Monday, 7/30, afternoon session - Michael Berry, UCLA

[Jacqueline Mercado]

The purpose and role of art has been a question that artists and philosophers have considered for centuries.  Based on his musing recorded in the Talks at the Yenan Forum, we see that Mao also thought about the role the arts should have in the new China he envisioned. Mao leaves no ambiguity about what this role should be: the arts must espouse the values of Marxism-Leninism and of the revolutionary work, divest itself of all middle class values and carry on the stuggle of the working class.  For Mao, art was valuable and "correct in orientation" only when it propagated the values of the revolution and not solely because of its aesthetics or artistic expression. Hence during the Mao era, art was controlled and weaponized for political purposes.  This past summer I visited the USC Pacific Museum and enjoyed the exhibit comparing Chinese and Mexican mural art.  It was interesting to see how Mexican artits were viewed as revolutionary by Chinese artists because they produced art that expressed their personal emotions and ideas, while the Chinese artists were restricted by the government to produce propaganda art.  After the death of Mao, art became less restrictive and more personal, depicting the thoughts, feelings and personal experiences of artists and not as a means to serve government propaganda. Since the role of the arts is a question of interest, I would like to design a lesson in which students explore the role of art during the Mao regime. Students could look at the Talks at the Yenan Forum text and other texts along with examples of propaganda art produced at the time.  

[Jennifer Place]

This is such an amazing idea!  I frequently collaborate with the grade 6th social studies teacher when she teaches the China unit.  This year a new teacher will be teaching social studies and I think this woud be a wonderful way to introduce the idea of collaborating to him.  Thank you for incuding the web resources.  They will be very useful.  When will you be teaching this unit?  And I would love to keep in touch! 

[Stella Castro]

Courtney, I too think that having the students do/make a comic book would be an enticing way for them to get the/their message across. It is a good idea to present and pass the books around to show the people how enthusiastic they are about “promoting the word”, as they do in China. As you state that it would be an interesting thing to compare and contrast the comics as they are used in China as opposed to here, (U.S.A.).and the difference is huge. Comics are already used to convey the political messages in the world today and of important issues involving foreign countries as well as  critical issues herein America.  Such as Doonesbury found in the Los Angeles Times. I am sure this comic strip is found in other newspapers, but the LA Times is the one that I am most familiar with. I know that there are other comic strips also, but Doonesbury is the one that pops into my head now. I can’t think of them as of this writing . I would have to wait until the next Sunday paper rolls out of press to take a look at the comic pages.

[Jennifer Place]

Wow!  Unfortunately, when we traveled with a high school group this past April, it was closed.  Did your friend eventually get in?  I hope we have a different experience this spring because the kids were quite disappointed. 

[Stella Castro]

A Mr. Michael Berry was our guest speaker for the second part of today’s seminar. Interestingly enough, Mr. Berry is Mrs. Kim, (aforementioned), husband. I thought this to be really cool, as how often does one get to enjoy lectures from a husband/wife team. Mr. Berry spoke on the topic of Chinese Cinema. Mr. Berry also showed us a couple of movie clips, and/or movie trailers which were good to see. Mr. Berry went on to talk about famous writers/authors, and artists and the forms of art that they create. I found this topic and lecture quite interesting as some of the art forms Mr. Berry spoke about I had never heard of or imagined it could and would be done, much less here in the United States.  For instance Mr. Berry spoke of “Performance art, where one artist and a either friend or colleague of Mr. Berry exercises, but that lasts the whole year, 365 days a year, (I forget if this type of Art form had a different name other than performance art.

Mr. Berry also spoke of comic books, and how comic nooks brought people together because in some of the small towns/ villages in Asia they all have or speak a different dialect. So if it there to be a traveling play, then many people would not understand it. But Art told in the comic book fashion, people would and may be able to understand and comprehend the concept/s of the drawings. Facial expressions of the characters could be read just by looking at the pictures on the books.

Mr. Berry also mentioned to us that the next time we go see a movie to see who is making and producing these films, and that nowadays there are many Asian companies that are doing this. Mr. Berry also explained about Invisible Hollywood and vice versa, invisible Asia, and hoe the similarities exists, as in the premise of the movie, the backdrops, the costumes, the titles, and so on.

What I can teach my students from this session is that ART  is a good form of creative expression/s, and that one should not feel bad if they are criticized for a piece of artwork that they have created. That it is important to learn to accept constructive criticism, and learn from that experience. instead of dwelling on some ill words in regards to their artwork. That there are many different types of art and that it comes in many different forms, whether it is drawings. paintings, sculpting, building or playing, (music), it is all good and there are many ways shapes and forms to accept and acknowledge, the many types of Art that exists. I can also teach them how to make a comic book and the folding of the piece of paper into 8 pages will also help them in developing and enhancing their fine motor skills.

[Ann Huynh]

The article "Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" by Mao Zedong is a great way to introduce students to primary sources, an artifact from that time period.  This speech was written in 1942, and was a type of propaganda that their leader used to persuade the people to be loyal to the Communist Party.  I liked how he referred to the people as comrades, providing the illusion that they were on equal footing even though they were not.  I would use parts of the speech and as a class we would try to dissect the language that Mao used to refer to the people and talked about its relevance to the Chinese people during that time.     

[Ann Huynh]

Professor’s Berry lecture about Chinese visual arts was jam packed with both old and current media that can be easily accessible.  He began the lecture by talking about the character of San Mao, the Chinese equivalent of Mickey Mouse, an extremely well known character in America.  I think that the students will be fascinated to learn about this character.  They can discuss the similarities and differences between the two characters.  What I felt that would be most useful was the book by Xu Bing.  This book is filled with emoji and I would like to have the students try to decode what was written.  It is a great way to hook them to study about Chinese calligraphy. 

[Helen Kang]

During Professor Berry's presentation of Chairman Mao and his legacy on Chinese culture, I see many similarities to the original N.Korean dictator Kim l-Sung's images. The unrealistic depictions of the dictator portrayed as a benevolent and peace-loving person surrounded by a seemingly happy and perfect surrounding of people flocking to him. Even the reference of everyone being referred to as "comrade" is the same of North Koreans calling one another "dong-mu", which means exactly that, a comrade.

I remember when I was about 8 years old, I found a small leaflet on the ground that looked like a comic strip but when I read it, it was a propaganda leaflet that said what a perfect place North Korea was. I remember the teachers at school often telling us to watch out for those and if we were to ever find them on the ground, to bring it to the nearest neighborhood police stations. So I remember taking it in to the station and handed it to the adult I saw behind the counter, and they briefly inspected it and nodded to eachother and sent me off with a "
Good job for bringing it in".  I left feeling I had done something special, to have interacted with someone at the police station and handing in something to them that was significant enough to be commended for it. Then later someone asked me if they had given me anything for it, and had learned that another who had found and turned in the same type of leaflet was given something equivalent to a quarter or a dollar and I felt jipped. It's so funny think about it now and I think the monetary compensation was probably given out of the pocket of the police station staff just to reward the kids for even being able to recognize what it is and being vigilant enough to bring it into the station.

What is unsettling now that I think about it is to think that there may be so many intruders in our average neighborhood in Seoul Korea for it to be not uncommon to find such propaganda material strewn on the ground for regular citizens to encounter.

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