Between the State and the Masses: Uncovering the Public in Maoist China

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

Through both bureaucratized institutions and mass campaigns, the Maoist state seemed to have subjected all socio-economic activities, cultural production, and even private thought to its control. Yet, recent scholarship challenges this view by revealing more agency and social heterogeneity at different sites where state and society met. Our panel further complicates the current debate by examining the place of the “public” in Maoist China. Rather than privileging one particular definition of this much debated concept, we use the “public” to capture Maoist social spaces that crossed the boundaries between the formal state and the masses. Our cross-disciplinary inquiries delve into various facets of the Maoist public and investigate its diverse articulations in different sectors of society. In doing so, we explore how the public constitutes a productive angle for discussing aspects of Chinese socialism that have been previously overlooked or taken for granted.

Examining a wide range of cultural discourses, Yao Wu shows how Dunhuang, an outpost on the Silk Road, entered socialist public life as a national heritage site. Yan Li suggests that while public discussions of Soviet literature were dominated by the party line, a private underground reading culture also emerged. Turning to another popular medium, Chenshu Zhou argues that the imitation of film characters among children gave rise to an alternative revolutionary culture. Lastly, Yige Dong analyzes how urban women in Henan created a public space for themselves between the work unit and the street community.

Area of Study

• China and Inner Asia

Session Organizer

• Chenshu Zhou, Stanford University

Chair

• Covell Franklin Meyskens, Naval Postgraduate School

Individual Presentations

• Stories and Pictures of Dunhuang: Making a National Cultural Heritage Site - Yao Wu, Smith College

• Between the Public and the Private: The Reading of Soviet Literature in Mao's China - Yan Li, Oakland University

• The Imitation Game of Mao’s Children: Heroes, Revolution, and Film Reception - Chenshu Zhou, Stanford University

• Between Danwei and Jiedao: Engendering the Socialist Urban Space in 1950’s PRC - Yige Dong, Johns Hopkins University

Discussant

• Zheng Wang, University of Michigan