American Leftist Imagination Of Red Culture Space Of Mao's China During The Cold War

American leftist imagination of Mao's China during the Cold War is a unique part in the image genealogy of China produced by America.The uniqueness of American leftist imagination of Mao's China is mainly manifested in its obvious and incomparable complexity,which is a comprehensive system constituted by complexity at various levels including the complexity of subject,context,motivation,object,strategies,and function of the imagination activity.It is a highly challenging and fascinating systematic project to do a macroscopic survey and conduct a microscopic anatomy of the complicated system.Exploring American leftist imagination of the red culture space of Mao's China will deepen our understanding of the global communist culture,red culture and American leftist culture,contribute to our contemplation on the effective access to the construction and propagation of Chinese red culture,enhance multicultural communication and dialogue in the context of globalization.It is of enlightening and practical significance for us to review and reflect on the output of contemporary China's image.American leftist imagination of the red culture space of Mao's China is the product of the specific historical period,with distinct historical imprints.This paper focuses on the red culture space of Mao's China in American leftist imagination between 1949 and 1976,with the Cold War as its historical context.This paper is comprised of three parts:introduction,body and conclusion.In introduction part,it traces back to the context in which American leftists imagined Mao's China,conducts a historical survey on the relevant concepts such as Cold War,Left,Red Culture and so on,and specifies the definitions of the above terms in the very paper.Furthermore,it examines and analyzes the standpoint of American leftists while imagining China,both integrally and individually.Their standpoint is closely related to multiple factors,including the context in which the imagination occurs,and their political aspirations,subjective appeal,exploring spirit,emotional tendency,value choice,and cultural identity as well.Chapter One explores the political and affective filtering mechanism in the activity of American leftist imagination of Mao's China under the framework of political and emotional dynamics.Firstly,it analyzes the "instrumental rationality"and "value rationality" of their political filtering mechanism.Then it examines the"limited rationality" and "practical rationality" of their affective filtering mechanism.This chapter explores the similarities and differences of American leftists at the aspects of information choice,cultural choice and emotional tendency,through the survey of American leftist filtering mechanism while imagining Mao's China.Chapter Two investigates American leftist imagination of symbols of red culture space of Mao's China,mainly focusing on color symbols and number symbols,which are both "logic symbols" and "expressional symbols" as social cultural symbols in a special context.American leftists show great interest in the above symbols.They do not stop at the surface structure of the symbols,on the contrary,they delve into their deep-seated structure and decode their connotations.Their imagination of the color symbols illustrates the Chinese representation of communist symbol community,and subvert the prevailing "blue ants fallacy" in the west with a variety of imagination strategies.Their perception and interpretation of number symbols presents their rational thinking on the survival state and the development state of Mao's China.Chapter Three elaborates the morphology of red culture space of Mao's China in American leftist imagination,with an emphasis on the "utopia" and "heterotopia"constructed by them.Maoist utopia constructed by American leftists is the romanticization and idealization of "Maoist New Man" and rural people's communes.American's construction of Maoist utopia is historically inevitable,which is associated with the western utopia tradition,American leftist radical tradition and their responsibility consciousness to improve the realistic society,and the speed of Maoist agricultural socialism.Their utopian construction of the red culture space of Mao's China represents the heterogeneity of the constructed,and reflects their political and cultural desire,and collective appeal as well.Their construction of Mao's China as heterotopia results from multiple factors such as American anti-communist politics,the limitation of their cognition,and so forth.Chapter Four examines American leftist imagination approaches while imaging the red culture space of Mao's China.Their imagination of Mao's China is not completely homogeneous.Displaying a strong awareness of cultural comparison,their imagination of Mao's China is active and intentional.This chapter focuses on two of the various approaches:oppositional and analogical imagination.American leftists construct an image of China which is developing and improving continuously and rapidly,though with an underdeveloped material productivity.They construct a three-dimensional distinct image of China by means of various analogical imagination activities.Chapter Five focuses on the functions of American leftist imagination of the red culture space of Mao's China.The output of their imagination has formed a cultural textual system,which is comprehensive with its content and form,responsive due to multiple dialogues,and abundant in varieties.Thus,from the overall,the functions of their imagination are historical,multiple and comprehensive.Specifically,there are both cognitive and aesthetic functions,both common and special functions,both challenging and venting functions,both perceptual descriptive and rational evaluating functions,both cross-cultural communicative and self-realizing functions,and so on and so forth.This chapter moves around the explanatory function and refutatory function.It illustrates the multivariate,multifaceted,diverse and multiple features of the imagination functions in details.The conclusion part summarizes the complexity of American leftist imagination of the red culture space of Mao's China.The very complexity is the inevitable consequence of their cross-cultural imagination activities in the specific historical time and space,with Mao's China as their imagined object.It is the product of numerous complex systems.Exploring the complexity of American leftist imagination of Mao's China will help us clean up the confusion and perplexity in our cross-cultural criticism,grasp the heterogeneity of the imagination,understand accurately the essential connotations and historical value of the imagination.American leftist imagination of China's red culture space during the Cold War is a mirror reflecting the image of Mao's China,and refracting their political,cultural,intellectual,emotional,psychological appeals as well.The process of American leftist construction of Mao's China,the "imagined community",is simultaneously the process of the self-purification,self-conversion,self-actualization and self-transcendence.