Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China

This study of the origins of the Chinese Communist Party's cultural policy and the development of the Chinese model of cultural modernization traces the development of Marxist literary theory in China and its application to the problems of propagandizing a mass audience of illiterate peasants. The author looks in particular at the transformation of the folk dance and folk play in the Party's base areas during the 1940s. During this period, the CCP launched a series of mass campaigns in the arts designed to bring the benefits of the new culture to the peasantry, and to weld society in the base areas of North China into a cohesive political force. A key feature of these artistic movements was the way in which the Party sought to transform the traditional performing arts. While only partly successful artistically, these developments contributed to the Communists' propaganda victory in the Civil War and paved the way for their nationwide drive for cultural popularization after 1949.Table of ContentIntroduction: Part I: The Development of a CCP Cultural Policy: CCP art and propaganda before 1937; The dilemmas of national form; Rectification; Part II: Yangge: A New Model Genre: Yangge and the Communist Party before 1943; The peasants' own Yangge; New Yangge: The Lu Xun Academy's Pilog Project; High tide: The Yangge movement in Yan'an; Transforming the repertoire of the folk dance and folk play; Conclusion: Yangge, the party, and the mandate of heaven; Appendix: Yangge troupes active in Yan'an, Spring 1944; Bibliography; Index