A continuous revolution : making sense of Cultural Revolution culture /
Mittler, Barbara,1968-author.
Harvard University.Asia Center,publisher.
"Cultural Revolution Culture is often denigrated as mere propaganda. Yet it was not only liked in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. This book sets out to explain this legacy. By considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art--music, stage works, prints and posters, comics, and literature--from the point of view of its longue durée, Barbara Mittler suggests that it was able to build on a tradition of earlier art works. This in turn allowed for its sedimentation in cultural memory and its proliferation in contemporary China. Taking the aesthetic experience of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) as her base, Mittler combines close readings and analyses of cultural products from the period with insights gained from a series of personal interviews conducted in the early 2000s with Chinese from diverse class and generational backgrounds. By including testimony from these original voices, Mittler illustrates the extremely multifaceted and contradictory nature of the Cultural Revolution in artistic production and as cultural experience."--Jacket.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 398-436) and indexes.
Introduction: Nose -- smells. Popular culture and cultural revolution culture : theory, practice, and experience -- Part I: Ears -- sounds. From Mozart to Mao to Mozart : musical revolutions in China ;The sounds amidst the fury : Cultural Revolution songs from Xian Xinghai to Cui Jian -- Part II: Mouth -- words. Destroying the old and learning from black material : the political fate of a famous school primer ; The foolish old man who moved the mountains : superscribing a foundational myth -- Part III: Eyes -- images. Mao wherever you go : the art of repetition in revolutionary China ; Chain(ed) pictures and chained by pictures : comics and cultural revolutions in China -- Conclusion: Hands -- touch. Cultural Revolution culture and popular culture : theorizing practice and experience -- Appendixes. 1. List of interviewees ; 2. Interview questions ; 3. Chronology of the model works.
"Cultural Revolution Culture is often denigrated as mere propaganda. Yet it was not only liked in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. This book sets out to explain this legacy. By considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art--music, stage works, prints and posters, comics, and literature--from the point of view of its longue durée, Barbara Mittler suggests that it was able to build on a tradition of earlier art works. This in turn allowed for its sedimentation in cultural memory and its proliferation in contemporary China. Taking the aesthetic experience of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) as her base, Mittler combines close readings and analyses of cultural products from the period with insights gained from a series of personal interviews conducted in the early 2000s with Chinese from diverse class and generational backgrounds. By including testimony from these original voices, Mittler illustrates the extremely multifaceted and contradictory nature of the Cultural Revolution in artistic production and as cultural experience."--Jacket.
Arts, Chinese
Arts, Chinese
Arts
Arts and society