In the Red: On Contemporary Chinese Culture

by Geremie Barmé

Overview

China, Geremie R. Barmé notes, has become one of the greatest writing and publishing nations on the planet, and both cultural activists and the state are embroiled in debates about the production and distribution of its cultural products. But what happens when global culture and Chinese capitalist-socialism meet in the marketplace? In the Redinvestigates what goes on behind the rhetoric of the official Chinese government and the dissident community and provides a unique perspective on mainstream Western perceptions of cultural developments, artistic freedom, and popular lifestyles in China today.

Illustrated with fascinating cartoons and photographs and rich with facts, anecdotes, and events, In the Red exposes the complex relationship between "official" culture (produced, supported, or sanctioned by the government) and "nonofficial" or countercultures (especially among urban youths and dissidents). Two key and contrasting events loom large in this narrative: the 1989 protests that ended with the June 4 massacre and a nationwide purge, and Deng Xiaoping's 1992 "tour of the south," in which he emphasized the need for radical economic reform. Although a level of political tolerance has evolved since the 1970s, Barmé sheds light on the significance of the intermittent denunciations of artists, ideas, and works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231106146
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/01/1999
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	1.38(w) x 6.00(h) x 9.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Geremie R.Barmé is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University. He is the author of Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Career of a Great Leader and the editor of several books, including (with Linda Jaivin) New Ghosts. Old Dreams: Chinese Rebel Voices and (with John Minford) Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience. He has also translated two volumes of Chinese essays and was a coauthor of and advisor for the documentary film The Gate of Heavenly Peace.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Culture in the Red
1: The Chinese Velvet Prison
2: An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove
3: Traveling Heavy
4: The Apotheosis of the Liumang
5: The Graying of Chinese Culture
6: Consuming t-shirts in Beijing
7: Packaged Dissent
8: Artful Marketing
9: ccptm & Adcult prc
10: To Screw Foreigners Is Patriotic
11: Kowtowing to the Vulgar
12: Totalitarian Nostalgia
Postscript: Springtime in Beijing
Appendix: Screw You, Too
Chinese Glossary
Index

What People are Saying About This

Lucian W. Pye

The virtuoso interpreter of contemporary Chinese culture, Barmé has skillfully and entertainingly traced the shifting battle lines between the Chinese authorities, who waiver between repression and co-optation, and China's intellectuals and artists.... Barmé's insightful analysis deserves the attention not just of connoisseurs of Chinese literature and arts but of all who have an interest in fathoming where China is headed.

J. Hoberman

Cultural reporting doesn't come any hipper or more erudite...Geremie Barmé has written a fearsomely well-informed, bracingly sardonic, and absolutely essential book.
— author of The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism

Editorial Reviews

Barmé knows China well [and] has occasionally feuded with Chinese cultural icons.... Here, he surveys the cultural warfare since the reform era began in 1978 and emphasizes the way a rich counterculture has flowered despite the authorities'deep misgivings and periodic purges.

— Nicholas D. Kristof

New York Times Book Review

A factual look at a cultural revolution that is happening without artist or government realizing it.

— Joe Collins

Booklist

A factual look at a cultural revolution that is happening without artist or government realizing it.

Booklist - Joe Collins

Barmé knows China well [and] has occasionally feuded with Chinese cultural icons.... Here, he surveys the cultural warfare since the reform era began in 1978 and emphasizes the way a rich counterculture has flowered despite the authorities'deep misgivings and periodic purges.

New York Times Book Review - Nicholas D. Kristof

The author, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University and the author of three books (including Shades of Mao, M.E. Sharpe, 1996), has observed Chinese popular culture for 30 years. His book may seem too long for a work that focuses only on the ten years in China since the 1989 Tiananmen mass protest movement, but it has a swift and lively pace. Barm 's thesis--that popular culture has developed ways for people to express dissatisfaction without attacking the government--is substantiated through his analyses of music, comic books, television shows, ad jingles, screen savers, and T-shirts. One example that epitomizes this theme is a slogan on a T-shirt, fanzhe ne, bie li wo--"I'm pissed, leave me alone." He discusses the ways in which self-repression (and self-loathing) has become a form of high art and provides unprecedented discussion of the alienated fringe element that has been observed but not understood by Western journalists and China watchers. This work has a broader perspective than Jianying Zha's China Pop (LJ 4/1/95) and would thus be an appropriate selection for libraries that focus on international relations, China, and communications.--Peggy Spitzer Christoff, Oak Park, IL

Library Journal

Barm<'e> (Australian National University) questions mainstream western perceptions of cultural developments, artistic freedom, and popular lifestyles in modern China. Focusing on the past two decades, he delves into the complex relationship between official culture produced, supported, or sanctioned by the government and the unofficial or countercultures, especially among urban youths and dissidents. His account includes cartoons, advertisements, photographs, and anecdotes. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Barmé knows China well [and] has occasionally feuded with Chinese cultural icons.... Here, he surveys the cultural warfare since the reform era began in 1978 and emphasizes the way a rich counterculture has flowered despite the authorities'deep misgivings and periodic purges.

Nicholas D. Kristof