Studying for the Revolution
Chinese Literature Magazine 1966
The Great Socialist Cultural Revolution in China can probably said to have officially started in April of 1966 with the publication, on the 18th of that month, of the editorial ‘Hold High the great Red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought and actively participate in the Great Socialist Cultural Revolution‘ in the Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Bao).
That had an almost immediate effect upon all the publications produced in the People’s Republic of China at that time – including Chinese Literature.
Although Chinese Literature continued to publish predominantly cultural articles (stories, reviews, critiques, images, etc.) it also made space for some of the political declarations and statements that were being produced in ever growing number and which dominated the openly political and ideological publications. This can be seen more clearly in the pages of the weekly informative magazine Peking Review.
Chinese Literature also became very much a forum for debate for these ideas. But publication didn’t mean that the ideas expressed were correct and it was not uncommon for accepted norms to be rejected as the understanding of the issues grew amongst the population of workers and peasants. So-called ‘experts’ were being challenged and the traditional respect for ‘intellectuals’ was breaking down.
One very obvious indication of this change in approach was in the covers of Chinese Literature. From being pretty pictures, in the main, in the pre-1966 years of publication, from the end of 1966 onwards the covers depicted scenes representing what was happening in the society at the time.
Following the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung in September of 1976 and the success of the counter-revolution of the ‘capitalist-roaders’ the magazine reverted to the banality of bourgeois decoration.
Chinese Literature: Introduction, 1951 (missing), 1952 (missing), 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 (missing), 1960 (missing), 1961, 1962 (missing), 1963, 1964, 1965 (missing), 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981.
Chinese Literature – 1966 – No 1
Contents include:
Taking Goods to the Countryside (a short comedy) – Chao Shu-jen
New Sculptures – Fu Tien-chou
Chinese Literature – 1966 – No 6
Contents include:
Some Problems Concerning Dramas
on Revolutionary Modern Themes – Tao Chu
INTRODUCING A CLASSICAL PAINTING:
Hsu Ku’s “Willow and Mynahs” – Hu Ching-yuan
Chinese Literature – 1966 – No 8
Contents include:
Long Live the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
China in the Midst of High-Tide of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
The Revolutionary Ballet “The White-Haired Girl”
Chinese Literature – 1966 – No 10
Contents include:
Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art – Mao Tse-tung
Songs in Praise of Chairman Mao
Repudiate Chou Yang’s Revisionist Programme for Literature and Art – Wu Chi-yen
