Mao's Two Bodies: On the Curious (Political) Art of Impersonating the Great Helmsman

The East Asia Center at the University of Washington presents a talk by Haiyan Lee on the institutionalized practice in PRC of "main-melody" film and television of using "special actors" to portray political leaders.

Haiyan Lee, Professor of Chinese Literature at Stanford University

In this lecture, Professor Lee will examine the institutionalized practice in PRC "main-melody" film and television of using "special actors" to portray Mao (and other political leaders) as well as the emerging phenomenon of freelance impersonators reenacting Mao's speeches and calligraphy at tourist sites and entertainment venues. Framing this discussion is a close reading of Yiyun Li's short story, "Immortality," about the fate of a man born with Mao's face and groomed to be Mao's official impersonator. Lee's aim is to situate Mao impersonation in the spectrum of performative practices from spirit mediumship at one end to satirical art at the other, in order not only to critique the problematic aspects of Li's story that seem to underlie much of Western (mis)understanding of China, but also to make sense of the fraught relationship between Mao's image magic and its aesthetic and commercial appropriations.

Sponsored by: East Asia Center