by Michael Hall
Filmmakers and projectionists in mid-20th century China functioned as clergymen of the regime, spreading the “cult” of Maoism as if spreading a religion, Harvard East Asian culture expert Jie Li told a UC Santa Barbara audience last week.
“What are the religious origins of propaganda?” asked Li. “What if we rethink propaganda not in cold war terms of brainwashing, but in terms of proselytizing? What if we thought of films as missionary work and the Communist revolution as religious revival?”
Hosted by the Confucius Institute, Li delivered a lecture in which she characterized the quasi-religious nature of Maoist cinema and propaganda as a “spirit medium.” Li’s special area of focus includes East Asian culture and cinema, on which she taught several courses and authored many articles.
During Chairman Mao Zedong’s rule, many of the films screened to Chinese citizens were Soviet utopian depictions of the bounties of shared farms and the supposed good Communism could bring. Often, however, these films were heavily edited to show Communist “miracles” at work. Projectionists in particular, she said, spread the communist propaganda of the Mao pseudo-religion in an almost priestly manner.
Movie projectionists at the time would travel across the country with their equipment to show films to Chinese villagers. Before the screenings, they would teach audiences how to sing along to revolutionary, narrate during the film, and even censor what was considered inappropriate content.
“If they’re watching Lenin, a 1918 Soviet movie, and it includes some violence or kissing scenes, the projectionist might censor those parts with his hand,” she said.
The projectionists and the films they presented even went as far as to persuade Chinese citizens to abandon religion altogether in favor of communism. The films would often depict the suffering under the feudal system which predated the Communist Party of China juxtaposed with statues or altars of deities, whom the government wanted citizens to believe to be false idols.
“The power of the revolution was measured in decibels,” said Li. “[Films] were a form of sacred violence.”
Michael Hall is a fourth year Film and Media Studies major at UC Santa Barbara. He is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.