Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in Chinese Communist Propaganda, 1942–1953

Anyone who grew up in China must be familiar with The White-Haired Girl. At least when I was in elementary school, almost every classmate of mine was able to sing “The North Wind Blows,” the most famous excerpt from the opera version of The White-Haired Girl. Although it is an extremely successful piece of artistic propaganda, few people have inquired about or understood the gender and religious elements behind The White-Haired Girl. There are obviously many similar works or propaganda produced by the Chinese Communist Party. In Xiaofei Kang's new book, she explores how, amid the seemingly incompatible exclusionary relationship between the Marxist-Leninist Party and traditional religion, the CCP's propaganda organs strategically and consciously utilized elements of religious culture to create new revolutionary concepts and solidify its rule. In recent years, more and more studies have pointed out that the repressive policies of the CCP during the Mao era did not lead to the disappearance of religion, and some religious groups even developed and expanded at the grassroots level. Kang's work goes further and boldly proposes that the vitality and influence of religion not only existed among the ordinary people but were themselves the cultural core on which the CCP's propaganda work relied.Part 1 (chapters 2–4) of this book studies the Anti-Superstition Campaign carried out in the Yan'an area in 1944 and 1945. This campaign was actually composed of two highly interconnected movements—the Anti-Shaman Campaign and the Public Health Campaign. These movements were full of intensively gendered language, which in Kang's opinion symbolizes the strong “yin” and “yang” concept of Chinese religion. Rural women were seen as victims of male shamans and shaman healers. At the same time, the CCP symbolized the new patriarchal ritual master that rescued rural women. In the Anti-Shaman Campaign, through both Mao's mass-line politics and traditional legal practices, the party established its hegemonic authority as a fatherly figure. In the Public Health Campaign, by showcasing the miracles of modern medical science, the party further demonstrated its benevolence of patriarchal authority.Part 2 (chapters 5–7) discusses the paradoxical relationship between superstition and party propaganda by analyzing three CCP-produced artistic works and their different fates. The first work, The Red-Shoed Demoness, published in Yan'an in 1944 and 1945, achieved short-term success. Its success came from the fact that its storyline was close to the local ritual culture and fully consistent with the grassroots obsession with ghost stories. The second work, Uncle Gao, which was started in Yan'an in 1944 but was not published until 1947, was never promoted by the CCP because its emphasis on antisuperstition as the dominant aspect of rural revolution was no longer compatible with the party's land reform line in the late 1940s. The third work, Zhao Shuli's The Marriage of Young Blacky, published in 1943, was the most influential and successful antisuperstition work in the CCP's history. Zhao's success was precisely due to his being physically far away from Yan'an and his embracing of superstition as the most authentic Chinese local tradition. In his eyes, the party came to educate rather than eliminate. Part 3 (chapter 8) focuses entirely on the 1945 opera The White-Haired Girl, the most important propaganda art to the PRC, and argues that it was a turning point for the CCP's propaganda. Through intensive rewriting of the original story, especially the demystification of its religious elements, this opera highlighted the ideological core of the party in the new era—class struggle. Ultimately, this opera went beyond criticism of superstition and gender oppression to construct absolute faith in Mao, the party, and the new regime.This book is very solid in its reading and interpretation of the literary texts, as well as providing a nuanced contextual analysis of the local culture in which the texts were born. For example, in terms of music, Kang provides an in-depth analysis of how The Red-Shoed Demoness was rooted in the shamanistic ritual chanting of Shanbei (114) and how the music of The White-Haired Girl was inspired by traditional opera and monastic Buddhist music (181). Kang also carefully analyzes how each character in The Marriage of Young Blacky was based on local sectarian groups and folk stories (chapter 8). These details alone are enough to illustrate how the CCP's propaganda creations consciously absorbed traditional culture.Meanwhile, this book also has some problems of logical incoherence. Several important case studies that the author focuses on actually weaken the overarching argument of the book. In this book, Kang wants to prove how the CCP consciously utilized and created revolutionary concepts rooted in traditional religion. What Uncle Gao and The White-Haired Girl show, however, is how the party strived to eliminate religious elements in its propaganda and shifted its focus to class struggle. Especially in the case of The White-Haired Girl, almost all religious symbols from the original story were removed. Isn't this intentional weakening of religious themes the opposite of Kang's argument? On the other hand, Kang seems to suggest that gendered narratives represent traditional religion. It is for this reason that Kang believes that the notion of patriarchal justice shown in the two aforementioned works is still religious. But these two concepts are not necessarily the same. In chapter 8, Kang quotes the Precious Scrolls of Xiunü to indicate that the role of the party in The White-Haired Girl exhibits a similar notion of religious salvation or heavenly justice (182–84). But this analogy does not necessarily hold true. For example, in the most famous Yuan dynasty drama The Injustice of Dou E, the heroine's grievances were eventually cleared away by her father, who was a civil official instead of a deity. The narrative of justice here is much more secular. An alternative interpretation is possible.Although this book has minor flaws, its meticulous textual analysis and in-depth study of local ritual culture provide a good example of solid scholarship for Chinese studies scholars. The book also breaks through the traditional binary opposition between the Communist regime and religion, and it enriches the field of Chinese religion under socialism that we still know little about.