Staging Chinese Revolution: Theater, Film, and the Afterlives of Propaganda by Xiaomei Chen (review)

It is almost unfathomable – for many western-educated readers like myself – to understand the everlasting fascination and even obsession with Chinese propaganda literature and drama throughout the history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) (1949–). Such fervour has not died down at all in the new millennium, when China has transformed into a “postsocialist state with ‘capitalist characteristics’” (1). The ostensibly very limited scope of topics on the revolutionary history and heroes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can easily make this genre appear as the trite product of censorship and authoritarian suppression, with very little aesthetic appeal for people out-side its specific political mindset and time frame. However, Xiaomei Chen’s Staging Chinese Revolution: Theater, Film, and the Afterlives of Propaganda challenges such dismissive attitudes and offers a thorough study of the subtlety and dynamics of revolutionary propaganda in the performing arts, which include songs, modern spoken dramas, traditional operas, films, television, and documentaries. Chen argues that “visionary revolutionary leaders and creative theater and film artists share a dialectical and paradoxical relationship in staging revisionist histories of modern China, both on and off the theater stage and the silver screen” (13). She implores all historical agents – from writers and performers to audiences and critics – to negotiate their relations with both the present and the past; without understanding such performance culture in modern China, “[w]e will miss an important piece of history” (13).

The conventional model of a “five-generation” lineage of Chinese communist leadership starts with Mao Zedong; continues with Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao; and ends with the current leader Xi Jinping. Focusing on performances and performative CCP narratives, Chen takes a different approach: Chen Duxiu, who inspired and educated Mao and his colleagues and died before the founding of the PRC, is regarded as the first generation; the founding father, Mao Zedong, is seen as the second generation; and Deng Xiaoping, the third (14). In the first three chapters, Xiaomei Chen offers detailed analyses of the biographies, official narratives, and creative works about these three CCP leaders, as well as interpretations of the countless dramatic reinventions of the original narratives. Chen Duxiu’s early revolutionary thought on theatre – that it should function as “a grand university to educate all people” and that opera actors and dramatists should serve as “great university teachers” (14) – has greatly influenced the path for artistic development under CCP policy from the very beginning. In chapter one, performances of “The East Is Red,” one of the most popular patriotic tunes and the de facto national anthem during the Cultural Revolution, are used as a point of entry to analyse the complicated revisions of CCP narrative history and the post-Mao reconstruction of the character of Chen Duxiu. Xiaomei Chen’s own childhood memory helps readers gain perspectives on the performative affect of such propaganda.

Chapter two focuses on Mao Zedong and works about him. Mao’s “Long March,” a famous poem written in 1935, is the classic that has been incorporated and reinvented in many artistic forms, such as the popular choral piece “The Songs of the Long March: The Red Army Fears Not the Trials of the Long March” by Xiao Hua in 1965. Through examining the glorification of the premiere of Xiao’s work, the condemnation of the piece during the Cultural Revolution, and the redemption granted by Deng Xiaoping in 1975, Chen demonstrates the capricious state of red art: even “the reddest of the red culture” can be denounced as “black art” and cause the downfall of people associated with it (103). On the other hand, Chen stresses the nostalgia and personal sentimental association with such political art, as the emotional connection goes beyond erratic national policies.

The third chapter concerns Deng Xiaoping, the economic reformist who reopened China to the world. By discussing the classic song “The Story of Spring” and...