From Wu Xun to Lu Xun

Film, Stardom, and Subjectivity in Mao’s China (1949–1976)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6008014
AutoresQiliang He (0000-0001-7730-2603, Shanghai University, autor de correspondencia), Meng Wang (0000-0001-5799-549X, Shanghai Film Academy, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China)
Año2022
Volumen48
Número3
Páginas650-675
Fecha de publicación2022-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaModern China (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0097-7004 • E-ISSN: 1552-6836
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00977004211002752
OpenAlexW3156618775
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas20

This article focuses on Zhao Dan’s (1915–1980) career in film after 1949 to investigate a specific type of stardom unique to Mao Zedong’s China (1949–1976). We argue that this new stardom was similar to what conventionally defines stardom, but with an added political dimension: Zhao Dan’s acquisition of high political standing in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). To arrive at a fuller understanding of the state–artist relationship in the PRC, this article challenges the paradigm of accommodation and resistance between the tyrannical state and subordinated artists, which presupposes a subjectivity or selfhood on the part of artists that pre-existed and was maintained against the intrusive hegemonic ideologies of the state. Instead, we underscore that the making of Zhao Dan’s subjectivity in the PRC—his subjectivity-in-stardom in this case—was a dynamic process, a “becoming.” Zhao Dan’s checkered career indicates that he not only acclimated himself to the ever-changing political atmosphere of Mao-era China but also sought to benefit from it

Aesthetics · Art · China · Epistemology · Hegemony · Ideology · Political science · Political subjectivity · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · State (computer science · Subjectivity · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies