teaching about the cultural revolution

[clay dube]

This is another reading that problematizes our understanding of the Cultural Revolution. In it Barbara Mittler discusses how and why propaganda posters, songs, and films from the Cultural Revolution remain popular among many. She notes that isn't the case for Nazi propaganda.

She writes, "at least to German ears, propaganda is evil. It amounts to nothing but blatant lies and false pretense. Propaganda is manipulated and manipulative. Whenever propaganda has an effect, this is bound to be negative; an enthusiastic recipient of propaganda cannot but be deluded. A system creating propaganda is to be despised; everybody hopes for it to end. The times in which propaganda flourishes are considered unhappy times, times that everybody hopes will pass very quickly."

How, Mittler asks, is it that propaganda from a time when many Chinese suffered is still attractive to many Chinese?

Download the article at: https://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/1520404.pdf

And consider this cultural revolution parody. A mug sitting on my desk calls for us "to serve renminbi" (RMB, the currency), a play on Mao's dictate that all should strive to serve the people.

[clay dube]

Geremie Barmé's Shades of Mao includes examples of Maospeak, that strange language that was rapidly adopted and then dropped in China. The examples are from novelist Wang Shuo 王朔 and are found at the highly recommended Morning Sun website: http://www.morningsun.org/red/wangshuo.html

The Morning Sun library offers many primary sources as well as analytical pieces: http://www.morningsun.org/library/index.html

Among the items there is an article from China Reconstructs, a state publication, on how "The Red Guards Battle Song" was born:
http://www.morningsun.org/smash/cr_3_1968.html

You can hear the song (and watch Mao driving through Red Guard masses at Tiananmen Square) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyTIamfYve0

[clay dube]

Stan Rosen will be speaking at the workshop about film during the Cultural Revolution and films about the Cultural Revolution.

Here are three articles about the topic:

Jin Feng, "Teaching China’s Cultural Revolution through Film: Blue Kite as a Case Study," Asian Network Exchange

May 15, 2016, Straits Times - "50 years on, Cultural Revolution still off limits in films, books in China"

Positions (academic journal) - "Disappearance of Animals in Animated Films of the Cultural Revolution"
edited by Clay Dube on 3/22/2017

[clay dube]

Many of you are already reading Education about Asia, but for those who aren't, this is a great opportunity to acquaint yourself with this tremendous resource. Be sure to sign up for email updates from the magazine. The links below are to articles from back issues of the magazine.

A review of one of my favorite films, To Live (book by Yu Hua, film directed by Zhang Yimou), a review of the book (which differs from the film in significant ways), an interview with author Yu Hua

A review of the SPICE unit on the Cultural Revolution (which won an award from the Association for Asian Studies); an excerpt from the unit is available here; the unit is available for purchase here.

A lesson plan about the Cultural Revolution by Deborah Pellikan

A review of a book on posters from the Cultural Revolution

A review of the Tim Cheek book, Mao Zedong and China's Revolutions

An article by Yihong Pan on "From Red Guards to Thinking Individuals: China's Youth in the Cultural Revolution"

A look at pre-collegiate US textbook treatments of Mao's rule by Philip Williams
edited by Clay Dube on 3/22/2017

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,

Our workshop is Saturday, March 25. Have you signed up already? (details here) If you have, you've received access to special readings. Here I just want to share an issue of Peking Review (now published as Beijing Review). This is the August 16, 1968 issue. For the workshop, please read the article on pages 21-25, "Mao Tse-tung's Thought Directs Us in Battle: How we removed a 45 kg tumour." It includes,

"After more than a dozen hours of arduous work, the fighters boundlessly loyal to Chairman Mao's revolutionary line finally succeeded in wholly removing the 45-kg tumour from Chang Chiu'chu's body.

"After she regained consciousness, Chang Chiu-chu was extremely excited when she felt her abdomen. The very first words she uttered were: 'Long live Chairman Mao! Chairman Mao has saved me!' Mao Tse-tung's thought gave her boundless strength and vitality."

Read the attached story for details.

You may find other parts of this issue of the Peking Review of interest. See it at https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/peking-review/1968/PR1968-33.pdf The first pages are devoted to quotations from Mao, but also check out Mao's comments on and photos from the struggle of African Americans for justice.

Please comment on these materials. Peking Review issues from those days can't be found on the current Beijing Review website (http://bjreview.com). You can find them at: https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/peking-review/
edited by Clay Dube on 3/21/2017

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