scholarly journals Developments in Chinese psychiatry

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 437-439
Author(s):  
G. M. G. McClure

During a recent visit to China, which included meetings with psychiatrists in Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Hohot, I noted that many of the political constraints of the Cultural Revolution on psychiatry had been removed. Clearly, Chinese society was still strongly influenced by Marxist doctrine, but there was greater academic and clinical freedom for the reinstated professionals who had previously been considered ‘elitist’. Western textbooks and journals were available, and the very fact that Chinese psychiatrists were able to communicate freely with me was in sharp contrast to the enforced isolation of the previous decade.

Author(s):  
Yang Yan

Background. The article discusses one of the most complex and controversial periods in the development of the Chinese orchestra of traditional instruments of the new type – the 1960–70s. Since 1966, with the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, all conservatories were closed, and Western instruments and teaching materials were destroyed. Chinese musicians, unable to play classical music, were forced to work with folk songs and folklore in remote provinces. The objective assessment of this historical phenomenon makes it possible to evaluate it not only as a dead end on China’s path to modern progress, but also as an era of constructive innovations and efforts to make a real change in China’s cultural heritage. The specifics of the creative activity of orchestras conducted by conductors Li Delun, Huang Yijun, Li Guoquan, Yang Jizhen is highlighted. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of the development of the Chinese orchestra of traditional instruments in the 1960s – 1970s, to determine the role of prominent Chinese musicians in the process of modernizing the orchestra and creating a national repertoire during this period. Research methods are based on scientific approaches necessary for the disclosure of the topic. The methodology is based on an integrated approach that combines the principle of musical theoretical, musical historical and executive analysis. Results. As soon as the Cultural Revolution began, the music centers in Beijing and Shanghai came under attack. Composers were deprived of their creative freedom, since all the works had to correspond to the political situation of the time. At this time, collective creativity in the genre of opera and ballet, written according to certain pattern and corresponding to the ideas of Mao Zedong, is widely adopted. As standards of “new art”, official propaganda put forward “exemplary” revolutionary performances – Yanbanshee, almost entirely based on the material of the period of the liberation struggle. The Central and Shanghai orchestras were also persecuted. The chief conductor of the Central Symphony Orchestra, Li Delun was arrested. Since 1963, the programs of the Shanghai Orchestra of Chinese Instruments have begun to reflect the country’s transition to the Cultural Revolution. In the compositions appeared more pronounced revolutionary ideals, showing the need for government reform. Such content was, for example, the orchestral suite "Revolutionary Song", created by the musicians of the Shanghai orchestra. Due to the policy of the Cultural Revolution after 1964, the orchestra completely ceased to perform. In 1964, works performed at a concert in honor of the nation’s birthday included revolutionary pieces such as “Praise to the People”, “Spring Gong Enhances Performance”, “Battle in Shanghai”, and others. Shanghai Orchestra Conductor Juan Yijun, composer Luo Zhongrong, one of the authors of the revolutionary symphony “Shatszyaban” was persecuted and sent to the countryside for forced labor. In 1966, as a result of the repressions, outstanding conductors Li Guoquan and Yang Jazheng died. The widespread distribution of orchestras in China is a paradox. “Exemplary Performances” played an active role in the distribution of Chinese symphonic music. Many amateur orchestras significantly increased their professional level and could perform individual symphonic works. Major symphonic works on revolutionary themes were also created: Qu Wei’s “The Gray-Haired Girl” symphonic suite (created by his ballet), Tian Feng’s “Five Cantatas to lyrics by Mao Zedong”, “Pipa Concert for Orchestra” and “Steppe Sisters” Wu Zujiang, Liu Dehai, Wang Yanqiao. Another genre was music for ballets (“The Red Women’s Battalion”, “The Gray-Haired Girl”). Conclusions. In the period from the 1960s to the 1970s, Chinese orchestral music was enriched with new genres that influenced its subsequent development. In spite of the fact that the main models of Yangbanshee are the opera and ballet genres, major symphonic works were also created: the symphony “Shatszyaban” (Luo Zhongzhong, Yang Muyun, Deng Jiaan, Tan Jingming); Qu Wei’s symphonic suite “The Gray-Haired Girl”; Overture “Festival” Xu Yang Yang, Pipa Concert with Orchestra “Steppe Sisters” Wu Zuqiang, Liu Dehai, Wang Yanqiao. In these compositions combine the traditions of Chinese musical art and European orchestral art, embodied the creative search for Chinese composers and performers to create samples of the modern symphony genre in China. Collective creativity was widespread: on the one hand, the efforts of several people created largescale monumental compositions, on the other hand, the individual author’s principle was leveled, which made it possible to “depersonalize” music. However, an understanding of the cultural aspects of Yanbanshee and its features in a political context is of great importance for an objective study of the development processes of musical art in China. Starting around the 1990s, the political thaw allowed musical works from the time of the Cultural Revolution, gradually returning them to the mainstream of the achievements of Chinese society. Since then, the Yanbanshee has a strong tendency to revive, enjoying the support of the population and continuing to be very popular in the theater, on television, and in the form of commercial and private entertainment.


Author(s):  
Yang Yan

Background. The article discusses one of the most complex and controversial periods in the development of the Chinese orchestra of traditional instruments of the new type – the 1960–70s. Since 1966, with the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, all conservatories were closed, and Western instruments and teaching materials were destroyed. Chinese musicians, unable to play classical music, were forced to work with folk songs and folklore in remote provinces. The objective assessment of this historical phenomenon makes it possible to evaluate it not only as a dead end on China’s path to modern progress, but also as an era of constructive innovations and efforts to make a real change in China’s cultural heritage. The specifics of the creative activity of orchestras conducted by conductors Li Delun, Huang Yijun, Li Guoquan, Yang Jizhen is highlighted. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of the development of the Chinese orchestra of traditional instruments in the 1960s – 1970s, to determine the role of prominent Chinese musicians in the process of modernizing the orchestra and creating a national repertoire during this period. Research methods are based on scientific approaches necessary for the disclosure of the topic. The methodology is based on an integrated approach that combines the principle of musical theoretical, musical historical and executive analysis. Results. As soon as the Cultural Revolution began, the music centers in Beijing and Shanghai came under attack. Composers were deprived of their creative freedom, since all the works had to correspond to the political situation of the time. At this time, collective creativity in the genre of opera and ballet, written according to certain pattern and corresponding to the ideas of Mao Zedong, is widely adopted. As standards of “new art”, official propaganda put forward “exemplary” revolutionary performances – Yanbanshee, almost entirely based on the material of the period of the liberation struggle. The Central and Shanghai orchestras were also persecuted. The chief conductor of the Central Symphony Orchestra, Li Delun was arrested. Since 1963, the programs of the Shanghai Orchestra of Chinese Instruments have begun to reflect the country’s transition to the Cultural Revolution. In the compositions appeared more pronounced revolutionary ideals, showing the need for government reform. Such content was, for example, the orchestral suite "Revolutionary Song", created by the musicians of the Shanghai orchestra. Due to the policy of the Cultural Revolution after 1964, the orchestra completely ceased to perform. In 1964, works performed at a concert in honor of the nation’s birthday included revolutionary pieces such as “Praise to the People”, “Spring Gong Enhances Performance”, “Battle in Shanghai”, and others. Shanghai Orchestra Conductor Juan Yijun, composer Luo Zhongrong, one of the authors of the revolutionary symphony “Shatszyaban” was persecuted and sent to the countryside for forced labor. In 1966, as a result of the repressions, outstanding conductors Li Guoquan and Yang Jazheng died. The widespread distribution of orchestras in China is a paradox. “Exemplary Performances” played an active role in the distribution of Chinese symphonic music. Many amateur orchestras significantly increased their professional level and could perform individual symphonic works. Major symphonic works on revolutionary themes were also created: Qu Wei’s “The Gray-Haired Girl” symphonic suite (created by his ballet), Tian Feng’s “Five Cantatas to lyrics by Mao Zedong”, “Pipa Concert for Orchestra” and “Steppe Sisters” Wu Zujiang, Liu Dehai, Wang Yanqiao. Another genre was music for ballets (“The Red Women’s Battalion”, “The Gray-Haired Girl”). Conclusions. In the period from the 1960s to the 1970s, Chinese orchestral music was enriched with new genres that influenced its subsequent development. In spite of the fact that the main models of Yangbanshee are the opera and ballet genres, major symphonic works were also created: the symphony “Shatszyaban” (Luo Zhongzhong, Yang Muyun, Deng Jiaan, Tan Jingming); Qu Wei’s symphonic suite “The Gray-Haired Girl”; Overture “Festival” Xu Yang Yang, Pipa Concert with Orchestra “Steppe Sisters” Wu Zuqiang, Liu Dehai, Wang Yanqiao. In these compositions combine the traditions of Chinese musical art and European orchestral art, embodied the creative search for Chinese composers and performers to create samples of the modern symphony genre in China. Collective creativity was widespread: on the one hand, the efforts of several people created largescale monumental compositions, on the other hand, the individual author’s principle was leveled, which made it possible to “depersonalize” music. However, an understanding of the cultural aspects of Yanbanshee and its features in a political context is of great importance for an objective study of the development processes of musical art in China. Starting around the 1990s, the political thaw allowed musical works from the time of the Cultural Revolution, gradually returning them to the mainstream of the achievements of Chinese society. Since then, the Yanbanshee has a strong tendency to revive, enjoying the support of the population and continuing to be very popular in the theater, on television, and in the form of commercial and private entertainment.


1973 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 667-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Parish

In Chinese Studies, three themes have acquired new emphasis since the Cultural Revolution: first, the view that China is not a simple monolithic state but one with diversified interest groups and potential internal conflict. Second, the influence of the military throughout society and the extent to which its particular interests and internal conflicts shape the nature of government and society. Third, the fact that bureaucratism, though attacked in the Cultural Revolution, is likely to continue shaping Chinese society and to be a perennial threat to revolutionary ideals. This article touches on each of these themes – first, by an analysis of personal loyalty groups during the Cultural Revolution and the Lin Piao affair and, second, by an account of the changing nature of Chinese bureaucracies and of how these changes impinge on factional politics.


1973 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 450-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis Joffe

Whatever may have been the objectives of the principal participants in the Cultural Revolution, there can be little doubt that they did not include what turned out to be, at least in the short term, the most striking and significant outcome of the upheaval: the rise of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to a pivotal position in China's power structure. Compelled to intervene in the political process when the disruptive effects of the struggle reached dangerous dimensions, the army gradually ascended to the commanding heights of political power in the provinces, and acquired a substantial voice in the policy-making councils of Peking. When the Ninth Congress of the Party finally met in April 1969 to write the epilogue to the Cultural Revolution, it was the PLA rather than the Party that held most of the key positions of power in China.


1989 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. E. Palmer

An outstanding feature of the far-reaching plans for development which China has been earnestly promoting under the general rubric of the ‘four modernizations’ is the post-Mao leadership's determined effort to revive and thoroughly institutionalize a meaningful and formal legal system. There is an obvious and sharp distinction between the policies towards law pursued during the period between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s and the more recent attempts to fashion a pivotal role for law in Chinese society. Throughout much of the course of socialist rule China's leaders have been concerned not with promoting effective legal institutions but, rather, with the direct insertion of extrinsic political norms and values into the law. During the Cultural Revolution many important legal structures ceased to function. In contrast, in the years since 1978 an important aspect of the rigorous political reaction to the uncertainty and conflict of the Cultural Revolution has been unequivocal support for the establishment of a sound legal system. The leadership now believes that systematic and regulated law-making, public awareness of the law, and proper application of the rules should be integral elements in the administration of justice in the PRC. The hope is that this approach will prevent the recurrence of arbitrary political rule, curb reliance on ‘connections’ or guanxi in bureaucratic conduct, promote economic growth and generally encourage the development of a more predictable and orderly social life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 227 ◽  
pp. 653-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Russo

AbstractA number of prolonged political experiments in Chinese factories during the Cultural Revolution proved that, despite any alleged “historical” connection between the Communist Party and the “working class,” the role of the workers, lacking a deep political reinvention, was framed by a regime of subordination that was ultimately not dissimilar from that under capitalist command. This paper argues that one key point of Deng Xiaoping's reforms derived from taking these experimental results into account accurately but redirecting them towards the opposite aim, an even more stringent disciplining of wage labour. The outcome so far is a governmental discourse which plays an important role in upholding the term “working class” among the emblems of power, while at the same time nailing the workers to an unconditional obedience. The paper discusses the assumption that, while this stratagem is one factor behind the stabilization of the Chinese Communist Party, it has nonetheless affected the decline of the party systems inherited from the 20th century.


1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sneath

A number of papers have been written in the west on the subject of the Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia. Hyer and Heaton's (1968) account of the period in the China Quarterly deals with events up until 1968, and relies heavily upon an analysis of the news reports broadcast by Radio Inner Mongolia at that time. The paper focuses upon the fate of Ulanhu, the Chairman of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region who fell from power during the Cultural Revolution. Hyer and Heaton are concerned primarily with the power struggles within the political apparatus, and they include no first-hand or eyewitness accounts. The paper gives no indication of the effects of the Cultural Revolution upon the great bulk of the population of the I.M.A.R., either Mongolian or Han Chinese. However, the article does carefully document the rapidly changing tide of Inner Mongolian government policy and the emergence of populist groups which challenged the political establishment, over the period 1965 to 1968.


1974 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 203-224

Different currents appeared to be at play in the political events of the quarter, with many of the trends being unclear or only barely discernible. One expected event which did not take place was the convening of the National People's Congress; the absence of which is also giving grounds for believing that many political problems remained unsolved. While it appeared, particularly in the field of foreign relations, that the post-10th Congress leadership, dominated by Chou En-lai and including in the second rank many of those prominently abused during the Cultural Revolution, remained firmly in control, there also appeared to be a re-emergence of some of the ideological formulations of the Cultural Revolution. The slogan “going against the tide is a Marxist-Leninist principle,” which had been attributed to Mao during the 10th Congress in August, was frequently repeated, although with markedly different emphasis in different provinces, and the war-cry of the Cultural Revolution, “to rebel is justified,” reappeared, although without national prominence. Some of the more abstruse press discussion even suggested the possibility that Chou En-lai himself was under pressure despite the apparent dominance and security of his position.


Author(s):  
Wang Zheng

Locating a turning point in socialist film industry in 1964, this chapter demonstrates a crucial moment when a socialist feminist revolution of culture was replaced by the ascending Cultural Revolution in the cultural realm. An anti-feudalism agenda was defined as revisionist and bourgeois by radicals in the CCP in their propagating of a Maoist class struggle. Underlying the political maneuvers were personal animosities that led to Xia Yan’s downfall and Jiang Qing’s ascendance to the power center.The chapter presents a gender analysis of Jiang Qing’s revolutionary model theaters and suggests a re-location and re-periodization of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in the cultural realm in 1964.


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