Publication

Nurturing the socialist spiritual civilization: Interplay between anthropology and politics

Florence Graezer Bideau
2021
Poster talk
Abstract

Since the 1940s, rural traditional dance of the North-West region plays a pivotal part in the making of cultural policy in RPC. Transformed and politized by cultural cadres at Yan'an, social and recreational practices such as yangge dance became propaganda tools for addressing revolutionary issues among local population. Compulsory supervised activity in work-units, it embodies the New China promoted by Mao Zedong until the Cultural Revolution in 1966. In the 1990s, yangge dance reappears in the form of everyday urban carnivals. Groups of neighborhood dancers, so-called spontaneous or religious/traditional, revive this tradition of gathering for ritual or profane occasions. Yangge fever takes hold of society and such dancing practices are gradually recuperated to breathe new life into official narrative: the Chinese socialist spiritual and material civilization promoted by Deng Xiaoping. Major cultural surveys on folkloric practices carried out in the 1980s across the country have paved the way for the revival of inventorying projects on cultural heritage alongside interests for Chinese presence and visibility on the international UNESCO arena. The paper build on empirical case studies from Beijing and Shaanxi Province that reveals conflictual modalities of the interplay between various stakeholders involved in the promotion of such dancing activities. Issues related to transmission modes and legitimate recognition of “authentic” practices are discussed to better understand the selection criteria that endorse a new “healthy” civilized lifestyle within the Chinese population. This also includes the role played by anthropologists on the ground as both as sustainer and disrupter of the performative meaning assigned by the cultural authorities.

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Related concepts (40)
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society.
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by society. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, archive materials, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese politician, political theorist, military strategist, poet, and communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which he led as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from the establishment of the PRC in 1949 until his death in 1976. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, his theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism. Mao was the son of a prosperous peasant in Shaoshan, Hunan.
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