Art in Turmoil

Forty years after China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution, this book revisits the visual and performing arts of the period—the paintings, propaganda posters, political cartoons, sculpture, folk arts, private sketchbooks, opera, and ballet—and examines what these vibrant, militant, often gaudy images meant to artists, their patrons, and their audiences at the time, and what they mean now, both in their original forms and as revolutionary icons reworked for a new market-oriented age. Chapters by scholars of Chinese history and art and by artists whose careers were shaped by the Cultural Revolution offer new insights into works that have transcended their times.

Richard King is Director of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives and Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Victoria.

“The passage of time and passion, as well as the availability of new materials, bring a new focus to work on the Cultural Revolution. Memoirs of participants put a human face on the decade-long movement. The personal experiences and new documents in Art in Turmoil combine with exquisite scholarship to deepen our understanding of the artistic life of Maoist China.” —Richard Kraus, author of The Party and the Arty in China: The New Politics of Culture

“There have been many books on the Cultural Revolution within the field of politics, sociology, and anthropology, but very few largely relevant to the art of the decade available in either Chinese or English. Art in Turmoil will thus be welcomed as playing a pivotal role in constructing a framework for further and wider discussions.” —Jiehong Jiang, author of Red: China’s Cultural Revolution