Our purpose is to ensure that literature and art fit well into the
whole revolutionary machine as a component part, that they operate as
powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for
attacking and destroying the enemy, and that they help the people fight
the enemy with one heart and one mind.
- Mao Zedong, Talks at the Yenan Forum
on Literature and Art, 1942
Modern popular culture is produced by the convergence of two phenomena: popular entertainment and mass consciousness. Although prior to the past decade the two had not been fully combined, Chinese cultural history evidences a rich tradition of both factors. In Imperial China, all strata of society - urban and rural, upper and lower class, literate and uneducated - had their own popular forms of drama, music, and literature. Newspapers, the earliest form of mass communication, in China predate even the printing press. Although the Communist Party eliminated or altered beyond recognition most traditional cultures, it nevertheless utilized the cultural and communication foundation of the past in its manipulation of mass media to create common revolutionary consciousness. The popular culture of modern China has drawn from the cultural and technological from both legacies.
Traditional Chinese culture contained a wide array of genres and styles for artistic expression and entertainment at all class levels. Forms such as calligraphy, painting and poetry have been pursued by wealthy and educated families for centuries. China developed its own musical instruments and styles. In various rural China, local folksongs were developed, and traveling storytellers provided both entertainment and news from other regions. Musical drama figures as one of the oldest and widespread forms of popular entertainment in China. Despite the existence of some universal standardization of plot and style, traditional drama varied greatly between region and according to the social class of their audience. Almost every city and region in China established its own form of musical drama. Classical Beijing Opera was and remains the most famous form of Chinese opera, but numerous other well know styles also existed. Beijing Opera was considered the highest form of Chinese opera and used standard Mandarin, rather than regional dialects. Although local forms of musical drama date back much further, Beijing Opera originated in the Tang Dynasty, during the rule of Emperor Ming (712-755 A.D.). It further evolved into its final, formal incarnation under the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). (7)
The audience for classical opera was predominantly urban and upper-class. Stylistically, Beijing Opera relies on the use of symbolism to convey meaning. Props are minimalist, limited to a few items on an almost bare stage. Much of the action is thus pantomime, suggesting the items used by the characters. Detailed make-up differentiates the characters. The costumes are very ornate, usually made of finely embroidered silk. Since it evolved under Imperial tutelage, the themes in classical opera tend to be conservative, often involving historical and particularly military events. (8) The regional operas varied somewhat from the Beijing style. Distinctions developed in language and style, although the writers and performers from disparate parts of China had surprisingly high levels of interaction, and the different styles contributed to and borrowed from each other. (9)
Beijing and regional styles of musical drama originated from popular, local dramas performed in rural areas for both upper and lower classes. Local drama was explained by Tanaka Issei (1985) as being divided into three types, differentiated by organization, audience, and content. The structure of local drama in Imperial China reflected the continuing paradox of all forms of popular culture: the dual nature of seeming to be simultaneously both "top-down", that is created by elites to control and manipulate the populace, and "bottom-up", created by and for the tastes and sensibilities of the commoners and influencing the tastes and tactics of the elite.
The rural dramas that most resembled the "high" opera of the cities were those organized by relatively wealthy lineage and kinship groups, and normally attended by poorer relations, neighbors, and clients. These plays were organized during annual rituals held in the family ancestral hall, as well as to commemorate events such as births, deaths, marriages, success in the Imperial examinations, the coming of age of sons, and so forth. Rural land-owning families typically employed the highest quality of performance troupes. They usually imported from the cities very technically skilled professionals. Performers at this level only rarely left the large urban centers, where they were patronized by wealthy families, merchants and officials. (10)
A middle level, controlled predominantly but not exclusively by village leaders and land-owning families, dominated in small, relatively isolated villages. Performances were arranged at the time of village meetings and assemblies at local temples, when laws were determined and agreements over such things as use of common properties were established. Dramas were believed to summon the gods to seal the decisions being made. Organization of these performances involved the entire village. The village heads invited the performers and selected the material to be performed, the landowners built and maintained the temples were the performances were held, and the common villages contributed money to hire the performers. The performance troupes at this level were also city-based, but of lesser prestige and artistic refinement than the wealthier professionals. They likewise performed mainly for wealthy urban families, but on a free lance basis, and traveled regularly to the countryside for local performances. (11)
The most popular form of local drama was the third level, typically held by a group of villages that shared a common market or irrigation system. The people of these villages, independent of village heads, would pool money and hire professional promoters who would then arrange the performances. The promoters and the performers that they worked with were normally members of secret societies and considered "bad elements" by the village leaders. The performances were often the scenes of public rowdiness, inciting further disapproval by authorities.
Unlike the martial and moralist themes in the plays that were predominantly performed at the high and middle level dramas, the popular operas tended to feature more entertaining stories. Romantic love prevailed over marital chastity, and ghost stories and supernatural intrigue were more common than admonitions to revere the emperor. Adventure and creative problem-solving similarly attracted more interest than valor on the battlefield. The "low" culture reflected the values and priorities of their audience. Village authorities attempted without success to replace these peasant operas with forms that reinforced the dominant values. Although they existed on the margins of both art and society, it was from the peasant operas that the high forms had developed. (12)
Along with its traditions of popular entertainment, China developed mass communication early in its history. In all civilizations, written promulgation of official edicts and other announcements, often in the format of newspapers, represent the earliest mass medium. Primitive newspapers, known as Dibao, appeared in China as early as the Ch'un Ch'iu Period (740-473 B.C.), and it can be argued that China pioneered the medium of written distribution of information. Handwritten news reports played an important role in the maintenance of the Imperial system, and its importance grew with technological improvements. The role of the press further expanded with the involvement of Western missionaries and governments in the early nineteenth century. Newspapers remained significant during the Republican period, into the civil war, and during the Japanese occupation. Since 1949, newspapers and other print media have been a crucial part of the propagation of Communist Party ideology.
Although the Dibao, or court paper, had its origins during the Chou Dynasty (1122-221 B.C.), it took many centuries to evolve into what could genuinely be considered a newspaper. Throughout its existence, however, the purpose was the same: collecting and reporting events in the Imperial court through formal, informational essays and official reports. The brush and paper were invented during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 221 A.D.), greatly assisting in publication. Only after the invention of block-printing in 593 A.D. and its application to the Dibao during the Tang Dynasty (618-906 A.D.) did the Dibao begin to enjoy a wide circulation, with its contents expanding to include more popular and informal news. Content continued to diversify as the Dibao became more established, and read outside of officialdom. During the Sung Dynasty (906-1229 A.D.), new forms of newspapers were established: the Xiaobao, a condensed form of the Dibao, the Chaobao, a report for officials, the Pianbao, a report on the border regions of the empire, and the Yibao, a paper that circulated throughout the country. The invention of moveable type in 1038 A.D. further boosted the scope and readership of early newspapers. (13)
During the Qing Dynasty, the use of lead types further enhanced printing capacity. Press censorship had begun as early as the Sung Dynasty, and in the following Ming Dynasty it had become established with its own ministry. Censorship climaxed under the Qing, when Emperor Yung Cheng in the early 1700's permanently banned the Dibao and established in its place the Beijing Gazette. Although the Beijing Gazette bore a closer resemblance to modern papers than had its predecessor, it was another hundred years before China developed a truly modern press. (14)
The modern press in China emerged primarily as a result of foreign influence, first from Christian missionaries and later from Western residents in the treaty ports. The earliest Chinese newspapers were started by missionaries. Prior to 1895, all but a small handful of Chinese papers were started by foreigners. The Chinese Monthly Magazine, the first Chinese-language publication, was launched in 1815 outside of China, in Malacca, by British missionary William Milne. The first to be published within China was the Eastern Western Monthly Magazine, published in Canton beginning in 1833 by missionary Charles Friedrich August Gutzlaff. (15)
From the middle of the nineteenth century, the foreign language press, mainly in English, thrived in China. The earliest significant paper was the China Mail started in Hong Kong in 1845. Following on its heels in 1850 was the North-China Herald, published by business interests in Shanghai. It maintained an independent perspective, and was known to quarrel with both Chinese and British officials. In 1864 the "North-China Herald" changed its name to the North-China Herald and Daily News. The same year, it began issuing a thrice weekly Chinese-language version, the Shanghai Xinbao. (16)
Numerous other Chinese and foreign language papers emerged over this period. Modern journalism, however, remained an unfamiliar concept to the Chinese, and the quality of most of the papers was poor. Readership was also limited. An editorial in the Shanghai Xianhua commented about the obstacles facing the early Chinese-language newspapers.
In those days (1815-1895) the papers only had a circulation of a few hundred, each issue consisting of one sheet, so that the management of a paper was quite a simple affair. But there was a kind of employee not found today, namely, men who tried to sell the papers from house to house. The people of those days did not understand what a newspaper was and parents often warned their children against reading papers. Therefore, when a daily paper was issued, it was sent to the post office for the outports, while for the local public they engaged people to deliver them personally to the subscribers. The remaining copies were disposed of by giving them to the different shopkeepers in the street. The shopkeepers did not welcome them, however, and often told the salesmen bluntly to go away, the latter submitting quietly to this indignity. Towards the end of the month, the salesmen would then come round and, with their eloquence, try to persuade the shopkeepers to give them voluntarily tips almost in the manner of beggars. But there is one point. Since the papers had a daily issue of several hundred and since they were unwelcomed by the public, it may be asked: Who were the subscribers? These were the foreign firms and the Chinese firms who had dealings with them Alas! From this we can see the difference in the educational standing between the Chinese and the foreigners. (17)
Public interest in print media increased dramatically in the years following the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. After the protests of April 1895 and the Hundred Days of Reform in the summer of 1898, a number of reformers fled to Japan and there began publishing newspapers and journals that would be smuggled back into the country. The reformers viewed print media as their most effective instrument to alter the political situation. The reformers proceeded to launch a number of publications which, although mainly academic and political in content, attracted the interest of large audiences in China. For example, Liang Qichao's bimonthly journal The New Citizen, started in 1902 in Tokyo, had a circulation of fourteen thousand copies, and readership is estimated to have reached 200,000. (18)
Even more notable was the 1904 Shanghai publication Shibao. Under the guidance of Liang and fellow reformers Di Baoxian and Luo Xiaogao, Shibao became the landmark publication of the era. It was more than a publication, it was a base of reformist operations. The articles, while some announced news and events, were primarily analytical essays written by exiles criticizing the Imperial government and traditional Chinese society. Shibao also pioneered the use of cartoons to present political satire. (19)
Control over the post-revolutionary press shifted from the reformers back to the entrepreneurs. By 1921 China had an estimated 1,137 publications, 550 of which were published daily. Civil war and the Japanese occupation actually served to increase the number of publications. Print media, both formal and informal, was among the chief weapons in the propaganda war between the Guomindang, the Communist Party, and the Japanese. The political use of print media continued beyond the Second World War, and by 1947 the number of publications had risen to 1,781. (20) When the Communists took power, they inherited a vibrant system of producing and distributing print media, which they promptly altered to their own purposes.
However important print media was to Chinese political developments, its value as a mass medium was limited. Although the introduction of vernacular writing increased audience accessibility somewhat, the majority of the population remained uneducated, illiterate and far removed from the events and ideas circulating in the urban centers. The scope of early modern publishing, while larger than any previous Chinese medium, was limited to literati and officials, who comprised an extremely small portion of the country.
From its infancy, the Chinese Communist Party recognized the political significance of culture. Especially when appealing to an uneducated public, entertainment culture was the easiest and most effective form of mobilization and ideological indoctrination. Moreover, the task of spreading information and revolutionary ideas throughout a country as large and dispersed a country as China required the extensive use of mass media. The Party proved quite effective at manipulating both popular entertainment and mass media for political ends.
The basic Party policy regarding art and culture was first established at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art in May 1942. All culture was political, and "art for art's sake" could not be separated from the political content of artistic form and function. To the Communist Party, culture either supported or undermined their cause; neutrality was impossible. Thus, all cultural products must serve to educate the masses about revolutionary ideas and attitudes. At the Yenan Forum, Mao justified this position.
In literary and art criticism...there is the political criterion and there is the artistic criterion; what is the relationship between the two? Politics cannot be equated with art, nor can a general world outlook be equated with a method of artistic creation and criticism. But all classes in all class societies invariably put the political criterion first and the artistic criterion second. What we demand is the unity of politics and art, the unity of content and form, the unity of revolutionary political content and the highest possible perfection of artistic form... On questions of literature and art we must carry on a struggle on two fronts...to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, and that they help the people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind. (21)
To enforce revolutionary content in art, literature, and other forms of culture, the Communist Party established the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, through which it attempted to develop culture that was both mass-based and popular. Although it succeeded in establishing effective mass communication through print and media and in creating unique cultural forms such as the Revolutionary Opera, the Party was unable to truly popularize its revolutionary cultural products.
The Party inherited a rich if muddled tradition of print media. The Party tended to consider periodicals as dangerous as it is useful, and print has been rigorously regulated since 1949. Following educational reforms and the rise in literacy, the utility of print for Party propaganda has increased. The central Party publication is Renmin Ribao (The People's Daily), which distributes 5.3 million copies daily. (22) Despite its over 5,000 employees centered in Beijing alone, Renmin Ribao is controlled by a board of five to ten people. The editorial division includes a propaganda department which oversees article content to ensure that it is correct. Other departments include politics and law, rural villages, industry and transportation, finance and economics, education, culture, and international events. (23)
According to the Beijing Review in 1985, China has a total of 1,300 newspapers. Thirty-six are national, the remainder are provincial or municipal, except for a few county-wide papers. National publications, in addition to Renmin Ribao, include Gongren Ribao (Workers Daily), Jiefangjun Bao (The Liberation Army News), Guangmin Ribao (The Daily Brightness), Zhongguo Nongmin Bao (The Chinese Peasants' Paper), and Zhongguo Qingnian (China Youth). (24)
Although print media remains an important part of the mass transmission of CCP agenda and policies, the most effective and influential mass medium during the Maoist period was the radio. Second only to print, radio figured as the earliest and most effective form of mass media. Moreover, it possesses greater potential influence when used in a largely uneducated, illiterate society. The technology for both transmission and reception are extremely simple, allowing radio to be the foremost informational tool in developing countries. Particularly in the early years of the People's Republic, radio was a crucial propaganda tool for the expansion and consolidation of Party power.
Radio first developed in China during the 1920's and 1930's. Some cities were able to build commercial stations, which featured news and early forms of popular music. The majority of stations, however, were established and controlled by the Nationalists, warlords and Japanese. Radio was used as a propaganda tool in attempts to build political legitimacy and popular support for the competing regimes. However, due to the small proportion of households owning radio sets, the effectiveness of radio in this period was severely limited.
The first use of radio by the Chinese Communist Party was in Yanan in 1940, after Zhou Enlai brought a transmitter back from Moscow in March of that year. On 30 December, Xinhua New Chinese Radio (XNCR) first broadcast from Yanan. After 1945, XNCR was able to transmit to a larger area, and it became more formal in its programming. It broadcast news, official announcements, war bulletins, and art and literary programs. In September 1947, XNCR added an English language service in the hope of spreading its perspective beyond China. (25)
After the Communist victory in 1949, XNCR moved its operations to Beijing and split into the China People's Broadcasting Station (CPBS) and Radio Beijing. In addition to CPBS broadcasts using standard Mandarin, a number of regional stations using local dialects emerged after 1949. By the late 1970's, there were 97 regional stations. Most of these have more than one channel, and stations in large cities have as many as eight to ten channels. Regional stations use some material from the center, but for the most part they are responsible for developing and recording their own shows. In recent years particularly, this regional autonomy has allowed the proliferation of a variety of shows that differ somewhat from the Party guidelines. (26)
Shanghai, traditionally China's center of art and culture, offers an extreme example of regional deviation from the cultural policy promulgated by the center. The Art and Culture channel, one of Radio Shanghai's eight channels, in 1982 began broadcasting a show called "Stereo Friends." This program featured international popular music that was not available in the rest of China due to implicit or explicit government bans. Each episode, the hour-long show would feature one artist or group, play a variety of their songs, and provide background information on the musicians. By the middle to late 1980's, American popular music was generally available in China, although broadcasts were discouraged. Radio Shanghai proceeded to take an even more controversial step and began airing songs by Chinese yaogun ("rock'n'roll") musicians who were explicitly banned from the airwaves. The relative autonomy of regional stations, combined with the inconsistent implementation of party policy, allowed Radio Shanghai to broadcast with impunity. (27)
A third level of radio consists of county and relay stations, most of which recycle content from national and regional stations. CPBS states that over 22 million such stations are in operation. Of these, between 1500 and 2500 edit the shows they rebroadcast and produce their own material. County stations often provide the primary source of radio programming in rural areas, especially in villages where the national or even regional dialect is incomprehensible to most of the population. (28)
Endnotes for Chapter 2, Part 1
7. Chu, Godwin, and Cheng, Philip, "Revolutionary Opera: An Instrument for Cultural Change," in Chu, Godwin, ed., Popular Media in China: Shaping New Cultural Patterns, (Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii) 1978, p. 75.
8. Liu, Alan P.L., The Use of Traditional Media for Modernization in Communist China, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Center for International Studies) 1965., p. 17-18.
9. Ward, Barbara E., "Regional Operas and their Audiences: Evidence from Hong Kong," in Johnson, David, Nathan, Andrew J. and Rawski, Evelyn S., Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, (Berkeley, California: University of California Press) 1989, p. 172.
10. Issei, Tanaka, "The Social and Historical Context of Ming-Ch'ing Local Drama," in Johnston, Nathan, and Rawski, (eds.), p. 146.
11.Ibid., p. 144.
12. Ibid, p. 148-150. See also Arkush, David R., "Love and Marriage in North Chinese Peasant Operas," in Link, Perry, Madsen, Richard, and Pickowicz, Paul G. (ed.), Unofficial China: Popular Culture and Thought in the People's Republic , (San Francisco: Westview Press) 1989.
13. Chang, Kuo-Sin, A Survey of the Chinese Language Daily Press, (Hong Kong: Asian Programme International Press Institute), 1968, p. 7-9.
14. Cheng, Philip H., "A Comparative Value Analysis: Traditional versus Revolutionary Opera," in Chu (1978), p. 12.
15. Ibid., p. 14.
16. Britton, Roswell S., The Chinese Periodical Press 1800-1912, (Taipei: Che'ng-Wen Publishing Company) 1966, p. 48-49.
17. Cheng (1978), p. 15-16.
18. Nathan, Andrew J., Chinese Democracy, (Berkeley, California: University of California Press) 1985, p. 55.
19. Judge, Joan, Print and Politics: 'Shibao' and the Culture of Reform in Late Qing China (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press) 1996.
20. Cheng (1978), p. 19.
21. Mao Zedong, "Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art," (May 1942) Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, (Beijing: Xinhua Book Division) 1967, p. 565-569.
22. Bishop, Robert L. Qi Lai! Mobilizing One Billion Chinese: The Chinese Communication System, (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press) 1989, p. 144.
23. Ibid., p. 153.
24. Ibid., p. 144.
25. Chang, Won Ho, Mass Media in China: The History and the Future, (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press) 1989, p. 151-152.
26. Howkins, John, Mass Communication in China, (New York: Annenberg/ Longman Communication Books) 1982, p. 52-53.
27. Hamm, Charles, "Music and Radio in the PRC," Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1991, vXXII, n2, p.28-29.
28. Howkins, p. 53.
