China: Changing Hong Kong through redefinitions

THE ability to manipulate words and what they mean is a source of power in all societies, especially in China, with its long literary tradition.

Under Chairman Mao Zedong, workers were, in theory, the masters of the country while intellectuals were often criticized as “class enemies.” But Deng Xiaoping, by redefining workers to include mental as well as manual laborers, made intellectuals ideologically respectable.