I- What is Chinese Revolutionary Art ?

We chose to focus on the historic period from 1949 to 1976 also called the “Mao era” – it begins with the fundation of the People’s Republic of China and ends at the death of Mao.

We are aware that revolutionnary art is previous to 1949. Yet, it is with the PRC that those arts will be at their peak. Nevertheless, it could occure, in this project, that some works of art anterior to that specific period be used as simple exemples.

A) What is Chinese revolutionary art ?

A Definition

Mao quoting Lenin: “art should be a cog in the wheel of revolution”.

Chinese Revolutionary art is used as a tool, by the Chinese Communist Parti, to promote their socialist ideology. Thus, one can say that Chinese revolutionary art is an art of propaganda.

What is “revolutionary” in this art is the content ( message promoting the red revolution), not the form.

Indeed, the form used in those arts is often very simple. In a way, this islogical.The revolutionary artists want to spread their messages to a maximum of people, often poorly educated. Their works cannot be abstract or “d’avant-garde”, which is elitist. They have to use an art that people are familiar with and clearly understandable.

This conception of art have sometimes been criticized. Indeed, a more established way to evaluate art do not recognize this revolutionnary art.

Intellectuals of the western world consider that the form of a work of art should be innovating, surprising or even better, revolutionary. The content however is not necessarily striking. It can be. For instance when the artist is involved in a cause. But the value of a work of art is not determined by its message. Beauty is in the form not the message.

Beside, those intellectual consider aesthetic as independent from politics. Art should not be used by politicians.

But this is not the Mao’s conception of art. In his influential Yanan talk on “Literature and Art” he assumes that Art & Politics are always influencing each other. Indeed, the criteriums to evaluate Art are always the product of a social class. Each social class has its own artictic imaginary which influence the way they perceive and enjoy art.

Consequently, from the beginning art & politics would be interdependent. A “pure” aesthetism unconcerned by all the wordly influences is only theoretical.

One also should note that the chinese revolutionary art is a little red revolution in itself. Indeed, those productions were mainly created by the people themselves and not only by the artists. This is a democratization of the art, previously in China the priviledge of the educated elite. The creation process of revolutionary art erase the differences between the social classes. That is revolutionary.