Building a 'Lofty, Beloved People's Amusement Centre

The socialist transformation of Shanghai's Great World (Dashijie) (1950-58)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3651733
AutoresWenming Xiao (0000-0003-4096-9724, Sun Yat-sen University), Yao Li (0000-0002-1093-3301, University of Florida)
Año2021
Volumen55
Número3
Páginas973-1014
Fecha de publicación2021-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x20000141
OpenAlexW3049601077
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas33

Based on a detailed case study of the socialist transformation of the Shanghai Great World Amusement Centre (Dashijie), this article documents state-building efforts during the early years of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Between 1950 and 1958, the Communist regime incrementally transformed the power configuration within Dashijie, promoting dramatic changes in its personnel, institutional structures, drama performances, and physical space. Over the course of this process, Dashijie seemed to become a 'loftier' cultural organization in accordance with the aims of its transformation. This transfigured Dashijie, however, fell out of favour with the people of Shanghai. This multifaceted transformation process reflects considerable state capacities on the one hand and illustrates the complexity of state capacities-their unevenness and the limitations of a strong state-on the other. The complexity of state capacities thus shaped and was embedded in the process and outcome of this socialist cultural transformation. Since the Chinese state is once again making strenuous efforts at culture-building, an overview of cultural transformation in the early PRC era has important contemporary implications

Aesthetics · Amusement · Art · China · Communism · Economic system · Economics · People's Republic · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · State (computer science · Transformation (genetics · Chinese history and philosophy · Computer Science · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology