧，无耻的卖国贼。
And in reply to 扫左's comment that “such an education raise only thugs and blockheads”, netizen fighter rebuked:
培养还没有打仗就投降，把国有资产都送给外国人，抱着美国人大腿幸福生活的下一代，这样楼上的就满意了吧
If you are to believe the two voices mentioned, in favor of and opposing, are all the story, you are wrong. With more in-depth analysis of the text, a third idea shows up: the teacher that planned the recitation is indeed an undercover!
The splendid work in praise of China and CCP, contains implicit points they dig out as evidence of its actual core as an artistic irony. As a blogger said, “after being so disgusted that I vomit, it occurred to me that it might have implicit meaning.
虎躯一颤 pondered:
打满补丁的大船，形象啊。
The figure here is more like alluding to the shattered, ill ruled country rather than a compliment.
Moreover, the word “Celestial Empire”, which is used to describe China in the poem, will have never appeared in any official text because it apparently and more usually means the feudalism China, which is synonymous to dark, authoritarian and backward.  Therefore, thundered, shocked, disgusted, angered and finally nosing a grain of salt, is the series reactions of a lot of netizens. Some of them even burst into laughs at last.
But is that a correct speculation?
Right at the time that the internet is in search of the teacher/organizer and debating on the recitation, unexpectedly, the man showed up voluntarily, and not in anywhere else but right in Bullog.cn, a turf that is well known for its intimacy to liberalism and pro-democracy thoughts, and where the work is under the most relentless attack.
The organizer, named 左左右右 （left-left-right-right), explained how the story happened:
快期末了，我发现孩子们提前好几天都在忙着过圣诞，还有专人组织捐款买东西，国庆节也没这么上心啊，于是我问孩子们对圣诞节有何理解。他们摇摇头
我问几个学习非常努力的孩子理想是什么，他说，好好学习，将来考上好的大学，最好能去留学，我问留学什么好，他说，外国的学校就是好。好在哪里呢，他说不上来。
……
但是，是谁教给他们不分来由的崇洋媚外呢呢，对外国不加思索的盲目崇拜，从物质到言论难道对西方没有一点质疑？
哪些事情让你最难忘？他们答：雪灾、地震，圣火传递，奥运成功，金融危机。在值得中国人骄傲的圣火传递和奥运举行期间，也充满了刁难，2008年何止一个郁闷可以形容的！然后就想开一个主题班会，做一个视频给即将离去的2008做纪念
Then, in an open letter, he apologized to all those being “thundered”, and all the French people angered.
He insists that it is for not a single bit of education of hatred.
写这首“诗”的初衷是回顾2008年的历史，并没有宣扬对西方的仇恨，也不是宣扬暴力，更没有针对普通群众，一切以作者本人解释为准。在大家认为仇视西方民众的地方是在警告外国：2009年，不要再以任何借口挑衅中国！历史问题我们也一直记在心里！
He then interprets the poem word for word, and in places mentioning Sarkozy, he writes:
像萨科奇的立场，用猥琐的伎俩，摇晃着巍巍中华。
萨科奇对中国立场摇摆不定，造成了两国关系的地震
Earthquakes, shifting back and forth like the positions of Sarkozy, with his dirty tricks, trying to shake the great China.  (The Sarkozy's position towards China which blows hot and cold creates an earthquake on the international relation.)
On the most disputable piece, that “Just the aftershocks from the earthquake would destroy France!”, he writes,
不是指真的地震，比喻萨科奇的立场，是说两国关系的地震，并不仅仅对中国有影响，反作用力也会影响法国。这里，联系上下文就能理解，中国古诗经常有这种写法。对不懂中文的法国朋友表示道歉
It is not meant for the real earthquake, but figurative for Sarkozy's position and the quake on our relations. It doesn't only affect China, but France as well. Here, you can tell the point from the context. It is common in Chinese poems. Sorry to French who knows no Chinese.
And he clarifies why he compares China to a patched ship:
这里指多灾多难的民族
Do you buy his interpretation? All I know is that, netizens in Bullog.cn, mostly, say no. And a new tide of debate is going on.