The China Project

35 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection Performance art in China Ma Liuming / China b.1969 Fen-Ma Liuming walks the Great Wall (detail) 1998 Gelatin silver print / 120 x 200cm / Image courtesy: The artist THOMAS BERGHUIS Art and reform Three decades ago, China embarked on an economic and institutional reform program that would forever change its position in the world. In December 1978, the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee sparked a major shift in the political power structure. During this critical assembly, Deng Xiaoping — China’s long-time political reformist — received enough support to conquer the ‘Whatever Faction’ led by Hua Guofeng, that had been put in power after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and adopted the principles of ‘Whatever policy Chairman Mao decided upon, we shall resolutely defend; whatever directives Chairman Mao issued, we shall steadfastly obey’. Conversely, at the core of these principles lay the traumatic implementation of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), which had left the entire nation immobilised. By 1978, calls for widespread reform reached the forefront of the Chinese political and intellectual elite, a majority of whom had become convinced by the idea that ‘practice’ was the sole criteria for political legitimacy. Manifested by the catchphrase to ‘seek truth from fact’, this idea gained strong support in the national press, and was backed by a growing number of reformists led by Deng Xiaoping. Zhou Enlai, who had been a long-time advocate of economic and institutional reform, gave further historical leverage to the calls for change. In 1975, Zhou made an important speech for long- term socioeconomic planning that later become known as the ‘four modernisations program’ — of agriculture, industry, defence, and science and technology. Zhou Enlai passed away on 8 January 1976. His death prompted mass gatherings in Beijing, which culminated in the Tiananmen Incident of 5 April 1976, when mourners took to Tiananmen Square to protest the official ban of these proceedings on the traditional day of mourning, known as the Qingming Festival. Thirty years later, it is somewhat surprising that Zhou’s spirit of moderation and reasoning is not more frequently cited, even when his vision clearly reverberates in the progress China has made as a prominent nation–state. For many people, particularly outside China, Mao Zedong (somewhat uncannily) continues to fulfil the prevailing image of the People’s Republic of China, while Deng Xiaoping befits the voice of economic and institutional reform. Likewise, Zhou Enlai deserves to be considered as the heart and mind of the overall transformation of a nation and its people, and hence deserves a mention in the introduction of a thesis on art and reform. In 1942, Mao Zedong opposed the distinction between elite and popular culture in China in his ‘Talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art’. 1 Mao advocated a ‘new art for the people’ based on a reciprocal relationship between the domain of cultural practice and the domain of cultural reception. Yet, over time, he narrowed his interpretation of cultural production, and treated these primarily as tools for class struggle. Art and literature became increasingly dominated by the leader’s personal deification, reaching its climax in the Cultural Revolution. Zhou Enlai, on the other hand, was perceived as a ‘close friend of the people’, which can be seen in the compassionate portrayal of Zhou in popular painting, prints and posters. The provenance of Zhou, perhaps more than Mao or Deng, deserves a role in discourses of modern and contemporary art; particularly when linked to those of cultural and social transformation. His spirit can certainly convey some of the quintessence of connecting art to people and to everyday existence, without having to succumb to political allegory or to economic status.