Chinese state television honors Xi Jinping's father in 39-episode drama | China

Xi Jinping's father is the subject of a gripping new historical drama airing Tuesday on Chinese state television.

Funded by the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Time in the Northwest chronicles the life of Xi Zhongxun, the Chinese president's father, who was himself a CCP elder and a key party figure under the president Mao Zedong.

The show, which has received overwhelmingly positive reviews on China's tightly censored social media platforms, is the latest in a series of mainstream productions that focus on glorifying the CCP's military history. But unlike other popular TV shows and movies, Time in the Northwest also glorifies Xi Jinping's personal family history.

Across 39 episodes, the series dramatizes the elder Xi's life, from a peasant family in rural Shaanxi province to a leader of the CCP revolution in northwest China. According to an article released by state broadcaster CCTV to promote the show, the biopic is the first epic masterpiece that presents a panoramic view of the magnificent history of the Northwest Revolution, and particularly highlights light on Xi's extraordinary experience.

The show is set against the backdrop of the Chinese Civil War, in which communists and nationalists (KMT) fought for control of the country after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Xi is described as a loyal and determined revolutionary who helped build key CCP bases in Shaanxi and Gansu.

Xi's fervor as a young man propelled him to the highest echelons of the CCP elite. After the Communists' victory in the civil war, he became head of the party's publicity department and vice premier of China. Its red his credentials were inherited by his son, Xi Jinping, who is often considered a prince of the party he now controls.

But the elder Xi also felt the party's rough edges. The series would end in 1952, a year before Xi Jinping was born, and a decade before Zhongxun was purged for supporting a novel seen as a covert attempt to rewrite party history. In the 1960s and 1970s, Xi spent 16 years in purgatory, an experience that would profoundly affect the young Xi and his relationship with the party. Xi was rehabilitated after the end of the Cultural Revolution and retained leadership positions.

Xi Jinping has been described as China's most powerful leader since Chairman Mao. Since coming to power in 2012, the question of control over the party's history has become a major concern. In an early speech, he said the collapse of the Soviet Union was caused by historical nihilism and should be a cautionary tale.

Time in the Northwest avoids historical nihilism by avoiding the most traumatic years of the elder Xi's life. But there are still moments in the biopic that are fraught with difficulties.

In the first episode, which aired Tuesday evening, Xi is shown arguing with a school administrator named Wei Hai. In real life, Xi was imprisoned for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Wei, according to an upcoming biography of Xi Zhongxun by Joseph Torigian, a researcher at Stanford University's Hoover History Lab. The dramatized version downplays Xi's role in the assassination attempt.

The treatment of cultural products has always been a barometer of party policy, Torigian said, noting that Xi himself was purged because of his support for a novel seen as a covert attempt to rewrite Party history. The history of the party and the way it is presented has always been a minefield.

More recently, Xi Jinping seems to worry that young people are losing the fervor of his generation and their fathers. In an article published last year in the Communist Party newspaper Peoples Daily, he urged young people to listen to and follow the party tirelessly and be people who can endure hardship and are willing to work hard.

Such rhetoric is at odds with recent buzzwords popular among young people: tangle, or lying flat, reflects a desire to abandon rat racing for a more passive lifestyle, while Neijuan, or involution, reflects despair over the feeling of being overworked.

Part of the idea of ​​Xi's model is that this generation must take over from the older generation, Torigian said. A specific and concrete way to do this is to show how Xi Jinping took over from his own father.

Additional research conducted by Chi-hui Lin