Cultural Revolution – A Break From The Past?

The Cultural Revolution in Mao’s era was a clear break away from the past. The cultural revolution launched in 1966 aimed to purge Chinese society of bourgeois elements and promote proletarian culture. Mao encouraged the creation of revolutionary art that glorified the Communist party, the working class, and the ideals of the revolution and this led to the proliferations of art forms such as propaganda posters. This essay will highlight how the purpose of these posters was to further promote Mao and the Chinese Communist party throughout society. Mao understood that art could be politicised and spread throughout society in order to spread his ideology and doctrine in a way that seemed uncoerced and nonviolent. This is supported by his notion of the purpose of art. Mao stated in his 1942 lectures that “there is no such thing as art for art’s sake”[1] and that a political criterion was primary while an aesthetic criterion was secondary. This essay will argue that while the Cultural Revolution itself had a drastic impact on the traditional Chinese culture that existed in the past, it will also recognise that this cultural shift was not unexpected and had been growing since the communist takeover in 1949.

The strong need for a focus on the visuals and in turn this Cultural Revolution stemmed from the fact that Mao and the Communist Party were limited in the ways in which they could communicate with the working class. Mao stated that in order to “defeat the enemy we must rely primarily on the army with guns. But this army alone is not enough; we must also have a cultural army which is absolutely indispensable for unity our own ranks and defeating the enemy”.[2] This demonstrated that in order to have a successful army and nation use culture would allow him to infiltrate the minds of society. Robert Benewick also argued that “no doubt visual representation was also expedient given the limited means of alternative communication, the peoples limited literacy and Mao’s limitations as a public speaker”. This proliferation of posters and visual propaganda combined with the limited forms of communications resulted in a concentrated focus on these posters and as a result a concentrated focus on Mao’s ideology. Mao’s intentions were “to press ahead with one heart and one minds, to discard what is backwards and develop what is revolutionary”.[3] This created a personality cult for Mao where individuals lost their sense of self and opinions, “submitting to a higher ideological cause”.[4] The loss of self-identity and expression was instilled through creating punishment of anyone that deviated from the artistic guidelines. For example, painting the image of Mao in ways that departed from the approved version could earn the artist condemnation as a counterrevolutionary, as was the case with a Mao-badge designer from Inner Mongolia who altered the profile of Mao to face right and not left.[5] Patricia Powell and Joseph Wong stated that “pictures of Mao were posted everywhere, quotations from Mao were recited ritually, and revolutionary songs were sung religiously. People’s daily lives were inundated with the images, sounds, and ideas of Mao”. [6] In addition, the Little Red Book which was a collection of quotes from Moa’s speeches was carried by young people religiously. “One woman recalled that “we vowed . . . to submit ourselves unquestioningly to the control of the Great Leader Mao… Many people had been reduced to a state where they did not dare even to think”.[7] Benewick posited that as there was no physical or political space to challenge Mao, he had reached is totalising power paralleling the slogan “the whole country is red”.[8]

We can see this use of art as a radical break from the past as while there are characteristics of traditional Chinese art still presents within these posters, for the most part their use and purpose diverts from the realm of societal elites to peasants and the working class. However, it cannot be ignored that this breaks away from tradition did not begin in 1966 but began before that in 1949 when the Communist Party came into power. Moa took control over the art education in China and regulated art schools such as Central Academy of Beijing encouraging artists to paint images of Mao, the rural peasantry, and this sense of progress. Not only was the propaganda subject a break from the past but also the artists within these spaces drifted from an upper-class and middle-class activity to a lower-class endeavour. We see this shift when we compare the artwork that was being produced during the Japan’s invasion of China in 1931 compared to the era of Mao. This is illustrated in figure 1 and 2. In the woodcut here we can see a use of dark heavily inked illustrations of the cry if the Chinese people. However, in figure 3 the use of bright colours and the illustrations of the working-class people united in front of the portrait of Mao represents a nation that is at peace, happy and patriotic under the ruling of Mao.  Powell and Wong reinforce this through stating that “viewers familiar with the long tradition of Chinese art often note how un- Chinese these posters appear. Neither the poster format nor the media in which they were executed was typical of traditional Chinese art, where brush and ink is the usual medium and where illustrations customarily used the woodcut technique”.[9] Furthermore, works that were considered traditional such as guohua which was the traditional medium of brushwork and ink on handscroll, paper or silk were gradually eradicated under Mao. This is because of the courtly associations and the fact that the training in brushwork and calligraphy was not accessible to the working class and peasants. This reinvention of traditional works is seen through the gouhua artist Fu Baoshi and the landscape painting in figure 4. While this painting is carried out in the traditional guohua style there are various political indication within this. For example, the painting depicts a line from one of Mao’s poems called Snow in which he describes gazing over the northern landscape, and we again see a distinct red sun.

We can also see art being used as a form of propaganda before the cultural revolution through works such as The Founding of the Nation painted by Dong Xiwen in 1953 Figure 3. Mao is proudly standing onto of the Tiananmen which is the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing as he delivers his lectures. He is surrounded by red lanterns which represent wealth and prosperity. The significance of the colour red is demonstrated later on within the Cultural Revolution as highlighted by Patricia Powell and Joseph Wong who argue that while artists followed the principles of social realism they also “proceeded to develop their own particular set of requirements: Mao’s face must always be painted as smooth, red, and luminescent-the obvious source of light, Mao is identified with the red sun rising in the east, the source of all good. Slogans such as “Mao is the reddest sun in our hearts” are represented on many posters by the Mao badge on the chests of workers or peasants”. This colour red was a beacon for positivity light and success.[10] The blue skies and the ordered citizens below further reinforce this notion of positivity and peace. This combined with the fact that he is surrounded by the support of communist officials and the location is a monumental place and symbol for China, highlights that Mao will lead a successful nation and would instil hope and belief into the viewer that is looking at the piece. It is interesting to note that the painting was altered as the officials in favour shifted over time. This reinforces the fact that it was understood that what was depicted in paintings mattered and it was necessary to keep these paintings relevant by having them accurately reflect the pollical climate at the time and there was no desire to have any trace of incorrect or expired ideological beliefs.

Prior to the Cultural Revolution Chinese art was deeply rooted in tradition with traditional art such as Traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, music, and theatre. Mao Zedong however saw these traditions as embodying the old feudal order, which he sought to overturn in order to establish a socialist society. Through looking at the destruction of the old feudal, we can see a clear desire to break from the past as there was a call for an attack on the “four olds”, which were old customs, old habits, old cultures, and old thinking. Powell and Wong go on to explain that radicalised youths known as the Red Guards destroyed “old” buildings and “traditional” temples such as the temple of Confucius. “Students were encouraged to attack teachers, factory administrators, party members, and even their parents for “bourgeois” crimes. These crimes were defined by Mao and his supporters as anything from class background to collaborating with the Japanese in the 1930s. These attacks were initially verbal but, in some cases, escalated into actual physical violence”.[11] This demonstrated how the Red Guards were attacking the existing order and uprooting chinses and destroying the past in order to create and better communist future. 

In conclusion, the Cultural Revolution under Mao’s leadership marked a decisive break from the past in Chinese arts and society. By purging bourgeois elements and promoting proletarian culture, Mao sought to establish a socialist society grounded in revolutionary ideology. The proliferation of propaganda posters served as a powerful tool to disseminate Mao’s messages and cultivate a cult-like devotion to his leadership. This politicization of art and the indoctrination of the masses underscored Mao’s understanding of the strength of visual propaganda in shaping public consciousness. While the Cultural Revolution accelerated this cultural shift, it also built upon trends initiated by the Communist Party’s rise to power in 1949. Through the destruction of traditional customs and the elevation of revolutionary ideals, Mao consolidated his power and drastically transformed China’s cultural landscape.

Bibliography

Benewick, R. (1999). “Icons of Power: Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution,. In H. Evans, & S. Donald, Picturing power in the People’s Republic of China: posters of the Cultural Revolution (pp. 123-137). Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher .

Evans, H., & Donald, S. (1999). Introducing Posters of China’s Cultural Revolution. In H. Evans, & S. Donald, Picturing power in the People’s Republic of China: posters of the Cultural Revolution (pp. 1-127). Oxford : Rowman & Littlefield Publsihers.

Tse-tung, S. w. (1967). Zedong Mao. Foreign Languages Press : Perking.

Wong, P. P. (1997). Propaganda Posters from the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The Historian, 777–794.

---

[1] Wong, P. P. (1997). Propaganda Posters from the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The Historian, 777–794.

[2] Tse-tung, S. w. (1967). Zedong Mao. Foreign Languages Press : Perking.

[5] Evans, H., & Donald, S. (1999). Introducing Posters of China’s Cultural Revolution. In H. Evans, & S. Donald, Picturing power in the People’s Republic of China: posters of the Cultural Revolution (pp. 1-127). Oxford : Rowman & Littlefield Publsihers.

[8] Benewick, R. (1999). “Icons of Power: Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution,. In H. Evans, & S. Donald, Picturing power in the People’s Republic of China: posters of the Cultural Revolution (pp. 123-137). Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher .