Rosemary Roberts

Positive women characters in the revolutionary model works of the chinese cultural revolution: an argument against the theory of erasure of gender and sexuality

This study is part of a broader reassessment of the discourse on gender in China during the Cultural Revolution. Post-Mao scholarship has characterised Chinese society at the time as experiencing “the erasure of gender and sexuality” as all of society became masculinised. Close analysis of social phenomena and cultural works of the time, however, suggests that such a characterisation does not adequately reflect the complexity of the situation. Elsewhere I have proposed an alternative model of gender in Cultural Revolution public discourse based on both class and biological sex (Roberts, 2004). According to this model, which takes gender as a multi-dimensional continuum with ultra-masculinity at one end and ultra-femininity at the other, it can be argued that the revolutionary classes occupied a range of gender positions towards the masculine end of the gender spectrum, while the counter-revolutionary classes occupied a range of gender positions towards the feminine end of the gender spectrum. I have argued the case for the feminisation of the counter-revolution in that study (Roberts, 2004). Here I argue that the revolutionary classes, despite an overall shift towards masculinity, were nonetheless represented as having very significant differences between male and female based on traditional beliefs in gender characteristics. Using semiotics of the theatre as a framework for analysis, this research examines the positive women characters in the key cultural works of the Cultural Revolution period, the Yangbanxi, as a case study to support the argument. It shows that in many ways, rather than being aberrant and extreme, Cultural Revolution discourse on women displays significant cultural continuity with both pre-Cultural Revolution and post-Mao Chinese society.

Gendering the revolutionary body: Theatrical costume in Cultural Revolution China

In recent studies of socialist Chinese culture, there has been considerable debate over the issue of whether in Maoist China, and especially during the Cultural Revolution, gender and sexuality were “erased” from public space as class became the only significant social category. The argument that gender was progressively erased from culture of the Maoist era was first made prominent by Meng Yue’s examination of literature, theatre and film (Meng, 1993, p. 121), and has been strongly supported by work including Mayfair Mei-hui Yang’s analysis of “gender erasure” from public space (Yang, 1999, pp. 40–46) and Cui Shuqin’s study of modern film in which she argues that Maoist heroines have been “erased of anything that is feminine” (Cui, 2003, p. 87). Studies of the Cultural Revolution yangbanxi [model works] have labelled their central heroines as “emptied of female signifiers” (Li, 2000, pp. 61–63) and “genderless revolutionaries” (Huang, 2004, p. 34). More recently, counter-views have also begun to emerge. Honig (2002) identified gendered dimensions to the social interpretation of Red Guard violence. Chen, while supporting the view that yangbanxi heroines were “voiceless signifiers” of class and party (Chen, 2002, p. 109), also recognises their aesthetic and even erotic appeal to audiences (Chen, 1999, p. 112). A previous study of my own locates gender differentiation and expressions of sexuality in many of the theatrical systems employed in the yangbanxi, including linguistic systems, role distribution, proxemic and kinesic systems (Roberts, 2004). This study seeks to contribute further to this debate by focusing more closely on theatrical costume in the yangbanxi. Borrowing analytical tools from modern fashion theory, it builds on the relatively brief analysis in earlier studies to show how theatrical costume in the yangbanxi was semiotically loaded with cultural and historical meanings that gendered and sexualised its wearers to a much greater extent than has been recognised to date. Asian Studies Review June 2006, Vol. 30, pp. 141–159

Shang Yang and the Performance of Historical Drama in Reform-Era China

Through the darkness an eerie unsettling melody on discordant Western strings is echoed by a single Chinese lute. The woody notes of a bamboo pipe break through like a mournful cry. Percussion and trumpets join the discordant strings to take the music into a frenzied crescendo, only to break off and be followed again by the lonely notes of the pipe. Out of the darkness a great stone mask emerges—dominating the stage, staring out at the audience, stern and intimidating— the face of Shang Yang. As the stage grows brighter the silhouettes of five terracotta horses appear—the symbols of Shang Yang’s success and the symbols of his brutal end. At the back of the stage a row of terracotta warriors emerge from swirling mist, standing impassively — symbols of the might of Qin. Discordant trumpets and piano take the music to a new crescendo as a male choir chants rhythmic warlike cries. Through the mist, a white-clad figure appears and walks calmly to the horses. This is the ghost of Shang Yang condemned to roam for eternity as the soul of a dismembered body. Suddenly the voice of a shaman booms out over the audience: he foretells that the new born babe, Shang Yang, will bring disaster to his parents, cause his whole family to be exterminated, a nd will be torn apart by five horses. Shang Yang listens and smiles, defiant and scornful, proclaiming that though he died, his reforms unified China and have lasted a thousand years. The stage returns to darkness.1

The Yangbanxi Heroine And The Historical Tradition Of The Chinese Woman Warrior

This chapter investigates how the yangbanxi women relate to the Chinese cultural tradition, particularly with regard to issues of gender and sexuality. It establishes what defined the normative parameters for the woman warrior figure in traditional culture, and then examine the significance of the Mulan figure in particular to the formation of a new identity for women in the Twentieth century. In the light of those findings the author considers how the yangbanxi heroines relate to the historical model of the woman warrior and the implications of those findings for Chinese women. The chapter also considers audience responses to the yangbanxi heroines both during and after the Cultural Revolution. In discussion of Chang Bao it is useful to consider her in relation to the literary model of the magical swordswoman. This chapter presents story synopses of Boulder Bay, Ode to Yimeng and Sons and Daughters of the Grasslands.Keywords: Chang Bao; Chinese Woman Warrior; Historical Tradition; magical swordswoman; Mulan figure; Yangbanxi Heroine

Gender And The Kinesics Of Yangbanxi Ballet

This chapter focuses on yangbanxi ballets, because it is in ballet that one can find the kinesic systems carrying the greatest weight of semiotic meaning and therefore potentially being of greater significance for illuminating issues of gender and sexuality in Cultural Revolution public culture. In order to bring some depth and detail to analysis of the yangbanxi ballets, the chapter analyses a single scene from The Red Detachment of Women, though it also refers to other scenes from that ballet and to The White-haired Girl. The chapter describes The Red Detachment of Women because its theme of women soldiers joining the revolution and proving their mettle offers more scope for kinetic action that challenges dance and gender conventions than the plot of The White-haired Girl, which more closely mirrors the stereotyped tradition of female victim rescued by heroic male lover.Keywords: Cultural Revolution; gender conventions; kinesic systems; The Red Detachment of Women; The White-haired Girl; Yangbanxi ballets

Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: The Return of the Political [Book Review]

Review(s) of:Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: the Return of The Political Novel, by Jeffrey C. Kinkley. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2006. xii + 289 pp. US

Publications briefly noted

55.00 )Hardcover).

Development of a validation algorithm for 'present on admission' flagging

SHARON KINSELLA. Adult Manga: culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. xii, 228 pp. £12.99, paper. STEPHEN ESKILDSEN. Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1998. vii, 229 pp. US

Maoist Model Theatre: The Semiotics of Gender and Sexuality in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

19.85, paper. H. A. J. KLOOSTER. Bibliography of the Indonesian Revolution, Publications from 1942 to 1994. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1997. Bibliographical Series no. 21. 666 pp. J. E. HOARE (ed). Britain and Japan: biographical Portraits, Volume III. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. xviii, 397 pp. £45.00, hardcover. AYAKO HOTTA‐LISTER. The Japan‐British Exhibition of 1910: gateway to the Island Empire of the East. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. xvi, 256 pp. £45.00, hardcover. JACQUES GERNET. Buddhism in Chinese Society: an Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries (trans. by Franciscus Verellen). New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. xvii, 441 pp. US

Performing gender in Maoist ballet: mutual subversions of genre and ideology in The Red Detachment of Women

21.00, paper. GREGORY M. PFLUGFELDER. Cartographies of Desire: male‐male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600–1950. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xi, 399 pp. US