Abstract
In his “Talks at the Yan’an Forum for Art and Literature,” and again in “Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing,” Mao Zedong admonished authors and artists to make their works accessible to the common people. Only by making their works entertaining, he argued, could they fulfill the goal of educating the populace. Artists, authors, and filmmakers heeded this advice to differing degrees throughout the early Maoist period, with frequent variance in the degree to which political messages subsumed the entertainment value of texts. For a brief period in the years between the Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957–58) and the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966), filmmakers pushed the entertainment aspects of cinema, which was seen as the most important weapon in the arsenal of people’s literature. Film was an exemplary mass form, primarily because of its accessibility to people who were illiterate. As early as the popularization debates of the 1930s critic, Mai Keang advocated the use of film for the promulgation of progressive ideology: “Film is our most important technique; we should especially pay attention to it.”1 After the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the potential of film was frequently hailed; this quote from a 1959 article in The Literary Gazette is a typical example: “A good narrative film will reach an audience of millions in a short time …
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Notes
See Mai Keang, “Puluo wenyi de dazhonghua” (The popularization of proletarian arts), in Zhongguo xin wenxue daxi, 1927–1937 (Anthology of modern Chinese literature, 1927–1937) (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1987), 310.
See Huang Lian, “Dianying wenxue de xunsu fazhan” (The rapid development of film literature), Wenyi bao (The Literary Gazette) 19–20 (1959): 56.
See Tina Mai Chen, “Propagating the Propaganda Film: The Meaning of Film in Chinese Communist Party Writings, 1949–1965,” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 15, no. 2 (2003): 155.
For film audience statistics, see Zhang Yingjin, Chinese National Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2004), 192 and 201.
See Paul Clark, Chinese Cinema: Culture and Politics since 1949 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 83.
See Cheng Guangwei, Wenxue xiangxiang yu wenxue guojia—Zhongguo dangdai wenxue yanjiu (1949–79) (Literary imagination and literary nation—Research on Chinese contemporary literature, 1949–1976) (Kaifeng: Henan daxue chubanshe, 2005), 3.
In his study of film in the PRC, Paul Clark describes one of the characteristics of film as the divide between the Yan’an and Shanghai filmmaking traditions: “Chinese cultural history since 1949, and filmmaking as a major part of this history, has been dominated by three themes: the expansion of mass national culture, relations among Party, artists, and audiences, and tensions between Yan’an and Shanghai.” See Paul Clark, Chinese Cinema: Culture and Politics since 1949 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 2.
Cai Chusheng, “A Conference on Today’s My Day Off, Opening Remarks,” Dianying yishu 4 (June 1960): 34.
See Birgit Beumers, “Soviet and Russian Blockbusters: A Question of Genre?,” Slavic Review 62, no. 3 (Autumn 2003): 445.
Lü Ban’s Before the New Director Arrives is one, for a discussion of this film see Paul Clark, “Two Hundred Flowers on China’s Screens,” in Chris Berry, ed., Perspectives on Chinese Cinema (London: British Film Institute, 1991), 46–49.
For a short discussion on the history of comedies in the seventeen years period, see Han Wei and Chen Xiaoyun, Xin Zhongguo dianying shihua (Chinese film since 1949) (Hangzhou: Zhejiang Daxue Chubanshe, 2003), 52–55.
While Zhou Enlai’s speech was influential because of the large audience present at the time, it was not published until 1979, in Film Art. The publication of the speech at the beginning of the Reform period had a similar result, with the production of a number of light comedies that functioned under the same general aesthetic principles as the comedies of the seventeen years. See Zhou Enlai, “Zai wenyi gongzuo zuotanhui he gushipian chuangzuo huiyi shang de jianghua (A Speech to the joint meetings of literary and art workers and the committee for the creation of narrative films),” Dianying yishu (Film Art) 1 (1979): 1–14.
Ma Shaobo, “Gesong guangming de xijupian de chuangju” (In praise of the creation of a bright comedy), Dianying yishu 4 (1960): 35.
Li Jianwu, “Meige shidai, meige jieji dui xiju dou you ta ziji de yaoqiu” (Every age, every class, has its own demands for drama), Dianying yishu 4 (1960): 37.
See Wan Chuanfa, “Shiqi nian dianying zhong de xijupian yangshi qianshu” (A brief discussion of the form of comedy in films of the seventeen years),” Dianying chuangzuo 4 (2000): 49–52.
Tian Han, “Zhiyou ruqing ruli, xijuxing cai hui qianglie” (Comedy will only be strong if it is reasonable), Dianying yishu 4 (1960): 35.
Feng Mu, “Xiang shenghuo yiyang fengfu, xiju chongtu de duozhong duoyang de” (As rich as life, the many forms of dramatic conflict), Dianying yishu 4 (1960): 38.
See Bing Xin, “Xin Shanghai, xin shenghuo, xin fengshang” (A new Shanghai, a new life, and a new vogue), Dianying yishu 4 (1960): 39–40.
Chen Mo, “Xiju xin pinzhong de yi dui jiemei hua” (A pair of sisters in the form of new comedy), Dianying yishu 4 (1960): 40.
See Krista Van Fleit Hang, “Zhong Xinghuo: Communist Film Worker,” in Zhang Yingjin and Mary Farquhar, eds., Chinese Film Stars (London: Routledge, 2010).
See Xie Qin, “Pushi, jiankangde dailaile shidai de xiaosheng” (Simply and healthily bringing in the laughter of the age), Dianying yishu 4 (1960): 42. The critics think the name is so funny because not only is it a humorous pun, but also the gender of the person who has this name is assumed to be female.
See Zhong Xueping, Masculinity Besieged? Issues of Modernity and Male Subjectivity in Chinese Literature of the Late Twentieth Century (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000), 45.
See Susan Brownell, Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People’s Republic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 46.
See Wang Yiman, “Crows and Sparrows: Allegory on a Historical Threshold,” in Chris Berry, ed., Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes (London: British Film Institute, 2003), 65–71.
He Hanwu, “Buxu wumie Da Yuejin” (Nobody can slander the Great Leap Forward), Dazhong dianying 6 (1966): 35.
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© 2013 Krista Van Fleit Hang
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Van Fleit Hang, K. (2013). Educational Laughter: Urban Cinema and Community Formation. In: Literature the People Love. Chinese Literature and Culture in the World. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137363220_5
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