A continuous revolution : making sense of Cultural Revolution culture /

Cultural Revolution Culture is often denigrated as mere propaganda. Yet it was not only liked in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. This book sets out to explain this legacy. By considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art, including music, stage works, prints and posters, comics and li...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mittler, Barbara, 1968-
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Asia Center : 2012.
Series:Harvard East Asian monographs ; 343.
Subjects:
Description
Summary:Cultural Revolution Culture is often denigrated as mere propaganda. Yet it was not only liked in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. This book sets out to explain this legacy. By considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art, including music, stage works, prints and posters, comics and literature, from the point of view of its longue durée, Barbara Mittler suggests that it was able to build on a tradition of earlier art works. This in turn allowed for its sedimentation in cultural memory and its proliferation in contemporary China. Taking the aesthetic experience of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) as her base, Mittler combines close readings and analyses of cultural products from the period with insights gained from a series of personal interviews conducted in the early 2000s with Chinese from diverse class and generational backgrounds. By including testimony from these original voices, Mittler illustrates the extremely multifaceted and contradictory nature of the Cultural Revolution in artistic production and as cultural experience.
Physical Description:xvi, 486 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages [398]-436) and indexes.
ISBN:9780674065819
0674065816