Turtle Worship, Explained
by Lily Zhang, Nagumay Uncensored
Guībài (Nagumese: 龟拜, literally "turtle praise" or "turtle worship") is a memetic internet subculture centered around Xīdá Nào, who served as President of Nagumay from 2003 to 2007. Allegedly bearing physical similarities to a turtle, Xīdá is a curious figure within Nagumese political history, rising to prominence during the Revolution of 1995 as an ally of Péng Jīnyǒng. A suprisingly charismatic speaker for an accountant, he staunchly opposed the 'measured slowing' of the Cáiwùchóngzǔ (economic liberalization) conducted during the Presidency of Tung Hanchieh and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the National People's Council in 1995 despite a modest electoral sweep for Péngists nationwide.
What propelled Xīdá to national notoriety, however, was his appointment as Chief Minister of Nangan, the Nagumese capital city, by President Hung Chaoren in 1999. Prior to his appointment, the Nanganese government had been engulfed in a massive corruption scandal following revelations of pay-to-play schemes for appointments, construction contracts, and licensing. Additionally, many party officials had been found to have used their positions to secure new cars and sexual favors from local brothels, causing even greater public uproar. Per government estimates, roughly 4 million IBU worth of illegal bribes and gifts found their way into the coffers of Nangan party leaders since the onset of the Kaifangxing. At the same time this was occurring, the Naganese government was project to run a budgetary shortfall of roughly 400 million IBU due to fiscal mismanagement. Hung Chaoren needed to bring in a new face, someone with a scandal-free reputation, and someone who could clean up the pervasive miasma of corruption and mismanagement within the province. Thus, enter Xīdá Nào.
As the newly-appointed Chief Minister of Nangan, Xīdá positioned himself as the 'savior of Nangan' and as the public face of anti-corruption in Nagumay, constantly appearing on the public radio and television channels. Critics, however, argued that Xīdá intentionally exaggerated the prevalence of corruption and fiscal mismanagement within Nangan to expand his power and build a national profile. By 2003, he was one of the most well-known and popular politicians within Nagumay, with many viewing him the favorite to succeed Hung Chaoren as President of Nagumay.
When those alive during his Presidency are asked to recount their memories of him, they will most likely tell you that Xīdá was definitely an expressive speaker who donned a brash, off-the-cuff and sometimes contemptuous speaking style. While it served him well as the Chief Minister of Nangan, where his brash style meshed well with the persona he cultivated -- an 'outsider' seeking to sweep away the festering mass of corruption -- some viewed his mannerisms and behavior as unbecoming of the second most powerful man in Nagumay; he was a stark contrast to the public image of a dry, formal statesman cultivated by prior Presidents.
However, what likely drives netizens to admire this man, whether ironically or sincerely, is likely driven by a sense of either nostalgia or anemoia, which is nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known. When Xīdá took office as President, he presided over the continuation of economic liberalization and modernization policies, making Nagumay more open to global commerce and businesses. While the merits of his policies are debated to this day, it is undeniable that, at least during his tenure, there existed a genuine sense of optimism about the future among the populace as a result of modernization and increasing standards of living. Additionally, internet access, albiet strictly-regulated internet access started to become widely available for the Nagumese middle class, ushering in the beginning of a new era in Nagumay. With economic and political instability rocking Auroria coupled with a growing sense of nihilism amongst Nagumese youth in the face of decreasing civil liberties and a potential 'backslide' into authoritarianism, the early 2000s of Xīdá Nào seem to be a halcyon era of stability compared to today.
For all his eccentricities and charm, we must remember that Xīdá Nào, like many Nagumese Fùhuó Officials, is not an unblemished paragon of virtue. Much of the public perception of the man has been filtered through a rose-tinted lens that accentuates his successes whilst simultaneously obfuscating his countless shortcomings. While he did oversee a period of economic growth and modernization, many of these gains were made at the expense of worker's rights, worker's safety standards, and environmental standards. Additionally, his track record with regards to the human and civil rights of national minorities has been controversial, even among some professed Guībài devotees. His road to power was paved by the purging of Nanganese party officials -- many of whom having no affiliation to the Nanganese corruption scandal -- in the name of 'cleaning out the house' and by the unprecedented expansion of Ministerial powers to levels unseen in any other province in the name of fixing a crisis that may not have been as dire as he may have portrayed it to be. While to many, he is the man who paved the road for modern Nagumay to truly emerge, to others, he is Yaoguai, the famous turtle from the eponymous ancient proverb. Yaoguai, driven by ambition, commanded the turtles under his yoke to stack themselves beneath him, allowing him to expand his field of vision and increase the scope of his empire. As the stack reached up into the heavens, he became more arrogant, demanding more to stack beneath him. However, the weight and pressure soon became too much, causing the stack to collapse and dooming Yaoguai to fall to his death. With the future looking increasingly bleak for those at the bottom of the economic turtle stack, one may ask: When will it collapse?
