Abstract:The campaign to criticize films was a most important area in“the great criticisms”.It was conducted by forces both from above and below.The one from above consisted of radicals led by Jiang Qing and“writing groups”affiliated with various work units.The one from below was made up of rebel mass organizations whose core members were some intellectual people.The first writing group appeared in Shanghai.After the Cultural Revolution began,writing groups mushroomed across the country.This was how a campaign to criticize a film worked:first,some people at the top would decide what topics to write;second,key articles were written by a designated writing group;third,accompanying articles were produced by the media.Close cooperation between media and writing group was therefore necessary.By the means of publishing newspapers and books,rebel organizations were often quite“imaginative”in their ways of criticizing movies.In contrast to rebel organizations’often“blown up”approaches,those writing groups paid attention to data and evidence.What they did was to reshape facts and reinterpret a given historical event in accordance with radicals’points of view.
Cartoon and Politics:Cartoons during the Campaign of Resisting the United States and Aiding North Korea——A Focus on the People’s Daily
(by HOU Song-tao)
Abstract:In Chinese modern times the national salvation and revolution were two epochal themes.As an artistic form,cartoon was closely related to varied revolutionary trends in politics.Cartoon presented diversified features between“artistic character”and“political character”all the time before the founding of PRC.The cartoon movement in the Resisting U.S and Aiding North Korea Campaign experienced a kind of artistic“popularization”and further politicalization.During the process of educating populace,the cartoon began to drift apart from its“artistic character”and turn to be a sort of ideological propaganda and educational tool which reflected its“political character”mainly.Thus a polarized mode of thinking,“not us then enemy”or“not enemy then us”,was constructed.This sort of extremely revolutionary mode of thinking had far-reaching influence on the populace.
Keywords:cartoon,politics,the Campaign of Resisting the United States and Aiding North Korea,People’s Daily
“The Great Criticisms”of Filmsaunching and Operations