A Continuous Revolution: Making Sense of Cultural Revolution Culture

Harvard East Asian Monographs #343

by Barbara Mittler

Cultural Revolution Culture, often denigrated as nothing but propaganda, was liked not only in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. A Continuous Revolution sets out to explain its legacy. By considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art―music, stage works, prints and posters, comics, and literature―from the point of view of its longue durée , Barbara Mittler suggests it was able to build on a tradition of earlier art works, and this allowed for its sedimentation in cultural memory and its proliferation in contemporary China.

Taking the aesthetic experience of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) as her base, Mittler juxtaposes close readings and analyses of cultural products from the period with impressions given in a series of personal interviews conducted in the early 2000s with Chinese from diverse class and generational backgrounds. By including much testimony from these original voices, Mittler illustrates the extremely multifaceted and contradictory nature of the Cultural Revolution, both in terms of artistic production and of its cultural experience.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction

502 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 2012

Reviews

[Jessica Zu · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good scholarship and also good teaching material. I can use it together with Andrew Walder's China under Mao; should be able to cover two weeks of class at least :)
as for its symbolic power of CR, should be read together with Elizabeth Perry's _Anyuan_, I love cultural studies.

[哲伦 周 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The work itself is highly laudable. Very evocative argument and needs a lot of unpacking.
But highly recommended to anyone.