This book explores the subcultures, cultural trends and regulations of leisure and subcultures among young people in Beijing from 1949 to the 1980s. It complicates our understanding of the successes of the CCP and the nature of those successes―more a synergy or synthesis than victory over society or defeat. It argues that while the CCP aimed to direct the most private sphere in people’s everyday life (i.e., leisure), it did not achieve this goal by coercive means, but by appealing ways through organized leisure activities. This book suggests that although elements of youth subcultures can be observed throughout the Mao era, we should not treat them as a way of passive resistance. Instead, we must position these subcultures between different layers of the Party’s leisure regulation to examine what the CCP actually achieved. Many people who engaged in subcultures defied the blatant politicization of their leisure, some might have defied the process of collectivization, but few defied the process of institutionalization during which people did not find state intervention contradictory to their own way of pleasure-seeking. This book also suggests that instead of regarding the Deng Xiaoping era as a breakaway from Maoist interventionist rule, we need to see the historical continuity as revealed by the Party’s uninterrupted policy of leisure regulation. Thought provoking and at times amusing, this book will interest sinologists, historians, and scholars of China's social form.
Author(s): Yifan Shi
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 277
City: Singapore
Acknowledgments
Contents
Acronyms
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
Existing Interpretations of State-Society Relations
Toward a New Model
Positioning Leisure in China
Lifestyle and Youth Subcultures
Sources and Methods
Outline of Chapters
2 A Happy New World: The Communist Takeover of Leisure
The Communist View on Leisure
Dealing with Existing Leisure Activities: Three Tactics
Putting Aside: Private Ball Game Clubs
Redirecting: Self-Organized Dancing
Replacing: Radio Entertainment and Games
Providing New Leisure: The Beijing Youth Service Department
Conclusion: The Decentralized Takeover of Leisure in Beijing
3 Temporal Politics in Beijing, 1949–1956
Leisure Time: The Sphere of Temporal Politics
Vacations and Weekends: Temporal Politics at the First Stage
The Summer of Liberation for Beijing Students
Teach Students How to Rest Properly
Visitors and Performers: Spending Days off in Park Festivals
Problematizing Youth Leisure
“Life Should Be Planned:” Temporal Politics Deepened
More Regulations of Everyday Leisure Time
The Model of the Beijing Normal University Girls’ High School
“Leisure Time Does Not Belong to Us”
Mandatory Activities
Unnecessary Student Work
Forced Participation in Collective Activities
The Struggle Over Leisure Time: The Policy of “Free Allocation of Leisure Time”
Examining the Impacts of “Temporal Politics”
Conclusion: Temporal Politics and the Forging of a New Pace of Life
4 Youth Subcultures, Leisure Regulation, and Community Life, 1955–1962
Targets: Inappropriate Joyfulness and Unfavorable Connections
Pressurizing Everyday Life
The “Yellow Songs” Mania
Living as a Socialist Community: The Great Leap of Everyday Life
Forging Post-Leap Community Life Through Leisure Regulation
Conclusion: Accumulating a Communist Version of “Social Capital”
5 Anxiety About Difference: Politicization and Stratification in Leisure, 1962–1966
The Possibility of Alternative Lifestyles
Positioning Leisure in Urban Planning
Imagining an Alternative Way of Life from Hong Kong Films
The Resurgence of Commercial Networks
Fear of a “Peaceful Evolution”
Revolutionizing Everyday Ways of Life
Politicization of Leisure Experienced
Differentiation Derived from Politicization
Conclusion: The Limits of Politicization
6 Exiting the Revolution: Alternative Ways of Life and the Institutionalization of Leisure, 1966–1976
The Great Revolution in Temporal Order
Competing for Leadership by Exiting
Waiting for a Better Chance by Exiting
Being Loyal to Communist Orthodoxy by Exiting
Passing Time Safely by Exiting
Privileged Exits
Conclusion: Did Revolution Have Exits?
7 Epilogue
Dazhai Versus Xiaojinzhuang: Debating Post-Mao Leisure Regulation
New Trends and Old Traditions in the 1980s
Conclusion
References
Index
