[ { "id": 212531, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE: SINO-AMERICAN ARTS EXCHANGE\n\n1972-1986\n\nZHANG RU\n\n65\n\nIntroduction\n\nAs Richard Nixon's jet touched down at Beijing on 21 February, 1972, a great transformation of Sino-American relations started. Two of the world's most populous and yet politically and culturally most different countries finally broke out of the isolation they had themselves created for each other over some two decades. China and the United States established diplomatic relations in 1979. Around 1979, both countries also sought to strengthen their relationship by promoting linkages through trade and other economic activity and through cultural exchanges. On 31 January, 1979, a cultural agreement was signed, initiating officially sponsored cultural exchanges between China and the United States of America.\n\nFrom the founding of the PRC in 1949 to 1972 there was only one American singer, Paul Robeson, who appeared on the Chinese cultural scene. However, his presence in China was not seen as a symbol of friendship between the two countries. Rather, Paul Robeson was a dissenter and was discriminated against at home; his visit to China was used as an opportunity to educate the Chinese as to how progressive people were oppressed in the United States and how those people saw China as a natural supporter of their cause. The absence of a political relationship between 1949 and 1972 made it quite difficult for artists from both countries to cross the Pacific.\n\nWith the reopening of Sino-American relations in 1972, the situation improved and the possibility of arts exchanges was reborn. Still, reality was less exciting than the prospect as only one performing arts group came to China until 1978, and at the same time Chinese visits to the United States were fairly marginal. During the Ford presidency, the only Chinese performing arts group scheduled to visit America was canceled. The Philadelphia Orchestra's visit to China in 1973, almost the only notable event during the period, was warmly welcomed by the Chinese but not followed up by any increase in the intensity of exchanges in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212535, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "69\n\nIn the period 1949-1972, the political environment in China was similar. The communists felt the United States was their number one antagonist by its insistence on supporting the KMT regime in the civil war of China and its involvement in the Korean civil war. During the Korean War, the image of America as the most aggressive imperialist country became more widespread and this image lasted until late into the 1970s. The hostility between the two countries in the fifties and early sixties left little room for China to develop a flexible policy. As a result, China adopted a domestic policy close to orthodox Stalinism and a foreign policy in harmony with the Soviet Union. As the United States carried out a rather consistent China policy, the Sino-Soviet split did not immediately bring about in China a policy change favourable to the United States, nor its cultural presence in China.\n\nOn the other hand, the arts in China have always been politically dominated. Accordingly, any presentation of foreign culture would carry political significance. Naturally, in their efforts for reconciliations, both governments employed cultural exchanges as a means to that end. The Philadelphia Orchestra's visit to China in 1973 was intended to be more a celebration of the reconciliation than a cultural event.\n\nSince 1979, the politicalization of Sino-American arts exchanges has found a new expression: the conscious creation of an American cultural imagery in China, which was made possible by the drastic increase of exchanges in 1979 and the substantial American cultural events touring China in the following years.\n\nIn at least one respect, the United States government has been double-faced. While denouncing the introduction of politics into art, the United States government has also long been involved in supplying foreign nationals with American cultural products it selected. The United States Information Agency (USIA), is explicit in this by announcing that among its tasks, is “to promote and administer ... cultural exchange programs in the national interest\", i.e. rather than for merely the enrichment of culture.\n\nStimulus\n\nA prelude to the new era\n\nIn the period between 1949 and 1972, China and the United States were isolated from each other. While the governments nurtured a strong negative image of the other country among its own citizens by repeated", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212536, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "70\n\nhostile rhetoric, they provided no chance for their citizens to know the other country and its people. So, when Nixon made his initiatives to open relations with China, cultural exchanges did receive certain priority, at least as a gesture to break down the fence between the two countries. He lifted restrictions against wanting to travel to China. China, similarly extended to an American table tennis team an invitation to visit China, which was accepted and the trip was made.\n\nFollowing the Nixon visit, American interest in China soon mounted. American cultural groups began to arrive. Among these visitors, the most important was the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first major Western musical group to tour this country. The Philadelphia Orchestra performed in Beijing and Shanghai, staying in China for ten days from 12-23 September 1973.\n\nIn both cities the Philadelphia Orchestra was given a very courteous reception. The then powerful Politburo members in charge of ideology and cultural affairs, Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan, attended their performance in Beijing and chatted with leading members of the group afterwards. Meanwhile, the media gave friendly and sufficient coverage of the event. The media even allowed a musician to publish, in a leading newspaper, a review entitled \"friendly, enthusiastic and glorious\" in which he said that the Chinese people and Chinese art workers were very pleased to have the opportunity to enjoy the performance of this world-renowned American performing group and that China could learn from the American artists. He also expressed his hope for further development of friendship between Chinese and American artists and people.\n\nThe tour by the Philadelphia Orchestra took place against the background of the contemporary impoverished Chinese artists scene. Throughout the Cultural Revolution there had been a consistent tendency to eliminate foreign influence in arts and to produce a new \"proletarian\" culture for the Chinese people. As a result, many musicians, a large number of whom had been trained in the west, were either sent to prisons or to the May 7th Cadres' Schools to receive re-education. At the same time, the surviving musical organizations could hardly perform any symphonic music, due to the political environment and lack of qualified musicians. Under such circumstances the significance of the Philadelphia Orchestra's visit could only be political, not artistic.\n\nBy their use of the media and arts as the means for power struggle,\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212537, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "71\n\nthe Gang of Four gained considerable influence over policy between 1973 and 1975. Though granted extensive power, Deng Xiaoping was by then once again losing the favour of party chairman Mao Zedong who was very annoyed by Deng's systematic measures to reverse the Cultural Revolution. As the major administrator when both Mao and Zhou were seriously ill, Deng's position was also weakened by the slowness in normalizing Sino-American diplomatic relations.\n\nAt the same time, the American enthusiasm for close relationship with China had lost its initial impetus, largely because of the Watergate crisis and the consequent Presidential succession problems. With the inauguration of Gerald R. Ford in 1974, relations deteriorated rapidly and cultural exchanges, which had been mainly relegated to the exchange of sports delegations, decreased to their lowest level. During this time, the only Chinese performing group which might have visited the States to strengthen the delicate link established by the Philadelphia Orchestra, was cancelled due to the Ford Administration's ban on the inclusion in its programme of a Chinese song calling for the unification of Taiwan with the mainland. If the Philadelphia Orchestra's tour was perceived by the Chinese as more of a political event to celebrate a new relationship than merely a professional exchange in the arts, the cancellation of a delegation's tour of America was also interpreted, as an unequivocal signal of the Ford Administration's wish to alienate China.\n\nModernization and cultural openness\n\nHaving passed through these unsteady years, Sino-American cultural exchanges flourished. With the establishment of diplomatic relations on 1 January, 1979, cultural ties expanded in all areas. Student and scholarly exchanges were initiated. The two countries began to share scientific knowledge in energy, physics, and the study of earthquakes, and in other fields as well. Meanwhile, American presentation of artistic programmes in China increased to an unprecedented level.\n\nBehind these developments, there were profound changes in domestic politics as well as the international environment. By the end of 1978, Deng Xiaoping had decisively consolidated his leadership in the Party and begun to push the modernization programme forward according to his own blueprint. At the same time, China finally established diplomatic relations with the United States.\n\nThe first years of Deng Xiaoping's leadership expanded modernization", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212552, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "86\n\nLike the visit of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973, the significance of the BSO's tour lay more in political consequences than in artistic accomplishment. Though the quality of the BSO's first Beijing concert was controversial to some Americans, due to some flaws in performance, all of its four concerts in China were fully attended and two of the three in Beijing were transmitted by China Central Television (CCTV). The media, musicians, music critics and journalists all offered praise. The atmosphere around the BSO's visit was so warm that the U.S. ambassador claimed the event pushed U.S.-China relations 20 years ahead.\n\nWhat made the BSO's trip different from that of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973 was that, though overshadowed by political significance, this tour did bring a chance for Chinese artists to exchange artistically with their American guests, due to the improvement in China's political and cultural environments. By 1979, many artists in China had returned to their former posts. Artistic activities were normalized to a significant extent. Artistically, the BSO's visit generated several concrete results: the Central Philharmonic Orchestra performed with the BSO under the baton of Seiji Ozawa; two of China's most prominent musicians, Liu Dehai and Liu Shikun, toured the United States along with the BSO when it went home in March 1979 and performed with the BSO in the United States; in December, Seiji Ozawa came to China again and conducted the CPO. This event was thus successful both politically and artistically.\n\nThe impetus of Sino-American cultural exchanges resulting from the BSO's tour to China was reinforced in August 1979 when Vice President Mondale visited China and signed the first implementing accord under the cultural agreement. In his visit, Mondale praised Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States in January for resparking the friendship of the American towards the Chinese people. This atmosphere of Sino-American cultural intimacy created by top political leaders received a new impulse in 1980 when the two governments exchanged high-level cultural delegations. In July, Chinese Vice Minister of Culture Liu Fuzhi visited the United States and the USICA director John E. Reinhardt returned his visit in October. In the latter's visit to China, both parties expressed hopes for more high-level exchanges, and confirmed the policy, agreed upon in Liu's earlier visit to the United States, to encourage and support private sector activities in cultural exchanges.\n\nTraditionally, China's cultural relations with Western countries have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 } ]