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Book Cover
E-book
Author Hung, Chang-tai, 1949-

Title Mao's new world : political culture in the early People's Republic / Chang-tai Hung
Published Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 2011

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Description 1 online resource (xv, 352 pages) : illustrations, map
Contents Tiananmen Square : space and politics -- Ten monumental buildings : architecture of power -- Yangge : the dance of revolution -- Parades -- The red line : the Museum of the Chinese Revolution -- Oil paintings and history -- Devils in the drawings -- New year prints and peasant resistance -- The cult of the red martyr -- The Monument to the People's Heroes
Summary In this sweeping portrait of the political culture of the early People's Republic of China (PRC), Chang-tai Hung mines newly available sources to vividly reconstruct how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tightened its rule after taking power in 1949. With political-cultural projects such as reconstructing Tiananmen Square to celebrate the Communist Revolution; staging national parades; rewriting official histories; mounting a visual propaganda campaign, including oil paintings, cartoons, and New Year prints; and establishing a national cemetery for heroes of the Revolution, the CCP built up nationalistic fervor in the people and affirmed its legitimacy. These projects came under strong Soviet influence, but the nationalistic Chinese Communists sought an independent road of nation building; for example, they decided that the reconstructed Tiananmen Square should surpass Red Square in size and significance, against the advice of Soviet experts sent from Moscow.Combining historical, cultural, and anthropological inquiries, Mao's New World examines how Mao Zedong and senior Party leaders transformed the PRC into a propaganda state in the first decade of their rule (1949-1959). Using archival sources only recently made available, previously untapped government documents, visual materials, memoirs, and interviews with surviving participants in the Party's plans, Hung argues that the exploitation of new cultural forms for political ends was one of the most significant achievements of the Chinese Communist Revolution. The book features sixty-six images of architecture, monuments, and artwork to document how the CCP invented the heroic tales of the Communist Revolution
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-340) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Political culture -- China -- History -- 20th century
Communism and culture -- China -- History -- 20th century
Arts -- Political aspects -- China -- History -- 20th century
Symbolism in politics -- China -- History -- 20th century
HISTORY -- Asia -- China.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
Arts -- Political aspects
Communism and culture
Cultural policy
Political culture
Politics and government
Symbolism in politics
SUBJECT China -- Politics and government -- 1949-1976. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85024173
China -- Cultural policy
Subject China
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2010022629
ISBN 9780801462238
0801462231
0801449340
9780801449345
9781501716614
1501716611