CULTURE
The educational
goals of the Chinese Communist government have been promoted by
means other than formal education. During the 1960s and '70s,
plays, opera, popular literature, and music were seen to have
the capacity to educate. For example, in 1964 the Peking Opera,
which has a history of 200 years of active performance in China,
presented the Festival of Peking Opera in Contemporary Themes,
under the organization of Jiang Qing, Mao's wife. New works combining
drama and ideology, such as Taking of Tiger Mountain by Strategy,
were written for the opera. Similar cultural modifications were
introduced into Chinese ballet; elements of traditional folk dance,
martial arts, gymnastics, and classical ballet were integrated
into a popular production. These shows were performed not only
in the major cities but also in the smaller cities and the countryside.
With the increase in foreign cultural exchanges since the mid-1970s,
the official attitude toward the propaganda aspects of the arts
has been relaxed. Foreign literature, which had been banned in
the 1960s, began to reappear in China. In 1978-79 some 200 translations
of foreign works, including popular novels from the West, were
completed in the People's Literature Publishing House.
In popular music the change was officially noted in a government
report, which stated that new songs were emerging in the early
1980s because the Chinese were "tired of the old political songs
and slogans they grew up with." The Chinese government also recognizes
that the arts afford a useful social outlet. Movie theaters are
usually filled to capacity, and traveling troupes of acrobats,
circus performers, and jugglers, as well as ballet and opera shows,
play to full houses in small cities and commune centers. During
the 1980s, China showed increased openness to classical and popular
musicians from the West.
The climate for cultural expression in China is delicate because
of the speed with which government attitudes can change. In 1957,
during the Hundred Flowers campaign, writers and intellectuals
were encouraged to speak up and provide perspectives on the government's
progress in meeting the needs of the people. The criticisms that
were prompted by this call for candor were so strong that the
government suddenly reversed itself, and many intellectuals found
themselves persecuted for the opinions they had expressed. Similar
"changes of sky" led China's artists, writers, composers, and
filmmakers to respond cautiously to governmental encouragement
of independent cultural expression in the late 1970s and early
'80s.
Cultural Institutions
Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou play leading cultural roles in
China; most of the renowned museums, theaters, and cultural displays
are in these cities.
Beijing remains the cultural heart of the nation. Located in the
vicinity of the famous Tienamen Square are the Forbidden City,
formerly the residence of the emperor and now a museum open to
the public; the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall; and the Museum of the
Chinese Revolution. Beijing was also the location of the famous
"Democracy Wall" and its so-called big-character posters that
were significant (until officially banned in the late 1970s) in
the expression of public opinion about governmental policy shifts
after Mao's death in 1976. The Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven,
the Ming dynasty tombs, and the Great Wall are all near Beijing;
these great monuments of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties provide
a cultural focus for the increasingly mobile Chinese population.
In Shanghai are the Museum of Art and History, which houses one
of China's finest art collections, and the Museum of Natural Sciences.
Also here is the Garden of the Mandarin Yu, which exemplifies
a significant program of government support of the arts; after
1949 the Communist government opened many formerly private homes,
gardens, and parks of the wealthy, making them into public museums.
They have become popular in all cities as places to stroll, meet
for tea, and chat with friends and foreigners, and as places to
be educated about the class differences between the wealthy and
the poor before 1949.
Guangzhou is the home of one of China's major zoos; the Guangzhou
Museum; Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall; Yuexiu (Yüeh-hsiu) Park, with
its Ming dynasty Zhenhai (Chenhai) Pagoda; the Temple of the Six
Banyan Trees; and the Huaisheng Mosque, which was founded in ad
627. Near Xi'an (Sian) is one of the most impressive works of
Chinese antiquity-a terra-cotta army of more than 6000 life-size
figures that were found in the tomb of the Ch'in emperor Shih
Huang Ti, who died in 210 bc.
The promotion of national self-awareness since the 1949 revolution
has led virtually every city to establish some sort of cultural
monument to its role in the development of China. In cities where
no formal museums exist, usually a former estate has been turned
into an open garden or tearoom, giving the cities an increasingly
urbane character.
