Abstract
In 1976 an exhibition of Chinese peasant paintings toured Britain. Made by amateur peasant painters from Huxian (户县), the works were widely celebrated in the British art world for their optimistic portrayal of the new socialist countryside. Analysis of the exhibition’s reviews in newspapers and art journals demonstrate, however, that what appealed to the British critics was less the art itself and more the art system in China in which amateurs were encouraged to paint. This was contrasted to a British and Western art world that many left-wing artists and critics deemed to be elitist, overly conceptual and out of touch with the wider public. The success of the Huxian exhibition then needs to be seen in the context of the debates and criticisms of the British art world that took place throughout the 1970s. It also needs to be contextualized within the broader interest in China, Chinese communism and the Cultural Revolution that developed in the late 1960s and 1970s. This essay therefore explores the broader British interest in China in the 1970s and argues that the success of the Huxian peasant painting exhibition was the result of a unique convergence of events in late 1970s Britain.
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©2014 by De Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Rethinking China’s Soft Power
- Articles
- Reporting for China: Cosmopolitan Attitudes and the “Chinese Perspective” among Chinese Correspondents Abroad
- Rewriting the Chinese National Epic in an Age of Global Consumerism: City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War
- Fei Cheng Wu Rao (非诚勿扰): Staging Global China through International Format Television and Overseas Special Episodes
- Exporting the Communist Image: The 1976 Chinese Peasant Painting Exhibition in Britain
- Projecting the Good Life at Home and Abroad: Lineages of the Chinese National Image from 1949 to the Present
- New Public Diplomacy Meets Old Public Diplomacy – the Case of China and Its Confucius Institutes
- The Politics of Affect in Confucius Institutes: Re-orienting Foreigners towards the PRC
- Book Reviews
- Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel: The Syrian Dilemma
- Jaesok Kim: Chinese Labor in a Korean Factory: Class, Ethnicity, and Productivity on the Shop Floor in Globalizing China
- J. H. Elliott: History in the Making
- Daniel Brook: A History of Future Cities
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Rethinking China’s Soft Power
- Articles
- Reporting for China: Cosmopolitan Attitudes and the “Chinese Perspective” among Chinese Correspondents Abroad
- Rewriting the Chinese National Epic in an Age of Global Consumerism: City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War
- Fei Cheng Wu Rao (非诚勿扰): Staging Global China through International Format Television and Overseas Special Episodes
- Exporting the Communist Image: The 1976 Chinese Peasant Painting Exhibition in Britain
- Projecting the Good Life at Home and Abroad: Lineages of the Chinese National Image from 1949 to the Present
- New Public Diplomacy Meets Old Public Diplomacy – the Case of China and Its Confucius Institutes
- The Politics of Affect in Confucius Institutes: Re-orienting Foreigners towards the PRC
- Book Reviews
- Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel: The Syrian Dilemma
- Jaesok Kim: Chinese Labor in a Korean Factory: Class, Ethnicity, and Productivity on the Shop Floor in Globalizing China
- J. H. Elliott: History in the Making
- Daniel Brook: A History of Future Cities