Visual Art in China During the 20th and 21st Centuries
Outline
I. Introduction.
II. The reflection of the Civil War and the first years of Mao Zedong's regime in visual culture.
III. The Cultural Revolution and the visual art.
IV. Deng Xiaoping’s Liberal Reforms and their influence on visual culture.
V. The process of globalization and contemporary visual art in China.
VI. Conclusion.
Introduction
Chinese society had gone through some significant transformations during the XX century: the civil war, the Cultural Revolution, and Deng Xiaoping's reforms formed a picture of contemporary China. In this perspective, these historical events played a crucial role regarding visual culture.Various political powers in China tried to take control over the cultural sphere is order to promote its ideology: this statement is specifically correct in perspective of the Cultural Revolution and the whole Communistic regime. Considering this, the visual culture of China in XX century had been changing along with the transformation of social and political life. However, the liberal reforms made by Dan Xiaoping had a very positive impact on civil rights and freedoms in this country, including the freedom to express own opinion throughout the art. As a result, contemporary visual culture in China is much more diverse and polarized comparing to the XX century.
Moreover, globalization is one more tendency that characterizes Chinese visual during the XX and XXI centuries. Soon after the Civil War and Cultural Revolution, China started to play a prominent role in the geopolitical arena of Asia. The traditional motives of visual culture were reviewed; globalization became of the major factors that influence Chinese culture in the second half of XX century. This tendency became even more intensified during Informational era along with the development of the Internet. However, it is still possible to notice the traditional notions of the modern visual culture of China.
Therefore, the influence of major political and social events of XX century and the intensifying globalization are the primary factors that form the image of Chinese visual culture now. In this perspective, the research question is: how did the main events of the social and political history of XX century, such as the civil war, the Cultural Revolution, and Deng Xiaoping's reforms, and the process of globalization affect the visual culture of China?
The reflection of the Civil War and the first years of Mao Zedong's regime in visual culture.
As a significant landmark of Chinese history, the Civil War has a large coverage in the visual culture. Moreover, the ideological concept of Maoism considers cultural changes as a very important aspect of the overall social transformations. In this perspective, visual culture had experienced a remarkable shift of the orientation: before the Civil War, it was mostly based on the traditional values, but after the Communist party had gained political power, the themes of propaganda and socialism emerged. Still, the visual culture of the Civil War demonstrates many different ideas and reflections on the confrontation between the Communists and Guomindang.
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