The Cultural Economy of China’s Cultural Revolution

The UC Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) presents a talk of two parts. The first part will focus on the general relationship between culture and economy during the Cultural Revolution, while the second part will explore the logic and operation of the Maoist cultural economy through literature.

Panelist/Discussant: Andrew F. Jones, East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley
Speaker/Performer: Pang Laikwan, Cultural and Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong

This talk is separated into two parts. The first part is devoted to the general relationship between culture and economy during the Cultural Revolution. Although the Cultural Revolution “ascetic” society repressed consumption, the consumption of propaganda culture was fanatically promoted, because the propaganda arts was a direct embodiment of the official ideology, and the propaganda culture was given the duty of presenting a different reality from which the people could derive pleasure and meaning. In the second part we explore the logic and operation of the Maoist cultural economy through one specific type of cultural production—literature. We discuss how the concept of authorship was conceptualized then, and how this unique cultural economy was able to weave people’s unsettled everyday lives together.