Abstract
A six-part television series entitled He shang (Yellow River elegy) caused an immediate national sensation when it was first broadcast on China Central Television (CCTV) beginning on 12 June 1988. A script of the documentary was published simultaneously and immediately became a best seller. In the following months the production inspired heated debates in China and in Chinese communities abroad. While local audience response was quite enthusiastic, some high-level leaders such as the veteran military commander and vice president Wang Zhen called the program “cultural nihilism” and accused it of advocating wholesale Westernization and of attacking the party and socialism. Reformers countered that He shang advocated official policies of “reform and opening up,” but in July the head of party ideology, Hu Qili, banned further broadcasts and began fostering criticism of the film. Nevertheless, with the blessing of a high-level party leader, most likely Zhao Ziyang himself, plus strong audience demand, He shang was rebroadcast nationwide on 15 August. Finally, at the September Party Central Committee Plenum it was once again banned from export and public broadcast.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Stephen Field
I would like to thank Mark Selden for his valuable suggestions for the final revision of this article and also anonymous readers who checked the translation.
Notes
The first edition of He shang was published by Xiandai chubanshe in Beijing in June 1988 under the general authorship of Su Xiaokang and Wang Luxiang. The translation of episode 5 given below is from this edition. The authorized Taiwan edition was published jointly in October by Taipei's Fengyun Shidai chubanshe and Jinfeng chubanshe. By February 1989 this edition had gone through forty-seven printings. In addition to the original script (with minor discrepancies), the Taiwan version includes critical essays by mainland and Taiwan intellectuals. Videotapes (without subtitles) are available from Evergreen Publishing and Stationery, 136 South Atlantic Boulevard, Monterey Park, California 91754.
In September 1988 Zhao Ziyang reportedly gave Singapore's premier Lee Kuan Yew videotapes of He shang as a gift and prevented an article that was rather critical of He shang from being published in Renmin Ribao. The article was subseqently published after the crackdown on the student-led prodemocracy demonstration. For the original article see Renmin Ribao, 19 July 1989, haiwai ban. A partial translation can be found in the China Daily, 22 July 1989.
References
- Xiaokang, Su , Weiming, Du , and , The U.S. Government Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS), 1991. Wan, Pin Pin , and Bodman, Richard , eds. Deathsong of the River: A Reader's Guide to the Chinese TV Series He shang . Series no. 54. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asian Program Monograph; 1991, has conducted a complete translation of the script, but it is unavailable for public dissemination. However, an annotated translation accompanied by essays about He shang.
- Duke, Michael , 1989. Reinventing China: Cultural Exploration in Contemporary Chinese Fiction , Issues and Studies 25 (8) (1989), pp. 29–53, This debate has been variously called wenhua re (cultural passion) or wenhua tansuo (cultural exploration). For a discussion of its literary dimensions;in.
- Chuiliang, Qiu , 1989. "Zoubutong de minzhu lu-Yan Jiaqi yu zhenggai xuezhemen de mangdian yu kunjing". In: Tansuo . 1989. pp. 22–22, Unworkable path to democracy-the blind spot and dilemma of Yan Jiaqi and political reform scholars) in;(The quest) 63.
- Beijing University seminar, 1989. "Mayor Chen Xitong's Report on Putting Down Anti-Government Riot". In: China Daily . 1989, For example, on 7 December 1988;“The China of the Future and World,” Jin Guantao remarked in a speech that “attempts at socialism and their failure constitute one of the two major legacies of the twentieth century.”,The high point in intellectual participation came with the unprecedented petition drive of 13 February 1989, when thirty-three prominent thinkers addressed a letter to the party Central Committee calling for amnesty and the release of Wei Jingsheng and other political prisoners. Finally, as the ultimate affront to the communist authorities, the Beijing Union of Intellectuals was established on 16 May by twelve prominent academics and journalists, including Yan Jiaqi, Bao Zunxin, Su Xiaokang, and Dai Qing, a reporter for the Guangming Daily.
- Xiaokang, Su , 1989. Longnian de beichuang-guanyu He shang de zhaji . Hong Kong: Joint Publishing; 1989. pp. 16–16, (Sadness in the Year of the Dragon-notes on He shang), in Longnian de beichuang-He shang, zhengming yu huiying (Sadness in the Year of the Dragon-He shang, criticism and response);This book contains twelve essays by scholars from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States.
- Guantao, Jin , Qingfeng, Liu , and , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Journal of Dialectics of Nature and an associate researcher at the , Changsha: Hunan renmin, 1984; Taipei: Tianshan, 1987) was coauthored by and his wife;Citations in this essay are from the Taipei reprint.
- Yu-lan, Fung , and Bodde, Derk , 1952. A History of Chinese Philosophy . Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1952. pp. 17–17, 2 vols..
- Guantao, Jin , Dainian, Fan , Hongye, Fan , Qingfeng, Liu , Lawrence, N. , and Haber, R.C. , 1986. "The Evolution of Chinese Science and Technology". In: Fraser, J.T. , ed. Time, Science, and Society in China and the West . Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press; 1986. pp. 172–172, This phrase is the authors' English equivalent of the term dayitong.
- 1989. "Beijing's Leaders Reportedly Meet in Effort to Resolve Political Crisis". In: New York Times . 1989, Although Su Xiaokang managed to elude them, Wang Luxiang was captured by the Chinese authorities and was not released until early 1990. After his escape Su resided for a while in Paris and is currently a visiting scholar at Princeton University. On a visit to Taiwan in December, 1989, he withdrew somewhat from his former antitradition stance when he told delegates at a literary seminar that “we attributed our suffering on the mainland to culture. We completely ignored that the Communist system is the main reason for the mainland's backwardness. But my value standard has changed now. I think there are some good values existing in our tradition. ...” In regard to the failure of the prodemocracy movement, he stated that “the performance of intellectuals at that historical moment were [sic] only at a kindergarten level.” See Lin Ching-wen and Lina Hsu, “Marx, Not Confucius, Blamed,” in the Free China Journal, 11 January 1990.
- 1989. "Writers and Artists Criticize Zhao". In: China Daily . 1989, The forum cited He shang as an example of bourgeois liberalization, claiming that it “negated the cultural traditions of the nation, smeared the socialist revolution and construction and advocated indiscriminate Westernization.”.
- 1989. "Ershierwan zi Chongping He shang jiang chengwei xuesheng zhengshi sixiang jiaoyu xin jiaocai". In: shushe, Ba Shu , ed. Zhongyang Ribao . 1989, in Chengdu. If newspaper reports are accurate, another similar book appeared at about the same time;220,000-character Reevaluating He shang will become teaching material for political education of students.
- Xing, , 1990. "On the Road: A Century of Marxism". In: Far Eastern Economic Review . 1990, may also be translated “ballad,” and as such was probably meant by the propagandists to counteract the shang or “elegy” of He shang. But the term can also mean “to walk” or “road,” and Geremie Barme's rendition of the title is;see his review of the documentary in the.
- Guantao, Jin , Xingsheng yu weiji . pp. 205–205, who borrowed it from Jiu tang shu (The old history of the Tang).
- Needham, Joseph , 1962. Science and Civilization in China . Vol. 4. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press; 1962. pp. 229–229, The south-pointing carriage has frequently been taken to be a predecessor of the magnetic compass, but in fact it had nothing to do with magnetic directivity. According to Joseph Needham, the south-pointing carriage was a “self-regulating device, involving a system of gearwheels such that a pointer would maintain an originally fixed direction by continually compensating for any excursions of the vehicle away from that direction.”.
- Xingsheng yu weiji . pp. 211–212, These scientists date from the Three Kingdoms period and the Liu Song dynasty, respectively. According to Jin Guantao, the south-pointing chariot was successfully reinvented eight times.
- Hua, Gu , Furong Zhen . in the serial Dangdai in 1981, The novel Hibiscus Town) was written by and first appeared In 1986 it was made into a movie under the direction of Xie Jin. The full passage in the book corresponding to the quote reads: “Don't you ever forget class struggle! The Great Cultural Revolution will be back again in five or six years! Then you'll get yours!” In the movie, however, Wang Qiushe merely bangs his gong and announces in a hoarse voice, “It's coming!”.
- Xingsheng yu weiji . pp. 19–19, This quote is from.
- Marx, Karl , The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte .