)HINESE REV( m $1.25 THE EAST IS RED text by Lincoln Bergman paper cuts by members of a People's Commune In Fatshan distributed by: China Books and Periodicals 2929 24th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 bulk rates available on request. copyright 1972 by Peoples Press r INTRODUCTION A blade designed Many people worked on them To cut a line so fine So in them we can see It cannot fail Creative collectivity. To capture each detail. The struggle to create a revolutionary culture proceeds Paper cuts a traditional Chinese art form Art speaking to the people's needs Served as decoration at New Years celebrations Everything useful from the great heritage of the past In windows, at weddings, and birthdays. Is studied with the purpose of making the past Serve the present and help insure the future Many of the most famous paper-cutters have been women. Much has to be rejected and criticized For new revolutionary culture to constantly arise. Revolution brings A startling transformation in Chinese art and culture Mao asked artists to understand Paper cuts are no exception What we demand is the unity of politics and art The contents are more striking today The unity of content and form Portraying actual events that have shaped the lives - The unity of revolutionary political content Of the people of China And the highest possible perfection of artistic form. Many new methods are being employed Skills have become highly creative. A blade designed To cut a line so fine A blade designed It cannot fail To cut a line so fine To capture each detail It cannot fail Cut through To capture each detail. To truth In tapestry These paper ciits Of victory Were created by people Always remember Who live on a people's commune in Fatshan And understand Which is near Canton. The blade is held in human hands. I THE EAST IS RED Red sun rising in the East The night was long Red sun of victory Red sun now rising strong Chinese revolution rising in the East Night long Huge new changes in world history Crimson dawn 800 million rise so much humanity Mao Tse-tung wrote Red sun red sun of dawn now rising free. To the melody of an ancient song: Revolution in Asia The night was long the crimson dawn cracked slowly As today more struggles for self determination For hundreds of years demons monsters danced frantically Hasten toward liberation of whole populations Our hundreds of millions of people were not united As in Vietnam and all of Indochina Now the rooster has crowed all beneath the sky is bright The crimson dawn unfurled New music rises rises from a thousand different locations The changing changing changing of the world. Filling the poet with unparalleled inspirations. The night was long Red sun rising in the East Strife war sacrifice Red sun of victory Process more intricate than these paper cuts Chinese revolution rising in the East Sunflowers only one way to b6gin to show Huge new changes in world history Beautiful new lives which now can grow 800 million rise so much humanity Night long but red sun rose. Red sun red sun of dawn now rising rising free. i-^ II THE YEARS OF MISERY The night was long before the liberation Old Shanghai foreign controlled Old China landlord whip fore^ warship Corruption and starvation bought and sold Suffering poverty disease exploitation A few rich Chinese businessmen could profit if they kowtowed The night was long before the liberation. Sign in a Shanghai park said no Chinese or dogsallowed. Always popular resistance sometimes war Child dead in mine, boss says come back another time Taiping Revolution 1851 to 1864 Can you imagine what it must have meant Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen For the landlord to take away your daughter Resistance rising again and again. When you could not pay an impossibly high rent? These rebellions failed to unify or liberate The three heavy mountains had to be removed Their contributions great but failed to see Only when that was done That the major obstacles to freedom were three Could liberation be won All had to be removed to reach victory. So long so long before the rising of the sun. Three heavy mountains as the Chinese now say The night was long before the liberation Foreign imperialism, starting with the opium slave trade Old China landlord whip foreign warship Early capitalist production, workers brutalized Suffering poverty disease exploitation Feudalism, landlord-warlord rule of the countryside. The night was long before the liberation. ni DAWN IN THE EAST There was this philosopher Marx Have you heard? Have you heard? Whose red dialectics drew sparks What the Russian workers did? And up rose the spectre as he finished the lecture Spread the word! Spread the word! Little fish will devour the sharks. From Nanking to Hamburg! Then up stepped a young lawyer named Lenin Connecting word to deed Love and fire that he dipped his pen in Bread Land and Peace When asked how he did it he said people got with it The Chinese say the Russian revolution built a bridge Fight fire with fire said Lenin. Between workers of the West and oppressed peoples of the East. Connecting word to deed Marxism-Leninism takes root in China For ideas take seed become reality A revolutionary ideology When they are seized by entire peoples Through trial and error it was learned When they meet deep hopes and pressing needs. It could not be applied mechanically. October 1917 triumph of the Russian revolution Had to be fitted to Chinese reality Inspiring people all around the world Ideas the arrow the people the bow Connecting Word to deed Concrete conditions what they had to know Showing that a popular liberation struggle could succeed. To hit the target to reach the goal. IV WORKERS PEASANTS SOLDIERS UNITE What is to be When we put our guard down Is what is to be done We'll be shot to the ground. Now can see the sun But work has just begun. It took many years to understand The forces at work within the huge land As dawn Reliance on workers and especially peasantry Out of the long night bends Is what came to be the Party policy. They had to ask Who are our enemies who are our friends? Many years including false alliances Which led to many revolutionaries dead For if they do not know Then with experience, reliance on workers and peasants The different groups and classes They learned to maintain strength and independence. And what can be their contribution They cannot organize a winning revolution. As dawn Out of the long night bends If we ally with enemies They had to ask We will be deceived Who are our enemies who are our friends? V THE SHANGHAI MASSACRE If we ally with enemies Before Chiang began to plan for the time ahead We will be deceived When his army could shoot all of these reds dead When we put our guard down Meanwhile they had good spirit and style We'll be shot to the ground. An ability to reach the masses of people he'd need If his plans for total rule were to succeed. Shanghai 1927 workers picketing Shot to death by Chiang Kai-shek In 1927 armed workers liberate Shanghai and Nanking Raise their fists defiantly Chiang marching North, seeing the strength of the Party Martyrs fighting to be free. He breaks the united front Communists not warlords bear the brutal brunt In the twenties an alliance or united front was formed U.S. British Japanese French warships shell Nanking Between the Communist Party Killing and wounding 2000 people And the Kuomintang Party of Chiang Strikers and Communists in many cities killed by Chiang On the surface it was agreed to merge forces Many thousands of revolutionaries massacred. To overthrow the warlords who ruled different parts Of a poor and disunited China. Near Nanking today is a place named Yu Hua Tai Where thousands of Communists killed by Chiang lie Chiang talked about democracy An exhibit with personal effects of some of those killed But it didn't take too long to see Notebooks of jr high and high school students That he was into money power and prestige The gentle face in photograph of a young woman teacher Cooperation with foreign powers. And there are pine trees on the rolling hills From the start did not have the people at heart There stands large monument to martyrs of the revolution In addition he was shrewd and cruel Pine trees rolling hills and all over the ground He did not want to serve, he wanted to rule. Beautiful red agates are found And the voice of the guide with anger is filled So in this alliance with the Communists As he says that the stones The ink hardly dry the solemn words said Are bathed in the blood of those who were killed. VI AUTUMN HARVEST UPRISING Bloody terror takes many lives Rising in rebellion The Party tries to turn the tide Winding By launching premature armed uprisings in the cities Through the countryside These failed but in defeat some eyes were opened wide First flames of what was to become Saw they had failed to grasp the meaning of the countryside. The prairie fire of agrarian revolution Struggle mounting higher Ninety percent of the people of China A single spark can light a prairie fire. Lived in the country Almost all of them Mao prophesied: Poor and oppressed peasantry.