Beijing, a garden of violenceстатья из журнала
Аннотация: Abstract Abstract This paper examines the history of Beijing in relation to gardens — imperial, princely, public and private — and the impetus of the 'gardener', in particular in the twentieth‐century. Engaging with the theme of 'violence in the garden' as articulated by such scholars as Zygmunt Bauman and Martin Jay, I reflect on Beijing as a 'garden of violence', both before the rise of the socialist state in 1949, and during the years leading up to the 2008 Olympics. Keywords: gardensviolenceparty cultureChinese historyChinese politicscultivationrevolution Acknowledgments I am grateful to Meaghan Morris and Caroline Turner for inviting me to participate in the 'Asian Cities and Cultural Change' conference, 1–2 July 2005—an Australian Research Council‐funded symposium—at the Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University. This essay is based on the paper I presented at that gathering. I would also like to thank Meaghan for her patience as I turned those notes into something publishable. My thanks, also, to Sang Ye for his many suggestions in regard to sources and for his guidance, as well as to Gloria Davies for her comments on the final draft. I am, as ever, indebted to Nora Chang of the Long Bow Group in Boston for helping me locate illustrative material. Notes 1. For more on this, see Issue Number 8 of the e‐journal China Heritage Quarterly (2006 2006. "'Focus on the Garden of Perfect Brightness'". In China Heritage Quarterly issue 8, December, www.chinaheritagequarterly.org [Google Scholar]), which takes as its focus the Garden of Perfect Brightness. My first encounters with Beijing gardens in the mid 1970s were, like so many others, frustrated as some of the most important garden parks were closed by the fiat of party rulers. Later, Ye Xiangzhen (Ling Zi), the daughter of the army leader and Politburo member Ye Jianying, would help me appreciate the role both of productive and of ornamental gardens in the lives of the party elite. She would share fruit with me from her father's orchard at party central's retreat at Yuquan Shan, northwest Beijing. During my years in Kyoto, Jamie Schwentker, who was studying Japanese garden design, introduced me to the intricacies and delights of that subject, one that has informed his own work in Los Angeles as he has styled gardens for Madonna, Rachel Welch and other entertainment luminaries. 2. See, for example, Mao (1956 Mao, Zedong. 1956 [1977]. "'On the ten great relationships (5 March 1956)' 'Lun shi daguanxi'". In Mao Zedong xuanji, Vol. 5, 267–288. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe. [Google Scholar] [1977]: 267–288, esp. 268–269); also the discussions regarding Chinese modernity in Wang (1998 Wang, Hui. 1998. "'Contemporary Chinese thought and the question of modernity'". In Social Text Edited by: Karl, Rebecca E. Vol. 55(Summer), 9–44. [Google Scholar]: 14); as well as the interrogation of that piece by Davies (2007 Davies, Gloria. 2007. Worrying About China: The Language of Chinese Critical Inquiry, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 77–80). 3. This was a party exhortation repeated in Mao's speeches and then written in his own hand as a slogan for an army brigade in 1943. See Mao (1943 Mao, Zedong. 1943 [1966]. "'Kaizhan genjudide jianzu, shengchan he yongzheng aimin yundong (1943 nian 10 yue 1 ri)'". In Mao Zedong xuanji, Vol. 3, 866Beijing: Renmin chubanshe. [Google Scholar] [1966]: 866). 4. For details of the transformation of the imperial precinct of Beijing, see Wu (2006 Wu, Hung. 2006. Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space, London: Reaktion Books. [Google Scholar]: 18–19ff); and, Barmé (2008 Barmé, Geremie R. 2008. The Forbidden City, London: Profile Books/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]: chapters 1 and 7). 5. The party fellow traveler Soong Ch'ing‐ling (Song Qingling), widow of the 'father of the Republic' Sun Yat‐sen, for example, was allocated part of the Qiye Fu (Mansion of the Seventh Prince, also known as 'Bei Fu', the 'northern mansion') on Hou Hai lake, the place where the last emperor, Aisin Gioro Puyi (Xuantong), was born. Guo Moruo, the party's leading cultural handmaiden, would live in the spacious courtyard compound near Qian Hai lake, previously part of the stables of Prince Gong's Mansion (see the following note). 6. For details of the most famous of these, Prince Gong's Mansion (Gong wangfu), see Barmé (2006 Barmé, Geremie R. 2006. "'Prince Gong's folly'". In The Great Wall of China, Edited by: Roberts, Claire and Barmé, Geremie R. 240–248. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing. [Google Scholar]: 246–248). 7. A description of these is given by Li Zhisui in his often unreliable memoir (Li 1994 Li, Zhisui. 1994. The Private Life of Chairman Mao, the Memoirs of Mao's Personal Physician Dr. Li Shisui, Edited by: Hung‐chao, Tai and Thurston, Anne F. New York: Random House. [Google Scholar]: 67–80). 8. The expression 'a hundred schools contend' (baijia zhengming) dates back to the Warring States period; the 'hundred flowers [blossom]' (baihua qi fang) is a literary trope of more recent provenance. Mao combined the expressions in an inscription he wrote in 1951 for the newly established Chinese Theatre Research Institute. 'Weed out the old so that the new may flourish' (tui chen chu xin) was part of an inscription he wrote for the Beijing Opera (Ping ju) Research Institute of Yan'an in 1942. 9. The draft outline of this speech formed the basis of 'The Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (27 February 1957)' (Mao 1957 Mao, Zedong. 1957 [1977]b. "'The correct handling of contradictions among the people (27 February 1957)' 'Guanyu zhengque chuli renmin neibu maodunde wenti'". In Mao Zedong xuanji, Vol. 5, 363–402. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe. [Google Scholar] [1977]b: 388–395). 10. In this context, it is fruitful to consider Michael Dutton's discussion of the political, as well as friends and enemies (Dutton 2005 Dutton, Michael. 2005. Policing Chinese Politics: A History, Durham, NC: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 27ff). 11. 'Blossoms of the Motherland' (Zuguode huaduo) was the name of a 1955 children's film about socialist Young Pioneers. Much of the action takes place in the garden‐parks of Beijing. The generation of young people represented in the film went on to become the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution era. 12. Written a few months after his famous letter 'A single spark can start a prairie fire', the poem expresses a certain optimism for the future of the revolution. The relevant lines read: 'Man ages all too easily, not Nature:/ Year by year the Double Ninth returns./ On this Double Ninth,/ The yellow blooms on the battlefield smell sweeter.' 13. Given the modern history of the chrysanthemum and its involvement with metaphors of death and utopia, it is worth noting that Zhang Yimou's 2006 film, The Curse of the Golden Flower, a story of imperial family intrigue and murder, uses the flower as its leitmotif. 14. For a harrowing account of the effects of the Great Leap, both in the countryside, and the cities, see the oral history interviews by Sang Ye in Barmé (Sang 2007 Sang, Ye. 2007. "Interviews by". In 'New years past: other spring festivals' Edited by: Barmé, Geremie R. 21 February, www.danwei.org/guest_contributor/new_years_past_other_spring_fe_1.php [Google Scholar]). 15. For the texts and translations of three versions of what became the song 'The East is Red' (Dongfang hong), see 'the transformation of a love song' in the website for the film Morning Sun (Hinton et al. 2003 Hinton, Carma, Barmé, Geremie R. and Gordon, Richard, eds. 2003. Morning Sun, Boston: Longbow Group. www.morningsun.org [Google Scholar]) at www.morningsun.org/east/index.html. 16. Mao was frequently celebrated as a savior, as well as being a provider of munificence. One example of this was the hysteria surrounding his making a present of mangoes to workers at the height of Cultural Revolution factional violence. This particular episode is the subject both of a heady culturo‐political analysis (see Dutton 2004 Dutton, Michael. 2004. 'Mango Mao: inflections of the sacred'. Public Culture, 16(2): 161–188. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]: 161–188), and of an exhibition by Freda Murck (Murck 2006 Murck, Freda. 2006. "'Chairman Mao's golden mangoes'". Exhibition in Asia Gallery Spencer Museum of Art, from 19 September [Google Scholar]). 17. Yu Wen (lyrics) and Wang Shuangyin (score), 'Sailing the seas depends on the helmsman' (Dahai hangxing kao duoshou). For the Chinese original and a sung version of this song, see www.morningsun.org/multimedia/music.html. A dramatic depiction of the relationship between the solar Mao and the sunflowers of China, see 'Dawn in the East', the opening scene of the song‐and‐dance extravaganza 'The East is Red' (Dongfang hong) at www.morningsun.org/east/index.html. 18. Mao led his first peasant rebellion on 9 September 1927. It is known as the 'Autumn Harvest Uprising' (Qiushou qiyi). The saying 'to settle accounts/scores after the autumn [harvest]' (qiuhou suanzhang) was used frequently in the Mao era, usually to indicate that the overthrown landlords and bourgeoisie were biding their time so they could get even with the revolutionary masses. 19. Suzhi appeared, for example, as a feature of debates about racial strength and social promise long before this more recent iteration. In the mid‐1930s, for example, following China's disastrous participation in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Zhang Junjun wrote his An examination of the quality of the Chinese race (Huazu suzhi zhi jiantao) (Zhang 1944 Zhang, Junjun. 1944. An Examination of the Quality of the Chinese Race (Huazu suzhi zhi jiantao), Chongqing: Shangwu yinshuguan. [Google Scholar]: 5–6). For a discussion of this, see Sun (2005 Sun, Longji (Lung‐kee Sun). 2005. Lishixuejiade jingxian—lishi xinli wenji, 135Hong Kong: Huaqianshu chuban youxian gongsi. [Google Scholar]: 135). 20. B⊘rge Bakken has written of the rise of 'quality' or 'human quality' in Chinese socio‐political debates since the 1980s (Bakken 2000 Bakken, B⊘rge. 2000. The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]: 59f). See also Anagnost (1997 Anagnost, Ann. 1997. National Past‐times: Narrative, Representation, and Power in Modern China, Durham & London: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: chapter 3 and 2004 Anagnost, Ann. 2004. 'The corporeal politics of quality (Suzhi)'. Public Culture, 16(2): 189–208. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]: 189–208).
Год издания: 2008
Авторы: Geremie Barmé
Издательство: Routledge
Источник: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
Ключевые слова: China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance, Homelessness and Social Issues, Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics
Открытый доступ: closed
Том: 9
Выпуск: 4
Страницы: 612–639