It was hard for me not to be moved at all when the impassioned sopranos in the choir of hundreds hit High-B with their chest-voice-ish sound while all the dancers on stage had just formed a huge, shimmering sunflower with bright-colored Chinese fans held in their hands and with joy and excitement beaming relentlessly from all of their faces in the overture of the film “the East is Red”, which records the performance of a Chinese propaganda Ballet initially produced in 1964—just before the outburst of Cultural Revolution. The Ballet is a collection of dances and songs put together in a musical extravaganza, telling a brief history of Chinese people from the Mao Zedong’s 1921 founding of the Communist Party of China (CCP) to the establishment of PRC (“New China”) in 1949, and particularly focusing on the Maoist thoughts by presenting the struggle of the proletarian against oppressors within or from outside of the country. This sonic/visual spectacle was supposed to be a tool of spreading revolutionary fever in China, as members in the communist party led by Mao around the time of its production was deeply concerned with unifying people’s thoughts after Mao’s failure in his unrealistic campaign to rapidly transform the country to socialist society by means of drastic increase of industrialization (“Da Yue Jin”, “Great Leap Forward”). As Mao turned to seek hidden Bourgeoisie that hindered revolutions within the party, his supporters supervised and directed numerous productions to further establish Maoism’s political correctness through mass media and advertisements. The production of “The East is Red” was supervised by none other than the Premier of the State Council—Zhou Enlai himself, who already very much contributed to creating the personal worship of Mao. Despite its obscurity after the 80s, some still regard the Ballet as one of the greatest spectacles ever produced in China: stunning masses of dancers with surprisingly stylish choreographic design; Wagner-flavored harmonization of folk tunes with revolutionary lyrics that exalt Mao’s thoughts…all serve well to achieve the goal of the work: making an “epic of songs and dances”. However, while admittedly overwhelmed by the expressiveness of the work, I clearly felt that there was something “wrong”; the sense of psychological manipulation was so strong that I instinctively started to struggle against it. This reaction leads me to closely examine the methods used in the work.
There are three important factors that, I think, contribute to the Ballet’s effectiveness in serving its purpose, but at the same time create problems or contradictions to the political messages this work conveys: firstly, the highly unified and regulated form of musical writing and gestural design; secondly, the religious, sentimental approach in plot and lyrics writing; and finally, the western standards of instrumentation for the orchestra and requirements for the performers.
- All Under One: the Idea of Unity
Faced with unprecedented economic crisis and “the Great Famine”, the party developed distrust towards Mao, as well as his supporters; therefore, conflicts within the party emerged. Around the same time, the party’s concerns with Russian’s de-Stanlinization policies proposed by the Premier Nikita Khrushchev of USSR grew significantly: the CCP consecutively published several criticisms denouncing Khrushchev’s policies, claiming that Khrushchev was a “revisionist” who fundamentally betrayed the true path of Marxism-Leninism, allowing potential revival of Bourgeoisie’s control over the government. Consequently, Mao initiated a series of schemes to centralize power over the party in order to avoid the capitalist restoration he had long feared. From this point, Mao started to realize the concept of radical revolution in every aspect of the society led by the working class.
Art at that time was one of the most important media of spreading Maoist ideologies among the people. Later in the Revolution period, complete strategy of treating artistic creations were proposed by the government: all arts or forms of art that relate to the imperialist and/or capitalist traditions should be prohibited. In terms of musical works, western and Russian pieces, as well as old Chinese literati/court music and traditional operas, were all banned in the country. The only kind of music excluded was folk songs, which effectively represented “music of the people”; composers adapted folk tunes from different places and replace their lyrics with political statements. This strict limitation directly caused the concept of “model works”—musical productions that adhere to a set of unified rules—to emerge.
One can see in “the East is Red” that this model of composition was already there before the Revolution erupted. All the songs that appear in the Ballet are either directly taken from folk tunes or original compositions that imitate folk melodies. Additionally, the choreographic designs in the Ballet are highly unified as they intentionally characterize the simplicity and passion of the working class. What, then, is the advantage of such model? The decisive factor is its accessibility. The frameworks of folk tunes and gestures of working people were the most relatable to the peasants, who, according to Mao, is able to secure the energy needed for revolution.
However, is this idea of unity perfectly compatible with the mentioned political statement? Arguably, if one examines the Ballet’s form itself carefully, one may come up with the argument that unifying forms of music and dance contradicts anti-imperialism movement. While abandoning old practices and rules, the application of model works is simply replacing the old with the new, instead of actually overthrowing the concept of dictatorship. Such concerns are also raised in criticisms towards Mao’s campaign of centralizing political power at that time.
It is also worth mentioning that, when one regards it as an advertisement for consumerism according to Marianna Ritchey’s criticism, the use of unified musical functions in Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs is, in my opinion, comparatively successful. Bates’ consistent use of minimalist material and stereotypical interpretations of atonality (as something negative) are based on people’s conceptualization of “real” new music. At the same time, achieving accessibility through the mentioned use of material does not contradict the ideology of consumerism, hence totally effective.
- “the East is Red”: Building Mao’s Personality Cult
Lin Biao, one of the most fervent supporters of Mao’s thoughts and the supposed successor of Mao, stated in the seven-thousand-people conference after the downfall of “Great Leap Forward” campaign that Mao’s policies during the campaign should be maintained as the correct path, and that people should develop absolute trust towards Mao’s decisions. Thus began the height of Mao’s personality cult, as he gradually purged the party of all his adversaries and initiated the Revolution.
The melody in the overture of the ballet–“the East is Red” –which glorifies Mao as the “savior of the people”, is adapted from a folk tune in northern China. Originally, the lyrics tells a love story of young couple; it was replaced by stanzas that, according to Wai-Chung Ho, “‘deified’ Chairman Mao as the sun in heaven: ‘The east is red, the sun has risen. China has produced Mao Zedong. He works for the people’s happiness…’”
The ballet does the very best to enhance this sense of deity. Throughout the whole work, the image of Mao himself is never presented through an actual figure dancing on the stage; he only appears as a headshot on the red flags, high above all the performers, literally shining heavenly light upon them. In terms of musical writing, the harmonization and orchestration of folk tunes are fused with strongly sentimental western colors and overwhelming instrumental forces. The western concept of the Sublime, which was often related to religious experience since the classical era, is evidently manifested in such treatments of “the East is Red”.
“Deifying” Mao’s image in the ballet firmly establishes his personality cult; yet it also presents fundamental problems. The very beginning of the film uses orchestral rendition of “The Internationale” –a left-wing anthem frequently used by communists. One of the central ideas in the lyrics of this anthem is that there is no god nor savior who can save the people, but only the producers themselves can rise up to power. Yet “the East is Red” nevertheless states that Mao is the only savior of people, and that people should follow his steps. Even if the first performance of the ballet did not include “The Internationale”, this apparent religious tone of the work still contradicts with the original Maoist intention of showing the revolutionary will of the people stemmed from the people themselves.
The plot design of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, on the other hand, approach personality cult in a slightly different way. Through showing Jobs’ horrible personal behaviors and his late-year enlightenment, the narrative creates a mysterious, unpredictable figure that is supposed to fascinate people. The plot’s “elision of the global (history of corporation) into the personal (life and personality of Jobs)” is an effective camouflage to deceive people from, according to Ritchey, contemplating the actual negative influence that consumerism has brought about. In this way, Bates evidently raises up a “worship” of technology in personal products. Does it have the same problem as “the East is Red”? Only Bates himself can provide the answer. If it is true that Bates’ intention is to promote consumerism like Ritchey suspects, then he has fully succeeded.
- The Red Musicians
Since the beginning of PRC, the Chinese government has been trying to establish icons of the nation in every cultural aspect. In terms of musical instruments, the government started to form large groups of musicians that resemble western orchestras by simply replacing sections in an orchestra with Chinese instruments that have the similar mechanisms (for example, the string section in western orchestra would be replaced by Huqin, the two-string fiddle of nomadic origins). The potential problem of this method is that, because Chinese traditional instruments originated from different cultural background (caused by diverse ethnicity and clear demarcation of social classes in the “Old China”), they don’t necessarily fit each other well as a group in orchestra—they were never meant to be played together.
The instrumentation of orchestra in “the East is Red” is literally impossible in present days. The blending of western and Chinese traditional instruments creates severe intonation difficulties, because of their different constructions and materials. I have never heard any orchestras of this kind that can play consistently in tune nowadays, not even when the orchestra consists of only Chinese instruments. However, throughout the film, while unison of the western and Chinese instrument frequently occurs, all instruments are almost constantly and perfectly in tune. This means that the performers had put tremendous amount of work into rehearsals in order to fulfill the western standards of decent orchestral playing.
Some of the beginning scenes of the film show that people of different ethnicities come together to watch the ballet. This political message of unifying the people is also shown in the mentioned selection of instruments; and when all these instruments play perfectly in tune, they effectively project the undeniable power of people’s union.
However, is it necessary to adhere to the western rules of intonation in order to show this power? Music in many parts of the world has developed interests in what we now call microtonal inflections, instead of actually playing in tune, which the Chinese traditional instrumentalists in the past did not prioritize at all. The problem in “the East is Red” is therefore apparent: on the one hand, the ballet is supposed to proclaim a refusal to western ideas, but on the other hand, it uses western formats of instrumentation and performance practices.
- Conclusion
Deng Tuo–a Chinese journalist, intellectual, poet, and founding editor of the People’s Daily (major newspaper in China controlled by the CCP) –was one of the earliest victims of the Cultural Revolution. Faced by numerous accusations of anti-revolutionary contents in his writing, he committed suicide right before the official beginning of the Revolution, which was to cause a nation-wide catastrophe–countless were persecuted and killed. In his last words, Deng Tuo seems to claim with utmost sincerity that he did not intend to express any disagreement to Mao’s thoughts, and he swears his loyalty to the party. Arguably, it was, for the most part, the different standpoints of the readers of his writing that caused suspicion.
As a purely sensual experience, the ballet “the East is Red” is seductive and powerful in every aspect. Yet the political problems this production raises have left us with infinite potentials for contemplation. When a work is given a purpose, the interpretation of the work would change according to the audience’s understanding of the purpose itself. We can go on and question the intention and execution of all propaganda arts: when art is to convey a set of specific political messages, is it ever going to succeed?