Yang Ban Xi: The Eight Model Works.

At the height of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966~1967), the incumbent Maoist regime (more specifically Madame Mao) decreed The Eight Model Plays to be the only operas or ballets permitted throughout all of China. The most famous of them being The Red Detachment of Women (as seen by Nixon on his visit), these works, known as the Yang Ban Xi, were vehicles of propaganda for the ruling party, glorifying revolutionary communist themes. The operas were and are aesthetically beautiful, making use of the cutting-edge cinematographic techniques of the day — passionate song and gorgeous dance on a massive scale, captured in full technicolor.

Given the nature and history of the Yang Ban Xi, their renewal in popularity in China’s modern-day youth is an interesting phenomenon. The film offers a glimpse into the current lives of the artists who originally took part in the Eight Model Plays, as well as into a few of the contemporary reinterpretations that have become commonplace in present-day Chinese culture.

For more info…

• New York Times Article
• Filmforum Summary
• The Unrepentant Marxist’s Analysis
• The Revolutionary Communist Party (USA)’s Analysis (and Dismissal)

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One Response:

Q

Jun 17th at 4:25 am

Coincidentally, this was playing on TV last night when I got home.

Speaking of Communist dialectics, I’m pessimistically surprised I can still access your home page.

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