A national meeting was held in China on October 7-8, which formally advanced the concept of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture for the first time. In an instruction sent to the meeting, President Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, called for breaking new ground … Continue reading Xi Jinping stresses the importance of culture in building a modern socialist society
I hope this involves stuff like funding primary/secondary/tertiary education in the arts and opportunities for the display and appreciation of art such as concerts, festivals, competitions, and, museums, and not just commissioning obvious propaganda and tightening censorship. As much as I love communist media such as Minning Town and 1921, it’s not improving the image of China or inspiring cultural self-confidence in people who aren’t already pro-China. Instead, we need more contemporary and not-obviously-political works like Three Body and The Wandering Earth, Lexie Liu’s The Happy Star, and The King’s Avatar. And for traditional culture, independent creators like Dianxi Xiaoge, Chef Wang Gang, and Yin Que Shi Ting have done a million times more than anything commissioned by the out-of-touch geezers who run the propaganda department. What these all have in common is that they’re made by people who have a genuine passion in an art or craft and have the opportunity to create works on their own terms.
And of course, there are things that should be done to promote desirable cultural values other than through art and media. It could be things like promoting group activities, team sports, and socializing in school while reducing the harsh workloads that many students face to a reasonable level, for example.
Have you read any Julius Deutsch on sport? He tried to develop a system of proltarian sport. Would be good to see China develop that and a similarly proletarian culture for export as well as domestically. It’s doing some movie stuff but the Deutsch thing is decidedly less commodity-based. Maybe it’s already doing similar things – it’s hard to learn of this kind of thing from the outside.
I read somewhere that often when the Chinese talk about culture they are thinking about it in a more Confucian perspective and so often don’t quite mean what we do when we say culture
Thanks for the link. It doesn’t seem like the author makes any concrete suggestions for implementing anything. Curious to see how it would translate to actual legislation. But in my admittedly amateur opinion, I think stuff like Liu Cixin’s works are a great avenue for inspiring cultural self-confidence and reinforcing socialist and Chinese values - it’s interesting to people who aren’t necessarily politically inclined and innocuous enough to make it on international platforms like Netflix, while still hinting at socialist values such as collectivism and international cooperation and making allusions to Chinese traditional culture.
The Battle at Lake Changjin was better than any American movie ever made, including that unwatchable piece of crap Citizen Kane, and I will die on this hill.
mfw Westerners complain about how Lake Changjin is obvious, in-your-face propaganda that can’t be taken seriously, and can’t see the same is true of every Western war movie ever.
I hope this involves stuff like funding primary/secondary/tertiary education in the arts and opportunities for the display and appreciation of art such as concerts, festivals, competitions, and, museums, and not just commissioning obvious propaganda and tightening censorship. As much as I love communist media such as Minning Town and 1921, it’s not improving the image of China or inspiring cultural self-confidence in people who aren’t already pro-China. Instead, we need more contemporary and not-obviously-political works like Three Body and The Wandering Earth, Lexie Liu’s The Happy Star, and The King’s Avatar. And for traditional culture, independent creators like Dianxi Xiaoge, Chef Wang Gang, and Yin Que Shi Ting have done a million times more than anything commissioned by the out-of-touch geezers who run the propaganda department. What these all have in common is that they’re made by people who have a genuine passion in an art or craft and have the opportunity to create works on their own terms.
And of course, there are things that should be done to promote desirable cultural values other than through art and media. It could be things like promoting group activities, team sports, and socializing in school while reducing the harsh workloads that many students face to a reasonable level, for example.
Have you read any Julius Deutsch on sport? He tried to develop a system of proltarian sport. Would be good to see China develop that and a similarly proletarian culture for export as well as domestically. It’s doing some movie stuff but the Deutsch thing is decidedly less commodity-based. Maybe it’s already doing similar things – it’s hard to learn of this kind of thing from the outside.
Here’s a review: https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/8257_antifascism-sports-sobriety-review-by-mark-hayes/
I would guess he means something along these lines
I read somewhere that often when the Chinese talk about culture they are thinking about it in a more Confucian perspective and so often don’t quite mean what we do when we say culture
Thanks for the link. It doesn’t seem like the author makes any concrete suggestions for implementing anything. Curious to see how it would translate to actual legislation. But in my admittedly amateur opinion, I think stuff like Liu Cixin’s works are a great avenue for inspiring cultural self-confidence and reinforcing socialist and Chinese values - it’s interesting to people who aren’t necessarily politically inclined and innocuous enough to make it on international platforms like Netflix, while still hinting at socialist values such as collectivism and international cooperation and making allusions to Chinese traditional culture.
The Battle at Lake Changjin was better than any American movie ever made, including that unwatchable piece of crap Citizen Kane, and I will die on this hill.
mfw Westerners complain about how Lake Changjin is obvious, in-your-face propaganda that can’t be taken seriously, and can’t see the same is true of every Western war movie ever.
Man, those westerners are gonna absolutely die [in minecraft] when they encounter the wall-to-wall Juche wholesomeness of DPRK movies.
What are your thoughts on the new Dune and the Blade Runner movies?
Haven’t seen them, so can’t say (I am an unrepentant Zhdanovite when it comes to movies and art)