Sex in Big-Character Posters from China's Cultural Revolution : Gendering the Class Enemy
(2010) #1 in book series "Mass Dictatorship in the 20th Century". p.237-257- Abstract
- As a defining component of the Cultural Revolution, the “dictatorship of the masses” did away with constraints that had previously kept the most private of the private parts of Chinese people’s lives out of the political arena. In the years 1966–1969, in particular, discursive strands that did not shy away from the topic of sex in politics and revolution proliferated. This paper comments on some recurring common themes of gender and the male “class enemy” (his positive heroic counterpart, as it were, remained a strangely asexual creature throughout) and of sexuality and the revolutionary or counter-revolutionary woman. Found in public and highly visible so-called big-character posters, the discourse that blended politics into sex ended up... (More)
- As a defining component of the Cultural Revolution, the “dictatorship of the masses” did away with constraints that had previously kept the most private of the private parts of Chinese people’s lives out of the political arena. In the years 1966–1969, in particular, discursive strands that did not shy away from the topic of sex in politics and revolution proliferated. This paper comments on some recurring common themes of gender and the male “class enemy” (his positive heroic counterpart, as it were, remained a strangely asexual creature throughout) and of sexuality and the revolutionary or counter-revolutionary woman. Found in public and highly visible so-called big-character posters, the discourse that blended politics into sex ended up giving impetus to a movement that brought down many a corrupt politician, but at the cost of traumatizing countless innocent victims who never recovered from seeing their lives’ “darkest aspects exposed openly.” (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1615611
- author
- Schoenhals, Michael LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2010
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- sex, discourse, gender, China, Cultural Revolution
- host publication
- Gender Politics and Mass Dictatorship: Global Perspectives
- editor
- Petrone, Karen and Lim, Jie-hyun
- volume
- #1 in book series "Mass Dictatorship in the 20th Century"
- pages
- 237 - 257
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- ISBN
- 9780230242043
- project
- Mass Dictatorships of the 20th Century
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 48a2fd0d-777c-44a5-bd11-2f2f701f9368 (old id 1615611)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 10:20:54
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:55:16
@inbook{48a2fd0d-777c-44a5-bd11-2f2f701f9368,
abstract = {{As a defining component of the Cultural Revolution, the “dictatorship of the masses” did away with constraints that had previously kept the most private of the private parts of Chinese people’s lives out of the political arena. In the years 1966–1969, in particular, discursive strands that did not shy away from the topic of sex in politics and revolution proliferated. This paper comments on some recurring common themes of gender and the male “class enemy” (his positive heroic counterpart, as it were, remained a strangely asexual creature throughout) and of sexuality and the revolutionary or counter-revolutionary woman. Found in public and highly visible so-called big-character posters, the discourse that blended politics into sex ended up giving impetus to a movement that brought down many a corrupt politician, but at the cost of traumatizing countless innocent victims who never recovered from seeing their lives’ “darkest aspects exposed openly.”}},
author = {{Schoenhals, Michael}},
booktitle = {{Gender Politics and Mass Dictatorship: Global Perspectives}},
editor = {{Petrone, Karen and Lim, Jie-hyun}},
isbn = {{9780230242043}},
keywords = {{sex; discourse; gender; China; Cultural Revolution}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{237--257}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
title = {{Sex in Big-Character Posters from China's Cultural Revolution : Gendering the Class Enemy}},
volume = {{#1 in book series "Mass Dictatorship in the 20th Century"}},
year = {{2010}},
}