Collecting the Revolution : British Engagements with Chinese Cultural Revolution Material Culture

In the late 1960s, student protests broke out throughout much of the world, and while Britain’s anti-Vietnam protestors and China’s Red Guards were clearly radically different, these movements at times shared inspirations, aspirations, and aesthetics. Within Western popular media, Mao’s China was portrayed as a danger to world peace, but at the same time, for some on the counter-cultural left, the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) contained ideas worthy of exploration. Moreover, because of Britain’s continued colonial possession of Hong Kong, Britain had a specific interest in ongoing events in China, and information was highly sought after. Thus, the objects that China exported—propaganda posters, paintings, Mao badges, periodicals, ceramics, etc.—became a crucial avenue through which China was known at this time, and interest in them crossed the political divide. Collecting the Revolution uses the objects that the Chinese government sent abroad and that visitors brought back with them to open up the stories of diplomats, journalists, activists, students, and others and how they imagined, engaged with, and later remembered Mao’s China through its objects. It chronicles the story of how these objects were later incorporated into the collections of some of Britain’s most prominent museums, thus allowing later generations to continue to engage with one of the most controversial and important periods of China’s recent history. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Discovering Cultural Revolution Collections in Britain Global Maoisms Viewing China through Objects Our Relationships with Objects Engaging with Cultural Revolution Material Culture Notes Part I Chapter 1: Visualising the Cultural Revolution in British Popular Culture Viewing Mao’s China in 1960s and 1970s Britain Chinese Material Culture in British Popular Culture and Media Conclusion Notes Chapter 2: Idealising the Cultural Revolution: Huxian Peasant Painting and the British Art World The Huxian Peasant Painters Huxian Abroad: Britain and Beyond Understanding British Cultural Interest in China Conclusion Notes Chapter 3: Experiencing China through Material Culture: The British in China and their Objects Papercuts in Fulham and Oxfordshire Encounters with Objects in China Objects in Common: British Students in China Conclusion Notes Part II Chapter 4: Individual Collections: The Global Journeys of Cultural Revolution Objects Understanding Collecting Childhood Collecting in Cultural Revolution China: Paul Crook Continuing Family Traditions: Richard Kirkby Collecting the Left in Britain: David King Taking Advantage of Rising Interest: Peter and Susan Wain Internet Collections: Clint Twist Conclusion Notes Chapter 5: Public Collections: Collection and Display of Cultural Revolution Objects in British Public Institutions British Collections in a Comparative Context The British Museum and the V&A: Collecting the Twentieth Century Collecting the Twentieth Century at the V&A Collecting After 2000: The Ashmolean Museum and the National Museum of Scotland The University of Westminster China Visual Arts Project Conclusion Notes Conclusion Red Legacies The Future of Cultural Revolution Objects Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index About the Author "An exploration of British engagements with Chinese Cultural Revolution material culture over the period 1966 to the present. It examines the ways in which the Cultural Revolution and Chinese Communism was more broadly understood, mediated, and represented through its art and propaganda and material culture"-- Provided by publisher