China tried to make its economic plan cool with this bizarre video

 By 
Megan Specia
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

China has spent most of the year fighting back fears that its stock market will keep crashing -- and has even punished a journalist for "causing" it -- so the country's government is determined to restore some confidence by getting people to talk about the future.

The result: a bouncy, bizarre, English-language music video featuring Monty Python-esque animation, encouraging people to put their faith in China's upcoming five-year economic plan. The tune gives a breakdown China's plan with lines like, "There are even engineers who deal with poo!"

The ongoing hook is the creepily catchy chorus: “If you want to know what China’s gonna do, best pay attention to the shisanwu!” (Shisanwu means "thirteenth-five," a reference the fact that this is the 13th five-year plan.) Most interesting: the singing is in American English, which means the audience probably isn't China's own 1 billion citizens.

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