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A Study of Idiomatic Piano Compositions During the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of ChinaFan-Long, Grace (Chun Grace) 08 1900 (has links)
This study demonstrated that the piano, a typical Western instrument, became the Chinese composer's tool for expressing the sound ideals and tone qualities that are intrinsic to Chinese music. A new musical idiom was created in these piano compositions, an idiom that combined Western compositional techniques and traditionally-based Chinese ideals.
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Essays on Education, Political Movements and Income Growth in ChinaFeng, Na January 2016 (has links)
This dissertation presents research on three topics relating to how education is linked to economic development in China. The data are obtained from the 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2013 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS).
The first essay examines the consequences of the Cultural Revolution. Using the 2003 and 2006 CGSS, the research is able to identify participants in a specific initiative, the “up to the mountains and down to the villages” movement (referred to as the Sentdown Campaign) and the length of time that they were involved in the initiative. The econometric results--including OLS, Heckit and 2SLS methods--provide evidence of substantial negative and long-lasting effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, labor force participation and personal income. Those who were involved in the Sentdown Campaign were found to be able to recoup some of these losses through the accumulation of education after they came back from rural areas, but these were generally not enough to compensate for the overall disruptions the Cultural Revolution caused on them. Furthermore, those who were sent down and stayed for more than five years in the countryside were not able to recuperate any lost years of schooling and, instead, suffered bigger losses in income than any of the other groups discussed in this essay.
The second essay examines the attitudes of urban Chinese citizens towards migrants, as obtained using survey data from the 2005 CGSS. Estimating probit equations of the likelihood that the respondents in the sample had positive attitudes towards migrants, the research shows the connections between a range of explanatory variables and these attitudes. Educational attainment is not found to reduce negative attitudes towards migrants, a result that is different from the literature on the determinants of attitudes towards immigrants in recipient countries. The research also finds that as migrant presence grows in workplaces and neighborhoods, urban residents actually become more positive in their attitudes towards migrants. Gender is also found to have a significant impact on attitudes towards migrants. Men tend to have much more positive attitudes towards migrants, perhaps because social conventions frown against urban women having friendships with migrant men, or because the marriage market in urban China favors urban men marrying rural women.
The third essay examines the role played by human capital in accounting for income growth in China between 2003 and 2013. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of the growth in individual hourly income shows that the overall role played by human capital on income growth in China during this decade is significant for men but not for women. For men, human capital accounts for 0.1796 in log-income change between 2003 and 2013, which given the total log-income change in this time period for men was 0.9160, represents close to 20 percent of the growth in income in the country. For women, the impact is small and actually negative, equal to -0.0433 out of the 0.8435 increase in log-income during the decade, a result that is mostly the outcome of declining rates of return to education among females.
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Translating Revolution in Twentieth-Century China and FranceKing, Diana January 2017 (has links)
In “Translating Revolution in Twentieth-Century China and France,” I examine how the two countries translated each other’s revolutions during critical moments of political and cultural crisis (the 1911 Revolution, the May Fourth Movement (1919), the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), and May 1968 in France), and subsequently (or simultaneously), how that knowledge was mobilized in practice and shaped the historical contexts in which it was produced. Drawing upon a broad range of discourses including political journals, travel narratives, films and novels in French, English and Chinese, I argue that translation served as a key site of knowledge production, shaping the formulation of various political and cultural projects from constructing a Chinese national identity to articulating women’s rights to thinking about radical emancipation in an era of decolonization.
While there have been isolated studies on the influence of the French Revolution in early twentieth-century China, and the impact of the Chinese Cultural Revolution on the development of French Maoism and French theory in the sixties, there have been few studies that examine the circulation of revolutionary ideas and practices across multiple historical moments and cultural contexts. In addition, the tendency of much current scholarship to focus exclusively on the texts of prominent French or Chinese intellectuals overlooks the vital role played by translation, and by non-elite thinkers, writers, students and migrant workers in the cross-fertilization of revolutionary discourses and practices.
Given that potential solutions to social and political problems associated with modernity were debated through the recurring circulation of translations (and retranslations) of ideas such as “democracy”, “natural rights,” “women’s rights,” and so on, I examine: who was translating whom, and for what purposes? What specific concepts and values are privileged, and why? Taking translation and translingual contact as my point of departure, I illuminate how French and Chinese intermediaries envisioned and attempted to create a just society under fraught historical conditions.
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A ESCOLA E O INÉDITO VIÁVEL: FUNDAMENTOS IDEOLÓGICOS PARA UMA NOVA HEGEMONIA / The school and the utopia : ideological foundations for a new hegemonyFASANO, EDSON 01 December 2016 (has links)
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Previous issue date: 2016-12-01 / The theme of this research, of qualitative nature, focuses on educational policy, in a special way, on the relevance of the development of an ideology to be unchained of a specific curriculum, geared to public and popular education. The school curriculum of the middleclass school is marked by hegemonic ideology, that tries to hide the class struggle under the aegis of scientific neutrality. Thus, this research puts itself in opposition to the movement called "Escola sem Partido". The question that guides this research refers to the recognition of the existence of the working classes own ideology and tries to understand their aspects and features, as well as the legitimation of such ideology through the counter-hegemonic curriculum to be implemented in public and popular schools. The study assumes that there is a popular ideology built on the everyday experiences of exploitation and oppression of the lower classes, revolts generators. However, when establishing the common sense, that ideology, in itself, is not able to generate a class consciousness. For this reason, it is emphasized the importance of its questioning in the popular and public school curriculum. In this context, the central objective of this research is to contribute to the development of a transformative curriculum. Considering the above, it was tried to conduct a literature review from the theoretical contributions of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire, on the themes popular ideology and school curriculum, using as a basis for this debate the ideas of the French Marxist Alain Badiou. The research counted, too, with a field research in which there have been four semi-open interviews with renowned Brazilian intellectuals: Gaudêncio Frigotto, José Eustáquio Romão, Luiz Antonio Cunha and Claudio de Oliveira Ribeiro. The study made it possible to confirm the hypothesis presented here and infer, therefore, that a public and popular school can not be made possible following the same curriculum and values of middleclass school / O tema desta pesquisa, de cunho qualitativo, centra-se na política educacional, de modo especial, sobre a pertinência do desenvolvimento de uma ideologia a ser desencadeadora de um currículo específico, voltado à educação pública e popular. O currículo escolar da escola burguesa é marcado pela ideologia hegemônica, que procura esconder a luta de classes sob a égide da neutralidade científica. Assim, esta pesquisa coloca-se em contraposição ao movimento denominado de “Escola sem Partido”. O problema que norteia a presente investigação refere-se ao reconhecimento da existência de uma ideologia própria das classes populares e busca compreender suas marcas e características, bem como a legimitação de tal ideologia por meio dos currículos contra-hegemônicos a serem implementados nas escolas públicas e populares. O estudo parte do pressuposto de que existe uma ideologia popular construída nas experiências cotidianas de exploração e opressão das classes subalternas, geradoras de revoltas. Contudo, ao se estabelecer no senso comum, essa ideologia, por si só, não é capaz de gerar uma consciência de classe. Por essa razão, ressalta-se a importância de sua problematização no currículo da escola pública e popular. Nesse contexto, o objetivo central desta pesquisa é contribuir com a elaboração de um currículo escolar transformador. Em face do exposto, buscou-se realizar uma revisão bibliográfica a partir das contribuições teóricas de Antonio Gramsci e Paulo Freire, sobre as temáticas ideologia popular e currículo escolar, utilizando como fundamento para esse debate as concepções do marxista francês Alain Badiou. A investigação contou, também, com uma pesquisa de campo, na qual foram realizadas quatro entrevistas semiabertas com renomados intelectuais brasileiros: Gaudêncio Frigotto, José Eustáquio Romão, Luiz Antonio Cunha e Claudio de Oliveira Ribeiro. O estudo possibilitou confirmar a hipótese ora apresentada e inferir, portanto, que uma escola pública e popular não pode ser viabilizada seguindo o mesmo currículo e valores da escola burguesa.
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The politics of factional conflict and collective violence : the Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou, 1966-1968Yan, Fei January 2014 (has links)
This thesis examines the nature of mass factionalism and rebellious alignment during the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1968. This period in Chinese history presents an internecine mass conflict that boasts the largest political upheavals of the 20th century. The most puzzling question of the explosion of this intense rebellious rivalry lies in the mechanisms and processes of insurgents’ political choices: Why did people join and affiliate with different insurgent groups? What decision did people make and what were their reasons? In conventional social structural analyses of contentious politics, mass actors’ decisions are affected by functionally differentiated interests inherent in their pre-existing social positions. This model defines mass rebellion and factional alignment as a form of interest group politics, attributing political choices to participants’ pre-existing sociopolitical status quo and thus pits different social groups against one another. As a result, similar occupational and status groups in the previous hierarchical structure would make similar political choices that lead them to form well-defined competing factions. In contrast to this static structural interpretation, I propose a contextual process model to analyze processes of political division and factional contention within political movements. With a case study of Guangzhou, I argue that rebellious alignment was rooted in their political interactions in a rapidly evolving phase of the conflict, rather than rising from the tensions that existed between different socio-economic layers of society. During the times of radical instability such as the Chinese Cultural Revolution, political ambiguity and contingency were the defining characteristics. In such unstable political environment, the basic elements of the movement changed so many times: each phase of the rebel movement projected itself by means of different actors, agendas, targets, and so on. Consequently, individual rebels observed their embedded local political environment, interpreted it, and subsequently chose a course of action in a dynamic process. In this regard, mass actors from identical social strata in the previous hierarchical structure would make different political choices and tactically choose their factional camp.
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一場歷史與當代的辯證︰論九○年代後華語電影中的文革再現 / The Dialectics of History and Contemporary: The Representations of Cultural Revolution in Chinese Language Films Made During and After 1990s.關志華 Unknown Date (has links)
本論文主要是對一九九○年代過後所攝製的七部敘事背景有關中國文化大革命(簡稱文革)的電影進行分析,探討這些電影裡頭對中國文革的刻畫,更試著勾勒出這些文革的再現與當代中國的文化情境的關聯性。中國自文革後一九八○年代以來,它的文化情境已經產生了頗多變化。這些文化情境,筆者主要是分成三個階段或者部份來闡述。首先是文革過後「新時期」的「文化反思」和「歷史反思」思潮。第二階段是一九九○年代中國高速邁進全球化和市場經濟化的「後新時期」。最後筆者試圖將討論放在邁入兩千年新世紀中國在政治和經濟上崛起的脈絡上。
筆者發現,由三位「第五代」導演田壯壯、陳凱歌和張藝謀所執導的的《藍風箏》、《霸王別姬》和《活著》,其實是受一九八○年代「文化反思」和「歷史反思」的影響,再加上這三位導演年輕時期的生活曾籠罩在文革時候的革命話語中,使到他們的作品散發出濃厚的「文化反思」和「歷史反思」意識。在這些作品中,中國的歷史尤其是文革,成為了他們反思中國民族文化的梏結的寓言敘事策略,更成為了他們尋求為民族國家的文化、政治與經濟上的定位的言說工具。這些在電影中所描繪的個人經歷,都被投射在集體民族的經歷中,折射出對民族集體歷史命運的反思和批判,所呼喚的是一種對社會拯救的理想,一種為國家民族建立一個嶄新文化主體的實踐。
然而,筆者卻發現,另外三部電影,即《陽光燦爛的日子》、《巴爾札克與小裁縫》以及《美人草》卻遠離一九七○、八○年代中國「新時期」「文化反思」和「歷史反思」思潮下的「啟蒙」、「救贖」等的人道傳統話語。這三部電影並沒有呈現出文革的殘酷的一面,反而注重在年輕主人公們朝氣勃勃,充滿激情奔放的青春成長經歷上。同時,《陽光燦爛的日子》通過刻畫人類記憶的建構性和不確定性,來表示我們無法通過記憶來重構一種「絕對的」和「整體的」的文革歷史圖像。而這種現象,是一九九○年代大眾文化在中國的出現與消費社會的成形不無關係。
本論文的最後一個部份,是針對《太陽照常升起》進行分析。筆者發現,這部電影是在「國族寓言」與「反國族寓言」的元素中滑動。首先,它通過絢爛艷麗色彩的攝影,再加上獨特的場面調度,把它的時空背景處理得充滿夢幻色彩,更創造了一個如夢如幻的文革時代。其次,這部電影也通過對文革樣板戲中的女性形象的戲仿,搗毀了女性扮演「國族寓言」的文化角色。然而,這部電影裡頭卻增添了從國外回歸「祖國」的兩個華僑角色。他們在文革時候的遭遇,卻又可以化身為寓意中國現今處境的國族寓言,而這國族寓言跟一九八○年代的文化反思和歷史反思思潮下的國族寓言以及第五代導演的寓言策略有所不同。這部電影中的國族寓言所寓意的,更是和二十一世紀的中國在全球政治和經濟上的崛起有關。而中國在政治經濟上的崛起,卻又和「大中華」的文化認同息息相關。 / This essay focus on analyzing the portraits of China’s Cultural Revolution in seven Chinese Language films made during and after the 1990s. This essay points out that three films made by the “fifth generation” directors namely Blue Kite, Farewell My Concubine and To Live, tend to treat the history of Cultural Revolution as a “national allegory”. These “fifth generation” directors are trying to articulate their narrations of Cultural Revolution to the “cultural reflection” ideological trend of the New Era in the late 1970s and 1980s which searched for the “enlightenment” and “salvation” for the Chinese culture.
But this essay also points out that the other three films namely In the Heat of the Sun, Balzac Et La Petite Tailleuse Chinoise and The Foliage, didn’t display the harsher aspects of the Cultural Revolution. Instead they focus on the vigorous and enthusiastic adolescence life of the young protagonists. In the Heat of the Sun also displays the construction and the uncertainty of the human memory, to express that we can’t recapture an “absolute” and a “total” historical image of Cultural Revolution. The portraits of Cultural Revolution in these three films also distance themselves away from the “enlightenment” and “salvation” cultural discourse during the New Era in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Lastly, this essay focuses on the film The Sun Also Rises directed by China’s famous actor-cum-director JIANG Wen. This film slides between elements of “national allegory” and “anti-national allegory” for China. Firstly, this film through its brightly colorful cinematography and unique mise en scene, created a film space that is full of fantasy and a dreamlike historical events of Cultural Revolution. Secondly, this film through its parody of the revolutionary model theater of women images, destroys the role of the women in performing the national allegory. But this film added two characters of overseas Chinese returned to China. Their unpleasant experiences during the time of Cultural Revolution can be read as the national allegory of China. Lastly, this film through its unique narrative structure put the ethnic consciousness of “Chineseness” and the concept of “Greater China” into a process of continuing deconstruction and reconstruction.
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Wang xiaobo, un « génie en dehors du système » : des jeux d'écriture au « phénomène wang xiaobo » / Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997), a "Genius outside the system" : from writing games to "Wang Xiaobo phenomenon" / “文坛外高手”王小波 :追溯“王小波现象”,深究其小说艺术Mercier, Mei 20 October 2016 (has links)
Le point de départ de notre recherche a été la compréhension du phénomène Wang Xiaobo, de sa genèse, de son amplification et de ses échos dans l’histoire de la littérature chinoise. La thèse rappelle le contexte de la société chinoise et du monde littéraire des années 1990, indispensable pour saisir ce phénomène. Sa naissance est en effet étroitement liée à l’essor de la mouvance libérale chinoise et au développement rapide du pouvoir des médias et notamment d’Internet. Plusieurs personnages ont contribué à sa genèse, parmi lesquels on trouve notamment des chercheurs en sciences sociales tels que Li Yinhe, Qin Hui et Xu Jilin. Ce phénomène a été par la suite amplifié par les médias, qui ont étiqueté l’auteur comme « martyr sur l’autel de la littérature », « intellectuel libéral », « intellectuel public », etc. Ironie du sort, c’est l’appellation octroyée par Le Quotidien du peuple, « génie en dehors du système », qui résume le mieux l’identité controversée de l’auteur. L’étude des discours souvent impressifs sur le phénomène Wang Xiaobo nous a conduite d’abord à mener des analyses textuelles afin de sonder de manière approfondie l’art romanesque de l’auteur, insuffisamment exploré malgré sa notoriété posthume durable. Son art est caractérisé par des jeux à la fois subversifs et ludiques ; il démontre aussi comment le sujet pensant qui transforme les mots se voit lui-même métamorphosé par la société et la vie. Le corpus des textes étudiés couvre les trois périodes de l’auteur : avant 1984 (« l’âge fabuleux »), entre 1984 et 1992 (« l’âge de la maturité et l’âge d’or ») et enfin après 1992 (« réécriture et renouvellement »). Ensuite, à travers l’analyse comparée des textes de l’auteur et de ceux de ses successeurs, nous avons abouti à la thèse suivante : les jeux d’écriture de Wang Xiaobo affichent les caractéristiques de l’art de la postmodernité, et ce avant même que celui-ci s’installe progressivement en Chine ; ils illustrent comment l’esprit chevaleresque des lettrés chinois s’est progressivement transformé en un esprit de « voyous », terme évolutif, polysémique mais symptomatique de notre temps. / The starting point of our research was to understand the "Wang Xiaobo phenomenon". The paper describes the context of Chinese society and the literary world of the 1990s; some scholars’ liberal speeches and the growing power of media namely the Internet are parts of the reasons accounting for this phenomenon. The media put on the disappeared author new labels such as "martyr on the altar of literature", "liberal intellectual", "public intellectual". Ironically the name of "Genius outside the system", granted by the People's Daily to Wang Xiaobo, has stuck as the best way to encompass the author’s questionable identity. The impressive talks about the "Wang Xiaobo phenomenon" pushes us first to conduct deeper textual analysis to probe thoroughly the novellas’ art of the author, insufficiently explored despite his lasting posthumous fame. His art is characterized by subversive and playful language games; it also demonstrates how thinking subject who transforms words sees himself transformed by society and life. The corpus of the studied texts covers three periods of the author: before 1984, between 1984 and 1992, and finally after 1992. Then, through the comparative analysis of the author’s texts and those of his successors, we came up with the following thesis: The writing games of Wang Xiaobo display the characteristics of postmodern art, and even before it develops gradually in China; they illustrate how the chivalrous spirit of the Chinese intellectuals has evolved into a spirit of roguery, which in itself should be interpreted as an evolutionary term, both polysemic and symptomatic of our time.
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Wang xiaobo, un « génie en dehors du système » : des jeux d'écriture au « phénomène wang xiaobo » / Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997), a "Genius outside the system" : from writing games to "Wang Xiaobo phenomenon" / “文坛外高手”王小波 :追溯“王小波现象”,深究其小说艺术Mercier, Mei 20 October 2016 (has links)
Le point de départ de notre recherche a été la compréhension du phénomène Wang Xiaobo, de sa genèse, de son amplification et de ses échos dans l’histoire de la littérature chinoise. La thèse rappelle le contexte de la société chinoise et du monde littéraire des années 1990, indispensable pour saisir ce phénomène. Sa naissance est en effet étroitement liée à l’essor de la mouvance libérale chinoise et au développement rapide du pouvoir des médias et notamment d’Internet. Plusieurs personnages ont contribué à sa genèse, parmi lesquels on trouve notamment des chercheurs en sciences sociales tels que Li Yinhe, Qin Hui et Xu Jilin. Ce phénomène a été par la suite amplifié par les médias, qui ont étiqueté l’auteur comme « martyr sur l’autel de la littérature », « intellectuel libéral », « intellectuel public », etc. Ironie du sort, c’est l’appellation octroyée par Le Quotidien du peuple, « génie en dehors du système », qui résume le mieux l’identité controversée de l’auteur. L’étude des discours souvent impressifs sur le phénomène Wang Xiaobo nous a conduite d’abord à mener des analyses textuelles afin de sonder de manière approfondie l’art romanesque de l’auteur, insuffisamment exploré malgré sa notoriété posthume durable. Son art est caractérisé par des jeux à la fois subversifs et ludiques ; il démontre aussi comment le sujet pensant qui transforme les mots se voit lui-même métamorphosé par la société et la vie. Le corpus des textes étudiés couvre les trois périodes de l’auteur : avant 1984 (« l’âge fabuleux »), entre 1984 et 1992 (« l’âge de la maturité et l’âge d’or ») et enfin après 1992 (« réécriture et renouvellement »). Ensuite, à travers l’analyse comparée des textes de l’auteur et de ceux de ses successeurs, nous avons abouti à la thèse suivante : les jeux d’écriture de Wang Xiaobo affichent les caractéristiques de l’art de la postmodernité, et ce avant même que celui-ci s’installe progressivement en Chine ; ils illustrent comment l’esprit chevaleresque des lettrés chinois s’est progressivement transformé en un esprit de « voyous », terme évolutif, polysémique mais symptomatique de notre temps. / The starting point of our research was to understand the "Wang Xiaobo phenomenon". The paper describes the context of Chinese society and the literary world of the 1990s; some scholars’ liberal speeches and the growing power of media namely the Internet are parts of the reasons accounting for this phenomenon. The media put on the disappeared author new labels such as "martyr on the altar of literature", "liberal intellectual", "public intellectual". Ironically the name of "Genius outside the system", granted by the People's Daily to Wang Xiaobo, has stuck as the best way to encompass the author’s questionable identity. The impressive talks about the "Wang Xiaobo phenomenon" pushes us first to conduct deeper textual analysis to probe thoroughly the novellas’ art of the author, insufficiently explored despite his lasting posthumous fame. His art is characterized by subversive and playful language games; it also demonstrates how thinking subject who transforms words sees himself transformed by society and life. The corpus of the studied texts covers three periods of the author: before 1984, between 1984 and 1992, and finally after 1992. Then, through the comparative analysis of the author’s texts and those of his successors, we came up with the following thesis: The writing games of Wang Xiaobo display the characteristics of postmodern art, and even before it develops gradually in China; they illustrate how the chivalrous spirit of the Chinese intellectuals has evolved into a spirit of roguery, which in itself should be interpreted as an evolutionary term, both polysemic and symptomatic of our time.
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"After all, he will be a god one day" : religious interpretations of Mao in modern ChinaJensen, Christopher 17 September 2008
In the years since Mao Zedongs death, the people of China have been impelled to reevaluate the legacy and character of their still iconic leader. One of the more notable trends in this process of posthumous reevaluation is the tendency of some individuals and groups (most often, the rural peasantry) to interpret the deceased Chairman along theological lines, assuming that his still efficacious spirit will provide protection and good fortune to those who honour him.<p>In exploring the genesis (and continued salience) of these beliefs and practices, the present research delves into popular Chinese religiosity, exploring the porosity of the traditional cosmology, the centrality of perceived spiritual efficacy (ling) in determining the popularity of religious cults, and the theological and cosmological resonances extant within traditional understandings of political leadership. The body of metaphors, narratives, and tropes drawn from this historical overview are then applied to popular characterizations of Mao, with the resulting correspondences helping to explicate the salience of these modern religious interpretations. To further investigate the source of Maos persistent symbolic capital, the present research also explores the role of Cultural Revolution-era ritual in valorizing and reifying the power and efficacy then popularly ascribed to the Great Helmsmans person and teachings. This studys conclusion, in brief, is that participants in the posthumous cult of Mao are utilizing these cultural materials in both traditional and creative ways, and that such interpretations speak to the exigencies of life in the turbulent, ideologically ambiguous culture of modern China. <p>In performing this evaluation, the present research makes use of the standard phenomenological/historiographic approach of religious studies scholarship, though it is also informed by narrative methods, cognitive science, and current perspectives on the role and function of ritual. In particular, the analysis of Mao-era rituals (as a source of Maos continued symbolic potency) is performed using the cognivistic typology of ritual proposed by E. Thomas Lawson and Robert N. McCauley, with additional materials drawn from the research of Catherine Bell, Roy Rappaport, Pascal Boyer and Adam Chau.
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"After all, he will be a god one day" : religious interpretations of Mao in modern ChinaJensen, Christopher 17 September 2008 (has links)
In the years since Mao Zedongs death, the people of China have been impelled to reevaluate the legacy and character of their still iconic leader. One of the more notable trends in this process of posthumous reevaluation is the tendency of some individuals and groups (most often, the rural peasantry) to interpret the deceased Chairman along theological lines, assuming that his still efficacious spirit will provide protection and good fortune to those who honour him.<p>In exploring the genesis (and continued salience) of these beliefs and practices, the present research delves into popular Chinese religiosity, exploring the porosity of the traditional cosmology, the centrality of perceived spiritual efficacy (ling) in determining the popularity of religious cults, and the theological and cosmological resonances extant within traditional understandings of political leadership. The body of metaphors, narratives, and tropes drawn from this historical overview are then applied to popular characterizations of Mao, with the resulting correspondences helping to explicate the salience of these modern religious interpretations. To further investigate the source of Maos persistent symbolic capital, the present research also explores the role of Cultural Revolution-era ritual in valorizing and reifying the power and efficacy then popularly ascribed to the Great Helmsmans person and teachings. This studys conclusion, in brief, is that participants in the posthumous cult of Mao are utilizing these cultural materials in both traditional and creative ways, and that such interpretations speak to the exigencies of life in the turbulent, ideologically ambiguous culture of modern China. <p>In performing this evaluation, the present research makes use of the standard phenomenological/historiographic approach of religious studies scholarship, though it is also informed by narrative methods, cognitive science, and current perspectives on the role and function of ritual. In particular, the analysis of Mao-era rituals (as a source of Maos continued symbolic potency) is performed using the cognivistic typology of ritual proposed by E. Thomas Lawson and Robert N. McCauley, with additional materials drawn from the research of Catherine Bell, Roy Rappaport, Pascal Boyer and Adam Chau.
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