{"id":572,"date":"2016-12-05T16:27:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T16:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/?p=572"},"modified":"2025-02-24T17:56:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T22:56:57","slug":"reading-revolution-art-and-literacy-during-chinas-cultural-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2016\/12\/05\/reading-revolution-art-and-literacy-during-chinas-cultural-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Revolution: Art and Literacy During China\u2019s Cultural Revolution."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Reading Revolution: Art and Literacy During China\u2019s Cultural Revolution.<\/h1>\n\n
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Joshua McEvilla<\/a><\/div>\n\n
in <\/span>Exhibition review<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Zhou Ruizhuang \u5468\u745e\u5e84 (1930\u2013 ).\u00a0A Lifetime of Revolution, a Lifetime of Studying the Works of Chairman Mao (\u5e72\u4e00\u8f88\u5b50\u9769\u547d, \u8bfb\u4e00\u8f88\u5b50\u6bdb\u4e3b\u5e2d\u4e66). Shanghai: Shanghai People\u2019s Fine Arts Publishing House, January 1966 (Seventh Printing).<\/figcaption><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Reading Revolution: Art and Literacy During China\u2019s Cultural Revolution<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

21 June\u201330 September, 2016.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The exhibition Reading Revolution: Art and Literacy During China\u2019s Cultural Revolution<\/em>, on display at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library from 21 June to 30 September 2016, curated by University of Toronto Associate Professor of Chinese & East Asian Art Jennifer Purtle and Elizabeth Ridolfo, Special Project Librarian of the Thomas Fisher Library, accompanied by a lush, colour catalogue, with descriptions of 50 of the unprecedented 217 objects<\/a>, is well-timed and wide-ranging, a glorious celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966\u20131969), and a testament to the variety of books, posters, audio recordings, and objects generously donated to the University by Mark Gayn<\/a> (1909\u20131981) and his wife Susan (b<\/em>. 1921).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition and catalogue, prepared collaboratively by Purtle and Ridolfo, proceed intriguingly by advancing the hypothesis that the unique brand of anti-Revisionist Marxism-Leninism espoused in the People\u2019s Republic of China under the leadership of the late Chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung (1893\u20131976), had a global effect on literacy, the likes of which are difficult to perceive among members of English-speaking nations. Beginning with a case of copies of different early printings of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung<\/em> (1966, first Chinese edition; first, second<\/a>, and third printings), which correlates with a catalogue essay written by Purtle on the rapid growth of literacy in China that took place over the latter half of the twentieth century, the curators point to a remarkable reality that few generalists outside of East Asian studies are likely to know: Chinese languages are logographic, in that the symbols of a script-character \u201crepresent meaning rather than sound\u201d (17); as such, the \u201ccorrelation of sound and meaning must be learned by rote,\u201d a practice naturally fitting to the didactic ideals of a communist nation, where all \u201cpeasants, workers, and soldiers\u201d must learn to live in accordance with the governing classes\u2019 vision of a better life for all \u2013 they must see, learn, and act on a unified message (17-19). This is exactly what Mao\u2019s Quotations<\/em> serves to achieve, they argue, with its 427 quotations in 33 topical chapters \u2013 pithy expressions, slogans, maxims lifted from Mao\u2019s denser and more full-bodied collected works \u2013 having an aphoristic quality, to be imprinted on the quotidian doings of China\u2019s post-Confucian official class literate culture: each citizen of the new republic owns a \u201ctalisman of literacy,\u201d and around the simple sayings of this \u2018Little Red Book\u2019 (so called because of its red-vinyl wrapper) evolves a visual system of aide-m\u00e9moire<\/em> for beginner readers \u2013 graphic art with words, not banners (22) \u2013 crystalizing the expressed principles of any one of the Chairman\u2019s policy endorsements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the exhibition and catalogue are most effective is in their expression of cultural convergences, their integration of mixed-media, and their discussion of a wide range of literary and textual artifacts together, making a genuine bid for the value of LAM management<\/a>. In tracing Gayn\u2019s background as a Russian Jew born Mark Julius Ginsbourg in Barim, a \u201csmall town near the Manchurian-Mongolian border,\u201d Ridolfo comments on how Gayn found his calling for journalism \u201cwhile reading a Russian style wall newspaper\u201d \u2013 this is a very clever connection in light of Gayn\u2019s later habits poster-collecting (8). Ridolfo notes that Gayn \u201cconducted an extensive interview with [Mao Tse-tung] lasting 10 hours, with only a short break for lunch,\u201d conveying much about early CPC privilege for foreign journalists, the Party\u2019s commendable willingness to communicate openly (9). \u2018Living Newspapers\u2019 receive some minor coverage, with the exhibition and catalogue including photographic images taken by Gayn and his wife previously uploaded to the Fisher Library\u2019s Flickr account<\/a> (44; links: 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>). North American scholars would probably associate the \u2018living newspaper\u2019 movement with 1930s America, before the spread of cinematic news reels (e.g., the Federal Theatre Project\u2019s Triple-A Plowed Under<\/em> [1936]); but, through Gayn, it is clear that such performative news drama outlasted film to the late 1960s. Most visually striking of the cultural analogues, Well Pressed: Some Thoughts on Visiting the 12,000 Ton Hydraulic Press<\/em><\/a> (February, 1966), a poster by China\u2019s foremost cartoonist of the twentieth-century, Zhang Leping (1910-1992), depicts American President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908\u20131973) with the visual features of Sanmao<\/em><\/a> (tr. \u201cThree Hairs\u201d), a cartoon of a small, starving child, about to be crushed by the competing forces of North and South Vietnam, figured by the platen and coffin of the press. The visual implication of aligning U.S. with Japanese interests, playing upon the satirical use of Sanmao from the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), is very shrewd, justifying the curators\u2019 one-off selection of a poster with no pr\u00e9cis text regurgitated from Mao\u2019s Quotations<\/em>. And of course legendary Canadian physician, and alumnus of University of Toronto, Norman Bethune (1890-1939), devotee to Maoist teachings of self-sacrifice for the greater good, gets a case all to himself (case 5; see Mao\u2019s essay \u201cIn Memory of Norman Bethune\u201d [1939], reprinted here<\/a>, 337\u2013384).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hard for me to stress enough the significant innovative work done by Purtle and Ridolfo and Fisher Library Staff for reaching out to new and repeat library patrons, both for how they have chosen to distribute parts of the exhibition and what they have chosen to include. For example, the exhibition contains posters done in woodblock printing \u2013 both monochrome and multicolour \u2013 images painted in gouache, in the Social Realist style<\/a>, personal photographs, cups, games<\/a>, toys, pins, and badges<\/a>, many collected by Gayn during his visits to China in 1965, 1967, and 1971 (10), when the social and cultural upheavals of revolution were greatest, items that \u201chave never been shown, and are now scarce both in and outside of China\u201d (6). Most striking, this \u201csharp-eyed chronicler\u201d was so open minded as to admit into his purview fragile, traditionalist papercuts, from which the exhibition and catalogue\u2019s main graphic is derived (Worker, Peasant, and Soldier with Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung<\/em><\/a> [c<\/em>. 1968]) and a tiny but realistically featured machine gun wind-up toy, a gift to any student fascinated by gender discourse, the role of homeland defence in rural life, and the identity signifiers of activist guerilla fighting (\u201cGirl Gunner Doll, wind-up toy<\/a>\u201d [c<\/em>. 1967]).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In several respects, Purtle and Ridolfo have triumphed masterfully, in bringing their chosen subject of interest outside the walls of the library, in winning over new patrons and engaging new target audiences. Apparently originating in part from an advanced fourth-year seminar class led by Purtle, \u201cExhibiting China\u201d (FAH465H1), Reading Revolution<\/em> has won interest among students (106). Complemented by Justin G. Shiller\u2019s lecture, \u2018A Revolution is not a Dinner Party\u2019: The Challenges of Collecting Mao<\/em><\/a>, the 2016 John Seltzer and Mark Seltzer Memorial Lecture for the Friends of the Fisher, the exhibition has gained currency among collectors and donors. Truly advancing the university\u2019s mission for exploring the Marshall McLuhan-derived concept of \u2018city as classroom,\u2019 Reading Revolution<\/em> accompanies a thrilling audio guide, downloadable from SoundCloud<\/a>, letting interested parties listen to songs of the revolution even after library hours \u2013 one melody, \u201cThe East is Red,\u201d is dangerously catchy (track 7, here<\/a>). A large number of Gayn\u2019s collected posters and postcards<\/a>, his woodblock prints and papercuts \u2013 his memorabilia keying us into the obstacles and triumphs of perhaps the largest cultural turning point of political thought from the twentieth century \u2013 are freely downloadable, in surrogate, most outside copyright, through Flickr (papercuts<\/a>, posters<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be sure to drop by the Thomas Fisher Library to examine the items of the Gayn collection. Otherwise, see them online<\/a> or listen<\/a> to them. Fifty years on from the Chinese Cultural Revolution many still look new, and the others embody a meaningful nostalgia, palpable to anyone aware of and sensitive to the items\u2019 place in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhibition and Catalogue by Jennifer Purtle and Elizabeth Ridolfo, with the contribution of Stephen Qiao. Toronto: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (Printed by Coach House Press), 2016. 114p., ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua McEvilla
<\/em>Toronto, Ontario<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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