Culture Flashcards
Why did the Communists attempt to change Chinese culture?
Political purpose- impose a new proletarian culture on China to protect gains made in the revolution, Only by changing way people lived daily lives could its long term future be guaranteed.
What shoed political purpose behind cultural change?
Tiananmen Square was levelled and extended to accommodate over 500,000 people in a huge open space with no trees or benches to get in the way of people attending rallies. On the west side, the Great Hall of the People was built to accommodate the National People’s Congress, and on the eastern side was the Revolutionary History Museum.
What did The Land Reform of 1950 do?
The power of landowners had been broken and peasants were working collectively. undermine traditional peasant customs and to continue to discredit Confucianism.
What did Collectives and communes, with their regimentation of daily life, do?
gave the Party much more control of the peasantry’s time, providing the ideal opportunity to put a stop to the social customs and rituals to which the peasants were accustomed to.
Peasant propaganda
peasants found themselves attending political meetings where the new values were reinforced, and watching shows and propaganda films put on by agit-prop touring groups, who sold them new ideas in an entertaining way.
During the CR, who was responsible for policing culture?
Jiang Qing
Example of inconsistences to accommodate her own preferences
Most western cultural influences banned for bourgeoise origins yet piano music and oil paintings allowed as suited her personal taste.
What were the only works permitted
Only works that related to contemporary Chinese themes were permitted- traditional stories had to be updated and put into a modern context.
Creative artists unwilling to produce work that served the revolution found themselves
unemployed or sent to a labour camp for re-education.
What did Qing use her influence for
to pursue personal vendettas against her many enemies from the past
The main result of Jiang’s control was
to completely stifle creativity
What was the only form of theatrical entertainment available?
a set of eight opera ballets, each of which symbolised the triumph of the heroic workers over their class oppressors.
Painting
The peasant women in Huxian, in Shaanxi province, had been trained by the Party to produce wall paintings promoting the Great Leap Forward, and during the Cultural Revolution, ex-professional artists were sent to coach them further to demonstrate proletarian culture.
Negative result of Jing’s control
quality and quantity of creative artistic output fell as a result of her control, and the lack of freedom of expression meant lack of creativity, because the only work deemed acceptable was formulaic and predictable. Literature as an art form seems to have almost disappeared in the period, only 124 novels published.
