Curating revolution
Subtitle: politics on display in Mao's China
By: Denise Y. Ho
Series: Cambridge studies in the history of the People's Republic of China; Cambridge studies in the history of the People's Republic of China
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 308
ISBN-13: 9781108417952; 9781108406147
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Museums; Art and state; Art; Exhibitions; Political culture; History
Description: How did China's Communist revolution transform the nation's political culture? In this rich and vivid history of the Mao period (1949-1976), Denise Y. Ho examines the relationship between its exhibits and its political movements, arguing that exhibitions made revolution material. Case studies from Shanghai show how revolution was curated: museum workers collected cultural and revolutionary relics; neighborhoods, schools, and work units mounted and narrated local displays; and exhibits provided ritual space for both ideological lessons and political campaigns. Using archival sources, ephemere, interviews, and other historical materials, Curating Revolution traces the process by which exhibitions were developed, presented, and received. Its examples range from the First Party Congress Site and the Shanghai Museum to the "class education" and Red Guard exhibits that accompanied the Socialist Education Movement and the Cultural Revolution. With its socialist museums and new exhibitions, the exhibitionary culture of the Mao era operated in two modes: that of a state in power and that of a state in revolution. Both reflecting and making revolution, these forms remain part of China's revolutionary legacy today--back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-286) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: 1. Making a revolutionary monument: the First Party Congress Site; title: 2. Exhibiting New China: "Fangua Lane Past and Present"; title: 3. Curating belief: superstition versus science for Young Pioneers; title: 4. Cultivating consciousness: the class education exhibition; title: 5. The Cultural Revolution's object lessons: the Exhibition of Red Guard Achievements; title: 6. Antiquity in revolution: the Shanghai Museum; title: Conclusion.