We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2013
This paper examines the resistance of pingtan storytellers to Communist political domination and economic exploitation on the eve of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). In the early and mid-1960s, storytellers rarely mounted resistance through direct confrontations with the political authorities, but often in ‘everyday forms’ such as by libelling cadres, asking for sick-leave, refusing to conform to the dress code during performances, and threatening to withdraw from troupes. In order to vent their disappointment at the economic hardships following the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), storytellers resorted to the flexible ways of narrating and performing pingtan stories to manipulate the storylines and characterizations in their stage performances. Hence storytellers engaged in counter-propaganda by telling ribald jokes and distorting stories that were originally designed to praise Communist revolutions. This investigation of the resistance of storytellers, both on and off stage, is intended not merely to raise a long overlooked history of the 1960s from oblivion, but also to highlight the Party-state's inability to ideologically transform Chinese artists prior to the Cultural Revolution.
1 The term ‘pingtan’ refers to two closely related storytelling arts performed in the same venues: tanci, which involves narration, dialogue, singing, and the music of stringed instruments; and pinghua, which involves narration, dialogue, incidental singing, and no instrumental music—thus the compound term ‘pingtan’.
2 Bender, M. (2003). Plum and Bamboo, China's Suzhou Chantefable Tradition, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, p. 3Google Scholar.
3 Benson, C. (1995). ‘Manipulation of ‘Tanci’ in Radio Shanghai During the 1930s’, Republican China, 20:2, pp. 117–146Google Scholar; McDaniel, L. (2001). “‘Jumping the Dragon Gate”: Storytelling and the Creation of the Shanghai Identity’, Modern China 27:4, pp. 484–507Google Scholar.
4 Shanghai Municipal Archive, A23-2-529, p. 128.
5 McDougall, B. (1984). ‘Writers and Performers, Their Works, and Their Audiences in the First Three Decades’ in McDougall, B.Popular Chinese Literature and Performing Arts in the People's Republic of China, 1949–1979, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 189–191Google Scholar; Chen, S. (1995). ‘The Tradition, Reformation, and Innovation of Huaguxi: Hunan Flower Drum Opera’, The Drama Review, 39:1, pp. 129–149Google Scholar; Kraus, R. (2004). The Party and the Arty in China: the New Politics of Culture, Lanham, Md.; Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield PublishersGoogle Scholar.
6 Andrews, J. (1990). ‘Traditional Painting in New China: Guohua and the Anti-Rightist Campaign’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 49:3, pp. 555–577CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lau, F. (1996). ‘Forever Red: The Invention of Solo dizi Music in Post-1949’, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 5. pp. 113–131CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jones, A. (1992). Life a Knife: Ideology and Genre in Contemporary Chinese Popular Music, Ithaca, New York: East Asia Program, Cornell University, p. 13Google Scholar.
7 Wang, S. (1995). ‘The Politics of Private Time: Changing Leisure Patterns in Urban China’ in Davis, Det al., Urban Spaces in Contemporary China: The Potential for Autonomy and Community in Post-Mao China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 153–154Google Scholar.
8 For example, Mackerras, C. (1987). ‘Conclusion’ in Tung, C. and Mackerras, C.Drama in the People's Republic of China, Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 326–333Google Scholar; Tang, X. (2000). Chinese Modern: The Heroic and the Quotidian, Durham: Duke University Press, p. 283Google Scholar; Kraus, R. (2004). The Party and the Arty in China.
9 Bender, M. (2003). Plum and Bamboo, pp. 16–18.
10 Kaikonen, M. (1999). ‘Quyi: Will It Survive?’ in Børdahl, V.The Eternal Storyteller: Oral Literature in Modern China, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, p. 62Google Scholar.
11 He, Q. (2010). ‘Between Business and Bureaucrats: Pingtan Storytelling in Maoist and Post-Maoist China’, Modern China, 36:3, p. 249Google Scholar.
12 Ibid, pp. 254–256.
13 I borrow the term of ‘cultural thaw’ from Paul Pickowicz, who investigates the new development of China's film industry in the early and mid-1960s. See Pickowicz, P. (1985). ‘The Limits of Cultural Thaw: Chinese Cinema in the Early 1960s’ in Berry, C.Perspectives on Chinese Cinema, Ithaca, New York: China-Japan Program, Cornell University, p. 97Google Scholar.
14 Jiang, J. (2009). Women Playing Men: Yue Opera and Social Change in Twentieth-Century Shanghai, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, pp. 183–184Google Scholar.
15 Goldman, M. (1967). Literary Dissent in Communist China, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar; Goldman, M. (1981). China's Intellectuals: Advise and Dissent, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar; Hamrin, C and Cheek, T. eds (1986). China's Establishment Intellectuals, Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc.Google Scholar; and Mazur, M. (2011). Wu Han, Historian: Son of China's Times, Lanham: Lexington BooksGoogle Scholar, to name only a few.
16 Only a small number of works address the resistance of workers to state power in the 1950s. For example, Perry, E. (1997). ‘Shanghai's Strike Wave of 1957’ in Cheek, T. and Saich, T.New Perspectives on State Socialism in China, Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 234–261Google Scholar.
17 Yang Limin, interview with author, 20 July, 2010; Xia Zhenhua, interview with author, 2 August, 2010.
18 Yang Zijiang, interview with author, 7 July, 2009.
19 Scott, J. (1985). Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, New Haven: Yale University Press, p. xviGoogle Scholar.
20 Ibid, p. 33.
21 Hollander, J. and Einwohner, R. (1994). ‘Conceptualizing Resistance’, Sociological Forum, 19:4, p. 549Google Scholar.
22 Pickett, B. (1996). ‘Foucault and the Politics of Resistance’, Polity, XXVIII:4, pp. 458–459Google Scholar.
23 Ibid, p. 459.
24 Tsao, P. (1988). The Music of Su-chou T’an-tz’u: Elements of the Chinese Southern Singing-Narrative, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, p. 10Google Scholar.
25 Du, W. (1995). ‘Xuetou: Comic Elements as Social Commentary in Suzhou Pingtan Storytelling’, CHINOPERL Papers, 18, p. 33Google Scholar.
26 Hsia, C. (1971). A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, Second Edition, New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 474Google Scholar.
27 Link, P. (1984). ‘The Genie and the Lamp: Revolutionary xiangsheng’ in McDougall, B. Popular Chinese Literature and Performing Arts in the People's Republic of China, p. 99.
28 Bender, M. (2003). Plum and Bamboo, p. 50.
29 Fang, Y. (1975). Pingtan chuangzuo xuan (Selected works of pingtan storytelling), Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, p. 9Google Scholar.
30 Zuoxian (1957). Zenyang xinshang pingtan (How to enjoy pingtan storytelling), Shanghai: Shanghai wenhua chubanshe, p. 26Google Scholar.
31 Du, W. (1995). ‘Xuetou’, p. 35.
32 The Great Leap Forward (Da yuejin) movement ran from about 1958 to 1961. The CCP intended to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society by means of industrialization and collectivization. Yet such campaigns only led to economic regression and widespread famine resulting in the deaths of millions of Chinese.
33 Bender, M. (2003). Plum and Bamboo, p. 50.
34 Zuoxian. (1957), Zenyang xinshang pingtan, p. 23.
35 Hodes, N. (1991). ‘Strumming and Singing the ‘Three Smiles Romance:’ A Study of the Tanci Text’, Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, pp. 259–260.
36 Blader, S. (1999). ‘Oral Narrative and Its Transformation into Print: the Case of Bai Yutang’ in Børdahl, V. The Eternal Storyteller, pp. 172–178.
37 Zhonghua Remin Gongheguo Wenhua bu bangong ting (1982). Wenhua gongzuo wenjian ziliao huibian (yi) (1949–1959) (Compilation of documentation on cultural works [1] [1949–1959]), N. P., pp. 181–182.
38 Shen Dongshan, interview with author, 24 July, 2010.
39 Su Yuyin, interview with author, 28 June, 2010.
40 Ibid.
41 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-928, p. 2.
42 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-534, p. 60.
43 Su Yuyin, interview with author, 2 July, 2009.
44 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-534, pp. 58–59.
45 Yang Zijiang, interview with author, 7 July, 2009.
46 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-534, pp. 59–61.
47 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-1-432, p. 11.
48 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-534, p. 61.
49 Yang Zijiang, interview with author, 7 July, 2009.
50 Su Yuyin, interview with author, 2 July, 2009; Yang Zijiang, interview with author, 7 July, 2009.
51 Su Yuyin, interview with author, 2 July, 2009.
52 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-534, p. 64.
53 Gu, X. (2002). ‘Tingshu jiuhua lu (xia)’ (Old remark on listening to pingtan stories [Part II]), Pingtan yishu (Pingtan arts), No. 31, 2002, p. 199Google Scholar.
54 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-534, p. 61.
55 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-928, p. 45.
56 Ying, Qian, ‘Huainian Caolao’ (In memory of the revered Cao), Pingtan yishu, 27, p. 76Google Scholar.
57 Jiang, J. (2005). ‘Duanlie yu yanxue: 1950 niandai Shanghai de wenhua gaizao’ (Discontinuity and continuity: cultural reform in 1950s Shanghai), Shehui kexue, 6, p. 102Google Scholar.
58 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-1-432, p. 11.
59 Yang Zijiang, interview with author, 7 July, 2009.
60 Jin, J. (2005). ‘Duanlie yu yanxue’, p. 102.
61 Yang Zijiang, interview with author, 7 July, 2009.
62 Chen, X. (2002). Acting the Right Part: Political Theater and Popular Drama in Contemporary China, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, p. 183Google Scholar.
63 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-1-432, p. 13.
64 Ibid, p. 20.
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.
67 Huang, J. (1973). Heroes and Villains in Communist China: The Contemporary Chinese Novel as a Reflection of Life, New York: Pica Press, p. xivGoogle Scholar.
68 Link, P. (2002). The Use of Literature: Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, p. 229Google Scholar.
69 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-1-463, p. 76.
70 Goldman, G. (1981). China's Intellectuals, p. 7.
71 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-1-463, p. 76.
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid, pp. 76–78.
74 Ibid, pp. 78–79.
75 Ibid, p. 80.
76 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-928, pp. 13–14.
77 Goldman, M. (1967). Literary Dissident in Communist China, p. 273.
78 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-928, p. 46.
79 Ibid, p. 45.
80 Yeh, W. (2007). Shanghai Splendor: Economic Sentiments and the Making of Modern China, 1843–1949, Berkley: University of California Press, p. 216Google Scholar.
81 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-5-928, p. 13.
82 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-1-432, p. 10.
83 Link, P. (2002). The Use of Literature, p. 229.
84 Wu Zongxi, interview with author, 6 January 2008.
85 Zhou, L. (2010). ‘Duanchang lu’ (Records of short and long), Pingtan yishu, 42, p. 27Google Scholar.
86 Fangcao (1982). ‘Suzhou pingtan koujue’ (Pithy formula of Suzhou pingtan storytelling), Pingtan yishu, 1, p. 252.
87 Shanghai Municipal Archive, B172-1-463, p. 82.
88 Zuoxian (1982). Pingtan sanlun (Scattered notes on pingtan storytelling), Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, p. 293Google Scholar.
89 Hsia, T. (1963). ‘Heroes and Hero-Worship in Chinese Communist Fiction’ in Birch, C.Chinese Communist Literature, New York: Praeger, p. 115Google Scholar.
90 Link, P. and Zhou, K. (2002). ‘Shunkouliu: Popular Satirical Sayings and Popular Thought’ in Link, P., Madsen, R. and Pickowicz, P.Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a Globalizing Society, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, p. 89Google Scholar.
91 Perry, E. (1997). ‘Shanghai's Strike Wave of 1957’, p. 239.
92 Wu Zongxi, interview with author, 6 January, 2008.
93 Yang Zijiang, interview with author, 7 July, 2009.
94 Jiang, J. (2005). ‘Duanlie yu yanxu’, p. 102.
