Read Online Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader by Geremie Barme - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Geremie Barme
Tags: General, Asia, History, Literary Criticism, Political Science, Political Ideologies, china, Communism; Post-Communism & Socialism, World, Asian, Chinese, test
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crags and rock faces 151 (see Figure 11). Since then, the calligraphic commemoration of Mao has continued. In 1992 it was reported that Mao's own handwritten version of a portion of the Tang poet Bo Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" had been carved onto a massive stone stela and erected
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at the Xianyou Temple in Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi Province, the place where the poem was composed. The 4-meter-high, 5.28-meter-long stela was placed in a traditional pavilion structure roofed with mock-imperial glazed liuli tiles. For reasons not given, Mao reproduced only 224 of the 840 characters of the original poem. Unsigned and not inscribed in any way, this calligraphic jotting was, nonetheless, deemed worthy of reproduction and insinuated into the ancient site of Bo Juyi's composition 152 (see Figure 12).
Although Mao's highly individualistic style of calligraphy continues to be emulated, the quality of the original works is questionable. One of the most perceptive comments on Mao's hand comes from the art historian Pierre Ryckmans, writing as Simon Leys:
His [Mao's] calligraphy . . . is strikingly original, betraying a flamboyant egotism, to the point of arrogance, if not extravagance; at the same time it shows a total disregard for the formal discipline of the brush, and this contempt for technical requirements condemns his work, however powerful, to remain essentially inarticulate. His poetry, so aptly described by Arthur Waley as "not as bad as Hitler's painting, but not as good as Churchill's," was rather pedantic and pedestrian, managing to combine obscurity with vulgarity; and yet, within the framework of an obsolete form, it remains, in its very awkwardness, remarkably unfettered by conventions. 153
As the Mao Cult was reaching its height in late 1991, the Shandong artist Zhou Pengfei (b. 1970) put on a major exhibition of his Mao-style ( Maoti ) calligraphy in Beijing, issuing invitations in imitation Mao handwriting. 154 Zhao Yihong, the manager of the Yihong Book Workshop in Chengdu, Sichuan, specialized in book covers using Mao calligraphy, showing particular preference for the word "struggle" ( dou ) as penned by the Chairman in his designs. For imitators and students of Mao's calligraphy by then there were also a number of useful reference books; the most impressive was The Great Compendium of Mao Zedong's Calligraphy, which contained 2,362 characters in Mao's hand culled from numerous sources as well as a 16-page selection of Mao's signatures. 155
Imitation, however, is not necessarily the most sincere form of flattery. In late 1994, the well-known guohua (Chinese painting) artist Wu Guanzhong took the major Shanghai art company Duoyunxuan and the Hong Kong Yongcheng Antique Auctioners to court for auctioning a Cultural Revolution-period painting reputedly by him bearing the inscription "Bombard the Headquartersmy big character poster" ( Paoda silingbuwode yizhang dazibao ) in Mao-style calligraphy. 156 Wu denied that he had done the work, which fetched H.K.$528,000 when sold to a Taiwanese collector in 1993, and was outraged by accusations that he was attempting to profit out of the Mao centenary in such an unscrupulous fashion. 157
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Other, more commercial imitations of Mao include advertisements such as the massive billboard visible near Shanghai Station in December 1991 for wallpaper and interior decorating products that featured the line "Yu gong yi shan" the title of Mao's famous homily "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains"followed by words to the effect that if you used their product you, too, could move beautiful mountain scenery into your own living room. In 1992 the Changsha Advertising Company in Hunan maintained a massive billboard featuring Mao's calligraphic inscription "Learn from Comrade Lei Feng" to promote itself (see Figure 13), and for years the Beijing tourist authorities have used a line from Mao's poetry budao Changcheng fei haohan (If you don't make it to the
Page 34
at the Xianyou Temple in Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi Province, the place where the poem was composed. The 4-meter-high, 5.28-meter-long stela was placed in a traditional pavilion structure roofed with mock-imperial glazed liuli tiles. For reasons not given, Mao reproduced only 224 of the 840 characters of the original poem. Unsigned and not inscribed in any way, this calligraphic jotting was, nonetheless, deemed worthy of reproduction and insinuated into the ancient site of Bo Juyi's composition 152 (see Figure 12).
Although Mao's highly individualistic style of calligraphy continues to be emulated, the quality of the original works is questionable. One of the most perceptive comments on Mao's hand comes from the art historian Pierre Ryckmans, writing as Simon Leys:
His [Mao's] calligraphy . . . is strikingly original, betraying a flamboyant egotism, to the point of arrogance, if not extravagance; at the same time it shows a total disregard for the formal discipline of the brush, and this contempt for technical requirements condemns his work, however powerful, to remain essentially inarticulate. His poetry, so aptly described by Arthur Waley as "not as bad as Hitler's painting, but not as good as Churchill's," was rather pedantic and pedestrian, managing to combine obscurity with vulgarity; and yet, within the framework of an obsolete form, it remains, in its very awkwardness, remarkably unfettered by conventions. 153
As the Mao Cult was reaching its height in late 1991, the Shandong artist Zhou Pengfei (b. 1970) put on a major exhibition of his Mao-style ( Maoti ) calligraphy in Beijing, issuing invitations in imitation Mao handwriting. 154 Zhao Yihong, the manager of the Yihong Book Workshop in Chengdu, Sichuan, specialized in book covers using Mao calligraphy, showing particular preference for the word "struggle" ( dou ) as penned by the Chairman in his designs. For imitators and students of Mao's calligraphy by then there were also a number of useful reference books; the most impressive was The Great Compendium of Mao Zedong's Calligraphy, which contained 2,362 characters in Mao's hand culled from numerous sources as well as a 16-page selection of Mao's signatures. 155
Imitation, however, is not necessarily the most sincere form of flattery. In late 1994, the well-known guohua (Chinese painting) artist Wu Guanzhong took the major Shanghai art company Duoyunxuan and the Hong Kong Yongcheng Antique Auctioners to court for auctioning a Cultural Revolution-period painting reputedly by him bearing the inscription "Bombard the Headquartersmy big character poster" ( Paoda silingbuwode yizhang dazibao ) in Mao-style calligraphy. 156 Wu denied that he had done the work, which fetched H.K.$528,000 when sold to a Taiwanese collector in 1993, and was outraged by accusations that he was attempting to profit out of the Mao centenary in such an unscrupulous fashion. 157
Page 35
Other, more commercial imitations of Mao include advertisements such as the massive billboard visible near Shanghai Station in December 1991 for wallpaper and interior decorating products that featured the line "Yu gong yi shan" the title of Mao's famous homily "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains"followed by words to the effect that if you used their product you, too, could move beautiful mountain scenery into your own living room. In 1992 the Changsha Advertising Company in Hunan maintained a massive billboard featuring Mao's calligraphic inscription "Learn from Comrade Lei Feng" to promote itself (see Figure 13), and for years the Beijing tourist authorities have used a line from Mao's poetry budao Changcheng fei haohan (If you don't make it to the
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