Staging Chinese revolution : theater, film, and the afterlives of propaganda / Xiaomei Chen.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Staging Chinese Revolution surveys fifty years of theatrical propaganda performances in China, revealing a dynamic, commercial capacity in works often dismissed as artifacts of censorship.

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CHOICE Review

Though it may seem institutionalized, propaganda can be deeply intertwined with personal memories and provoke nostalgic emotions. Propaganda performances in China shape national and personal histories. Chen (Chinese literature, Univ. of California, Davis) examines two primary genres, historical narratives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and propaganda drama (theater, film, and television). In her introduction Chen argues that propaganda, often dismissed by journalistic discourses, is far from a "monolithic, top-down" practice characterized "solely by censorship and suppression of freedom." Only by treating propaganda as "a dialogic and dialectical process" can one fully understand the forces and contradictions of this particular form of expression, which is not limited to totalitarian regimes but appears in various guises in all societies. Considering genres ranging from huaju plays and music and dance theater to eulogy, the four chronological chapters focus on key "founding father" figures (and works) in modern Chinese history: Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and the "red classics." One of the CCP's biggest challenges is to maintain its monopoly (single-party control borrowed from Leninism) while developing an economy with "capitalist characteristics." Chen shows how propaganda produces narratives that hold the socialist state together. Not to be missed is the epilogue, in which Chen asks, "Where are the founding mothers?" Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Alexa Huang, George Washington University