| The thesis project attempts to answer the questions about how the Chinese Communist Party governs the cultural domain in Contemporary China, and how the cultural governance develops and influences cultural production in China since 1949.;This research tries systematically explores the development of the cultural policy of Socialist China by focusing on Shanghai Municipal Workers Palace of Culture and its cultural production, which is an understudied topic in Chinese Studies. Through investigating the CCP's theories, thoughts and policies in cultural sphere, the ways and rules of producing literature and art, it will systematically analyze the relationship of the Chinese party-state and culture in different historical periods, and illustrate the development of the CCP's cultural policy from theory to practice.;The study mainly adopts Cultural Political Economy and Sociology of Culture approaches. Different from traditional cultural policy studies, it is a historical and comparative empirical inquiry with an integrated macro and micro perspective. The study introduces qualitative methods including archive analysis, field study, in-depth interview, oral history, participant observation, and historical comparative analysis and etc, to answer the research questions and support the thesis arguments.;The purpose of the thesis is (1) to map the historical path of cultural policy in the People's Republic of China; (2) to provide empirical data of Socialist China' cultural policy from micro perspective through subject's in-depth interview and oral history; and (3) to suggest a theoretical framework for Chinese cultural policy studies at a meso- and macro-level; and (4) to bring critical reflection on the transition of cultural policy in today's China, through comparing it with the shift and trend of the Western. Furthermore, the line of research also aims provide the Chinese model as a reference for cultural policy studies on socialist states or developing countries. To be noted, our goal is not to draw a hasty conclusion about the transformation of cultural policy in PRC or to predict its future directions. Instead, our humble task is, to do an exploratory study through the Shanghai case study and based on the limited materials that we collect, and, to pave the way for the future development of Chinese Cultural Policy Studies. |
