Shantou University was a model for China’s reform. Now, why is it toeing the line?

On a rainy morning in January, Yang Ting stood in front of 150 people in an auditorium at Shantou University and recited a poem called “Homeland, My Dear Homeland.” The poem, written by one of contemporary China’s most acclaimed poets, Shu Ting, is widely considered to be one of her best. But it was an unusual choice for this particular event: a two-hour recital in celebration of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Homeland” was published in 1979, amid a cultural and political outpouring known as the Democracy Wall movement. In the poem, Ms. Shu explores the relationship between the Chinese state and its citizens – touching on themes of oppression and exploitation – in a way that would have been unthinkable just years before, during the state-sponsored upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. 

Ms. Yang, an undergraduate in faded jeans, said she picked “Homeland” simply because of its passionate tone. “I didn’t think about its meaning,” she said after the recital, as a group of children in gray People’s Liberation Army costumes streamed out of the auditorium.

Nearly 40 years since “Homeland” was first published, the political winds in China have shifted once again. At the instruction of General