Title: Introduction to Chinese Cultural History / Slides / 8. Reform era 1980s-90s

Front: How is the time after Mao called?
Back: - The Reform Era (post-1976; post-Mao)
- “Reform and Opening Up” (gaige kaifang)
- “The New Era” (xin shiqi)

Front: The time around Mao's death until the late 1980s can be divided into phases. What are they?
Back: - Phase of succession 1975–1978
- Phase of reform 1978–1986
- Phase of “stalemate” 1986–1988

Front: Who succeeded Mao?
Back: - 1978: Rise of Deng Xiaoping as Party-State leader under principle of “collective leadership”
- 1980: Hua Guofeng steps down from role of PRC Premier (zongli), succeeded by Zhao Ziyang (1919-2005) until 1987
- 1981: Hua Guofeng steps down from role of CCP Chairman (zhuxi; last to hold this title)
- Hua Guofeng was succeeded by:
  - Hu Yaobang (1915–1989) as CCP General Secretary (zong shuji; liberal, pro-reform) until 1987
  - Zhao Ziyang (pro-reform) from 1987 to 1989 (conservative leadership takes over after Tiananmen crackdown of 1989)

Front: Who is the most recent CCP chairman?
Back: Hua Guofeng was the last to hold the title and did so until 1981.

Front: What was Deng Xiaoping's position in the party?
Back: Deng Xiaoping was only Chairman of the Central Military Commission but was de facto leader of China from 1978 to his death in 1997

Front: What was Deng Xiaoping's first reform project?
Back: Economic reforms: Four Modernizations or si ge xiandaihua / si hua:
- First proposed by Zhou Enlai in 1954 (with “communications and transport” instead of “science and technology”)
- Implemented by Deng since 1978
The modernizations are:
1. Industry
2. Agriculture
3. Defence/military
4. Science and technology

Front: What are the main changes of the early reform era regarding economy and society?
Back: - Decollectivization (dismantling of communes) and modernization of agriculture
- Reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and introduction of private enterprises
- Industrial development of coastal regions (shift to production of consumer goods)
- Open door policy: foreign trade and foreign investment (Sino-foreign joint ventures)
- Free markets
- Special Economic Zones (SEZ): Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen, Shantou
- Birth control and the one-child policy (1980)

Front: Explain the political slogan xiang qian kan.
Back: It means "look to the future" and is homophonous with "look to money". It embodies the new era of optimism and consumerism in the reform era.

Front: Give two political slogans from Deng Xiaoping that embody his pragmatism.
Back: - “Practice (shijian) is the sole criterion for testing truth”
- “Seek truth from facts” (shishi qiu shi)

Front: How is the new political end economic system of the reform era often referred to?
Back: As the beginning of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” (you Zhongguo tese de shehui zhuyi)

Front: Which important new policy started in 1980?
Back: 1980: Universal implementation of One Child Policy (yi hai zhengce)

Front: Give four ugly aspects of the One Child Policy.
Back: - forced abortions and sterilizations
- rise in female infanticide
- gender imbalance
- ageing population

Front: Were there exceptions to the One Child Policy?
Back: Yes, from the mid-1980s:
- rural families could have 2 children if the first child is female,
- ethnic minorities are exempt.

Front: One Child Policy: were there any recent changes to the policy?
Back: 2015: two-child limit
2021: all limits and penalties lifted

Front: Gimme some banger quotes from Deng Xiapoing in favour of capitalist/market-oriented reform.
Back: - “To get rich is glorious”
- “Let some people get rich first”
- “It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice”
- “If you open the door, some flies will get in”

Front: Which souvenir did Deng Xiaopong bring back home from the USA?
Back: This fabulous hat:

Front: In 1981 June, what did the CCP have to say abut its past?
Back: The “Resolution on Certain Questions in Our Party’s History since the Founding of the PRC” from 1981 June stated:
“Our Party has made mistakes owing to its meagre experience in leading the cause of socialism and subjective errors in the Party leadership’s analysis of the situation and its understanding of Chinese conditions. Before the “cultural revolution” there were mistakes of enlarging the scope of class struggle and of impetuosity and rashness in economic construction. Later, there was the comprehensive, long-drawn-out and grave blunder of the “cultural revolution". All these errors prevented us from scoring the greater achievements of which we should have been capable.”

Front: How did the judgement of Mao change in the reform era?
Back: Mao’s responsibility for the CR recognized, but his achievements and authority not questioned.
1990s ”Maostalgia” (Mao Nostalgia) and renewed popularity of Red Culture and Red Classics

Front: What are the main changes of the early reform era regarding culture and education?
Back: - University entrance examination reinstated in 1977 (based on merit, not class)
- Large-scale rehabilitation (pingfan) of intellectuals, writers, artists, Party members (many of which posthumous, e.g. Wu Han, Lao She, Tian Han, etc.)
- Dismantling of Mao cult (statues, memorabilia)
- Relaxation of restrictions on religious practice and traditional customs
- Cultural liberalization and experiment
- Influence of foreign culture (also Hong Kong and Taiwan)
- Cultural reform and “cultural fever” (as consequence of economic and social liberalization)

Front: What do you see here?
Back: This is the 1978–1979 Xidan Democracy Wall:
- Official proclamation of cultural “liberalization” (Fourth Congress of Writers and Artist, 1979)
- Spread of “openness” policy to cultural realm and political demands (“directed public sphere”)
- 1978: poems, petitions, denunciations, literary and political manifestos posted on wall at Xidan intersection in Beijing
- Development of samizdat (unofficial, self-published) journals, e.g. Beijing Spring, Exploration, Today (poetry journal, Bei Dao)
- Deng’s initial support of the movement
- Wei Jingsheng: essay on the “fifth modernization” (di wu ge xiandaihua): democracy (minzhu)

Front: What is the fifth modernization?
Back: In addition to the four proposed by Deng Xiaoping, the fifth modernization should be democracy, says Wei Jingsheng.

Front: What are The Four Cardinal Principles or The Four Basic Principles?
Back: The Four Cardinal Principles (Four Basic Principles), Deng Xiaoping, 1979 March 20^th:
“to carry out China’s four modernizations, we must uphold the Four Cardinal Principles ideologically and politically. This is the basic prerequisite for achieving modernization. The four principles are:
1. We must keep to the socialist road.
2. We must uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat.
3. We must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party.
4. We must uphold Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.”

Front: When was The Cultural Fever? Describe it.
Back: The Cultural Fever (wenhua re) of the 1980s:
- “cultural reflection” (wenhua fansi)
- “emancipation of the mind”, “second liberation”
- Often compared to May Fourth-era cultural renaissance and creative “explosion”
- Embrace of foreign cultures and lifestyles
- “High culture fever”: literary and artistic experiment, foreign art, literature, philosophy (e.g. modernism, existentialism)
- Popular culture: music (Mandopop), fashion
- Impact of Gang-Tai (HK and Taiwan) culture and literature
- (Re-)discovery of Republican-era literature and arts

Front: What is the High Culture Fever and when was it?
Back: Since mid-1980s:
- Fever for “root-seeking” (cultural reflection)
- Fever for new methodologies (humanism, subjectivity)（+ foreign cultures, “Westernization”)
- 1988 TV Documentary series River Elegy (Heshang), 6 parts, over 200 million viewers, reformist agenda, authors in exile after 1989

Front: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, what are two important names in popular music?
Back: - Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun; Taiwan)
- Peng Liyuan (wife of Xi Jinping)

Front: What's a banger song from 1977?
Back: Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun; Taiwan): “Yueliang daibiao wo de xin”, 1977
- One of the first foreign songs to enter China in reform era
- Huge popularity: “Old Deng” (Deng Xiaoping) by day and “Little Deng” by night
- Temporarily banned as “yellow tunes” (huangse gequ) = obscene in early 1980s
- Died suddenly, aged 42, in 1995 > acquired cult status across Chinese world

Front: Provide some examples of Chinese Rock music
Back: - Cui Jian, “Nothing to My Name” (Yiwu suoyou) 1984
- Cobra (Yanjing she yuedui)
- Tang Dynasty, “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” (Menghui tangchao) 1991
- Black Panther (Hei bao)

Front: What's the name of the famous chinese rock song based on the chinese version of the Internationale?
Back: Cui Jian, “Nothing to My Name” (Yiwu suoyou) 1984

Front: Which new style of dancing entered China in the 80s?
Back: Breakdance! There apparently was a breakdance fever. piliwu, lit. “thunderbolt dance”.

Front: Who is this?
Back: Cui Jian, he wrote Nothing to My Name.

Front: What was China's first TV series?
Back: Yearnings
- China’s first TV series (aka Aspirations; Kewang) 1990
- Written by popular writer Wang Shuo
- Over 550 million viewers, “empty streets”
- Set 1960s-1980s, focus on two couples
- Love stories and human hardships during the Cultural Revolution and early 1980s

Front: Which new genres of literature emerged in the late 1970s and the 1980s?
Back: - Scar literature (shanghen wenxue) (+ films/dramas/art)
- Reform literature (gaige wenxue) supporting the Four Modernizations (concept of “Main Melody”, e.g. in film)
- Misty/Obscure poetry (menglong shi)
- Roots-seeking literature (xungen wenxue) (+ “ethnographic impulse” in 1980s “new Chinese cinemas”)
- Avant-garde literature (xianfeng wenxue; xianfeng pai)

Front: What's Scar Literature?
Back: - Short-lived (late 1970s) cultural trend in literature, film, art, drama
- Named after Lu Xinhua’s short story, “The Wounded” (Shanghen, 1978)
- Story of former Red Guard who denounced her mother during the CR. Returns to visit too late (mother dies on that day)
- Catharsis (social and political trauma of the Cultural Revolution)
- (Superficial exploration) of personal responsibility
- “Bright tail” (guangming weiba): hopeful endings (condemnation of Gang of Four and glorification of new Hua Guofeng leadership)

Front: Which new publication started 1978 in Beijing? Tell me something about it.
Back: Today Magazine (Jintian)
- people-run magazine (minjian kanwu)
- Founded in December 1978 in Beijing
- Editors: poets Bei Dao, Mang Ke
- Contributors: Shu Ting, Gu Cheng, Yang Lian, Duo Duo, etc.
- Main outlet for “Misty Poetry” (“Obscure Poetry”; menglong shi)
- Published 9 issues and 4 collections
- Sponsored two poetry readings and co-sponsored two art exhibitions of the Stars (Xinxin) group
- September 1980: suspended by authorities for failing to register
- Today poets published in official journals at all levels
- 1990: resumed publication in Norway

Front: What's Misty Poetry or Obscure Poetry?
Back: - Labeled “obscure” by conservative critics; label taken up by poets themselves
- Short, lyrical poems with personal/individual (vs. public/collective) symbolism
- Suggests a mood rather than a clear meaning or message
- Non-didactic, though generally anti-heroic tenor that contrasts with Maoist-era heroic rhetoric

Front: Give four examples of Misty Poets.
Back: - Bei Dao
- Mang Ke
- Shu Ting
- Gu Cheng

Front: What's Xingxing?
Back: An art group also known as "Stars", established mid-1979 connected to Jintian and Democracy Wall. Most of them are self-taught artists.

Front: Who was in the "Stars" group?
Back: - Huang Rui
- Ma Desheng
- Qu Leilei
- Yang Yiping
- Li Yongcun
- Bo Yun
- Zhong Acheng
- Wang Keping (sculptor)
- Yan Li (painter, poet)
- Li Shuang (painter)
- Mao Lizi
- Ai Weiwei

Front: What's this?
Back: This is Idol by the sculptor Wang Keping, member of Xingxing. It's a buddha-like Mao bust, highly provocative at the time.

Front: What's Root-seeking literature?
Back: - Han Shaogong, “The Roots of Literature” (wenxue de gen), 1984
- Search for alternative, non-orthodox, cultures (folk culture, the “primitive”, ethnic minorities, mythology, Buddhism, Daoism)
- Alternative history to CCP official narrative
- Re-evaluation of May Fourth iconoclasm: How can contemporary writers renovate Chinese literature while being cut off from their own cultural tradition? How to create a new literature that is modern and Chinese?
- Part of larger cultural reflection (wenhua fansi)
- Similarities with Latin American “magical realism” (e.g. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombia, One Hundred Years of Solitude)

Front: What are representative works of Root-seeking literature?
Back: - Han Shaogong, Ba Ba Ba, 1985
- Mo Yan, Red Sorghum, 1986 (pseud. of Guan Moye, Nobel Prize 2012)
- Ah Cheng, King of Chess, 1984
- Zheng Yi, Old Well, 1985
- Wang Anyi, Baotown, 1985

Front: 1980s cinema: who was new on the scene?
Back: The “Fifth Generation” emerged, e.g. directors:
- Zhang Yimou,
- Chen Kaige,
- Tian Zhuangzhuang.
New:
- Historical reflection
- Cultural critique
- Subversion of CCP master narratives and types (e.g. peasant, soldier)
- Ethnography (”untamed frontier”, “Chinese Westerns”, ethnic minorities)
- Visuality (vs. verbal expression)
- Ambiguity, allegory

Front: What's this?
Back: A still from Yellow Earth (1984), directed by Chen Kaige. He was part of the fifth generation.

Front: When in the 1980s where there student protests, and what was their main demand?
Back: 1985–1986 student protests for more political openness

Front: What position in the CCP changed hands in 1987?
Back: 1987 Hu Yaobang forced to resign from General Secretary position, taken by Zhao Ziyang

Front: What happens on 1989 January 6^th?
Back: Astrophysicist and university professor Fang Lizhi writes an open letter to Deng Xiaoping:
- Calls for release all political prisoners (Wei Jingsheng)
- Inspires petitions from writers of May Fourth generation, Bei Dao, and others
- All condemned as “illegal”

Front: What were political campaigns in the 1980s, what was their aim?
Back: - 1983-1984: campaign against “spiritual pollution” (jingsheng wuran)
- 1987 campaign against “bourgeois liberalization” (zichan jieji ziyouhua) (Hu Yaobang, Fang Lizhi purged)
- Targets: “excessive individualism”, “humanism”, foreign influences

Front: Describe an important event of 1989.
Back: The Tiananmen Square democracy movement, 1989
- Social problems: inflation, disintegration of the state sector, unemployment, official corruption and nepotism
- Intellectual discontent about lack of democratic reforms
- 15 April 1989 death of Hu Yaobang, student commemoration on Tiananmen Square
- Banners against corruption: “Sell the [Mercedes] Benzes and save the nation!”
- Calls for democracy, political accountability, freedom of speech, press, association: “Hello, Mr. Democracy!” (Cf. Chen Duxiu/New Youth)
- Students occupy Tiananmen Square, later joined by workers, journalists, ordinary citizens
- Protest spreads to other cities
- Violently put down

Front: Give a brief timeline of Tian'anmen 1989.
Back: - Early May: students’ hunger strike
- 15 May: Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit disrupted by the protests (and world media in Beijing)
- 18 May: meeting between Premier Li Peng and student leaders broadcast on TV
- 19 May: CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang on the square (“too late”), loses internal power struggle with hardliners
- 20 May: Deng imposes martial law
- Common citizens try to block PLA from reaching the square
- 2 June: Hou Dejian (singer-songwriter) and Liu Xiaobo (lecturer, cultural critic) start hunger strike
- Violence against PLA soldiers as citizens block access to square (focus of CCP in the aftermath)
- 3 June: PLA opens fire; Hou and Liu negotiate to safely evacuate students from the square
- 4 June: square evacuated
- 1000s wounded and 1000 dead in Beijing, 100s dead in other cities, exact figures unknown
- CCP denounces the movement as “counter-revolutionary riot”
- Remembered as June Fourth (6.4; liu si), still taboo subject in China

Front: Tian'anmen 1989: where did most of the deaths occur, who were the victims?
Back: - Most deaths occurred on the roads near the square, not the square itself.
- many victims were ordinary citizens, not students
- most deaths by firearms, not tanks

Front: Tian'anmen 1989: Did they want to overthrow the government?
Back: Aim was “to save the nation” and reform the government, not to overthrow it (patriotic intentions).

Front: Tian'anmen 1989: what happened to the student leaders?
Back: Some arrested (e.g. Liu Xiaobo), some fled abroad. Hou Dejian went to the Australian embassy. Fang Lizhi ended up in exile in the US.

Front: What's interesting about this still?
Back: This is a cencored episode of The Simpsons. It was removed from Disney+ in Hong Kong in 2021.

Front: How did the people in Hong Kong react to Tian'anmen?
Back: Increased anxiety about 1997 handover to China; yearly vigils until criminalization in 2020 under new National Security Law

Front: How did China change after Tian'anmen?
Back: End of the cultural and intellectual liberalization of the 1980s, increased cultural censorship in early 1990s.

Front: What accelerated the economic reforms in 1992?
Back: 1992: Deng Xiaoping’s “southern inspection tour” (nanxun) of the Special Economic Zones, Guangzhou, and Shanghai accelerates the economic reforms in the 1990s.

Front: New political catchphrases of the 1990s?
Back: - “socialist market economy”
- “stability maintenance” (closer control)
- social “harmony” (through ideological education and censorship)
- “patriotic education” (nationalism): end of “one hundred years of humiliation” in 1949, thanks to CCP

Front: What did the iron rice bowl guarantee?
Back: - job allocation (lifetime employment)
- work units and housing allocation
- free health care and education
- state rationing and fixed pricing

Front: After the end of the iron rice bowl, what are some remaining elements of socialism in China?
Back: - state ownership of land
- state regulation of media

Front: Which new problems emerged from the market reforms?
Back: - Growing urban unemployment
- Rise of coastal areas and decline of hinterland and former sites of dismantled SOEs (e.g. Dongbei)
- Mass internal migration (liudong renkou, “floating population”: 62 million in 1993)
- Widening social gap in the cities due to rural migrants’ lack of residence permit (hukou)
- “left-behind children” in rural areas

Front: What event do you see here?
Back: This is the Hong Kong handover ceremony of 1997 June 30^th.

Front: When was Hong Kong handed over to China?
Back: 1997 June 30^th

Front: What made a revival in the 1990s?
Back: - Confucianism (social stability, moderation, respect for authority) and traditional culture
- Xinjiang local culture and religion (Islam)

Front: When did the first Confucius Institute open?
Back: 2004 in Seoul

Front: What opened it's doors 2004 in Seoul?
Back: The first Confucius Institute.

Front: What changed in Xinjiang in the 2000s?
Back: - increasing surveillance,
- military presence,
- Han migration in Xinjiang and Tibet,
- imposition of Han culture and language (Mandarin)

Front: In the mid-1990s, which groups are now suppressed?
Back: - official CCP supervision of qigong groups
- persecution of resistant group, Falungong, led by Li Hongzhi (exiled in the US) as “feudal superstition”

Front: What helped Falungong in it's growth in the 2000s?
Back: - Epoch Times
- New Tang Dynasty Television
- Shen Yun performances

Front: Give some examples of cultural shifts in the post-new era/postsocialist era in X vs. Y statements.
Back: changing meaning of guangchang:
square (1980s) vs. “plaza” (mall) (1990s)
Political activism, “high culture fever”, civil society debates (1980s)
vs.
Depoliticization and commercialization of society and cultural sphere (1990s)
Serious/pure literature (chun wenxue), arts, culture
vs.
Popular Literature (tongsu wenxue), mass culture (qunzhong wenhua)

Front: Give some examples of cultural shifts in the post-new era/postsocialist era in general statements (not X vs. Y).
Back: - Decline in readership of “serious” literature and culture (mid-1980s-1990s)
- Literature and art subject to the logic of the market
- Market-driven mass culture, writers and artists (cultural producers) forced to respond
- Explosion of mass media: video halls, dance clubs, popular music, pirated videos, TV programs, karaoke
- Reduction in state subsidies to culture industries (literary journals, literary awards)
- Popular literature boom: Hong Kong martial arts novels (Jing Yong) , Taiwan romance (Qiong Yao, San Mao)

Front: What are some important literary trends in the 1990s?
Back: - Avant-garde (xianfeng) or experimental fiction (shiyan xiaoshuo); most active period between 1987 and 1992
- Wang Shuo’s “hooligan” literature (liumang wenxue or pizi wenxue)
- Beauty Writers (meinü zuojia): commercial women’s literature

Front: What are some features of Avant-garde literature in the postsocialist era?
Back: - Formal experiments
- Attention to the medium; innovation through writing about writing; meta-fiction (yuan xiaoshuo); e.g. narrator/writer Ma Yuan in Ma Yuan’s “Fabrication”
- Intricate narratives, unclear plots
- Cynicism
- Allegories
- Intertextuality
- Language games
- Violence

Front: Give examples of Avant-garde writers along with a representative work.
Back: - Can Xue: Hut on the Mountain (1985)
- Ma Yuan: Fabrication (1986)
- Ge Fei: A Flock of Brown Birds (1988)
- Yu Hua: One Kind of Reality (1988)
- Su Tong: The Flight of 1934 (1988)

Front: Who is Wang Shuo and what are some important works of his?
Back: - “writer-entrepreneur”: novelist, filmmaker, actor, screenwriter
- “Hooligan literature” (liumang / pizi wenxue)
  - Please Don’t Call Me Human
  - The Troubleshooters
  - Playing for Thrills
Many screen adaptations of Wang’s literary works:
- The Troubleshooters (aka The Operators) (1988) dir. Mi Jiashan
- Samsara (1988) dir. Huang Jianxin
- No Regrets About Youth (1992) dir. Zhou Xiaowen
- In the Heat of the Sun (1995) dir. Jiang Wen
- Little Red Flowers (2005) dir. Zhang Yuan
- Many collaborations with filmmaker Feng Xiaogang

Front: What's to say about Beaty Writers, what are two of them, along with a representative work?
Back: - 1970s-born
- Wei Hui, Shanghai Baby, 1999
- Mian Mian, Candy, 2000
- “body writing” (shenti xuezuo), semi-autobiographical
- Commercialization of female sexuality
- Explicit sexual descriptions
- drug addiction
- decadent lifestyles
- youth subcultures
- luxury goods
- fashionable urban lifestyle

Front: What are the Special Economic Zones?
Back: - Shenzhen,
- Zhuhai,
- Xiamen,
- Shantou.