Revolution #150, December 14, 2008
NYC Symposium on the Truth about the Cultural Revolution in China
Be there, build for it, bring others…
The symposium “Rediscovering China’s Cultural Revolution” at Revolution Books and New York University (December 12-14) is shaping up to be an extraordinary event. As the announcement for the weekend begins: “Few events in modern history have been as distorted and demonized as China’s Cultural Revolution of 1966 - 1976. Yet few events are more deserving of rediscovery.”
Panel discussions on “Art and Politics During the Cultural Revolution” and “The International and Historical Significance of the Cultural Revolution” will combine people who lived through the Cultural Revolution with professors and revolutionary journalists. There will be a guided tour of the exhibit at the Asia Society: “Art and the Chinese Revolution.” Dongping Han, the author of a new book on rural life during the Cultural Revolution, will give a talk. And a cultural event will include film clips and theatrical readings from revolutionary model works.
Here is a unique chance to hear people who lived through the Cultural Revolution; to engage with the work of those deeply studying this historical episode of Chinese history; to experience some of the path-breaking revolutionary culture created during this time—and participate in Q&A and discussion about all this.
How people sum up the socialist experience in China, and in particular the Cultural Revolution, has everything to do with how you understand the necessity, possibilities and desirability of a whole new future round of communist revolution and socialist societies in the world.
But for decades now, when it comes to discussing the Chinese Cultural Revolution, there has been a suffocating atmosphere in academia and in society overall. The official narrative in the U.S. has been that these were “dark times” in China that prove the impossibility and undesirability of socialism. There are many progressive people and radical scholars who once had a better understanding of the Cultural Revolution but have been greatly influenced by this barrage of anti-communist propaganda and closed-door summations. And this has had a big negative effect more broadly on people in society.
But there are people from different viewpoints doing extremely important cultural, academic and theoretical work that objectively goes up against the anti-communist narrative. This symposium is providing a forum and vehicle for such people to amplify the truths they have uncovered. And the coming together of these voices, the sharing of views, and the public dialogue and discussion off this can have a big societal effect. In this way, this symposium is breaking new ground—meeting a real need for important analysis and insights about the Cultural Revolution, coming from different areas of study and from varied perspectives, to be marshaled in a way that will reverberate widely in society.
The weekend will offer people a chance to rediscover—or discover for the first time—the truth about the Cultural Revolution. And what an incredibly exciting way for a new generation of youth to learn about this important chapter in world history. To hear from: a Chinese farmer who lived in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution; a woman from China who grew up listening to revolutionary model works and is now writing a thesis on the portrayal of women in these works of art; a teacher and dancer who studied in China 30 years after the Cultural Revolution and “discovered” revolutionary ballet.
“Rediscovering China’s Cultural Revolution” is happening during a major exhibition of art created during the Cultural Revolution at the Asia Society in New York City. Commentary in the mainstream media has noted the significance of this show with an openness that has been taboo in the predominant anti-communist discourse. The exhibition has already created a stir among different sections of people, including artists, intellectuals, overseas Chinese and people who grew up in the ’60s. And this, too, has put something in the air—giving this symposium the potential to have broad impact.
This symposium is happening at a time when big questions about the world are being posed for millions of people in newly sharp ways. For example, the deepening international financial crisis is throwing up big questions on the viability and desirability of a world organized around capitalist profit. And all this is providing some air for discussion and debate about whether socialism and communism provides answers to economic and social problems.
In a much needed way, this symposium can raise the level of discourse among intellectuals and others about the Cultural Revolution—and around the vision and possibility of socialism and communism. It can pry open the debate—turning what has mainly been a one-sided conversation in society into a two way conversation. It can be an impetus for this to be battled out more fully. It can open new avenues for dialogue and discussion among artists, academia, cultural studies, and in society more broadly.
This is a good and necessary atmosphere. This is positive and fertile ground for revolutionary communists to be interacting with, learning from and influencing all this. This provides important opportunities to bring forward a revolutionary, scientific summation of the socialist experience. And the work of Bob Avakian needs to be out there in the mix of things, influencing this discussion and debate.
Bob Avakian has stood out in defending the tremendous achievements of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and deeply analyzing the lessons of this whole experience. On this basis, he has further developed the science of communism in many dimensions. As a crucial part of that, he has gone further in developing the vision of a future, emancipatory society and has analyzed more deeply the means to get there—the socialist transition period of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The recent manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, Communism: The Beginning Of A New Stage, puts it this way: “While deeply immersing himself in, learning from, firmly upholding, and propagating Mao’s great insights into the nature of socialist society as a transition to communism—and the contradictions and struggles which mark this transition and whose resolution, in one or another direction, are decisive in terms of whether the advance is carried forward to communism, or things are dragged backward to capitalism—Bob Avakian has recognized and emphasized the need for a greater role for dissent, a greater fostering of intellectual ferment, and more scope for initiative and creativity in the arts in socialist society.” This new synthesis has put the communist revolution back on the scene; everyone and anyone who yearns for a better, truly liberated future needs to deeply get into this further advance of communism.
Everyone with a desire to see a new world... who wants to lift the lid on the limits of the social imagination today, needs to build for this symposium, be there, bring others and make a weekend of it.
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.
