CPC CENTENARY
Numerous events celebrate 100 years of change and progress
China Daily presents a 12-page special coverage on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China
In 1965, a total of 114 life-size sculptures were unveiled at the former mansion of a landlord in Dayi county, Sichuan province.
Visitors were captivated by the works, which featured men and women of all ages — most of them peasants — in a variety of poses and sporting different facial expressions.
Titled Rent Collection Courtyard, the works centered on the oppression Chinese farmers were subjected to in the early 20th century and the way in which they rebelled against their landlords.
A team of teachers and students from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing worked with artists in Dayi to complete the sculptures. A local artisan also took part in the project.
The sculpture collection was later exhibited elsewhere in China and overseas, triggering feelings of shock, compassion and anger among audiences.
Earlier this year, the Sichuan institute completed seven themed group sculptures commissioned by the National Museum of China in Beijing.
These works depict scenarios different to those in Rent Collection Courtyard — showcasing the modern-day political, economic and social lives of Chinese people.
For example, one scenario features a display of electric vehicles, while another centers on figures carrying a variety of goods home to celebrate Spring Festival. A third scenario portrays primary school students visiting a science museum to learn about the nation’s progress in aerospace exploration.
The works form part of The Greatest Changes in the Past 100 Years, a sculpture exhibition jointly presented by the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and the National Museum of China.
The exhibition, with no scheduled closing date, marks the centenary of the Communist Party of China. The works, which are displayed on the museum’s third floor, create a sense of history and blend well with their distinguished surroundings.
Jiao Xingtao, deputy head of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and also a sculptor and exhibition curator, said, “It is the first sculpture exhibition dedicated to showing the tremendous changes in China in the past 100 years.”
He said the works on display are divided into two categories, one of which reflects the suffering of grassroots people, especially destitute peasants, before the founding of New China in 1949.
One of the sculptures on show is Bombings by late artist Hua Tianyou, which depicts a terrified mother running for her life to escape Japanese bombers as her two panic-stricken children cling tightly to her clothing.
Farmers’ Home, a relief sculpture by Liu Kaiqu, was completed in 1945 during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). In this work, Liu envisions people living peaceful, prosperous lives after the conflict.
The second category highlights the progress made by Chinese society in all respects. Jiao said that in addition to the seven group sculptures by his institute, this category includes works shown since 1949 at the National Fine Arts Exhibition, which is held every five years.
“Works displayed at the exhibition represent stages of history, documenting an evolution of the people, as well as their emotions and thoughts on social change,” Jiao said.
Dozen displays
The Greatest Changes in the Past 100 Years is one of a dozen exhibitions to open nationwide recently to mark the CPC’s 100th anniversary. The displays feature various art forms reflecting the transformations Chinese people experienced to achieve national rejuvenation and seek individual happiness under the CPC’s leadership.
Most of these themed exhibitions are being staged in Beijing, including Great Cause, a long-term display featuring more than 400 works of calligraphy at the National Museum of China and the National Library of China.
Red Ribbon of the Earth, a collection of drawings by Shen Yaoyi illustrating the course of the Long March in the 1930s, is being staged at the National Center for the Performing Arts, or NCPA, in Beijing.
This epic work, which took Yao several years from the late 1980s to complete, retraces the Long March’s routes, features collected anecdotes and also illustrates the tactical retreat undertaken by the CPC-led Red Army to evade Kuomintang forces for two years starting in 1934.
The exhibitions being held away from Beijing are equally diverse. The Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, is displaying selected works from its collection of woodcut prints. Woodcuts were widely used to inform the masses of revolutionary ideas and progress in socialist construction.
In Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, the Nanjing Museum is displaying classical Chinese landscapes by modern ink master Fu Baoshi. Drawn from the museum’s extensive collection of art, the exhibition reflects Fu’s approach to appreciating New China.
Various exhibitions include dozens of iconic items under the label “Red Classic”, a distinctive category of fine arts themed on China’s revolutions and socialist construction, and constituting an important part of Chinese art in the 20th century.
“Red Classic” art has produced many masterpieces that portray classic stories which resonate among people of different ages. They include Red Ribbon on the Earth by Shen and many of Fu’s paintings inspired by the poems of late Chairman Mao Zedong. These paintings and sculptures help visitors imagine collective and individual journeys made through hardship in different stages of history.
Many such examples feature in two exhibitions staged in Beijing to mark the CPC’s centenary. Pictures of Times, Journeys to Greatness is being hosted by the National Art Museum until July 25, and Silent Ode to History by the National Museum of China. The latter exhibition has no specified closure date.
Noted sculptor Qian Shaowu, who died on June 9, age 94, first learned about the deeds of Li Dazhao, a founder and pioneer of the CPC, at age 16. Qian, who was moved by the sacrifices Li made for the nation, was commissioned decades later to create a statue of Li, which is on show at Pictures of Times, Journeys to Greatness.
Qian once said it took him two years to prepare the work. He read through Li’s writings and also recollections by Lu Xun, the writer and scholar. He talked to Li’s family several times and studied items used by the pioneer. “I think he was a cornerstone of Chinese revolution,” Qian said.
Shao Xiaofeng, a researcher at the National Art Museum, said: “Qian used simple, straight cuts to create a square outline, accentuating Li’s high morality and firm belief in the Communist cause. The statue is like a huge stone rising above the ground and sitting permanently. Qian designed it to reflect Li’s greatness as a scholar and revolutionary.”
The artworks being displayed pay tribute not only to luminaries such as Li, but to unsung heroes whose contributions should also be remembered.
The Silent Ode to History exhibition at the National Museum of China includes a sculpture in which late artist Pan He portrays a scene of peace and warmth. During a break in battle, a senior Red Army soldier plays the xiao, a Chinese bamboo flute, while a younger soldier appears deeply immersed in the music.
Titled Time of Hardships, the work has been exhibited widely and aims to touch the hearts of audiences, as it represents an intimate moment shared by two companions who are not related but supported each other on the common pathway to revolution.
Pan once said: “Good art must serve the interests of the people. I’ve never stopped believing this.”
Fan Di’an, president of the China Artists Association, said these classic artworks have resonated with people and motivated them. They have also spurred younger artists to create new works showcasing the history of Chinese art over the past century.
Range of productions
Performances featuring a range of art forms, including classical music, operas, dramas and traditional Chinese operas, are being held to celebrate the CPC’s centenary.
Daughter of the Party, a classic Chinese opera based on the eponymous 1958 movie, is being restaged at the NCPA in Beijing from July 13 to 18.
Telling the story of Tian Yumei, a Party member who devoted her life to protecting guerrilla soldiers during the Agrarian Revolutionary War (1927-37), the opera premiered in 1991 and featured a star-studded creative team. It won widespread critical acclaim, receiving the Wenhua Award in 1992, a top national accolade for the performing arts.
The new version, directed by Wang Jun, who co-directed the production in 1991, features soprano Lei Jia in the lead role of Tian.
Lei, who was born in Yiyang, Hunan province, in 1979 and studied huaguxi, or “flower-drum opera”, an operatic style from the Hunan area, said, “All the songs from the opera are classic and I learned them as a student.”
In 1997, Lei entered the China Conservatory of Music for undergraduate studies. She was later admitted to the People’s Liberation Army Political Department’s Song and Dance Ensemble, establishing her career as a soloist.
“I was trained by veteran Chinese singers who had performed classic roles in Chinese operas. They not only taught me how to sing but also inspired me to learn about the spirit of heroes,” Lei said.
She is known for her performances in Chinese operas, including The White-Haired Girl, which premiered in Yan’an, a revolutionary base in northwest China, in 1945. Lei also featured in Mulan, which premiered in Beijing in 2004 and centers on the folktale heroine Hua Mulan, who disguised herself as a man in place of her ailing father in the army and saved her country from invaders.
In addition to Daughter of the Party, other productions, including original dance dramas, plays, ballets and symphony concerts, are being staged at the NCPA throughout the year to celebrate the Party’s centenary.
Jiang Zhuyun, also known as Sister Jiang, an underground member of CPC and revolutionary martyr, is a well-known name in China. Her story has been adapted into various art forms, including a movie and Chinese opera. A Peking Opera production of Jiang’s life, featuring renowned performer Zhang Huoding in the leading role, premiered in 2001.
On Sunday, five of Zhang’s students, including Ma Fengfeng and Zheng Xuelian, performed the role of Sister Jiang in a concert at the Poly Theater in Beijing as part of events staged by the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts to mark the CPC’s centenary.
Zhai Qian, a singer with Dalian Peking Opera Company, who graduated from the academy in 2017 with a master’s in Peking Opera performance, and is one of Zhang Huoding’s students, said: “Jiang’s story not only appeals to the older generation, but also attracts younger audiences. Jiang is a hero and she is also a mother. The music is very expressive in portraying the female hero.”
In 2002, the production was staged at the German World Art Festival, and Zhang said in an earlier interview that it is a contemporary Peking Opera production performed in the Cheng School style.
“The performing style of the Cheng School is known for interpreting graceful female roles. Sister Jiang is a heroic woman and the role fits well with this style,” said Zhang, who was born in Baicheng, Jilin province, and performed with the National Peking Opera Company from 1995 to 2008.
The 50-year-old now teaches at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts in Beijing. She was trained by Peking Opera master Zhao Rongchen and maintains the traditions of the Cheng School, a performing style founded by Cheng Yanqiu (190458). It is one of the four major Peking Opera styles to emerge in the early 20th century.
In 2016, the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts launched a project that enabled Zhang to mentor young female Peking Opera students in the Cheng style.
On March 25, Beijing People’s Art Theatre, which was founded in 1952, premiered its play The Night at the Fragrant Hills at the Capital Theater in Beijing to mark the CPC’s centenary.
The Party made the Fragrant Hills in western Beijing its headquarters for six months as it emerged victorious in the War of Liberation (1946-49).
Featuring veteran actors Fang Xu and Wang Ban, the production, directed by Ren Ming, president of the theater, and written by Li Baoqun, is being staged for a second time at the Capital Theater from June 17 to Sunday.
Wang Ban, who plays Mao Zedong, and Fang, in the role of Chiang Kai-shek, enter a “dialogue” across time and space. The play follows events on the night after the People’s Liberation Army occupied Nanjing in April, 1949, declaring the collapse of Kuomintang rule. The liberation of Nanjing is a highly symbolic event in the history of the Party, the military and the nation.
Li, the scriptwriter, said, “I was commissioned to write the play in 2019 and I was intrigued by the idea of having these two characters talk overnight — presenting a view of Chinese history.”
He conducted a considerable amount of research and visited Shuangqing Villa in the Fragrant Hills, where Mao stayed, and Xikou, Zhejiang province, Chiang’s hometown.
“It’s a special play for me because it not only relates history but also portrays these two men,” Li added.