“Recollections”: a subset of the project on posters of the Cultural Revolution

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

^1. One interesting/disturbing discovery in the ethics approval process in Australia is the degree to which older people are considered intellectually (rather than physically) more vulnerable than other respondents and research participants. Presumably this arises from the psycho-medical origins of ethics permission systems. Given that our respondents have considerably more, and more pointed, political experience than younger Chinese, the requirement to have a kind of younger “sponsor” seemed demeaning but also politically absurd.

^2. The process of seeking permission for these interviews from university authorities alerted the researchers to the overwhelming emphasis that institutions place on the physical frailty of older people, which then extends to an a priori expectation of mental frailty. Our experience in the field has been that, whilst physical frailty does of course affect some individuals, this is countered by a resilience and hindsight born of experience.

^3. See also an important new set of essays on the seventeen years of film prior to 1966, in The Journal of Chinese Cinemas 5.1 (2011).

^4. The “three anti's and five anti's” campaigns took place in 1951 and 1952 (san fan, wu fan). These campaigns were initiated to root out corruption, waste, and bureaucrat-ism; and following that: bribery, state-theft (tangible and economic), cheating, and tax-evasion. Suzanne Pepper (1996, p. 169 ff) points out that these campaigns were intended to introduce urban intellectuals to the discipline of life in the newly instituted Party State, a discipline that others had learned through the period in Yenan.

^5. The “four clears” movement took place from 1963–1966. The speaker here has conflated this movement – sometimes charged with inadvertently laying the ground for the Cultural Revolution (Li, 2004) – with the earlier movements in 1951–1953.

^6. The criticism of Wu Xun Zhuan, 1951. Wu Xun was a rags to riches educationalist, born 1939. The film of his life was at first successful and then, as a symbol of liberal education, became an object of criticism (Pepper, 1996, 167–168).

^7. Yao became one of the members of the Gang of Four: with Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, and Zhang Chunqiao.

^8. The “Long March” satellite was launched successfully on 30 January 1970. It was primed to play The East is Red on its ascent (Chen & Hagt, 2006). http://www.chinasecurity.us/index.php?option = com_content&view = article&id = 252&Itemid = 8

^9. Later in the conversation it emerges that M has contributed indirectly to the satellite's success through his work in defence (the details of which he cannot disclose).

^10. See, for example, the current red song movement: Chen Yi N'iao, “Ge'r weishenme zheyang hong?” (Why are songs this red?), Nanfang Zhoumo (Southern Weekend), 9 June 2001.

^11. 1921– founding of the CCP; 1949 – Liberation; 1978 – Deng Xiaoping and the Reform era, ‘Opening up’; 2008 – Olympics in Beijing; 2011 – 90th anniversary.

^12. The Shanghai group in Extracts A, B and C resided in a new compound in Shanghai and were invited through a neighbourhood grapevine, but had not previously met each other – apart from the married couple – before the focus group. They had not seen the poster exhibition although they were informed of its existence. Again, the meeting was attended by myself, and a second Shanghai-based, senior research associate. I should note that in the Shanghai meeting, two older men who had expressed an interest in taking part were prevented from doing so by ill health. Their unfortunate absence only underlines the need to work with people whilst they are still able and willing to do so. Since this work, the research has extended to several other cities in China and those discussions will be reported at a later date.

^14. The conversation included a discussion of the floral clothes worn by women in Soviet films, a detail recalled by the otherwise quiet woman in the group S; and – pleasingly given the research parameter! – a recollection of the poster campaign to defeat the British steel production levels, which was launched in 1958, the same year as the Great Leap Forward.

^15. “Reading the mélange” of memory/affect – anecdote, recollection, relationship, regret – is the challenge for this project. I thank Michael Curtin for his acute assessment of the next steps!

^16. Work underway at Renmin and Nanchang universities indicate an interest in the uses of media amongst the old, but not in memories of media. Interviews with the author: June–July 2011.