/edu/ - Education

Another newfag thread. Interact with accordingly.

Their is, unsurprisingly, a large contingent of the worlds population, still hinging on old Red Scare propaganda, that are convinced of many lies about the relationship between socialism and artistic freedom. Too them, socialists are violent fearmongers who will, at the first chance given, desecrate art, destroy art, and attempt to lead a truly bleak life. One confined purely to the factory or work, where 'labor' is everything, where the individuality of life is wiped out in an instant. Of course, we all understand here that capitalism is the force that sucks up our individuality in favor of making productive workers. Art is not something that can be usually seriously pursued: gone are the days when feudal lords used to commission artists for year long paintings, sculptures, and portraits. We live in an atomized society.

That's not the point. What is the point is that to decide that socialism and art are inherently polar and incompatible is a brainwashed way of thinking. This is most often applied, arguably, to our conceptions of the Cultural Revolution in China. We all have heard about the four olds: Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits. And people who have even a surface level understanding hear alot about the destruction of cultural heritage during the 10 year period. Modern China even refers to the Cultural Revolution as "Shi nian haoji". "Shi nian" means 10 years, referring to the period of which the Cultural Revolution is generally regarded as lasting. "Haoji" is ambiguous, but generally can refer to the term "holocaust" in modern settings: destruction by fire. Images of a human horde (orientalist hogwash) destroying valuable historical pieces of art come to mind and are used today in the US to scare conservatives over the spectre of vague 'modern art'.

The accusation of destruction of culture and tradition during those 10 years, which i'll be examining, is incredibly overblown in face of the massive artistic achievements and leaps in cultural creativity during the event. An excerpt from "The Battle For Chinas Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution", page 28.

>Take the example of the fine arts. During the Cultural Revolution years of 1972 to 1975 China held four national fine arts exhibitions, with more than 2,000 pieces of art selected from 12,800 works recommended from all over China. The exhibits in Beijing attracted an audience of 7.8 million, a scale never reached before the Cultural Revolution (Lu Hong 2002). According to Lu, the four exhibitions showed three characteristics: new ideological content, new subject matters, and a rise of amateur artists (65 per cent of exhibited works were created by amateur's). These artworks included oil paintings, Chinese traditional paintings, print paintings, sculpture, Spring Festival paintings (nian hua), picture storybook paintings (lianhuan hua), charcoal drawings, watercolours and paper cuts.

This even extends to literature. From that same page:

>Another myth created and accepted, at least by non-academic community, in the west is that during the Cultural Revolution people were forbidden to read anything except Mao's little Red Book. This portrayal of China as a cultural wasteland is absolutely false. By 1976 there were 542 official magazines and journals and 182 newspapers in circulation throughout China; the number of cinemas and film units had increased from 20,363 to 86,088 in 1976; public libraries, from 577 to 768; and museums, from 214 to 263 (Qiu Deshend et al. 1993).

An excerpt from Mao's conversations with his niece:

>Hai-jung: But there is the son of a cadre who doesn’t do well. In class he doesn’t listen attentively to the teacher’s lecture and after class, he doesn’t do homework. He likes to read fiction. Sometimes he dozes off in the dormitory and sometimes he doesn’t attend the Saturday afternoon meeting. On Sunday he doesn’t return to school on time. Sometimes on Sunday when our class and section hold a meeting, he doesn’t show up. All of us have a bad impression of him.

>Chairman: Do your teachers allow the students to take a nap or read fiction in class?

>We should let the students read fiction and take a nap in class, and we should look after their health. Teachers should lecture less and make the students read more. I believe the student you referred to will be very capable in the future since he had the courage to be absent from the Saturday meeting and not to return to school on time on Sunday. When you return to school, you may tell him that it is too early to return to school even at eight or nine in the evening, he may delay it until eleven or twelve. Whose fault is it that you should hold a meeting Sunday night?