Painting History: China’s Revolution in a Global Context By Jiawe ...

Following the end of the extreme repression of the Cultural Revolution, from 1979 onwards, a widespread liberalization in thinking gained impetus and even CPC members began to express views contrary to the official pronouncements. In 1985 Xin Guancha Weekly Magazine published an article discussing the relationship between CPC members and the “Party.” It was proposed that the CPC was a political body formed by a group of people with a common political ideal. I agreed wholeheartedly, and my painting Red Star over China was a visual expression of that viewpoint. It was a total rejection of the emperor-subject feudal relationship established within the CPC after the rectification movement and purges of 1942 in Yan’an. This painting provides today’s audiences with what Snow had witnessed in 1936, when everyone was equal within the CPC and the Red Army, and people treated one another like brothers and sisters, whether they were party leaders or ordinary party members, commanders or orderlies. In Snow’s Red Star over China he noted that there was no personality cult, no one called Mao “our beloved and respected leader.” It was not until five years later that people started shouting: “Long live Mao Zedong!” In 1959 Marshal Peng Dehuai,²² the only person still calling Mao Zedong “Old Mao,” was sacked and criticized. From then on Mao became a virtual emperor.

My painting Red Star over China had not been commissioned by the CPC. I had meticulously worked out the composition and was determined to paint the work even if I could not exhibit it. However, 1987 was an opportune time: the liberalization of the post-Mao era continued unabated, and the political situation became even more relaxed with Zhao Ziyang assuming power from Hu Yaobang. In July of 1987, I learned with great excitement that Zhao Ziyang had crushed the leftwing faction of the CPC and that my painting would participate in the National Exhibition Celebrating the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Founding of the PLA.

The exhibition was held in NAMOC but curated by art experts in the cultural section of the political department of the PLA. All the PLA officials liked my work and decided to show the complete painting, even