Description
The musical scene of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–76) was marked by the rise and dissemination of “model works” (yangbanxi), featuring, among others, eleven revolutionary Peking operas. With Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s wife, as the leading figure behind their conception, these operas retained techniques from the native operatic tradition while incorporating Western music and opera elements for a clear representation of heroes and villains. The model operas would express values stemming from various Chinese schools of thought, including revolutionary interpretations of Confucian family values, self-criticism, and education aimed at perpetuating social norms. Departing from this premise and taking as its object of study film adaptations and related iconographic material from the first five operas produced at the time, this study argues that, despite the authorities’ hostility towards the old systems of thought, their legacy was perpetuated in the new revolutionary shows, representative of a renewed continuity of the classical and popular tradition’s ideals, allowing, through the formulation of new associations, the promotion of heroic models of loyalty and the clear distinction between Good and Evil.
