What is the relationship between the archive items within one collection, and what could this relationship tell you about a particular archive item within that collection that the item itself could not?
The China Visual Arts Projects is a collection of archives and artistic works that offers insight into Chinese historical and cultural journey. The collection was established by John Gittings in 1977 (McNally, 2018). John Gittings was a prolific writer of China correspondent for the international media outlet, the Guardian. The collections consist of Gitting’s posters and those donated by students, friends, and colleagues who resided, studies, and traveled in China. Gittings divided the posters in China Visual Arts Projects into 17 main thematic categories. About half of the posters I this particular collection the period between 1976 and 1986 while a quarter of the posters cover the cultural revolution period, 1966-1976. The China Visual Arts project offers rich information that can help the target audience understand the social, economic, and political events that took place in the history of China. Ultimately, this particular report will focus on the posters found in the China Visual Arts Project collection to explain the key events that took place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976. The report aims at explaining the relationship between the archival items in the China Visual Arts Projects collection and determines on such a relationship can be used to explain the information that a single item itself cannot explain. Therefore, the posters will in the collection be explained as a whole to understand the Chinese Cultural Revolution period that has been captured by the China Visual Arts Projects.
The first item in the selected collection is an artistic work with the title: Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts. This magnificent artistic work contains an employee holding in his hand the selected works of Mao. The background of the artwork contains different people, both men, and women, also holding Mao’s book. This particular artwork is of significant importance to the Chinese cultural heritage and shades light on some of the key events that occasioned the Chinese cultural revolution.
As the chairman of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolutionary movement in 1966 to stem out the capitalists from Chinese society (Heberer, 2009). The Cultural Revolution Group, which consisted of young energetic, and radicalized men helped Mao Zedong to attack the headquarters and declare that rebelling against the government was justified. Mao claimed that bourgeois individuals had sneaked into government institutions, CPC Party, factories, schools, and Chinese society to re-introduce the capitalist ideology. He used this particular claim to eliminate his rivals Form the government and CPC and take full charge of the Chinese central government. He argued that the revisionists could be eliminated from Chinese society by the use of violent class struggle. Consequently, the youths responded and factory workers responded by establishing rebel groups and Red Guards throughout China to stem out these Bad elements that Were against the socialism ideology of Mao.
Zedong’s Communist Party of China. The rebel groups and Red Guards began the revolution by holding demonstration sessions regularly and take over power from local governments and overthrow the rivals in CPC branches across the country. In 1967, they formed the revolutionary committees that speared the violent revolutionary struggles. The government formed the People’s Liberation Army to neutralize the rebel groups and Red guards, and eventually restore order in the country. Lin Biao, the then vice-chairman of CPC, was tasked with the role of compiling Mao’s sayings into a book known as the Little Red Book. This particular book was later made a sacred doctrine. Consequently, the Lin Biao was constitutionally chosen as the successor of Mao Zedong. Although Mao recommended the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1969, it continued until 1971, when Lin Biao was accused of a failed coup attempt against Mao, felt out of China, and died in a tragic plane crash (Tandon, 2019). Another political movement known as Gang of Four took charge of the political power in 1972 and the Cultural revolution continued. The cultural revolution ended in 1976 after the death of Mao Zedong and the arrest of the key leaders of Gang of Four.
The second poster, Smash the Old World and Build a New One, has created by the Central Academy of Fine Arts Combat Team to depict the effects of the Red Guard team duped “destruction of the Four Olds.’ In this particular post, a man is seen with a sledgehammer in his hands smashing old books, game tiles, records, and statues. The picture in the poster explains the destruction of the Four Olds; the Chinese old customs, culture, habits, and thinking. The Red Guard campaign entailed destroying the old cultural elements of Chinese culture and replacing them with the new ones.
The campaign to destroy the Four Olds in China and replaced them with the Four news started in Beijing. The Red Guards aimed at establishing a new culture in China during the cultural revolution by destroying the Four olds as a strategy of supporting Mao Zedong to get into power. Firstly, the members of the Red Guard involved in changing the name of the streets and stores in major cities of China. For instance, they renamed the Blue Sky clothe shops into Defending Mao Stores. Also, the Cia Road was renamed into Red Guard Road. The objective of renaming the streets and stores was to popularize Mao Zedong in China and help him rise into power. Also, the members of Red Guard, their supporters and citizens were compelled to change their names into revolutionary slogans such as Jige, which means Following the Cultural Revolution, and Zhihong, which means a Determined Red. Also, the Red Guard campaigns were manifested through other events such as posting character posters, giving speeches, and torturing anyone who was opposed to the destruction of the Old Fours. The Red Four campaign witnessed the destruction of major artistic works of Chiba such as classical literature, Chinese temples, architecture, and Chinese paintings. The places of worship and other sacred places were not sacred by the Red Guard campaign. For instance, the Red Guards attacked the Cemetery of Confucius in 1966. This particular incident occurred when the members of the Red Guards from the Beijing Normal University visited the cemetery in the company of Thor leader Tan Houlan. These young men were so furious that they removed the corpse of Duke Yansheng from the grave and hung it naked on a nearby tree during the desecration of graves in November 1966.
The Red Guards also destroyed literature materials during their campaign of destroying the Four Olds. For instance, they burnt into ashes the Chinese genealogy books that were kept for centuries. However, the Chinese government intervened and declined to endorse the physical destruction of historical materials. It played a crucial role in the protection of archaeological and artifact material from being destroyed during the cultural period. Some of the archaeological discoveries that were protected include the Terracotta Army and the Mawangdui. Unfortunately, the Red Guard campaign against the Four Olds led to the persecution of artists by the members of the Red Guards and other vigilante groups. The destruction of the Four Olds campaign brought cultural advancements in China such as the integration of western instruments into the traditional Peking opera. Also, it contributed to the advancement in traditional medicine practices, most significantly by the development of artemins, an anti-malarial drug from the traditional ginghao plant. The Chinese premier Zhou Enalai commanded the deployment of the People’s Liberation Army to combat the Red Guards after realizing that the group was approaching the Forbidden City. The premier started to develop a more inclusive peace of conduct for the members of the Red Guards as a strategy of diffusing their aggression against the government. However, the plan the Chinese ultra-leftists such as Zhang Chuangiao, Liang Qing, and Kang Sheng foiled Zhou’s plan.
The third poster in the collection is called the Highest Directive. It was developed by Xinhua News Agency Draft. In this particular poster, there is a picture of a man holding the portrait of Mao and is surrounded by a group of people carrying posters written in the Chinese language. The poster describes the directive of Mao’s regime that required the Chinese working class to be considered as the most reliable members of the society. The poster captures a period between 1968 and 1973 in which the Red Guard movement plunged the country into total anarchy (Barnes, 2020). The period witnessed many young people and students from urban centers being sent to rural areas to work and learn from the peasants to change their traditional bourgeois thinking. In 1973, Mao motivates the students to continue with the cultural revolution within education institutions while the members of CPC were required to attend ritual members to deliberate on the Mao Thought.
Another important poster in the collection the work created by Qishuyuan Railway Factory Revolutionary Committee. This particular item is known as Study and uses Mao’s glorious philosophical ideas extensively. It contains the imagers of steelworkers in the factory reading the philosophical thoughts of Mao. This poster depicts the development of Maoism philosophy in China during the revolution period. Mao was a charismatic leader who used all means available to influence his followers and ensured that they embraced his ideas, manifestos, and sociopolitical views (Avina, 2020). Ultimately, he established a cult of personality and was idolized by the Chinese. Mao Zedong developed Maoism philosophy that emphasized revolution struggle against the exploitation of people by the state structure. Consequently, the followers of Mao lost their sense of self and subjected themselves to a higher ideological cause of Mao Thought. The members of the CPC and groups that supported Mao’s cultural revolution such as the Red Guards posted the portrait and picture of Mao on the walls, in streets, and every corner of China. The quotations made by Mao Zedong and documented and recited ritually by the members of the society. Besides, the principles of Maoism and CPC were used to compose revolutionary songs and sung religiously. Ultimately, Mao was considered as a deity and revered by the Chinese people. They believed in his doctrine without questioning. The daily lives of the members of the society in China were inundated with thoughts, views, sounds, songs, and images of Mao.
The title of the fifth item in the collection is People’s Communes are Good. The artistic work was developed in 1974 and it contains two images. The first image contains peasants carrying slogans and flags running cheerfully in the village. In the second image, the peasants are attacking the old landlords with title deeds during a meeting for land reforms. The creator of this particular artwork used the images to explain the strong resistance that witnessed the Cultural Revolution. According to Li (2018), most of the people who benefitted from the economic policies established in the 1960s such as peasants and skilled workers started to resist Mao’s Cultural Revolution. also, some members of the society were annoyed by the destruction that was conducted by the Red Guards during their Four Olds campaign. The peasants and skilled workers were worried about the decline of the Chinese economy as a result of the destruction of property and political instabilities that characterized the cultural revolution period. Most of the provinces in China started to experience strikes, walkouts as well as attacks on vigilante groups and Red Guards.
The last post of the selected archival items from the China Visual Projects collection is the work done by Luda City Workers-Peasants-Soldier Poster Production and Study which contains the image of an angry mob denouncing the activities of Gang Four. The poster also contains the image of a worker holding some of the artistic works of Mao Zedong. This poster depicts the emergence of the Gang of Four movement that was later considered as a counter Chinese Cultural Revolution. The movement was a political faction that was made up of four officials from the CPC; Zhang Chuangiao, Wang Hongwen, Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan. Barnes (2019) asserts that the political faction took control of the key power organs of CPC during the last years of the Cultural Revolution. The gang was associated with societal chaos and the use of excessive powers by the government during the reign of Mao Zedong. The fall of the Gang Four after the dead if Mao in 1976 brought joy and celebrations among the Chinese citizens and marked the end of political upheaval and anarchy in China. Jiang Qing, together with other members of Gang of Four were arrested and imprisoned for the destruction and deaths carried out by the Gang of Four.
In 1966, China experienced political turmoil that resulted in ten years of civil war. This particular period was later referred to as the Chinese Cultural Revolution and was characterized by social upheaval, political struggle as well as civil wars among the Chinese natives. The cultural revolution was triggered by the rise of a political movement that was determined to restore the spirit of the Communist Revolution which occurred in the late 1940s. Unfortunately, the movement almost destroyed Chinese society as the cultural revolution period was characterized by violence, political tensions, and anarchy.
Terry (2000) posits that archival collections play a critical role in providing key information regarding the historical events that took place in a particular society. The China Visual Project contains various posters that are pieced together to offer depth historical information regarding the social, cultural events that took place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution period. The archivists argue that it is important to relate the posters in this collection to get a full understanding of events that took place during this particular period in Chinese history. Each of the seven posters offers partial or incomplete information regarding. However, the archivists managed to arrange the posters based on the chronological orders of events that the posters directed, and thus, a critical analysis of the collection as a whole will offer more information about each item within the collection. It is important to note that most of the archives and other useful artistic works were destroyed during the cultural revolution period (Tandon, 2019). Therefore, there is some of the historical information that got lost during the period. However, the analysis of the posters will enable the audience to connect the links between various events that took place during the revolution period. A critical analysis of the artistic items in the China Visual Project archive reveals they this particular archival collection falls under the Unique a distinctive Collections (UDC), which refers to a collection of archives that are rare and contains crucial information regarding a particular place, period or people. UDC is usually collected and preserved by a particular institution or government for learning purposes. The University of Westminster took the initiative of keeping and protecting the China Visual Project archives to help its students access crucial and rare information regarding the cultural transformation and historical events that took place in China between 1966 and 1976. The management of Westminster University preserved these particular archival collections as of their value and the key role of their creators towards preserving the Chinese cultural heritage. The university classified the posters in this particular collection according to the curriculum of the department of arts of the institution. However, most of the scholars argue that the archival collections need to be classified based on the date of production and arranged in the original order to offer crucial contextual information to the target audience. Therefore, it can be argued that the university classified the posters according to the curriculum of the department because they were meant for learning purposes for art students of Westminster University.
The sorting arrangement of the posters within the China Visual project creates unique relationships between the archival items. In the field of archival science, such unique relationships are known as archival bonds. As explained by Meehan (2009), archival bonds are a network of relationships that exist between each archival item on the collection and the other times that form the same aggregation. According to Muller & Feith (2003), effective ordering of archival collections helps in establishing archival bonds which helps the target audience get a clear understanding of the sequential occurrence of events entailed in a particular collection. For instance, the six posters that have been analyzed on this particular report are arranged on their original order to capture the sequential occurrence of events they took place during the cultural revolution period. The six key events they have been captured by the sex posters include the creation of cultural revolution by Mao Zedong in 1966, the Red Guard’s campaign of 1967, the declaration of the highest directive, the spread of Maoism philosophy, the resistance of cultural revolution and the fall of Gang of Four. A critical analysis of the six posters helps the target audience to understand the events that contributed to the introduction of the Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the factors that led to the end of this particular cultural and political revolution in China.
Most of the scholars from art-related disciplines argue that the cultural Revolution depicts a wasted period of Chinese art history because the political upheaval during this particular period led to the suppression of artistic creativity. The period saw the destruction of crucial artistic works that could have been of great help in learning and understanding the Chinese culture and history. The members of the Red Guards, through the destroy the Four Olds campaign, destroyed Chinese archives, historical sites, and other valuable cultural properties (Powell & Wong, 1997). Also, the conflict between the Red Guards and the Gang of Four as well as the other factions of the Chinese government led to the destruction of academic institutions, imprisonment, and the death of scholars. The ten-year period led to the ruin of personal careers for many artists who were against the adverse effects of the Cultural Reactionary movement. Despite the enormous adverse effect of the Cultural Revolution towards Chinese art and culture, there were a few artistic and cultural benefits that accompanied this particular period. For instance, the rejection of Classical Chinese and Western styles contributed to the growth of Chinese culture. Mao Zedong’s cultural revolutionary ideology contributed to the establishment of a new Chinese socialist state without dependence on Western civilization and culture. Also, the Mao Zedong Regime was against any local cultural practices that he considered AS corrupt and backward. Consequently, the Cultural Revolution ideology contributed to the establishment of modern Chinese culture and way of thinking. Although Mao’s socialism ideology was borrowed from the Soviet Union and integrated into Chinese art institutions, the Chinese ensured that the art was infused with the accepted Chinese cultural traditions.
The China Visual Arts Project archives which were collected and persevered by the University of Westminster depicts the real events that took place in China between the 1940s and 1990s. However, this particular report has focused on the six main posters that covered ten years between 1966 and 1976 during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Therefore, the analysis of these posters plays a critical role in research and teaching of the Chinese culture, religion, and history. Such crucial information cannot be achieved by the analysis of a single poster in the collection (McKemmish et al, 2005). Therefore, analyzing the collection ad a whole is key in understanding the information entailed on a single poster of the China Visual project archival collection. The archivists, on collaboration with the University of Westminster, have persevered these posters and maintained their accessibility and availability to the students, researchers, and members of the society to retain their authenticity and reliability. The information such as date of creation, the creators of the posters, and historical background of these times play a critical role in inferring the literal, contextual and historical background of these posters for purposing of understanding the cultural revolution and political transformations in the Chinese society.
The six posters that have been analyzed depicts the transformation that took place in the field of artwork during the reign of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution era. In 1949, after establishing the People’s Republic of China, Mao give out a declaration that required art to serve the people of China. The declaration set stage for debate on which form of art would be most appropriate during this particular period. Some wanted to embrace the Soviet Realistic style while others advocated for the enhancement of the traditional Chinese ink style. However, Mao Zedong’s regime allowed the two styles to co-exist until the late 1969s (Cushing & Tompkins, 2007). The two artistic approaches were used on art training and practice with the objective. The field of art experienced significant change between 1966 and 1966 as the artists were compelled to use their artistic works to serve the propaganda and political purpose of cultural revolution through strict instructions from CPC leader Mao Zedong and his wife Jiang Wing. The Cultural Revolution period witnessed the emergence of a new visual culture. the artists were compelled to create works that depict d the spirit of cultural revolution. The oil painting replaced the ink painting during the establishment of the socialist Chinese nation. Most of the revolutionary heroes including peasants, workers, and soldiers were at the forefront in using the oil painting realistic style to spread the ideologies of Mao Zedong.
References
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