The Transformation of Guai Imagery in China (1949-78)
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The Transformation of Guai Imagery in China (1949-78) VolumeⅠ: Text Sijing Chen A thesis submitted to Birmingham City University in part fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2017 Faculty of Arts, Design and Media, Birmingham City University Abstract Guai are bound up with Chinese traditional culture, and have been presented via various cultural forms, such as literature, drama, New Year print and costume. Indeed, guai imagery has played a significant role in the definition and development of traditional Chinese visual culture. Throughout history, guai visual products reflected national values, aesthetic appreciation and philosophical aspirations. Nevertheless, in twentieth-century China, political, social and religious transitions have changed the traditional role of guai imagery. Particularly, from the year 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded to 1978 when economic reform and the Open Door Policy were introduced, guai visual production was under Mao’s artistic control nationwide, and its political functions became dominant. Traditional guai imagery was politically filtered and modified to satisfy both Mao and the Communist Party’s political aspirations and the public aesthetic. This research examines the transformation of guai imagery formally and symbolically in the Chinese aesthetic and cultural context from 1949 to 1978, and builds knowledge to evaluate and understand the production, dissemination and perception of guai visual products in this period. It provides a contribution to the understanding of the inherent values of guai and how the reinterpretation of guai imagery that reflects political, social and cultural values in Chinese visual art. Acknowledgments I wish to thank all those who supported this study. I first thank all the interviewees for sharing their knowledge and experiences with me so that I could understand and explore this study more deeply. I would like to thank Wang Mingxian, Jiang Jimeng, Yang Liren and Yang Peiming, who provided me with image sources. I also thank the National Library of China, Shanghai Library, Anhui Library, the Secondary Historical Archives of China, the Universities Service Centre for China Studies in Hong Kong, Birmingham City University Library and the British Library who provided literature and visual sources. I am particularly grateful to my three supervisors, Professor Joshua Jiang, Professor Stephan Feuchtwang and Dr. Sian Vaughan for their comments, patience and encouragement to complete this thesis. Finally, I thank my parents for the material and spiritual support they have given, by showing their confidence in me, I was able to enjoy doing this research. Contents Introduction...................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Rearch Background.........................................................................7 1.1 Methodology..............................................................................8 1.2 The Visual Culture of Guai in China’s Dynasties.....................15 1.3 The Pursuit of ‘Democracy and Science’.................................27 Chapter Two: New Guai for ‘New China’..............................................................35 2.1 The Continued Spirit of the Yan’an Forum...............................36 2.2 Reforming New Year Prints......................................................45 2.3 Guai in Reformed Lianhuanhua...............................................55 2.4 Guai Cartoons as Satirical Weapons in Newspapers...............62 Chapter Three: Guai in the Great Leap Forward......................................................72 3.1 To Visualise the Great Leap Forward Movement.....................73 3.2 A Great Leap Forward in Mass participation............................77 3.3 Miracle Prosperities Brought by Dragons................................86 3.4 Man Can Conquer Nature........................................................99 Chapter Four: Guai in the Cultural Revolution...................................................106 4.1 Demolishing the Old..............................................................108 4.2 Ox-demons and Snake-spirits...............................................112 4.3 Representations of the ‘Black’ Guai......................................115 4.4 Mao and Sun.........................................................................125 4.5 The Production of Guai..........................................................132 Chapter Five: Guai in the Transition..................................................................146 5.1 The Declination of Guai.........................................................148 5.2 Lin and Confucius..................................................................153 5.3 The Gang of Four..................................................................162 5.4 Post-1978..............................................................................173 Conclusion................................................................................................................182 Appendix: Background Information on Chinese Terminology of Guai......................193 Bibliography..............................................................................................................198 Glossary...................................................................................................................227 List of Interviewees...................................................................................................237 Introduction This research focuses on the evolution of guai in Chinese visual art throughout the twentieth century, and particularly assesses the significant changes of guai imagery formally and symbolically from 1949 to 1978. The study initially started several years ago when my classmates and I intended to create an animated short film about Chinese guai. We used to discuss the relationship between guai, imagination and national identity. Indeed, the imagery of guai referring to hybrid ‘beings’ has been one of the most significant motifs in Chinese visual culture; China’s religious beliefs and customs, literature and art, in particular, have unbreakable and constant ties with guai. Similarly, studying Chinese visual culture cannot avoid the presence and impact of the imagery of guai.1 Chinese people have created various guai imageries for thousands of years. They have their own particular images and stories. Guai are hybrid in visual presentation. The creation of guai images is indeed from literature narratives, myth and imagination. Their presence provides an insight into the Chinese way of ‘visual thinking’, which aroused my great interests. Guai imagery is a living tradition. Guai images and stories has been constantly renewed and built by individuals and as such, these products reflect Chinese people’s thoughts and aesthetics. The evolution of guai imagery is associated with the development of human society in China. In twentieth-century China, most visual traditions were re-examined as the country went through tremendous social and political transitions. Many of them lost their original glory. Nevertheless, guai imagery survived the tremendous social, political and cultural changes and was widely employed by the Communist Party from 1949 to 1978, indicating its political, cultural and historical significance. 1 Liu Zhongyu (1997), Zhongguo jingguai wenhua (Chinese Monster Culture). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, p. 2. 1 Guai in Chinese means literally ‘strange’ or ‘odd’ and it is also used to describe monsters or demons. In the early Chinese classical literature, guai referred to unusual or strange phenomena and things.2 As noted by Li Jianguo, in his research on guai in literature before the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), the meaning of guai had gradually changed since the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE). Li refers to plant, animal or inanimate guai, with visible and fixed images.3 Japanese scholar Miyoko Nakano, who specialises in Chinese classical literature and Chinese mythology, also confirms that Chinese guai have specific images beyond realistic forms.4 In this research, guai is used to define visual beings originally transformed from images of animals, plants or inorganic objects, rather than from human beings. Historically, the term guai could be seen everywhere in Chinese culture and was integrated into people’s daily lives. People projected their own feelings, images and experiences on to guai imageries. Guai took on various symbolic meanings, which are different from the concepts of ‘evil’, ‘demon’ or ‘monster’ usually understood as things to be feared in the West. Chinese guai formed a complex system, and built a fascinating imaginative world which involved both the disturbing kind of guai and the auspicious kind.5 Research to date has concentrated more on guai imagery in ancient China6 rather than placed it in the modern context and discussed the interaction between its traditional significance and the modern. I argue that the latter research should not be 2 For example, in the second-century Chinese dictionary Shuowen jiezi (Origin of Chinese Characters), guai means “strange” and also stands for “the strange and striking thing to the public” in Lun heng (Discourse Balance) written in 80 CE. See Qu Shen (1999), Shuowen jiezi (Origin of Chinese Characters), (Duan Yucai, Modern Chinese trans.). Taibei: Hongye Culture, p. 514; Wang Chong (2010), Xinbian lun heng: Di sanjuan