1
Good writing is like gunpowder it takes
compression to explode.(Chinese proverb)
2
Aims, Goals and Objectives

• Examine the Cultural Revolution and the unrest at
  Tiananmen Square
• Explore a range of text types, written in
  response to crisis.
• Develop a variety of creative responses (to be
  used in film)

3
The Cultural Revolution

• Revolutionary struggle for power
• Launched by Chairman Mao Zedong (1966-76)
• Aim to create a more equal/fair society
• Yet increase Maos own power/influence
• Sensitive issue history hidden
• Disastrous consequences

4
Disastrous Consequences

• All individuality suppressed
• A break from the past
• Chaos and violence
• Teachers/thinkers/activists/artists persecuted
• The Red Guards destroy ancient buildings,
  texts, art
• Standard Education abolished replaced by
  propagandist teachings of Mao
• Dec 1967 350 million copies of Maos
  Quotations published
• All non-conformists tortured or killed.
• ½ million people die

5

• SHOW PICTURES

'We'll destroy old world and build new'
6
Tiananmen Square Protests

• History hidden forbidden topic
• Series of political demonstrations and hunger
  strikes, culminating in
• June 4th 1989
• Activists, artists, students and intellectuals
  gather to revolt against Communist Party of China
• Alleged corruption and oppression of individuals
• Aims economic/political/social reform, reducing
  state power

7
Disastrous Consequences

• Begins as a peaceful march in Square
• Yet Government militia violence
• Outbreak of terror/chaos/destruction
• Number of fatalities
• 200-300 (PRC)
• 400-800 (NYT)
• 2000-3000 (CRC)

8

• PICTURE

'The Unknown Rebel'
9
Execution - Yue Minjun, 1995

• PICTURE

Tiananmen is the catalyst for conceiving of
this painting.
10
China In Crisis

• Both events suppress individual thought
• Paucity of documentation/reliable info
• Yet recent writing (released over past twenty
  years) revisits these events

11
Using poems, articles, short stories to give a
voice to the downtrodden and oppressedUnfortuna
tely, good writing is like gunpowder it takes
compression to explode
12
Writing in response to The Cultural
RevolutionChinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen
Mah, 1999 (autobiographical concerning a
teenage girls struggles as she grows up amidst
the Cultural Revolution).The Tall Woman and
her Short Husband by Feng Ji-Cai,
1990(historical fiction a fable-like story,
exploring the effect of the Cultural Revolution
on made-up individuals) Writing in
response to the protests in Tiananmen
SquareTiananmen Square, by John Simpson,
1989 (reportage eye-witness account of the
rebellion in Beijing)Poetry of Tiananmen
Square (a collection of anonymous poems, written
and published following the events in Beijings
central square)