Mao's parades: State spectacles in China in the 1950s

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 190, 2007, Pages 411-431

  Hung, Chang Tai ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMUNISM; POLITICAL CHANGE; POLITICAL HISTORY; SOCIALISM;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 34547842261     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: 14682648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0305741007001269     Document Type: Article

References (125)

1. Derk Bodde, Peking Diary: A Year of Revolution (New York: Henry Schuman, 1950), pp. 103-04.
2. Mianhuai Liu Ren tongzhi (Remembering Comrade Liu Ren) (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1979), p. 111.
3. Dong Xiaoping, Tianye minsuzhi (Folklore Fieldwork) (Beijing: Beijing shifan daxue chubanshe, 2003), pp. 612-26,
4. Clifford Geertz, "Centers, kings, and charisma: Reflections on the symbolics of power," in Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (New York: Basic Books, 1983), p. 124.
5. Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, trans. Alan Sheridan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), pp. 126-57.
6. George Mosse, The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), pp. 100-26.
7. Christel Lane, The Rites of Rulers: Ritual in Industrial Society - The Soviet Case (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 153-88.
8. Mary Ryan, "The American parade: Representations of the nineteenth-century social order," in Lynn Hunt (ed.), The New Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), p. 138.
9. Henrietta Harrison, The Making of the Republican Citizen: Political Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911-1929 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 93-132.
10. Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), pp. 85-104.
11. Wang Fengde, "Baogao" ("Report"), Shanghai Municipal Archives (SMA), A22-2-894.
12. Shenbao, 14 October 1914; 11 October 1916; 10 October 1917; 10 October, 1929; 12 October 1929.
13. Schools sometimes organized impromptu celebrations. For example, on 10 October 1917 more than 4,757 students in Shanghai participated in a parade to celebrate National Day. See Shenbao, 11 October 1917.
14. Shenbao, 12 October 1917; 11 October 1919; 10 October 1929.
15. Renmin ribao (People's Dady), 24 December 1949.
16. Lane, The Rites of Rulers, p. 172.
17. "Yijiuwuwu nian 'Wuyi' jie shirong buzhi gongzuo jihua" ("Work plans for decorating the city during the 1955 May Day festival"), SMA, B56-2-3.
18. "Guanyu jige zhuyao de gaolou daxia de jufu biaoyu de buzhi" ("On the decoration of huge posters on the key high-rises"), SMA, B56-2-2.
19. "Guanyu Wuyi youxing he wanhui zhunbei qingkuang de baogao" ("Report on the preparation for the May Day parades and evening parties"), Beijing Municipal Archives (BMA), 99-1-110.
20. Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi Beijingshi weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui (ed.), Zhuangyan de qingdian (Solemn Festivities (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1996), p. 151.
21. Remnin huabao (China Pictorials), Vol. 1, No. 1 (1950), photos.
22. Shu Jun, Tiananmen guangchang lishi dang'an (The Historical Documents of Tiananmen Square) (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1998), p. 227.
23. Lane, The Rites of Rulers, p. 179.
24. "Qunzhong youxing duiwu zuzhi fang'an deng" ("The plan for organizing contingents of the procession for the people's parade and others"), BMA, 99-1-1.
25. "Youxing duiwu xulie he xingjin luxian" ("The order of processions and the procession routes"), BMA, 99-1-61.
26. "Biandui gongzuo de jixiang guiding" ("Rules concerning group formations"), BMA, 99-1-200.
27. "The plan for organizing contingents of the procession."
28. Renmin ribao, 3 May 1952.
29. Interview with Marcher A, 6 January 2006, Beijing; interview with Marcher B, 13 January 2006, Beijing.
30. Interview with Marcher C, 4, 5 January 2006, Beijing.
31. "Tijiuwuyi nian guoqingjie youxing jihua" ("Plan of the parade at the 1951 National Day celebration"), BMA, 99-1-1.
32. "Youxing duiwu jieshao" ("Introduction to groups that participated in the parades"), BMA, 99-1-162.
33. "Gongzuo richeng he jianbao" ("Work schedule and brief reports "), BMA, 99-1-13.
34. On Shanghai's torch relay race, see SMA, B55-2-6.
35. "Rules concerning group formations."
36. "Youxing renshu" ("The number of people who participated in the parades"), BMA, 99-1-94.
37. Ibid; Solemn Festivities, p. 83.
38. Interview with Marcher D, 5 January 2006, Beijing.
39. "Qunzhong youxin zhunbei gongzuo qingkuang de baogao" ("Report on the preparation of the people's parade"), BMA, 99-1-94.
40. "Ge duiwu duirong qingkuang" ("Specific conditions in each parade group"), BMA, 99-1-45.
41. "Lingxiuxiang pailie shunxu ji qizhi pailie de guiding" ("Rules concerning the order of the leaders and the banners"), BMA, 99-1-1.
42. "Guanyu youxing duiwu zhong suo tai lingxiuxiang ji pailie shunxu de zhongyao tongzhi" ("The important announcement concerning the order of leaders' portraits during the procession"), SMA, B55-1-5.
43. Stuart R. Schram, "Party leader or true ruler? Foundations and significance of Mao Zedong's personal power," in Schram (ed.), Foundations and Limits of State Power in China (London: School of Oriental and African Studies/Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1987), pp. 203-56;
44. Geremie R. Barmé, Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 3-73.
45. Putian tongqing (The Whole World Joins in the Celebration), a film produced by Beijing dianying zhipianchang (Beijing Film Studio), 1950;
46. Yijiuwuyi nian guoqingjie: Daxing jilupian (The 1951 National Parade: A Major Documentary), a film produced by Zhongyang dianyingju Beijing dianying zhipianchang (Beijing Film Studio, the Central Film Bureau), 1951.
47. "'Wuyi'jie youxing duiwu lingxiuxiang pailie banfa" ("Methods to arrange the order of the leaders' portraits during the May Day parade"), BMA, 99-1-3.
48. "Shaoxiandui" ("The Young Pioneers group"), BMA, 99-1-196.
49. Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 19-51;
50. Lane, The Rites of Rituals, p. 167.
51. Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, ed. and intro. John B. Thompson, trans. Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 190.
52. "Huhuan de kouhao" ("Slogans used"), BMA, 99-1-94.
53. Interview with Marcher C.
54. Interviews with Marchers A, B, C and D; and interview with Marcher E, 7 January 2006, Beijing.
55. "Beijingshi qingzhu guoqing dahui kouhao" ("Slogans used by Beijing to celebrate the National Day celebrations"), BMA, 99-1-11.
56. "Report on the preparation for the May Day parades and evening parties."
57. "Ge duiwu duirong qingkuang" ("Specific: Conditions in each parade group"), BMA, 99-1-61.
58. "Youxing jihua" ("The plans for the parade"), BMA, 99-1-2.
59. Lane, The Rites of Rituals, p. 156.
60. "Di san ci zhihuibu huiyi" ("The third meeting of the command centre"), BMA, 99-147. This is also known as "Advancing forward in unison" (Yiyong er shang).
61. See also Solemn Festivities, p. 50.
62. On Shanghai's celebrations of this special occasion, see SMA, B55-1-14.
63. Solemn Festivities, p. 487.
64. Ibid. p. 90.
65. "Shoudu qingzhu shi zhounian guoqingjie youxing zuzhi gongzuo yaodian (caoan)" ("Key points concerning the parade during the tenth anniversary of the National Day celebration: A draft"), BMA, 99-1-193.
66. "Beijingshi qingzhu guoqing dahui kouhao" ("Beijing's slogans used in the National Day celebrations"), BMA, 99-1-1.
67. "Yijiuwuwu nian guoqingjie qunzhong youxing shi huhuan de kouhao" ("Slogans used during the 1955 National Day's people parade"), BMA, 99-1-61.
68. "Duirong" ("Groups"), BMA, 99-1-144.
69. Solemn Festivities, pp. 89, 271.
70. "Jihua renshu" ("The projected figures"), BMA, 99-1-2.
71. "Beijing qingzhu yijiuwuliu nian guoqingjie qunzhong youxing duiwu duirong qingkuang" ("On various parade groups during the 1956 National Day festival in Beijing"), BMA, 99-1-94.
72. Interview with Marcher E.
73. "Peng Zhen tongzhi zhaoji de 'Wuyi' choubei gongzuo huiyi jilu" ("The minutes of the preparatory work concerning the May Day parade called by Comrade Peng Zhen"), BMA, 99-1-93.
74. "Gongzuo richeng" ("Work schedule") (1953), BMA, 99-1-32.
75. Solemn Festivities, p. 47.
76. Interview with Marcher A.
77. "Report on the preparation for the May Day parades and evening parties."
78. "Wenyi dadui muqian gongzuo jinxing qingkuang" ("The progress of the work of the art group"), BMA, 99-1-95.
79. "Zuzhi gongzuo yaodian" ("Important organizational matters"), BMA, 99-1-178.
80. Solemn Festivities, p. 56.
81. "Guanyu yijiujiuwuling nian er yue liu ri Yangshupu fadianchang zaoshou Guomindang feiji hongzha de baogao" ("Report on the bombing of Yangshupu's power plant by Kuomintang planes on 6 February 1950"), SMA, BI-2-390-1.
82. The key American spy was said to be David Barrett, a former military attaché of the US Embassy in China. For the alleged plot to kill Mao, see Renmin ribao, 18 August 1951.
83. "Qingzhu yijiuwuwu nian shoudu guoqingjie wenyi dadui gongzuo zongjie" ("Final report on the work of the art group during the 1955 National Day celebrations in the capital"), BMA, 99-1-62.
84. "Gongzuo jianbao" ("Brief reports"), BMA, 99-1-46.
85. "Di er ci zhihuibu huiyi" ("The second meeting of the command centre"), BMA, 99-1-47.
86. "The third meeting of the command centre".
87. "Final report on the work of the art group."
88. Ibid.
89. "Zhou zongli dui Shigeweihui guanyu yijiuqier nian 'Wuyi'jie qingzhu huodong de qingshi de pishi" ("Premier Zhou's decision on the petition submitted by the Beijing Municipal Revolutionary Committee concerning the 1972 May Day celebratory activities"), BMA, 99-1-784.
90. Wang Fengde, "Report."
91. Beijing jianshe shishu bianji weiyuanhui (ed.), Jianguo yilai de Beijing chengshi jianshe (The Urban Construction of Beijing since the Founding of the Nation) (Beijing: N. p., 1986), pp. 23-61.
92. Mao Zedong, "The May Fourth Movement," in Mao Tse-tung, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, 5 vols. (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1967-77), Vol. 2, pp. 237-39.
93. Renmin ribao, 27 September 1959.
94. A number of Soviet urban planners and architects such as A. S. Mukhin and D. D. Baragin arrived in Beijing in the early 1950s to help redesign Tiananmen Square. See Chang-tai Hung, "Kongjian yu. zhengzbi: Kuojian Tiananmen guangehang" ("Space and politics: Expanding Tiananmen Square"), paper presented at the symposium on "Cross-Strait Political and Economic Developments during the Cold War," the Institute of Modem History, Academia Sinica, 4-5 November 2004.
95. Greg Castillo, "Gorki Street and the design of the Stalin revolution," in Zeynep Çelik, Diane Favro and Richard Ingersoll (eds.), Streets: Critical Perspective on Public Space (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 57-70.
96. Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 243.
97. For Nie Rongzhen's report, see Beijing Urban Construction Archives, C2-46-2.
98. "Tiananmen guangchang dongxi liangduan daolu xitong sheji shuomingshu" ("An illustration of the design of Tiananmen Square's road system to the east and west"), Beijing Urban Construction Archives, C2-46-2.
99. "Tianatimen qian jiang pi guangchang" ("A square will be created in front of Tiananmen"), Renmin ribao, 31 August 1949.
100. Shu Jun, The Historical Documents of Tianawnen Square, p. 25.
101. "Tiananmen guangchang gongcheng de jiben qingkuang" (" The basic conditions of the Tiananmen Square project"), BMA, 47-1-92.
102. Geertz, "Centers, kings, and charisma," pp. 121-46.
103. Solemn Festivities, p. 321. This practice, however, was ended in 1954.
104. Qu Qiubai, "Chidu xinshi" ("Impressions of the red capital seen through the mind"), in Qu Qiubai wenji (Collected Writings of Qu Qiubai), Vol. 1 (Beijing: Remain wenxue chubanshe, 1985), p. 145.
105. Solemn Festivities, p. 5.
106. "Yijiuwusi nian ba yue si ri guoqingjie choubeihui" ("The preparatory committee meeting on 4 August 1954 concerning the National Day festival"), BMA, 99-1-33.
107. James von Geldern, Bolshevik Festivals, 1917-1920 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 40-71.
108. Lane, The Rites of Rulers, pp. 169-72.
109. "Zuzhi qunzhong zai Xi Chang'anjie canguan yuebin, youxing de gongzuo jihua" ("The work plan for orgamzmg people to view the military parade and the procession along West Chang'an Avenue"), BMA, 99-1-75. In this document Mao was reported to have said, "The people have now been highly organized."
110. Victoria Bonnell, The Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), p. 193;
111. Lane, The Rites of Rulers, p. 168.
112. Of course negative symbols such as the paper tiger were used during the anti-imperialist demonstrations, as in the "Resist America and aid Korea" campaign in the early 1950s. See Remnin ribao, 18 December 1950.
113. Renmin ribao, 18 February 1951.
114. "Waibin dui youxing duiwu de fanying" ("Foreign guests' reactions to the parades'), BMA, 99-148.
115. "Zhongzbi ge jiguan tongzhi dui Wuyi youxing de yijian" ("Opinions of the comrades of the central bureaus concerning May Day parades"), BMA, 99-1-48.
116. "Beijing qingzhu yijiuwuwu nian 'Wuyi' laodongjie choubei huiyi" ("Preparatory meeting for the celebration of the 1955 May Day festival in Beijing"), BMA, 99-1-60. But the document does not indicate what safety measures were taken.
117. Ibid.
118. Ibid.
119. "Peng Zhen tongzbi zhaoji de guoqingjie youxing ji baowei gongzuo huiyi" ("The meeting called by Comrade Peng Zhen concerning the National Day parades and their security matters"), BMA, 99-1-78.
120. Solemn Festivities, p. 187.
121. "The third meeting of the command centre."
122. "The meeting called by Comrade Peng Zhen concerning the National Day parades and their security matters."
123. David I. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics and Power (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 42.
124. Vladimir Paperny, "Moscow in the 1930s and the emergence of a new city," in Hans Günther (ed.), The Culture of the Stalin Period (New York: St Martin's Press, 1990), p. 232.
125. Interview with Marcher F, 17 October 2002, Beijing.