session #11 10/23 (dube) china after the cultural revolution

[clay dube]

Please try to at least skim all of the readings below. In addition, you will find the following presentations of interest, though you may not be able to watch them until after class. 

1972 Nixon goes to China

1989 Tiananmen Square

Former BBC/NPR reporter Louisa Lim on Tiananmen and the politics of forgetting.

Guardian journalist Jonathan Watts on China's environmental challenges

2012 Follow the Money

Jonathan Woetzel on "how to change a billion people"

Lenora Chu on education in China

 

 

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[Rick Steil]

Deng Xiaoping on Suppression of Tiananmen Square Protest

This excerpt of a speech by Deng highlights the view of America when it comes to the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Deng uses America and its prejudice’s towards China as a distraction from the real problems that exist. The relationship between these countries shows how they use each other as reason to push forward their agendas. It is very similar to how Trump uses these tactics today when he skirts the questions and issues by avoiding the subject and instead recites his fake media rants and places blame wherever he wants. These readings and lectures have opened my eyes on how connected China and America have been for a long time and how they will continue to be connected in the future.

[Jane Shen]

The card that I have is a Black Club A. On top of the card, there is a poster which has in Chinese " 全世界人民团结起来， 打倒各国反动派！" and printed in English " National people unite tighter to defeat reactionary". 

As a highschool mandarin teacher, I know the English print was not accurate, so I searched in google translate, it came out as "The people of the whole world are united and down the reactionaries of all countries" which sounds more accurately.

In the poster, there is a huge portrait of Mao simblize his donimate position in China during the Cultural Revolution. And three main characters holding red books-Mao's Bible represents that the people were guided by Mao's thoughts. From the clothes the three characters wearing: a worker in jumper pants, a soldier in uniform and a gun, a peasant with white towel rounded in her neck and a straw hat in the back. During the culture revolution, the Chinese considered worker, soldier, and peasants as the good citizens.

While in the national flags that I am attachin g here, there are 4 little stars surrounded a bigger star meaning the solodiers, the peasants, the workers and the scholars are surrounding the Comunity Party's leadership.

So, scholar was missing from the poster which indicate that during the Culture Revolution, the scholars are treated as bad elements, the mosters and freaks ( 牛鬼蛇神）。They are the parties that needed to be reformed, to be defeated.

 

 

The people of the whole world are united and down the reactionaries of all countries

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[Valerie Doby]

My card displays and military man holding Mao Zedong’s little red book.

The translation on the card says, “Increase vigilance and defend the fatherland”.  One reading said that the picture was used to display to all that even though the military was defending the fatherland they still had time to study the words in the little red book.

I liked this exercise.  I want to find something similar for my students. It is quick way to assign a task and give them a chance to do some quick research on a cartoon, propaganda poster, etc.  I would have them create a slide and merge them into one presentation for them all to review as a class and make it a learning slideshow for each student.

 

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[Evelyn Mendoza]

 

This poster shows Chinese men from several walks of life standing against atomic, chemical and bacterial warfare. The soldier is holding Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book in a prominent position, demonstrating their collective support for his ideology, and the strength that collectivism brings to the Chinese people. This poster was meant to inspire people to stand behind Chairman Mao and against the Westerners who use atomic, chemical and bacterial warfare. 

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[Jonathan Tam]

Yang Gensi was a soldier in the People's Republic of China during hte time of the Korean War. He was born as a peasant and sought revenge against the wealthy, which prompted his membership in the Communist Party. While protecting a strategic position in Communist North Korea against the Capitalist South Koreans, Yang Gensi withstood multiple waves of attack until he and two older soldiers were left. Out of ammo, Yang Gensi jumped towards a group of American soldiers with a satchel pack of explosives (depicted in the picture). He is regarded as a super hero by the Chinese government and a park was built in his name, hence the caption "the forever hero." The depiction on the card shows him charging valliantly against the enemy in a heroic stance with the explosives in his hands.

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[clay dube]

Well done - China developed the atomic bomb in 1964. China alleged that the US used biological weapons against it during the Korean War. A couple of Americans who reported Chinese claims were charged with sedition, though the charges were eventually dismissed. 
More at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Powell 
Chemical weapons: http://www.nti.org/learn/countries/china/chemical/

 

[clay dube]

Great work retelling the story of Yang the martyr!

[clay dube]

Valerie - great job, stern defense. The translator used fatherland, but although China's a patriarchical society, most of the time 祖国 gets translated as motherland, though a literal translation would be ancestral land. Why do you think different translators use different translations?

[clay dube]

Jane's right that the translation on the card isn't complete. The 各国 refers to the reactionaries of various / any countries/country. Jane's also captured the holy trinity - workers, peasants, soldiers, who appear on many of the cards. 

[Aja Koester]

My card is an image of many different people celebrating what seems to be the election of Chairman Mao. There are balloons and fireworks in the sky along with hanging banners. There are dancers at the bottom of the group of people holding lanterns as part of the celebration. Many people are holding different offerings including items such as fruit and flowers. It is clear that the people are from all different walks of life, including a naval officer, a musician, a baker, etc. It seems this poster was to promote the unification of all people under Mao's Communist People's Republic of China. It celebrates the potential spirit of collectivity and patriotism that many poeple believed was possible through supporting Chairman Mao.

 

 

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[Valerie Doby]

I think different translations are based on the translator’s bias.  I almost wrote motherland just based on what I would normally say. Also, translators may want to make the translation more broad as well to include more people.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I wasn't able to find specifics about this propaganda poster, but I believe it is part of the collections at the Musée du Vivant @AgroParis Tech. It was created in 1970.

This image demonstrates one of the social programs of the Cultural Revolution. Mao had the vision that academians (middle school graduates and above) from China's cities should go to the rural areas to work in People's Communes/collectives to learn how to farm and work with farmers to increase harvests. This was not a voluntary relocation for urban scholars and they were only allowed to return home in the late 1970's. An underlying reason for this program was to minimize the ability of Red Guards to agitate.

Of note is the plentiful harvest and abundant food at the forefront and the transmission tower and factories in the background.

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[Jane Shen]

Again, the translation is not accurate here. The Chinese " 伟大的领袖毛主席万岁“ which in English is " Long live ( ten thousand years) of the Great leader, chairman Mao!". In Chinese during the emporer system, the people will greet and charish their emporer, the King " 万岁“。 So in here, you can see that Mao was worshiped during the Culture Revolution as an emperor.

Even though the last emporer-Pu yi and the emperor system was banned in China, but people still did not get rid of the tradition of worshipping their top leaders. After Mao, while Hua Guo Feng was assigned by Mao to take charge, I remembered that in China, they made the same slogoan by just changing the last name from Mao to Hua.

[Gerlinde Goschi]

My card depicts Chairman Mao with a Politburo member standing behind him in an open Jeep.  The Politburo member holds up a red small notebook.  Chairman Mao extends his hand to shake the extending hands of the workers who idolize him.  I think that this red notebook could be a form of a check/saving book.  I would guess that the caption " Chairman Mao and us are always care about each other,"  means that "here is your Chairman taking care of your savings, making sure that your future is taken care of."  Many of the workers hold the same red notebook in their hands pointing it toward Chairman Mao with gratitude in their eyes.  I imagine the workers look at Chairman Mao thinking " We trust that you will make the best decisions for us, so we entrust you and your wisdom with our life savings. We will work harder and harder and produce more and more."

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