You say you want a (cultural) revolution…

 

From 1965 until 1969 (and some say until 1976), the People’s Republic of China reeled under the Cultural Revolution that communist chairman Mao Zedong initiated. Ostensibly, the goal was to correct the cultural errors he believed were leading China astray of his revolutionary communist ideals, though an internal power struggle was also in play.

Those were troubled times. It was the era of the Red Guard and their legendary excesses. In the document usually called “the Sixteen Points,” China’s central committee called for the Chinese people to “struggle against and crush those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road.”

Forty years later, China remains nominally a communist country, though not one that would likely correspond to this vision. For some time now, China has increasingly accepted facets of capitalism that its communist founding fathers would have regarded as loathsome.

Perhaps it is not too much of an exaggeration to say China is in the midst of another cultural revolution, though not one that is entirely intentional on the part of Chinese leaders.

Consider this small bit of evidence: As reported in USA Today, newly approved job titles in China give official recognition to occupations such as coffee barista, sports agent, digital video mixer, career consultant, jewelry evaluator, and tire retreader. (The latter is a nod to the increasing number of automobiles owned by China’s rapidly expanding middle-class.) Given China’s stance four decades ago against anything associated with capitalist life, these are remarkable.

China remains a formidable international power regardless of its rapidly changing internal dynamics. In the West—and particularly in the United States—we like to think that the USA is the world’s only superpower. It’s hard to look at China and be too certain of this appraisal, however. With its dramatically expanding economic power, huge population, and advanced technological capabilities, it certainly looks a lot like a superpower, though perhaps one that is at rest for the moment.

We do not know what future relations between China and the West will be. Perhaps leaders from both worlds can meet at a Beijing coffee shop and talk it over. They have 54 Starbucks locations to choose from.

_____________________
Photo (above): Ballet scene at the Great Hall of the People attended by President and Mrs. Nixon during their trip to Beijing, China, in1972. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.

 

“The Afterlife of America’s War in Vietnam” on WICN public radio

The Afterlife of America’s War in Vietnam hits the airwaves Sunday evening, January 28, on WICN’s Inquiry program. Hosted by Mark Lynch, the program features an interview with author Gordon Arnold that looks at the influence and troubled memories of the longest war in U.S. history.

Listen to the broadcast over the air or via the internet on WICN. If you miss the show, catch it later as a podcast.

WICN is a National Public Radio affiliate in Worcester, Massachusetts.

–

Culture notes–BIBLIOGRAPHY WEEK 2007 in New York City

The Grolier Club has anounced that Bibiolgraphy Week is coming to New York City soon, from January 23-27, 2007. The annual event is scheduled at the end of January to coincide with the time when many of the principal national organizations devoted to book history have their annual meetings. These include the American Printing History Association, the Bibliographical Society of America, the Grolier Club, and others. Many events are open to the public.

The schedule for Bibliography Week events is now available at the Grolier Club web-site.

–

ANNOUNCEMENT
For news and interesting reading about libraries in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire, check out the forthcoming New England Library Review.

Art notes — DISSENT! at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum

 

For those interested in the intersection of politics and the arts, there’s still time to catch DISSENT!, an ongoing exhibition at Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum. Taking a historical approach, the show looks at how artists have expressed political opinion in what the exhibit organizers say has been “resistance to oppressive religious, political, and social systems.” The exhibit includes the work of such prominent artists as Francisco de Goya, Pablo Picasso, Ben Shahn, Andy Warhol, and Richard Serra.

Notably, it is the medium of printmaking, with its inherent ability to replicate and disseminate images widely, that is at the center of the exhibit. The show’s organizers note that “Since their inception, prints have embodied the viewpoints of their day, and over five centuries, those made in opposition to prevailing perspectives have been distributed privately or posted publicly—on walls, billboards, and now, on the web.”

To document this idea, the show’s 62 works include examples of prints, books, postcards, posters, magazines, t-shirts, and playing cards. Among the exhibit’s highlights are Shahn’s “Stop H-Bomb Tests” (1960), Picasso’s “Dream and Lie of Franco” (1937), and Serra’s provocative “Stop B S” (2004).

DISSENT! is especially relevant in today’s climate of political polarization in the United States. The exhibit, which was organized by curator Susan Dackerman, is on view at the Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, through February 25, 2007.

_______________

Image (above): The photograph above, ” Operation Ivy, Mike cloud, aerial view, 1955 – 1979″ is from Department of Energy, Office of Public Affairs, and now part of the National Archives and Records Administration collections. This image is not part of the Fogg Art Museum show, but the topic of nuclear testing is the subject of a work by Ben Shahn that is included.

–