The Image Of Mao Zedong Study

It comes as quite a surprise that systematic studies on Mao Zedong iconography have remained a virtual void among a rich variety of Mao-thematic studies. Domestic art historians and theoreticians have hitherto limited their attention to the panorama of art history of the PRC in which Mao iconography makes an insignificant part. On the other hand, relevant studies abroad overweight the Cultural Revolution, and particular emphasis is laid on Mao icons produced through multicultural methods in the post-Mao era, not unusually to the detriment of other aspects. Therefore, studies on Mao iconography have thus far been all too scrappy, partial, ornamental, and even imbued with intense ideological flavors, falling far short of the objectiveness, comprehensiveness, and justice required of the academic circles towards Mao icons, an extremely unique scenery in both Chinese and foreign art histories. Mao icons and their production have formed a grand scale of their own and have exerted an extensive and far-reaching impact, virtually overstepping the sphere of pure art. They justify the establishment of an independent discipline, awaiting an all-round and unbiased sorting out of the existing accomplishments, digging up of their sources, tracing of the thread of their development, disclosing of their intricate links with the different strata of the Chinese society, and summarizing of their super-normal function as one of the ideological tools. This dissertation is meant as an elementary probe into the field both stimulating and challenging.The first chapter is largely devoted to the introduction and discussion of the long journey on which Mao starts out as an ordinary son of peasant until he turns out to be the "Great Savior" of the Chinese nation. Mao's personal qualifications, together with demands from outside at an unusual historical juncture of the Chinese society when true giants are desperately sought after, make Mao's emergence as a "red sun rising from the east" a natural historical choice. The very birth of Mao icons is none other than the heart-felt, simple and unadorned, and true-to-life portrayal of this newly risen "Red Sun."Chapter two is devoted to the seventeen years between the founding of the PRC and the Cultural Revolution. Mao has by now completed his natural transition from a generalissimo and political leader leading his people working towards the overthrow of a decaying regime to the paramount sovereign of a new-born republic. Mao icons during this period are comprehensive and enthusiastic descriptions of the transition of this role of Mao's; they also indirectly eulogize the first generation of CPC leaders with Mao as their head, and sing high praises of their historic revolutionary feats and the brand-new republic which they have established. The principle guiding literary and artistic creation in which revolutionary realism combines revolutionary romanticism put forward on the basis of the former Soviet socialist realism becomes the sole principle to be adhered to by all forms of literature and art after the foundingof the PRC, and the making of Mao icons is no exception. But due to their inherent uniqueness, Mao icons and their production have increasingly shown their extra-artistic traits, causing in organizers, artists, and audiences emotional responses substantially different from those caused by other works of art. The rare political aesthetic function invested in Mao icons make their production both secure and highly risky. As one can gain fame and success from making Mao icons, so can he incur disgrace and even destruction from the same trade. Nevertheless, as compared to the extremity and irrationality of the Cultural Revolution, the domain of Mao iconography during the first seventeen years of the PRC is generally more often bathed in warm sunshine.Chapter three is the key part of this project. Just as the Cultural Revolution is a "historically unprecedented" campaign, Mao icons produced in this period constitute a fabulous sight never seen in the history of either Chinese or foreign art. They are the direct products of the Cultural Revolution, and in turn most pictorially strengthen the will of its power and the hegemony of discourse, relentlessly and excessively utilized as the most convenient instrument of deification. In making Mao icons politics comes first, second comes art. This has been a compulsory criterion publicly propagated and unconditionally enforced among all those concerned, officials or civilians, professionals or amateurs, thus eliciting one after another of comedies, tragedies, or absurdities, making one sigh or cry. It pays to consider Mao's own attitude towards his icons: He shifts from the initial encouragement or approval to his later repulsion and eventual impotence. It is Mao himself that is the first to realize that his icons, like his person, have been taken advantage of by different people to serve different purposes. This chapter is composed of two parts, namely, direct and indirect iconography. Eight major issues concerning Mao iconography are elaborated in the first part.Chapter four deals with the post-Mao era, subdivided into the post-Cultural Revolution, the "'85 New Art Waves," the '"89 Modern Art Exhibition," the rekindled "Mao Craze" in 1990s, and the transitional period when the Chinese society transforms from the political type to the economic one. Mao icons and their making in this new era have experienced different fates and displayed different looks. Mao has now stepped down from his High Altar, and has since been enshrined, doubted, questioned, denounced, yearned for, teased, enjoyed, and commercially developed, but the predominant trend is his marginalization, which is a sure result in the present multicultural background, and marks, to certain extent, China's walking out of the pall of feudalism, and gradually merging into the stream of the development of world civilization.