The China Project

297 1942 Mao Zedong articulates his philosophy of the role of art in society at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art, rejecting ‘art for art’s sake’ and stating that art should be created to serve the revolution and to edify workers, peasants and soldiers. 1945 World War Two ends. Japan’s defeat also ends the eight- year Sino–Japanese war. The Republic of China becomes a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. 1949 The CCP takes control of Beijing in January following the battle of Huaihai, the last major conflict of the 23-year civil war between the CCP and the KMT. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists retreat to Taiwan. On 1 October, Mao Zedong establishes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with Zhou Enlai as President. The Chinese stock exchange is suspended. 1950 The Korean War breaks out in June, with Chinese troops entering on the side of North Korea in October. Chinese forces enter Tibet, taking control the following year. 1951 The ‘Soviet Propaganda Paintings and Caricatures’ exhibition is held at CAFA. 1953 The ‘First National Painting Exhibit’ is held in Beijing, featuring over 200 artists. The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and the Southwest College of Fine Arts (later the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts) are founded. CAFA sends its first students to study in the Soviet Union . 1954 The journal Fine Arts (Meishu) is founded in Beijing . 1956 Mao Zedong encourages intellectuals to debate a range of policy solutions and criticise the bureaucracy, stating that ‘Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land’. However, the overwhelming response to the Hundred Flowers Campaign leads to severe crackdowns on dissent. The Shanghai Art Museum opens. 1958 Mao Zedong announces his five-year economic plan, known as The Great Leap Forward, which involves the collectivisation of farms and the rapid development of industry, particularly steel. Poor planning, including the diversion of farm workers to manufacturing, and natural disasters such as droughts, floods and locust plagues, result in widespread famine and an estimated 30 million deaths over the next few years. 1959 A major uprising in Tibet is suppressed. The Dalai Lama (b.1935), the spiritual leader of Tibet, flees to India. 1960 A private exhibition of abstract art is held by the Chinese Artists Association of Beijing. 1962 The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC, also known as China Art Gallery) is inaugurated in Beijing. 1964 China tests its first atomic bomb. 1965 The 114-figure clay sculptural work Rent collection courtyard , depicting the class struggle between peasants and feudal landlords, is created by a collective of 18 teachers and students from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. 1966 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is launched by Mao Zedong to reinforce socialist ideology and reject traditional culture and Western liberalism. Mao’s quotations on these subjects are published in his ‘Little Red Book’. Over the next few years, with the assistance of student Red Guards, millions of the educated classes are sent into manual labour, and mass denunciations and executions are common, causing great social unrest. Red Guards from CAFA and other universities stage public accusations and denunciations, burn teaching equipment and smash plaster statues. 1967 The cult of Mao is promoted through art exhibitions and the construction of public statues. A training course on painting Mao’s likeness is established at CAFA.