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United States and other Western countries simply because, as we have pointed out previously in this paper, culture is a very close neighbour to ideology.
The experience in the period 1979 - 1986 shows that the exchanges events were predominantly carried out in the realm of music which had been the least controversial of the arts in China. Despite its rather suggestive costumes, which met strong opposition up until the mid-1970s, Western ballet by the early 1980s was also accepted cordially by Chinese audiences. As for the writers, many of whom were often involved in the periodical political reassessments in China as leading figures to be bridled for their challenge to government policies, the arrival of American writers would not normally receive sufficient publicity and therefore their influence was marginal.
Generally speaking, the presence of American arts and artists in China did not bring about any forceful and immediate changes sufficient to affect China's socio-political development in an obvious manner, in spite of the fact that through this cultural presence certain American values and life styles were presented to the Chinese. The most significant impact of Sino-American arts exchanges on China's socio-political development, as has been mentioned, was the connections Chinese artists established with American artists, which was in turn used by the artists as an instrument to incorporate themselves into the modernization programme as an independent entity which they succeeded in doing to a certain degree. As a result, the government has given more emphasis to cultural development since 1982.
Roughly speaking, the number of American cultural events in China between 1979 and 1986 was about the same as those from countries such as Japan, France, the United Kingdom and West Germany. Nevertheless, two characteristics made the American arts presence in China much stronger than that from those countries. On the one hand, American events in China normally received greater publicity and drew better attention from the people than those from other countries. Events such as the BSO's visit, the Boston Museum paintings exhibition and the production of the play Death of a Salesman were widely publicized so that the events carried much more significance than artistically equivalent events from other countries. The publicity was sometimes generated by the organizers, but in many cases it was just created by the interest in and enthusiasm about American cultural events.
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United States and other Western countries simply because, as we have pointed out previously in this paper, culture is a very close neighbour to ideology.
The experience in the period 1979 - 1986 shows that the exchanges events were predominantly carried out in the realm of music which had been the least controversial of the arts in China. Despite its rather suggestive costumes, which met strong opposition up until the mid-1970s, Western ballet by the early 1980s was also accepted cordially by Chinese audiences. As for the writers, many of whom were often involved in the periodical political reassessments in China as leading figures to be bridled for their challenge to government policies, the arrival of American writers would not normally receive sufficient publicity and therefore their influence was marginal.
Generally speaking, the presence of American arts and artists in China did not bring about any forceful and immediate changes sufficient to affect China's socio-political development in an obvious manner, in spite of the fact that through this cultural presence certain American values and life styles were presented to the Chinese. The most significant impact of Sino-American arts exchanges on China's socio-political development, as has been mentioned, was the connections Chinese artists established with American artists, which was in turn used by the artists as an instrument to incorporate themselves into the modernization programme as an independent entity which they succeeded in doing to a certain degree. As a result, the government has given more emphasis to cultural development since 1982.
Roughly speaking, the number of American cultural events in China between 1979 and 1986 was about the same as those from countries such as Japan, France, the United Kingdom and West Germany. Nevertheless, two characteristics made the American arts presence in China much stronger than that from those countries. On the one hand, American events in China normally received greater publicity and drew better attention from the people than those from other countries. Events such as the BSO's visit, the Boston Museum paintings exhibition and the production of the play Death of a Salesman were widely publicized so that the events carried much more significance than artistically equivalent events from other countries. The publicity was sometimes generated by the organizers, but in many cases it was just created by the interest in and enthusiasm about American cultural events.
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