Jiang Qing, also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. She used the stage name Lan Ping (藍蘋) during her acting career, and was known by many other names. Jiang was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the radical political alliance known as the Gang of Four.
The Four Olds or the Four Old Things was a term used during the Cultural Revolution by the Red Guards in the People's Republic of China in reference to the pre-communist elements of Chinese culture they attempted to destroy. The Four Olds were: Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits. The campaign to destroy the Four Olds began in Beijing on August 19, 1966, shortly after the launch of the Cultural Revolution.
Ding Ling, formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi, also known as Bin Zhi, one of the most celebrated 20th-century Chinese women authors. She is known for her feminist and socialist realist literature.
Becoming Madame Mao is a historical novel by Anchee Min detailing the life of Jiang Qing. She became Madame Mao after her marriage to Mao Zedong. In this story Min tries to cast a sympathetic light on one of the most controversial political figures in the People's Republic of China.
Yang Jiang was a Chinese playwright, author, and translator. She wrote several successful comedies, and was the first Chinese person to produce a complete Chinese version of Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote.
The Blue Kite is a 1993 drama film directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang. Though banned by the Chinese government upon its completion, the film soon found a receptive international audience. Along with Zhang Yimou's To Live and Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine, The Blue Kite serves as one of the quintessential examples of China's Fifth Generation filmmaking, and in particular reveals the impact the various political movements, including Anti-Rightist Movement and Cultural Revolution, had upon directors who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s.
Hibiscus Town is a 1986 Chinese film directed by Xie Jin, based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua. The film, a melodrama, follows the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution and as such is an example of the "scar drama" genre that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s that detailed life during that period. The film was produced by the Shanghai Film Studio.
Ji-li Jiang is a Chinese author. She is most famous for the memoir, Red Scarf Girl, as well as The Magical Monkey King. She grew up and lived in Shanghai, China in a large apartment with her family.
Two Stage Sisters is a 1964 Chinese drama film produced by Shanghai Tianma Film Studio and directed by Xie Jin, starring Xie Fang and Cao Yindi. Made just before the Cultural Revolution, it tells the story of two female Yue opera practitioners from the same troupe who end up taking very different paths in their lives: "one succumbs to bourgeois affluence and privilege, while the other finds inspiration and fulfilment in the social commitment associated with the May Fourth movement and the thought of Lu Xun.” The film documents their journey through abusive feudal conditions in the countryside before achieving success and prestige on the stage, meanwhile historically following Shanghai's experience under Japanese and KMT rule. This original screenplay depicts the socio-political changes encompassing China from 1935-1950 through the theatrical world of Shaoxing, and accordingly mixes both a Chinese aesthetic with Hollywood and socialist realist forms. The main protagonist is said to be based on the life of Xie Jin's friend and opera-veteran Yuan Xuefen.
Jiang Xi-reng, better known by his stage name Henry O, is a Chinese-American actor, known for his character roles in film and on television. He won the Silver Shell for Best Actor for his performance in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007).
Sun Weishi was the first female director of modern spoken drama (Huaju) in Chinese history. Sun's father was killed by the Kuomintang (KMT) in 1927, and Sun was eventually adopted by Zhou Enlai, who later became the first premier of the People's Republic of China. While in Yan'an, Sun aroused the enmity of Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, beginning a rivalry between the two that lasted throughout Sun's life until her ultimate death at Jiang's hands. During World War II, Sun lived in Moscow, studying theater. Lin Biao was also in Moscow at the time and proposed to Sun before returning to China in 1942, but Sun rejected him. Lin married another woman, Ye Qun, in 1943. Ye held a lifelong grudge against Sun for her earlier relationship with Lin.
Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party is a work of historical fiction written by Ying Chang Compestine and published in 2007. The story is set at the end of the Cultural Revolution in Wuhan, China. The novel is about a young girl from an upper-class family facing persecution and other challenges brought upon the upper class living in communist China.
Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution is an autobiography of Gao Yuan and his recollection of experiences during the Cultural Revolution in China. Stanford University Press is the publisher. The foreword was written by William Joseph. At the time Gao Yuan was a post-graduate student at Stanford University.
The red scarf is a neckerchief worn by young pioneers of several countries during the socialist (“communist”) era. In the Soviet Union it was known as pionerskiy galstuk, in Vietnam as khăn quàng đỏ, in China as hóng lǐngjīn, in Cuba as pañoleta roja, and in Hungary as úttörőnyakkendő. Blue scarves were also used by youngsters before coming of age to wear the red one, and are still seen in some countries.
Wu Yin was a Chinese film and drama actress active from the 1930s to 1990. She appeared in 45 films and 48 plays, most notably in the classics The Spring River Flows East (1947), Myriad of Lights (1948), and Crows and Sparrows (1949). Famous for playing roles of older women, she was dubbed the "First Old Lady" of Chinese cinema. In 2005 she was chosen as one of the 100 best actors of the 100 years of Chinese cinema.
Dai Houying was a Chinese woman novelist, and one of the first Chinese writers to criticize the devastating decade-long Cultural Revolution.
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow is a novel written by the contemporary Chinese author Wang Anyi. Widely considered to be one of her best works, this story follows the life and romantic encounters of a woman in a changing Shanghai, spanning roughly four decades of the twentieth century.
Xu Guangping, courtesy name Shuyuan, infant name Xia, was a Chinese female writer, politician, and social activist. She was well known as the partner of Chinese writer Lu Xun.
Chen Xiaolu was a Chinese military officer and businessman. As a son of Marshal Chen Yi, he was one of China's most prominent princelings, or children of high officials. He held the rank of colonel when he quit his military and government posts in 1992 and entered business. His military background and princeling status helped his businesses expand to great sizes. He was an early director of privately held Anbang, which grew into an insurance giant. In 2013, he made national headlines when he publicly confessed and apologized for torturing and persecuting his teachers during the Cultural Revolution. He has been called the "conscience" of princelings.
Jiǎng Guāngcí, was a Chinese fiction writer active during the time of the Republic of China.
