Extended Essay

En Pointe in Mao’s Cultural Revolution

Word count: 4799

Submitted by: Aneriza I. Lim

Adviser: Ms. Zadoo
 Table of Contents

Abstract

Introduction.....................................................................................................2

Recovering from the Ruins..............................................................................4

Inspiration From the Soviets...........................................................................6

Propaganda from Grace.................................................................................10

Conclusion.....................................................................................................14

Appendices

Bibliography (works cited)

Abstract

The Red Detachment, a revolutionized Chinese ballet first performed

in 1964, has been widely recognized in the West when it was performed

during the state visit of US President Richard Nixon to China in February

1972. Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China more

notoriously known for his spearheading of the Chinese socio-political

movement Cultural Revolution, had also created sparks around the world as

he changed the art of classical ballet and took on a bolder view. Mao

transformed ballet and deviated from the romance of graceful arms and leaps

of Russian style in favor of infusing sharp kung fu moves and a display of

women carrying guns. From famous Russian ballets such as Swan Lake and

Sleeping Beauty, the repertoire The Red Detachment encompassed how

Chairman Mao reconstructed ballet along with the Chinese society.

This essay aims to answer the question “To what extent did the

Russian ballet influence Mao’s Cultural Revolution?” This will be answered

by assessing how the Russian Revolution inspired Chairman Mao as well as

looking at the importance of the Russian ballet’s importance in his

conception of the Cultural Revolution along with the impact it made on

China and its people.

The Russian ballet had been a great influence on Chairman Mao and

Madame Mao’s movement, having been used as propaganda for the

revolution. Utilizing the feministic charisma of ballet, they gained support

from the people and created an avenue in completely changing the role of

women in the society. Moreover, the reformed ballet was used by the

revolution to show the importance of the working class and encourage them

in becoming the heroes of the society.

Introduction

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, more popularly known as

The Cultural Revolution, gave way to significant changes in China. Mao

Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, believed that he could

bring back the glory of China from the ruins of Imperialism and Warlordism

during Chiang Kai-shek regime and thus headed the movement, formulating

a 16-point program which became the basis for his great revolution

(Deshpande, 1969). The Cultural Revolution was one of the stages that

brought forth the socialist revolution, a movement that “touched people to

their very soul.” The first step of the revolution was to overthrow the

bourgeois followed by the rule of the proletariat to completely change the

society and the establishment of new ideas, new culture, new customs and

new habits as core foundations of China’s new movement.

Turner and Yangwen (2009) stated that China had evolved from a

culture that emphasizes feminine beauty in the shape of a three-inch golden

lily (bound to the feet) to a new era of neutrality where women could

normally wear men’s clothing. Chairman Mao wanted to change how

women were viewed; he wanted them to be seen as equal to men in society.

With such high view of importance of women in the society, he and his wife
utilized ballet in promoting this ideology. The bound lotus feet of women

were changed into Pointe shoes and ballet became an aid in tearing down the

social class and making the proletariat the new heroes of China.

This essay focuses on the importance and contribution of the

Russian ballet on the development of Mao Zedong’s movement, answering

frequent queries on the extent of the influence of the Russian ballet to Mao’s

Cultural Revolution and his reasons for allowing the said Russian art to be

integrated in the Chinese culture despite his desire to focus solely on the

inward progression of China. To answer these questions, this study examines

and analyzes the accounts of The Chinese Dance Troupe through The Red

Detachment, as well as individual accounts from two of its dancers, Li

Cunxin and Zhao Ruheng. Moreover, this also gives emphasis on other

portions of the Russian arts and culture, Lenin and the Russian Revolution to

assess the importance of Russian ballet in Mao’s movement to change China.

Mao was integrated the Russian ballet into the Chinese culture after the

downfall of China during World War II to bring back the glory of China, to

culminate the idea of equality and feminism into the society and to bring

forth a revolution that would change China completely.

Recovering from the Ruins

In 1945 the Chinese were finally freed from the reign of the Japanese

imperialist policy. China, however, suffered immensely from atrocities of the

Japanese reign, the most notable of which was the Rape of Nanjing

(December 1937 – March 1938). With the surrender of the Japanese, Mao

Zedong of the Communist Party of China (CPC) declared the proclamation

of the People’s Republic of China at the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on

October 1, 1949.

Mao Zedong, known as a brilliant Marxist and a great proletarian

revolutionary strategist and theorist, wanted to apply and develop

communism in China. He believed that communism would be fundamental

in establishing the People’s Republic of China (Zong, 1989). Mao Zedong

faced numerous hardships as he progressed into power by the end of the civil

war. With China was in ruins, economic hardships and bitterness plagued the

country. He wanted to return China back into its former prosperity and

stature in the world by transforming it into a modern state doing away with

gross injustices that had plagued the vast masses of the poor rural peasants

and urban workers (Reilly, 2004). Along with communism to bring China

into the modern world, he also focused on the arts and culture as part of his

conceived revolution.

"Mao felt that the youth in particular needed to learn the importance of

revolution for they had never known the old China under the reign of

imperialism and capitalism before 1949"( Cannon, Clark & Smuga, 1987).
Mao saw that China’s downfall was caused by the Chiang Kai-shek regime

and that the hardships of the people were brought about by the warlords who

oppressed the country’s laboring class (Li, 2003). He believed that the

culture and the arts were naturally part of politics and had to be one of the

priorities in the Revolution. In his words:

Works of art, which lack artistic quality, have no force,

however progressive they are politically. Therefore, we oppose
both works of art with a wrong political viewpoint and the
tendency towards the "poster and slogan style" which is
correct in political viewpoint but lacking in artistic power.

He strongly wanted to enforce culture into China with ballet as an important

means later in the spreading of the revolution. At the beginning of the

Cultural Revolution in 1967, Chairman Mao and his wife Jiang Qing

proposed the performing arts to be the new models for proletarian art and

literature (Roberts, 2008). Mao simply did not want his revolution to be on

poster or slogans nor want a revolution that is lacking artistic freedom. He

wanted to bring forth his revolution by using artistic expression hence; he

chose ballet as model for his revolution. Mao believed that ballet and its

creativity would be the key to a powerful revolution. All that it is lacking, he

thought, was the correct political meaning to the revolution.

Mao Zedong, like Lenin, believed that the proletarian arts and

literature are salient parts of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause the

cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine” (Quentin & Baggins,

1966). The idea of reconstructing the Chinese culture was to create heroic
models of the major proletarian classes which were composed of workers,

soldiers, peasants, and farmers to be the heroes of the revolution through

portrayals of their sacrifices and struggles on stage (Roberts, 2008). The

new cultural idea played no sympathy to the class enemies or any glamour.

The heroes of the revolution did not display any weakness or tragedy in any

of the works; instead they were portrayed in full optimism and victorious

against the class enemies. Mao’s idea of a new culture promoted the mass

and made them understand and appreciate the art. This new culture was

mainly designed to promote equality and break down all ideas about social

classes. He believed that his revolution would cease art as it being only for

the rich and the bourgeois.

The Inspiration from the Soviets

At the age of 24, Mao saw the 1917 Russian revolution as an

“outbreak of freedom for the individual that lit the way for China” (Terrill,

2006). The Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was

among Mao’s inspiration for communism. Then the movement, which was in

the spirit of enlightenment, suddenly emerged in China in 1919. Lenin and

the 1917 Russian Revolution became Mao’s inspiration for his quest for

power, using Anti-Imperialism that plagued China’s past as the framework of

his own revolution. These events soon spurred the creation of his new

movement that eventually made China a recognized communist country

worldwide.
 During the latter years of the Qing dynasty, the elites brought the classical

ballet into China. However, the art was still deeply rooted to the privileged

and aristocrats until 1960 (Turner & Yangwen, 2009). Mao, eager to change

this view of the arts, wanted it not only for the privileged but also for the

masses in the belief that it would help China to head into modernization. So,

not only did Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ ideology of socialism

influence his view on communism, Mao also wanted the Russian ballet to be

incorporated into China’s culture.

The Russian ballet originated in the Imperial theaters in St. Petersburg

and Moscow through the efforts and talents of predominantly foreign

choreographers, ballet masters, teachers and performers (Lifar, 1969). As

Russia got better in ballet they tried to displace foreign ideas for good and

started to create their own Russian style, stripping away from its Western

aspects. Before the Cultural Revolution took place, dance in China had

already existed and was known as the old-style Peking opera. The Opera

followed and slightly imitated the style of the Soviet ballet, however they

stripped away the soft wrists replacing them with fists, thus making the

classical balletic grace gone (Davis, 1973).

Mao wanted Chinese art and literature such as ballet to reflect the

everyday life of peasanta and workers that Mao first emphasized in 1942

(Turner & Yangwen, 2009). However, classical ballet had long been centered

on glamour and romance, naturally of bourgeois ideas that oppose his

communistic principles. He encountered a dilemma on how to make the

classical ballet pieces such as Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and The

Nutcracker fit the message of his revolution.

Ballet was introduced in China via the “socialist camp” headed by the

Soviet Union big brother during the 1950’s (Solomon & Solomon, 1995).

This then later led to the establishment of the Beijing Academy of Dance,

headed by Soviet ballet experts, and became the first school devoted to

theatrical dance in China. The Soviet Union gradually brought the classical

ballet into China; and in 1957 and 1960 the Beijing Dance Academy started

presenting ballet classics such as La Fille Mal Gardee, Swan Lake, Le

Corsaire, and Giselle with the help of Russian dancers like O.A Yialima. The

ministry propaganda and the people did not approve of the traditional

Russian ballet because of the possibility to endanger the Chinese art.

Because the Russian style focused too much on the nobility and the upper

class, the laboring class could not relate to it. Zhao Ruhueng, a Chinese

ballerina at the time of Mao’s regime recalled that, "The happiest moment

for a ballerina is when she is chosen to be the principle dancer. That was my

greatest wish." However her luck soon changed when Mao’s Cultural

Revolution began (Young, 2011). Mao wanted to show his revolution

through the ballet, so after ten days of Zhao’s debut performance of Swan

Lake, the face of ballet in China was going to change forever. Zhao was

saddened at the turn of the revolution because it took out any Western

relevance on the art and the members of the bourgeois or the upper class

were sent to “re-education" camps and were forced to experience and learn
hard labor since they were deemed counter-revolutionaries.

In Reilly’s book, Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader (2004), he

included a memoir of a Chinese girl named Han Suyin who had lived in

China before the war and witnessed how people could not relate to principles

of Russian ballet.

A young man who was to dance the role of the prince

in Swan Lake came from a poor family; he had
rejected the role; he felt he was throwing away the
face of his family by dancing as a prince.

Ballet was then deemed as something that would not fit Mao’s

revolution. At first they were hesitant due to that fact that ballet had always

been linked with aristocracy. However, Chinese officials, particularly

Madame Mao, saw something in the dance that she thought would cause the

people to recognize and support their movement with open arms. Two years

before the Cultural Revolution was set into motion Madame Mao, Jiang

Qing, started being involved in the cultural aspects of China in 1964.

Together with Lin Piao, she managed the first stage of the Cultural

Revolution by creating a new culture that would fit the masses. She

personally wanted to handle the theatrics of China since she believed that

even though ballet was linked with the courts of the Czars, this could still be

changed and made revolutionary. As Madame Mao realized this, she started

creating model ballets inspired by the actions of the army. This became the

starting point of the creation of the Chinese ballet masterpieces such as The
Red Detachment and The White Haired Girl which carry the revolutionary

principles in a manner that the masses could relate to (Davis, 1973).

Propaganda From Grace

Mao wanted to stress in his revolution that the arts are for the masses

and he wanted to them to be portrayed as the movement’s heroes. At the

beginning of each play or book that was made during the Cultural

Revolution, Mao’s words were engraved in red, which read,

All our literature and art are for the masses of the people,
and in the first place for the workers, peasants, and
soldiers; they are created for the workers, peasants and
soldiers and are for their use (China Ballet Troupe).

The Maos were adamant in establishing communism by spreading

the new culture and arts in China. They used ballet as form of spreading

feminism to gain support and justify the rule of communism in their model

ballets. Mao wanted to use his feministic ideas and portray the “revolution

and liberation through the use of the female body and in the steps and stance

in the new communist ballet” (Turner and Yangwen, 2009). The introduction

to the newly formed culture was to create models to portray workers,

farmers, soldiers and peasants, basically the proletariat class as heroes of

china (Roberts, 2008).

Madame Mao was concentrated on ballet. She established The

Beijing Academy of Dance in 1954. It was the only school which provided

the care and needs of each student like tuition, food, and lodging as well as
training clothes (Li, 2003). Madame Mao wanted Chinese ballet being taught

in the Academy to be different from the Western ballet and wanted to see the

revolution through the way ballet is performed. In his autobiography entitled

Mao’s Last Dancer, Li Cunxin, regarded as one of the best dancers that the

academy has ever produced, he retold his experiences during the Cultural

Revolution and described Madame Mao seeing the lack of political

meanings in the first model that was performed to her. He wrote,

After Madame Mao watched the specially prepared

performance, she said to the officials, “the dancing
looked alright, but where are the guns? Where are
the grenades? Where are the political meanings?

From that point onward, the Chinese ballet was conceptualized.

Teachers made drastic alterations to the way classical ballet was taught.

Chinese names were given to the positions instead of generic French

terminologies; for example, the French position “Tendu”, which means to

point, was changed to “Ton Jiu”. Moreover, Li also described that the way of

teaching ballet had also changed wherein he wrote,

In the middle of a classical plié we had to stiffen

our hands into kung fu gestures while we were
doing port de bras, and we had to finish off with a
death like stare called “brightening the presence.”

Ballet has been widely known for its grace and fluidity, which was

opposite to the way Madame Mao wanted ballet to be portrayed. Chinese

ballet began to emerge from Western ballet, establishing its own style and
techniques. Madame Mao wanted to make ballet a revolutionary

masterpiece that it would cater both the rich and the masses. In order to

achieve what Madame Mao envisioned, she further enhanced the

performance of Chinese ballet by creating the three learning classes in which

the dancers must participate in. The three learning classes were farmers,

workers, and soldiers. The dancers were sent to the farmers or workers and

for three weeks a year, they must learn the way life of the masses that they

will portray on stage. She wanted her students to be exposed to the hardships

and lives that the masses from the countryside faced. She believed that by

having these experiences, the dancers would be able to further understand

the emotions they need to incorporate to the characters and portray their

characters as heroes of the revolution on stage. This mandate also supported

Chairman Mao’s revolution by eliminating all social classes.

One of the famous revolutionary Chinese ballet received attention all

over the world was the Red Detachment of Women, crafted by Madame Mao.

This ballet piece is one of the perfect examples of the revolutionary ballet

which emerged from the Cultural Revolution in 1964. It tells the story of

poor women who were treated as slaves by the evil tyrant of the South which

was characterized as a landlord and commander of the counter revolutionary.

Wu Chinghua, the lead role of the ballet and daughter of a poor peasant

family, was seen as a heroine and became part of the Red Women’s Army

(China Ballet troupe). The Red Women’s Army aimed to fight for their

rights as women and to abolish the slavery they have gone into under the
landlord. This perfectly illustrated the idea of Chairman Mao’s feministic

idea to strengthen the ideals of communism and equality.

The Red Detachment of Women was strengthened through the songs

played throughout the ballet. Two of these songs, as translated in English,

were “Song of the Red Women’s Company” and “Army and People Are

United As One”. These songs strengthened the emotions of the ballet piece.

One of the lines in the songs first mentioned gave a powerful meaning to

what they are trying to convey:

Communism is the truth; the party led the way,

Slaves will arise, slaves will arise!”

(China Ballet troupe)

Chairman Mao and Madame Mao created a new face of ballet in which

China was known for. Not only did they make a new culture for China, they

also accomplished the spreading communistic ideals using a genre known

for grace. Though ballet was commonly known for the rich, Mao was able to

open a new form of art to the masses in which they would be able to relate.

The Red Detachment of Women and other known revolutionary pieces like

The White Haired Girl became known worldwide not only for its art but for

its unique message that portrayed the Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong.

Famous Chinese Prima ballerina, Zhao Ruheng, now artistic director

of the National Ballet of China shared her experiences about the Red

Detachment touring across the countryside of China in the 1960’s (Young,

2011). To further promote the communism through the ballet The Red

Detachment, she retold that the cast of the ballet was forced to walk from

town to town as they toured throughout China with their instruments and

costumes on their backs. For most people in the countryside, this tour was

their first exposure to Western traditional art. Ruheng retold,

At that time we would wear our ballet shoes performing on the

snow covered ground. The ballerina's wore cotton peasant
clothes and danced in their handcrafted ballet slippers that
their Russian teachers taught them how to make. In every
town 20,000 to 30,000 people sat below the stage and watched
us perform in the freezing cold weather.

Ruheng said that as part of the company, she had no choice but to do

her obligation in spreading the revolution no matter how difficult the

conditions were. Her part in the history of Chinese ballet and Cultural

Revolution contributed greatly in introducing the art as well as Mao’s

ideology to the proletarian.

Conclusion

Russian ballet was seen to play an influential role in Mao’s

Revolution. Russian ballet was integrated into China primarily because Mao

believed that it could help educate the laboring class about the arts and

eventually help China in developing and rising back from the ashes to be one
of the leading powers of the world. However, due to the fear of losing both

the Chinese tradition and the support from the masses, he had to completely

alter Russian ballet and make it as suitable to the Chinese society as

possible. With China feeling tired of Imperial oppression, Chairman Mao

saw to it that China would regain power through his leadership, as inspired

by Lenin, leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Chairman Mao saw that

China would benefit through this Cultural Revolution since all social classes

would be taken down, closing down the gap between the rich and the poor.

Madame Mao played a key role in establishing the revolutionary principles

in the culture and the arts, believing that ballet could be turned into

something great and not only dedicated for the rich. She took the proletariat

class such as the workers, farmers, the military, and the peasants as models

for the Chinese ballet. The notorious ballet piece known for mixing guns and

Pointe, the Red Detachment then became a way to spread the Revolution.

Madame Mao was successful in turning ballet into a revolutionary piece;

however, she took away the grace and glamour of the classical ballet, the

very heart of the said form of art. Aside from making the proletariat the main

force for the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao also used the ideals of

feminism to gain the support of the women. Ballet became a main tool in

which females could spread the ideals of the revolution. The revolutionary

ballet became a success was recognized all over the world, proving that

China could once again stand alongside global powerful nations. China was

put into the spotlight as another communist country.

 However, as the Revolution started to set into the people’s lives, the

resolution made by the people during the Cultural Revolution failed to

promote social progress primarily due to the Mao’s callous decisions. The

CPC made mistakes in understanding the state of China at the time. There

was a mistake in enlarging the scope of class struggle and rashness in

economic construction hindering Mao and the CPC to achieve a significant

amount of change (Zong, 1989). Mao’s Cultural Revolution was not much as

a success as he hoped but the integration of ballet in his movement has

become one of the treasures of the Revolution that continues to live up to

this day. The Cultural Revolution was able to create something that is

uniquely Chinese. The classical Russian Ballet was able to make mark in the

heavily traditional Chinese art and culture by being the format of one of the

main tools that spread the principles of the Cultural Revolution, equality as

well as the new idea of feminism.

 Appendices

A. The songs in translation found in the Red Detachment Manuscript

Song of the Red Women’s Company

Forward, Forward!

Important the soldiers’ task, deep the women’s hatered.

Smash your shackles, rise in revolution!

We’re the Women’s company, taking up arms for the people.

Forward, Forward!

Important the soldiers’ task, deep the women’s hatered.

Communism is the truth, the party lead the way .

Slaves will arise, slaves will arise!

Forward, forward!...

Army and people are united as one

The river water is clear, oh clear,

Hats we weave for the Red Army dear,

Our armymen love the people, we support them delighted

As one family we are with them united.

The river water is clear, oh clear,

Hats we weave for the Red army dear,

Our army men love the people, we support them delighted,

Together we strike the foe benighted

Our red base is beautiful, we close cohere,

The river water is clear, oh clear,

Hats we weave for the Red army dear,

Together we’ll march ever on, no fear

B. A Modern Revolutionary Ballet: Red Detachment of Women

Fig.1 Wu Ching-Hua has a strong class feeling as she practices

marksmanship and grenade throwing under the Company
commander’s instruction”( China Ballet Troupe ).

Fig.2 Farmers being portrayed as joyous and full of optimism just as

Madame Mao envisioned.
 Fig.3 Wu Chin-hua knocks the Tyrant to the ground and threatens him
with her gun (China Ballet troupe).

Fig.4 Soldiers of the Women’s company perform riffle drill (China

Ballet Troupe).
 C. Traditional Russian Ballet

Fig.5 Ballet was seen as romantic and was full of grace in the wrist. Madame Mao did not think the Russian ballet would fit
her ideology due to the bourgeois idea and the glamour involved in Russian ballet.
D. Mao Zedong Quotes

In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes
and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art
for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or
independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole
proletarian revolutionary cause; they are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in
the whole revolutionary machine(Quotations from Mao Tse Tung, 1966).

Each class in every class society has its own political and artistic criteria.
But all classes in all class societies invariably put the political criterion first
and the artistic criterion second.... What we demand is the unity of politics
and art, the unity of content and form, the unity of revolutionary political
content and the highest possible perfection of artistic form. Works of art,
which lack artistic quality, have no force, however progressive they are
politically. Therefore, we oppose both works of art with a wrong political
viewpoint and the tendency towards the "poster and slogan style" which is
correct in political viewpoint but lacking in artistic power. On questions of
literature and art we must carry on a struggle on two fronts (Quotations from
Mao Tse Tung, 1966).
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