This is a rare episode in which a top Chinese political leader, then China’s President Jiang Zemin, displayed his anger in front of the camera – he lashed out at a group of Hong Kong reporters, describing them as “too simple, sometimes naive.” On October 27, 2000, Mr. Jiang held a photo-call session with a group of reporters from Hong Kong after his meeting with the embattled Mr. Tung Chee-hwa, then Chief Executive of Hong Kong. The meeting took place in Beijing’s Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Central Government in China. Jiang spoke in Putonghua most of the time, but he also threw in some English and Cantonese words at crucial junctures.

For their part, the reporters raised all questions in Putonghua. The video shows how Jiang contests the interpretation embedded in the question a reporter put forward to him—that his support of Tung one year before the election of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong amounted to an “imperial appointment.”

What is interesting is that Jiang’s performance of anger is anchored in a cultural hierarchy that comes out of a society that emphasizes reverence for the aged. Jiang uses the term— “zhangzhe.” During the performance, Jiang brings his “elderly” identity to the front and center: “I’m speaking to you today as an elder (zhangzhe)”, “I am not a journalist but I’ve seen too much.” Jiang couched his performance in the narrative of an elder sharing his life experience with a group of young people.