Refusing Amnesia: a Conversation with Gao Wenqian on Though I Am
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From" Morning Sun" To" Though I Was Dead": the Image of Song Binbin in the "August Fifth Incident"
From" Morning Sun" to" Though I Was Dead": The Image of Song Binbin in the "August Fifth Incident" Wei-li Wu, Taipei College of Maritime Technology, Taiwan The Asian Conference on Film & Documentary 2016 Official Conference Proceedings Abstract This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. On August 5, 1966, Bian Zhongyun, the deputy principal at the girls High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, was beaten to death by the students struggling against her. She was the first teacher killed in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution and her death had established the “violence” nature of the Cultural Revolution. After the Cultural Revolution, the reminiscences, papers, and comments related to the “August Fifth Incident” were gradually introduced, but with all blames pointing to the student leader of that school, Song Binbin – the one who had pinned a red band on Mao Zedong's arm. It was not until 2003 when the American director, Carma Hinton filmed the Morning Sun that Song Binbin broke her silence to defend herself. However, voices of attacks came hot on the heels of her defense. In 2006, in Though I Am Gone, a documentary filmed by the Chinese director Hu Jie, the responsibility was once again laid on Song Binbin through the use of images. Due to the differences in perception between the two sides, this paper subjects these two documentaries to textual analysis, supplementing it with relevant literature and other information, to objectively outline the two different images of Song Binbin in the “August Fifth Incident” as perceived by people and their justice. -
Master for Quark6
Special feature s e Finding a Place for v i a t c n i the Victims e h p s c The Problem in Writing the History of the Cultural Revolution r e p YOUQIN WANG This paper argues that acknowledging individual victims had been a crucial problem in writing the history of the Cultural Revolution and represents the major division between the official history and the parallel history. The author discusses the victims in the history of the Cultural Revolution from factual, interpretational and methodological aspects. Prologue: A Blocked Web topic “official history and parallel history” of the Cultural Memorial Revolution. In this paper I will argue that acknowledging individual vic - n October of 2000, I launched a website, www.chinese- tims has been a crucial problem in writing the history of the memorial.org , to record the names of the people who Cultural Revolution and represents the major division be - Idied from persecution during the Cultural Revolution. tween the official history that the Chinese government has Through years of research, involving over a thousand inter - allowed to be published and the parallel history that cannot views, I had compiled the stories of hundreds of victims, and pass the censorship on publications in China. As of today, placed them on the website. By clicking on the alphabeti - no published scholarly papers have analyzed the difference cally-listed names, a user could access a victim’s personal in - between the two resulting branches in historical writings on formation, such as age, job, date and location of death, and the Cultural Revolution. -
Cultural Reviews
CULTURAL REVIEWS Bian Zhongyun: lived. Given its proximity to the central government and State Council, as well as its long-standing reputation for A Revolution’s First Blood excellence, the Attached Girls’ School was inevitably By Wang Youqin attended by many daughters of China’s top leaders. The senseless death of a school teacher set the tone for Mao At that time, entry to all secondary schools required Zedong’s 10-year reign of terror, the Cultural Revolution. passing city-wide examinations for both middle and high school. Prior to the Cultural Revolution, however, Bian Zhongyun was born in 1916 in Wuwei, Anhei examination results were not the sole criteria for entry. Province. Her father worked his way up from a strug - In the autumn of 1965, shortly before the Cultural Rev - gling apprentice in a private bank to the wealthy and olution began, half of the students at the Attached Girls’ socially prominent owner of his own private bank. After School were the daughters or relatives of senior govern - Bian Zhongyun graduated from high school in 1937, her ment officials. This element became an important fac - plans to enter college were interrupted by China’s war tor leading to Bian Zhongyun’s death. with Japan, and she participated in the resistance effort in Changsha. She was finally able to attend college in The sequence of events resulting in Bian Zhongyun’s 1941, and became a member of the Communist Party of death began on June 1, 1966. On that evening, the China (CPC) in the same year. She graduated in 1945 China Central People’s Broadcasting Network broad - and then joined her husband, Wang Jingyao (who had casted the contents of what Mao Zedong referred to as studied with her in college), in the Party-controlled area “China’s first Marxist-Leninist big-character poster,” of China. -
Red Scarf Girl
A Facing History and Ourselves Study Guide Teaching RED SCARF GIRL Created to Accompany the Memoir Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-li Jiang A Facing History and Ourselves Study Guide Teaching RED SCARF GIRL Created to Accompany the Memoir Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-li Jiang Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational and professional development organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. For more information about Facing History and Ourselves, please visit our website at www.facinghistory.org. The front cover illustration is a section from a propaganda poster created during the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1968), the same years Ji-li describes in her memoir. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 1949, government and party officials used mass- produced posters as a way to promote nationalism and convey the values of the Communist Party. Propaganda posters were especially important during the Cultural Revolution, and this poster represents many dominant themes of this media: the glorification of Mao, the color red symbolizing China and the Chinese Communist Party, and the depiction of youth as foot-soldiers for the revolution. The slogan on the poster expresses a popular anthem of the era: Chairman Mao is the Reddest Reddest Red Sun in Our Hearts. -
Popular Memories of the Mao Era
Popular Memories of the Mao Era From Critical Debate to Reassessing History Edited by Sebastian Veg Hong Kong University Press The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road Hong Kong www.hkupress.hku.hk © 2019 Hong Kong University Press ISBN 978-988-8390-76-2 (Hardback) All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound by Paramount Printing Co. Ltd., Hong Kong, China Contents Acknowledgments vii 1. Introduction: Trauma, Nostalgia, Public Debate 1 Sebastian Veg Part I. Unofficial Memories in the Public Sphere: Journals, Internet, Museums 2. Writing about the Past, an Act of Resistance: An Overview of Independent Journals and Publications about the Mao Era 21 Jean-Philippe Béja 3. Annals of the Yellow Emperor: Reconstructing Public Memory of the Mao Era 43 Wu Si 4. Contested Past: Social Media and the Production of Historical Knowledge of the Mao Era 61 Jun Liu 5. Can Private Museums Offer Space for Alternative History? The Red Era Series at the Jianchuan Museum Cluster 80 Kirk A. Denton Part II. Critical Memory and Cultural Practices: Reconfiguring Elite and Popular Discourse 6. Literary and Documentary Accounts of the Great Famine: Challenging the Political System and the Social Hierarchies of Memory 115 Sebastian Veg 7. -
Xi Jinping's Inner Circle (Part 2: Friends from Xi's Formative Years)
Xi Jinping’s Inner Circle (Part 2: Friends from Xi’s Formative Years) Cheng Li The dominance of Jiang Zemin’s political allies in the current Politburo Standing Committee has enabled Xi Jinping, who is a protégé of Jiang, to pursue an ambitious reform agenda during his first term. The effectiveness of Xi’s policies and the political legacy of his leadership, however, will depend significantly on the political positioning of Xi’s own protégés, both now and during his second term. The second article in this series examines Xi’s longtime friends—the political confidants Xi met during his formative years, and to whom he has remained close over the past several decades. For Xi, these friends are more trustworthy than political allies whose bonds with Xi were built primarily on shared factional association. Some of these confidants will likely play crucial roles in helping Xi handle the daunting challenges of the future (and may already be helping him now). An analysis of Xi’s most trusted associates will not only identify some of the rising stars in the next round of leadership turnover in China, but will also help characterize the political orientation and worldview of the influential figures in Xi’s most trusted inner circle. “Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?” In the early years of the Chinese Communist movement, Mao Zedong considered this “a question of first importance for the revolution.” 1 This question may be even more consequential today, for Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader, than at any other time in the past three decades. -
Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi
AFTERLIVES OF CHINESE COMMUNISM AFTERLIVES OF CHINESE COMMUNISM POLITICAL CONCEPTS FROM MAO TO XI Edited by Christian Sorace, Ivan Franceschini, and Nicholas Loubere First published 2019 by ANU Press and Verso Books The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au ISBN (hardback): 9781788734790 ISBN (paperback): 9781788734769 ISBN (online): 9781760462499 WorldCat (print): 1085370489 WorldCat (online): 1085370850 DOI: 10.22459/ACC.2019 This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode Note on Visual Material All images in this publication have been fully accredited. As this is a non-commercial publication, certain images have been used under a Creative Commons licence. These images have been sourced from Flickr, Wikipedia Commons and the copyright owner of each original picture is acknowledged and indicated in the source information. Design concept and typesetting by Tommaso Facchin; Illustrations by Marc Verdugo Lopez. Cover design by No Ideas. Cover artwork by Marc Verdugo Lopez. Proofreading by Sharon Strange and Evyn Chesneau Papworth. This edition © 2019 ANU Press and Verso Books Table of Contents Introduction - Christian SORACE, Ivan FRANCESCHINI, and Nicholas LOUBERE 1 1. Aesthetics - Christian SORACE 11 2. Blood Lineage - YI Xiaocuo 17 3. Class Feeling - Haiyan LEE 23 4. Class Struggle - Alessandro RUSSO 29 5. Collectivism - GAO Mobo 37 6. Contradiction - Carlos ROJAS 43 7. Culture - DAI Jinhua 49 8. Cultural Revolution - Patricia M. -
'Gaining Control with the Power of the Gun and Maintaining Control With
MEDIA@LSE MSc Dissertation Series Compiled by Bart Cammaerts, Nick Anstead and Ruth Garland 'Gaining control with the power of the gun and maintaining control with the power of the pen': A Content Analysis of Framing the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969) in the People's Daily Yuanyuan Liu MSc in Media and Communications (Research) Other dissertations of the series are available online here: http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers/ElectronicMScDissertatio nSeries.aspx Dissertation submitted to the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, August 2014, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MSc in Media, Communication and Development. Supervised by Professor Terhi Rantanen The Author can be contacted at: [email protected] Published by Media@LSE, London School of Economics and Political Science ("LSE"), Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. The LSE is a School of the University of London. It is a Charity and is incorporated in England as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Act (Reg number 70527). Copyright in editorial matter, LSE © 2015 Copyright, Yuanyuan Liu © 2015. The authors have asserted their moral rights. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher nor be issued to the public or circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. In the interests of providing a free flow of debate, views expressed in this dissertation are not necessarily those of the compilers or the LSE. -
Documentary- Making and Citizenship in Contemporary China
The Digital Revolution: Documentary- Making and Citizenship in Contemporary China Margherita Viviani Student number 20333142 BA, MA Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia 2002 This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Western Australia School of Social and Cultural Studies Discipline of Asian Studies 2012 ii Abstract This thesis examines the development of social-issue independent documentary films produced in China between 2004 and 2010. The analysis draws upon ethnographic research conducted in different Chinese cities during independent documentary film festivals and film workshops, through personal communication and interviews, and on material collected in libraries, bookstores, and, especially, online. I argue that documentary-making contributes to the creation of public spheres in which networks of production, distribution and consumption are integrated, and where different social and technological actors interact towards a common end. Independent documentary films in China are shot mainly by non-professionals. They generally depict normal people’s everyday lives, but with special attention to the ‘others’, that is, those who can be described as the ‘weaker’ or ‘disadvantaged’ social groups (ruoshi qunti) suffering more from the consequences rather than the benefits of China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization. In the last few years, independent documentaries in China began dealing with challenging topics such as governance in rural communities, the economic and social impacts of reform, and ‘social scandals’ detailing the underbelly of Chinese officialdom. This is all part and parcel of a more general growing sense of civil rights awareness and activity in many quarters. The social world of the documentaries is therefore an opportunity to examine, warts and all, a microcosm of ‘civil society’. -
Language and Politics During the Chinese Cultural Revolution: a Study in Linguistic Engineering
LANGUAGE AND POLITICS DURING THE CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION: A STUDY IN LINGUISTIC ENGINEERING A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the University of Canterbury by Ji Fengyuan ? University of Canterbury 1998 CONTENTS Abbreviations vi Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 I PRELUDE 1. linguistic Engineering: Theoretical Considerations 1.1 The Language of Speech and the Language of Thought 8 1.2 Sapir, Whorf and the Categories of Thought 11 1.3 Concepts, Schemas and World View 24 1.4 Primitive Affective and Associational Processes 31 1.5 Code, Context and Relevance Theory 49 1.6 A Framework for Multi-factorial Persuasion: Information Processing and the Elaboration Likelihood Model 61 1.7 Timeless Theories and Empirical Case Studies 64 2. Linguistic Engineering before the Cultural Revolution 2.1 Origins of Linguistic Engineering in China 66 2.2 The Institutional Basis of linguistic Engineering 72 2.3 Formulae, Codability and Processing Efficiency 81 2.4 The Language of Class Analysis 84 2.5 Language, Love and Revolution 98 2.6 The Discourse of Collectivization 101 2.7 Discourse of the Great Leap Forward: From Martial Language to Disillusionment 103 2.8 Emerging Mao Worship: Prelude to the Cultural Revolution 110 2.9 Linguistic Engineering in China before the Cultural Revolution: an Assessment 117 ii II THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION 1966-68: MASS MOBILIZATION, LANGUAGE AND INTERPRETATION 3. Context and Interpretation: Mao's Manipulation of Meaning 3.1 Background to the -
Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 4.2&3
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART 4.2&3 Conversations Freedom, Suppression and Passion in Mao’s Cultural Revolution Shen Jiawei, Li Bin and Jiang Jiehong Jiang It is my honour to invite both of you to revisit your memories about the artistic practices during the period of Cultural Revolution. The three of us are currently living in three different places – Sydney, Shanghai and Birmingham – of three different time zones; our conversation through email correspondence seems to be a classic one. We may start from your experiences during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), in order to reflect on the most important cultural and visual revolution in the twentieth century of China. As important artists at the time, you had produced well-known artworks during the decade, for example, Li Bin’s woodcut print, Rebellion is Justified, Revolution Is No Crime (zaofa youli, geming wuzui) at the beginning of Red Guards movement, and later, Shen Jiawei’s painting Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland (Wei women weida de zuguo zhangang) produced in 1974. Both of you were born in the year of 1949, and are those of the same age with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In 1966, you were only 17 years old. What did it mean to you when the revolution took place? Where did it come from and how did it arrive? At that time, nobody knew when exactly would the revolution end. How has that red revolution become a part of our everyday life, changed our perceptions, our language, our behaviours as well as our ways of thinking and those of art and knowledge production? I recall many years ago I have interviewed someone who is also exactly in your age. -
Bloomberg Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Elite Chinese Fortunes by Bloomberg News
NEWSBloomberg Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Elite Chinese Fortunes By Bloomberg News June 29, 2012 – Xi Jinping, the man in line to be China’s next president, warned officials on a 2004 anti-graft conference call: “Rein in your spouses, children, relatives, friends and staff, and vow not to use power for personal gain.” As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg. Those interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a Xi Jinping, vice president of China, visits the China Shipping terminal at the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on publicly traded technology company. The figures Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Source: Bloomberg don’t account for liabilities and thus don’t reflect the family’s net worth. No assets were traced to Xi, who turns 59 this provinces and joining the ruling Politburo Standing month; his wife Peng Liyuan, 49, a famous People’s Committee in 2007. Along the way, he built a Liberation Army singer; or their daughter, the reputation for clean government. documents show. There is no indication Xi intervened He led an anti-graft campaign in the rich coastal to advance his relatives’ business transactions, or of province of Zhejiang, where he issued the “rein in” any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family.