Friday, November 27th, 2015 Mao’s Cultural Army: Drama Troupes in China’s Rural Revolution

Description

Charting their training, travels, and performances, Mao’s Cultural Army explores the role of the artists that roamed the Chinese countryside in support of Mao Zedong’s revolution. In this talk Professor Brian DeMare traces the development of this “cultural army” from its genesis in Red Army propaganda teams to its full development as a largely civilian force composed of amateur and professional drama troupes in the early years of the PRC. Drawing from memoirs, artistic handbooks, and rare archival sources, DeMare uncovers the arduous and complex process of creating revolutionary dramas that would appeal to China’s all-important rural audiences. The Communists strived for a disciplined cultural army to promote party policies, but audiences often shunned modern and didactic shows, and instead clamoured for traditional works. DeMare illustrates how drama troupes, caught between the party and their audiences, did their best to resist the ever growing reach of the PRC state.

A cultural historian of modern China and the Chinese Communist Party, Brian DeMare researches how Chinese citizens negotiated with the politicization of their everyday lives. Mass campaigns, revolutionary art, and rural cultural workers are the primary concerns driving his research agenda. Professor DeMare’s new book, Mao’s Cultural Army: Drama Troupes in China’s Rural Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2015), explores the political uses of cultural performance in the rise of the Chinese Communist Party and the early years of the People’s Republic of China. He is currently working on two book projects. The first is a study of drama troupes during the Cultural Revolution. The second details the epic land reform campaigns that shook the Chinese countryside during the late 1940s and early 1950s.