University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 12-2014 The formation of a sacred political site : the birthplace of Mao Zedong at Shaoshan Zhe Dong 1988- University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Architectural History and Criticism Commons, Asian Art and Architecture Commons, Asian History Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, and the Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons Recommended Citation Dong, Zhe 1988-, "The formation of a sacred political site : the birthplace of Mao Zedong at Shaoshan" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1716. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1716 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE FORMATION OF A SACRED POLITICAL SITE: THE BIRTHPLACE OF MAO ZEDONG AT SHAOSHAN By Zhe Dong B.A., Tianjin University, 2012 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Fine Arts University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky December 2014 Copyright 2014 by Zhe Dong All rights reserved THE FORMATION OF A SACRED POLITICAL SITE: THE BIRTHPLACE OF MAO ZEDONG AT SHAOSHAN By Zhe Dong B.A., Tianjin University, 2012 A Thesis Approved on November 25, 2014 by the following Thesis Committee: Delin Lai Thesis Director Benjamin Hufbauer Second Committee Member Christopher Fulton Third Committee Member Shawn Parkhurst Fourth Committee Member ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Delin Lai, for his patient mentoring and guidance, which have been of great value in my exploration of the academia and completing my M.A. program. I would also like to thank other committee members, Dr. Benjamin Hufbauer, Dr. Christopher Fulton, and Dr. Shawn Parkhurst, for their assistance and understanding over the past years. I am grateful for the help from many other scholars, including Zhang Xi, Huang Yuling, Cai Dedao, Eileen Yanoviak, Tracey Eckersley, Jonathan Lippman, for their valuable help during my education. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to Chiayun Chiang who accompanied me over these years in Louisville. I proffer my greatest appreciation to my parents, Chen Li and Dong Yunzhan, for their endless love and support. iii ABSTRACT THE FORMATION OF A SACRED POLITICAL SITE: THE BIRTHPLACE OF MAO ZEDONG AT SHAOSHAN Zhe Dong November 25, 2014 Between 1949 and 1966, Mao Zedong’s cult of personality swelled into a kind of secular religion in China, and his birthplace, the remote village of Shaoshan, became a sacred site and a signal representative of national commemorative culture. This study rediscovers Shaoshan’s memorial projects undertaken during this period and explores how they embody the complex interplay between art/architecture and politics and the artistic tensions between rural and urban settings in post-Revolutionary China. The text focuses on four endeavors: the historic preservation of Mao’s Old House; the urban renovation plans advanced during the Great Leap Forward; the Exhibition Pavilion constructed by Guangdong architects in 1964; and the Socialist Realist landscape paintings of Shaoshan. Beyond illustrating the development of a distinct rural aesthetic, these works offer a window into the codification of Chinese communist ideology and the ritualized worship practices reflected in and enacted by much art of the era. Ultimately, the study aims to inspire more interdisciplinary study on Shaoshan specifically and, given the site’s significance, to achieve a more iv complete understanding of Chinese art and architecture overall. v TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………................................................................................iii ABSTRACT……….....................................................................................................iv LIST OF FIGURES……............................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I: MAO’S CODIFICATION OF CHINESE COMMUNISM AND THE RURAL IDENTITY OF SHAOSHAN..........................................................................6 Shaoshan and Mao’s Family: A Dual Rural Heritage.............................................6 Mao’s Early Life and Living Environment.............................................................8 Mao’s Revolutionary Career and His “Sinification of Marxism”.........................10 Mao’s Touchstones: The Peasantized Revolution and the Rural Identity of Shaoshan……………………………………..…………...……………………..13 “To Shaoshan”.......................................................................................................17 CHAPTER II: MAO’S OLD HOUSE: THE MATERIAL CORE OF SHAOSHAN……………………………………..…………………………………..21 Mao’s Old House in Shaoshan Before and Around 1950.....................................22 The “Authentic” Restoration of Mao’s House......................................................24 Building a Discourse: Tour Guide, Exhibition, and Museum...............................27 Mao’s House as a Spatial Memorial......................................................................28 CHAPTER III: COSMOPOLITANISM VS RURAL IDENTITY: URBAN PLANNING DURING THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD...........................................34 An Agreement between Zhang Pinghua and Tao Zhu...........................................36 Two Urban Plans: Jin Zeguang and the Shaoshan Administration.......................40 vi Option A: Monumental Forms from the Cosmopolitan Style in Beijing..............45 Option B: The Rural Identity, the Local Memorial Core in Shaoshan..................49 CHAPTER IV: THE COSMOPOLITAN TRANSFORMATION OF SHAOSHAN: BUILDING THE EXHIBITION PAVILION IN 1964.................................................55 Circumstance and Perseverance: A Reconsideration of the Memorial Offering in 1963.......................................................................................................................57 Tao’s “Three Ought To” Principle.........................................................................58 Explaining Tao’s Garden Layout...........................................................................61 The Exhibition Pavilion of Comrade Mao Zedong’s Old House..........................67 The Title and the Exhibition of the Exhibition Pavilion.......................................71 A Milestone in Mao’s Cult of Personality.............................................................74 CHAPTER V: THE VISUALIZATION OF RURAL IDENTITY: THE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS OF SHAOSHAN....................................................................................78 Li Xiongcai’s Naturalism…………......................................................................78 Fu Baoshi’s Shaoshan Scroll: A Pastoral Homeland.............................................79 Socialist Realist Guidelines in Mid-20th Century China......................................83 The Poetic Paintings of ‘To Shaoshan’: A Revolutionized Community...............86 The Integration of the Revolutionized Community and the Pastoral Homelan....88 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................94 ILLUSTRATION…………………………………………...……………….........…101 REFERENCES...........................................................................................................149 CURRICULUM VITA………...................................................................................164 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Tourist map of Shaoshan village…………………………………….………101 (1) 2. Location of Shaoshan village………………………………………………..102 (7) 3. Overview of Mao’s house…………………………………………………...102 (8) 4. Plan of Mao’s farmhouse…………………………………………...…….....103 (8) 5. Facade of Mao’s house……………………………………………….……..103 (9) 6. Interior of Mao’s parents’ room……………………………………………..104 (9) 7. Nan’an Sishu………………………………………………………………...104 (9) 8. Mao’s Ancestral Temple…………………………………………………….105 (9) 9. Expansion of Mao’s house in 1910………………………………………...105 (23) 10. MAO Zedong, “Guanyu liji tingzhi zai shaoshan wei maozedong jianfang gei huangkecheng deng de xin”, [Letter to Huang Kecheng to stop building a house for Mao Zedong in Shaoshan] ………………...……………………..……106 (23) 11. Some of the revolutionary relics collected in Shaoshan...…………………107 (27) 12. Young Mao’s portrait in the Shaoshan Album………….…………………107 (31) 13. Next plate in Shaoshan: Ariel view of Mao’s old house…..………………109 (31) 14. Next plate: A closer photograph of Mao’s house…………..………………109 (31) 15. Next plate: The front door of the house……………………...…………… 109 (31) 16. Following plates: the central hall and other rooms of the house…..………109 (31) viii 17. Kitchen of Mao’s house as shown in Shaoshan……………………………….110 (32) 18. Farm where Mao dried rice as shown in Shaoshan………………………...…111 (32) 19. People arriving at Shaoshan Railway Station and marching to Mao’s house……………………………………………………………………….112 (32) 20. Kitchen