Cultural Changes Flashcards
Initial Aims
To appeal to workers + peasants, not just educated elite.
Serve political > artistic purpose.
Similar to Stalin’s Socialist Realism.
Attack on Traditional Culture
Culture used to control thoughts + instill Communist ideology.
1950s Land Reforms destroyed village life + traditional festivals (Lantern festival).
Reunification Campaign devastated ancient cultures (Tibet = Lamaism, Xinjiang = Islam).
Confucian + ancestor worship condemned as backwards superstition.
Agit-prop groups toured country convincing people to abandon Four Olds for communism.
Party control over culture enhanced when communes were forced (GLF)>
Religious artifacts + temples destroyed.
Religious shrines in homes replaced with pictures of Mao.
Customs and traditions not entirely removed as they were so engrained into society; burning money/incense at ancestors graves during Qingming Festival.
Role of Jiang QIng
1966, Jiang Qing appointed to Central Cultural Revolution Group, 4th wife.
A “cultural Tsar”.
Wanted to destroy + replace traditional Chinese culture with revolutionary communism.
Censored traditional music, theatre, art: romance, aspiration of wealth, respect for family.
Previously an actress, gave actors orders on how to portray communism positively.
1969, joined Politburo & member of Gang of Four.
Motives of Jiang Qing
Violent fervor attacking opponents = figure of hate.
Claimed to be directly ordered by Mao, “whomever Chairman Mao asked me to bite, I bit”.
Acted according to Mao, but also in personal vendetta.
Attacked “bourgeois” culture.
Attacked people who spread rumours that she slept with directors to win parts in the 1920s, Shanghai.
Cultural Revolution intimidated enemies & get back at actresses previously chosen over her for a role + rid anyone who would prevent her rise (knew her bourgeois actress past).
Had power due to Mao, needed her own political authority.
Imposition of Revolutionary Art & Culture
Foreign performances banned.
Directors/writers fired + blacklisted. Some attacked by Red Guard or committed suicide to escape violence.
Plays + operas glorified Communism.
Slogan - “make it revolutionary or ban it”.
8 new model dramas showed to villages on portable projectors.
1966, villagers watched 4 films a year –> 1974 = 10 films a year.
Taking Tiger Mountain watched by 7.3b people - watched 7 times by each Chinese person.
Cultural Revolution = “cultural desert”, “turning the minds of the audience into mashed potatoes”.
Lack of diversity made culture boring.
High viewings as there was nothing else to watch, led to the joke - “800m people watching 8 shows”.
