Charismatic Authority In Song Dong's Wisdom Of The Poor

The cultural revolution is a strange period in Chinese history laced with intense struggle and anguish. The cultural revolution mobilized the all of society to compete for all opposing factions that they belonged to (Ong, 2016). Mao mobilized the young people of society during a background of political turmoil, which helped Mao to mobilize the students in order to enforce his political legitimacy and ideas (Ong, 2016). Mao’s charismatic authority created his personality cult and most defiantly leant a helping hand in mobilizing the red guard movement (Ong, 2016) (Weber, 1946) (Andreas, 2007). No matter which faction of the red guard they belonged to, they all mobilized against their common enemy; the better off, upper class. (Ong, 2016). Multiple ideologies within the youth led red guard movement explain why the movement gained momentum and became incredibly powerful (Walder, 2009).

This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution

In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

From the start the author portrays the strength and power of the communist ideology in a “concrete statue of Chairman Mao, at whose feet peasants were napping,” (Jin 5); the statues represent the ever lasting effect that Mao has on China’s ideology, incremented into the way of life and

Throughout the memoir “Mao’s Last Dancer” written by Li Cunxin a variety of language techniques are used to explore different attitudes to culture in 20th century China. From the village commune of his early childhood, to the Beijing Ballet Academy, and America, Li Cunxin’s memoir explores how our cultural values change due to being exposed to different ways of life, This occurred when Li Cunxin first travelled to America and saw their freedom. First Statement: In the commune where Li Cunxin lived, one cultural value that was vital was upholding the family name. “Although we have no money, no food, and can’t buy clothes, and although we live in a poor house, one thing we do have is PRIDE.

This art analysis will argue in favor of the dissenting “literati” of the Song Dynasty that sought to underscore the “concealed self” of governmental punishment and the re-discovery of self in landscape paintings of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. During the Song Dynasty, governmental scholar-officials were often expected to challenge the policies of the government, which caused some officials to “self-edit” themselves due to fear of punishment from the Emperor. Song era landscape painters concealed their literary symbolism in the landscape paintings produced by scholar-officials. However, some scholar-officials chose to “re-discover the self” by retreating to the countryside to create landscape paintings as a form of public dissent against the new Mongolian government of the Yuan Dynasty. This form of dissent defines the strong political

Peter Hessler and a fellow Peace Corp. volunteer were placed in Fuling, and poor town on the Yangtze River in rural China. River Town is more or less a journal of what it was like being in Fuling on a day to day basis. He illustrates his experience through stories of trips he took, people that he became close with, and situations that required an open mind. Peter’s job was teaching English literature at a small college in the town; and through this was able to learn both about the tightly controlled nature of being a foreigner in China, as well as some of the thoughts of the younger generation through various assignments. He was greeted as a “hero” and was lavished upon, but at the same time found it very difficult to be “accepted” by the locals, cadres or not.

“All art may be propaganda, but not all propaganda is art” observes Lu Xun, a leading figure in Modern Chinese literature. During the 1970s there was a lot of propaganda to control the masses, but nowadays oppression is more widespread in the form of controlling people’s internet usage.

Yue’s text challenges traditional studies that tend to focus on colonial aspects and focus on more of a “socially, culturally, and politically based discussion.” Through this direction she explores how theatres, gardens, print shops, and refugee intellectuals influenced Shanghai to become the “Paris of the East.” One of her most important discussions is how influential the printing industry was on the society through producing the guidelines for primary education. This discussion exposes how various external factors could play roles in industries that may not be normally connected. This idea can also be tied

In a nation’s history there are times of downfall: poverty, war, and inhumanity, and times of prosperity: a period of peace and harmony and cultural development. Modern China, 1900-1970, was a point of isolation, poverty, and lack of freedom. In “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China”, the author Jung Chang tells the first hand experience of her grandmother, mother, and herself living in China during the Japanese invasion, the Kuomintang rule, and Mao Zedong rule. Changes in gender treatment, education, freedom, and government occurred from the beginning of the period to the end, whereas the downfalls in the economy, familial customs, hierarchy, and the harsh consequences of disobeying government and culture were continuities of Modern China.

Any revolutionary paradox, that includes an entire nation, might scare the victims and survivors to expose themselves and their experiences to the world. Most memoirs written are of those fighting for or against the cause. When it comes to the Cultural Revolution in China, most of these memories are drafted by the adolescents of that time who identified themselves as the Red Guards. However, once reading a book/story such as that of Nien Cheng’s, the perspective of the victim and every sort of political aspect of someone who understood everything makes the whole revolution within China come to life for the reader. Nien Cheng’s novel is the heart and living explanation of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that China had almost 40 years ago. As the reading of someone that did not follow and practice the values of Chinese civilization, this is a book that had the competence to present the most unbiased viewpoint of the nation’s transformation. Therefore, with no other words to accommodate this subject, Life and Death in Shanghai is a book for anyone willing to learn, understand and experience the attributes of the darkest time period in Chinese history.

The essay begins with an outline of the Chinese culture and way of thinking during this time period. A historical understanding of the people and government will serve to better illuminate the social and political landscape of the era.

In Madeline Thien’s “ Do not say we have nothing”, Thien takes the history of Cultural Revolution in China which lasted from 1966 to 1976 and weaves it into a novel to show the lives of those earlier generations revolve around the Shanghai Conservatory and how cultural revolution changes their fate. Cultural Revolution is a time period with massive violence and chaos since it had widespread consequences at all levels of society and the economy stagnated, and thousands of historical and cultural monuments were destroyed during that

During the Zhengfeng (1942-1944), the Chinese Communist Party strongly believed that artistic expressions lacked a unified cultural approach. As such, they used various methods to consolidate ideological unanimity among cadres around Maoism. In his “Talks at the Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art,” Mao Zedong stresses the struggle on the cultural front as an indispensable

It was in this context that theories of urban planning, which rose out of over three decades of practices in the USSR and over a century in the West, were initiated and adapted to the cause of China’s socialist construction. The spatial construction of the danwei played a vital role in the construction of a certain mode of shared subjectivity. I believe a revolution is required to produce new space, because in order for it to be truly revolutionary, one needs to create a society that reflects its revolutionary ideology. It needs to drastically transform away from the systems and encourage its citizens to think and live