User:Physical12138/Jiang Qing

Article body
After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, theater reform was high on the agenda for the new Communist government as the Theater Reform Bureau (Xi Gai Ju) was established on Oct 2nd. However, the bureau was disbanded a year after due to widespread protests by performing artists, who referred to the bureau as “Theater Slaughter Bureau” (Xi Zai Ju). In 1950, with the creation of the first national theater academy, premier Zhou Enlai announced a new theater reform policy that aimed to politically indoctrinate the performing artists and nationalize opera companies.

In 1951, Jiang Qing was given a minor position of Film Bureau Chief. After her appointment, Jiang engaged in three attempts in establishing the standard for socialist art. Jiang’s first attempt was her advice to ban the 1950 Hong Kong movie The Inside Story of the Qing Dynasty Court (Qinggong Mishi), of which Jiang believed to be unpatriotic. Her opinion was not taken seriously by the communist leadership due to the minor political influence of her office and the movie was distributed in PRC’s major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Despite the difficulties to have her opinion recognized by the communist leadership, Jiang was able to rely on Mao’s influence to support her position within the party. Four years after the airing of The Inside Story of the Qing Dynasty Court, Mao pointed out in a letter to the top leaders that “we haven’t criticized Inside Story yet,”, echoing Jiang’s criticisms. Later in 1951,  Jiang critiqued and objected to the distribution of the movie The Story of Wu Xun (Wu Xun Zhuan) for glorifying the wealthy landed class while dismissing the peasantry. Again, Jiang’s opinion was dismissed by the communist leadership due to the lack of political influence from her office. However, Mao intervened for the second time as he penned the article “We Need to Pay Attention to the Discussion of the Movie The Story of Wu Xun” and published it on May 20, 1951 in The People’s Daily. Mao criticized the movie for portraying and endorsing Wu Xun as anti-revolutionary. Nonetheless, Jiang’s third attempt involved the role of literary criticism in the development of socialist art. She asked the editor of The People’s Daily to republish the new literary interpretation of the classic novel Dream of Red Mansions (Hong Lou Meng) by two young scholars at Shandong University. The editor refused Jiang’s request on the grounds that the party newspaper was not a forum for free debate. Again, Mao spoke up on Jiang’s behalf.

Jiang would spend 1955-1962 in Moscow for medical treatments. However, during this period, as a foreign dignitary, Jiang was able to access a wide variety of movies that were banned in Soviet Russia, including many Hollywood productions. With such access, Jiang was able to stay informed of the western art trends, which would go on to shape her transformation of the Beijing Opera House.

After Jiang’s return to China in 1962, she frequently attended local opera performances. In 1963, Jiang asked A Jia, the director of the National Beijing Opera Company, to assist her in transforming the works of Beijing Opera with the modern revolutionary socialist theme. She would later ask the Beijing Municipal Opera Company to develop the opera Among the Reeds (Shajiabang) featuring the struggle between the Nationalists and Communists during the Second Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945). She was also behind the development of the opera Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (Zhiqu Weihu Shan), which she tasked the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company for the production. In July 1964, Jiang Qing delivered the speech “On The Revolution of Beijing Opera” at the “Forum of Theatrical Workers Participating in the Festival of Peking Opera on Contemporary Themes.” In her speech, Jiang expressed her discontent with how the “socialist country led by the Communist Party, the dominant position on the stage is not occupied by the workers, peasants, and soldiers, who are the real creators of history and the true masters of our country.” Jiang noted that the majority of the opera stage in China were still occupied by scholars, royalties, ministers, and beauties, which she collectively categorized as “ancient Chinese and foreign figures.” Jiang also criticized Beijing Opera for its use of “artistic exaggeration” that “has always depicted ancient times and people belonging to those times.” Jiang considered these ancient characters as negative. According to Jiang, the continuous portrayal of these negative characters made it hard to produce any positive figures, which are “characters of advanced revolutionary heroes.” She used the example of the opera Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy to show that the change in the protagonist’s portrayal was related to how “the roles of the People's Liberation Army men Yang Tzu-jung and Shao Chien-po have been made more prominent.” Jiang also argued that the portrayal of positive characters was important as “good people are always the great majority” and that the productions should “educate and inspire the people and lead them forward”, suggesting that many of the existing works must be revised to portray the masses.

During the 1964 “Modern Beijing Opera Trial Performance Convention”, Jiang’s new productions, including the Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, were highly praised by the Communist leadership. These works helped her to establish her reputation in China’s artistic realm and her plans to transform the Beijing Opera House.undefined In June 1965, Jiang met and formed a working relationship with Yu Huiyong, the future Minister of Culture of the PRC. Jiang considered their ideas on the reformation of Beijing Opera to be “in total harmony.” Jiang’s considerable political power allowed Yu to push the yangbanxi (model drama) projects to fruition. She first arranged for Yu to join the composition team of her opera On the Docks, which was the first Beijing Opera to portray the themes from contemporary society and the lives of Shanghai’s working class after liberation. Jiang also tasked Yu to revise the musical scores of the yangbanxi for the modern Chinese masses, and both of them believed that the revolutionary artwork must represent the reality of modern life.

During the Cultural Revolution, The Red Guards condemned Yu to be a “bad element” for propagating feudalism through his utilization of traditional Chinese music in operas. Yu was also tagged as “a democrat hiding under the banner of the Communist Party” due to his frequent absences in party meetings. In 1966, Yu was subsequently sent to a Cow Shed, a small room where the “bad elements” were confined. In October 1966, Yu was released after Jiang requested a meeting with Yu to stage the production of two operas in Beijing. Jiang seated Yu next to her, as a display of Yu’s importance in the making of yangbanxi, during the showing of Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.

During the production of yangbanxi, Jiang had shown keen intuition, due to her experience as an actress, in showing the shape yangbanxi should take. However, Jiang’s directions on opera reforms were often vague. Yu, acting as the pawn of Jiang, was able to manifest Jiang’s orders into technical details that can be followed by the performers. Despite Yu’s growing influence, he was never able to defy Jiang’s orders, as he could only influence her thinking.

Jiang identified the weakness of Beijing opera as the lack of well organized music, which according to Jiang, “builds the image of the characters.” This conception was influenced by Yu’s writing on the functional conception of music. Yu focused on reforming the language of music. This was due to Yu’s belief that for yangbanxi to become successful in educating the masses on the structure and benefits of the new socialist state, the language of the music must be understandable to the common person. He first recommended that the lyrics be written in Mandarin, which was in line with the Chinese government policy that mandated the use of Mandarin as the language of instruction in schools nationwide. Yu also advocated that “the melody should be composed in such a way that it also shadowed the syllabic tonal patterns”, which “should sound natural to the ear as well as being easily understandable to the listener.”

Jiang was known to be blunt in directing the yangbanxi, but Yu was able to serve as the mediator between Jiang and the performers. Since Jiang could not communicate her vision clearly, performers often take her criticisms as personal insults. Du Mingxin, one of Jiang’s composers, recalled Jiang dismissed his music in the ballet The Red Detachment of Women (Hong Se Niang Zi Jun) as “erotic ballad that used to be performed in the 1930s Shanghai nightclubs”. Du was then criticized for trying to destroy the yangbanxi project by hiding bourgeois music in a revolutionary ballet. Du felt humiliated by this remark. It was until Yu asked the group to submit another composition that Du regained his motivation and composed the now famous Wanquan Heshui (On Wanquan River). According to Du, this incident revealed Yu’s artistic integrity, personal courage, and the ability to gain Jiang’s acknowledgement on his decisions.