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on a year by year basis, with events mainly related to performing arts and art exhibitions. In 1980, five performing arts groups visited the United States and two art exhibitions were launched. After a slight decline in activity in 1981, the number rose to eight events in both 1982 and 1983, taking performing arts and art exhibitions together. In the following two years, the numbers of Chinese cultural events continued to rise, though not drastically.
Looking at these statistics, though not complete it is easy to see that there have been up and downs in the 15 years of Sino-American arts exchanges between 1972 and 1986, reflecting domestic political developments in both countries. In China, the years 1972-1978 were politically uncertain. The death of Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong in 1976 and the dismissal of Deng Xiaoping led to new political disorder. After the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976, the country began to concentrate on modernization. Eventually this programme led to a loosening of the controls of Chinese political life.
The relaxation of political control started in late 1978, which was regarded both by the leadership and by a national consensus as a prerequisite to modernization, was followed by the appearance of many posters, unauthorized journals, mimeographed sheets and demonstrations, some of which expressed demands for radical changes and some of which even questioned the authority of the party leadership. This soon caused a political reassessment. Between 1978 and 1988 there were three swings from loosening political control back to more restricted policies, which were marked by reassessments beginning respectively in 1981, 1983 and 1986. Though these reassessments were politically oriented, some of them did centre on cultural issues and all of them affected China's cultural life.
Meanwhile, the Sino-American intimacy of 1979 was cooled by Ronald Reagan's campaign promises to re-establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan. A strong anti-Communist, Reagan introduced into his foreign policy deep ideological prejudices in his initial years in office.
By the second half of 1983, the atmosphere of Sino-American relations began to improve, leading to Premier Zhao Ziyang's visit to the United States in January and President Reagan's tour to China in April of 1984. However, the affinity that existed around 1979 was not regained.
In this paper, I shall try to establish a framework of analysis which