Red Detachment of Women——The Peking Revolutionary Opera

The Peking Revolutionary Opera
All our literature and art are for the masses of the people,and in the first place for the workers, peasants and soldiers; they are createdfor the workers, peasants and soldiers and are for their use.
Mao Tse Tung

In her book, Red Azalea, Anchee Min describes her personalexperiences with Mao‘s didactic creation:
"I became an opera fan. There were not many forms of entertainment.The word ‘entertainment‘ was considered a dirty bourgeois word. The operawas something else. It was a proletarian statement. The revolutionary operascreated by Madam Mao, Comrade Jiang Ching. To love or not to love the operaswas a serious political attitude. It meant to be or not to be a revolutionary.The operas were taught on radio and in school, and were promoted by the neighborhoodorganizations. For ten years. The same operas. I listened to the operas whenI ate, walked and slept. I grew up with the operas. they became my cells.I decorated the porch with posters of my favorite opera heroines. I sang theoperas wherever I went. My mother heard me singing in my dreams; she saidthat I was preserved by the operas. It was true. I could not go on a day withoutlistening to the operas. I pasted my ear close to the radio, figuring outhte singer‘s breaths. I imitated her. The aria was called ‘I won‘t quit thebattle until all the beasts are killed.‘ It was sung by Iron Plum a teenagecharacter in an opera called The Red Lantern. I would not stop singingthe aria until my vocal cords hurt. I went on pushing my voice to its highestpitch. I was able to recite all the librettos of the operas: The Red Lantern,Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Sha-Jia Pond, The Harbor, Raid on WhiteTiger Regiment, Red Detachment of Women, Song of Dragon River. My fathercould not bear my loud wailing with the radio; he always yelled, Are you hangingyourself in the kitchen? (18)
In America, we think we have freedom of speech but how manyof us are brainwashed by soap operas, sitcoms and the commercials that giveus the eternal message to BUY THIS NOW. Our mass culture supports consumercapitalism, just as Mao‘s: "Revolutionary culture is a powerful weaponfor the broad masses of the people. It prepares the ground ideologically beforethe revolution comes and is an important, indeed essential, fighting fronin the general revolutionary front during the revolution."
THE RED DETACHMENT OF WOMEN
Wu Ching-hua, daughter of a poor peasant, hasbeen chained to a post in the dungeon of the Tyrant of the South, a landlorddespot. Her eyes aflame with hatred, she will wreck this man-beast‘s lairat the first chance.

The outraged Wu Ching-hua escapes from the dungeon into the depths of thecoconut grove.

Red Army cadre Hung Chang-ching and his messenger Pang, disguised as peasants,are on a scouting mission.

With deep proletarian feeling, Hung Chang-ching points out the revolutionaryroad for Wu Ching-hua.

Wu Ching-hua angrily tells her dear ones of the Tyrant‘s heinous crimes.

Hung Chang-ching, calm and dignified, in the disguise of a wealthy overseasmerchant, arrives in the courtyard of the Tyrant of the South.

Hung Chung-ching leads the peasants in opening the Tyrant‘s granary and distributingthe grain. The overjoyed peasants cheer: "Long live Chairman Mao!""Long live the Communist Party!" "Thanks to our dear ones,the Workers‘and Peasants‘ Red Army!"

Wu Ching-hua has strong class feeling as she practises marksmanship and grenadethrowing under the Company Commander‘s instruction.

Soldiers of the Women‘s Comany perform rifle drill.

A storm rouses the wounded Hung Chang-ching. He rises and glares at the enemiessurrounding him.

What does death matter? Communism is the truth! Hung Chang-chingtowers over the enemies like an eagle in flight.

On the pyre, Hung Chang-ching shouts revolutionary slogans and dies a martyr‘sdeath.

Wu Ching-hua knocks the Tyrant to the ground and threatens him with her gun.

Wu Ching-hua and her comrades-in-arms mourn Comrade Hung Chang-ching; theyresolve to carry on the cause of the fallen hero and wage revolution untilfinal victory.

Although Hung has given his life, millions of other revolutionaries arise.Forward, forward! Under the banner of Mao Tse Tung, forward to victory!

Women‘s liberation came to China way before the West. Americanand European ballerinas are still dressed as sylphs floating on the shouldersof their strong men. But China‘s ballerinas are so strong and independentthey can carry rifles while they dance en pointe! For the Chinese, this artis didactic but also aesthetic and entertaining. Be aware of how each culturebrainwashes with pomp and ceremony, including your own.
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The Red Detached Azalea
The problem with Brave New World is that there is no real leaderto love the way I loved Mao. The masses do best with a collective oedipaltransfer. Otherwise they solved the dilemma of aging and death rather nicely.
Thanks to Einstein I‘m still alive. I had an affair with himand he told me how to live for another century. Every night I spin aroundas fast as I can while everyone else is sleeping.
William Styron should have spent a month farming when his "darkness"started to become visible. There is nothing like hard manual labor to beatoff depression, especially when you are so privileged that you‘re receivingawards, you have an estate in the fancy part of Connecticut, and no problemscompared to the other 99 percent of the human race.
Virginia Woolf was a great writer and intellect but not allwomen write with those flowery complex fluid erudite sentences. I like topunch mine percussively as if I were firing a gun. Mao was great but I didn‘tstart to get a sense of humor until I had my affair with Mao II, Don DeLillo.Now, like Don, I can laugh at anything. China still needs a sense of humor.
Jean-Paul Sartre is another would-be proletariat who shouldhave spent some time working at the Red Fire Farm. The dilemma of the Mythof Sisyphus isn‘t endless, repetitive work but the daily challenge with newlittle pleasures and surprises. Toni Morrison writes elegantly about slaveryand I wonder what she would have thought of Mao‘s alternative. She is muchbetter off writing all day while others work with their hands. No matter howintellectual I get, I will never give up manual labor. El Saadawi had bothbut she lost the most important thing. Thank God Einstein arranged for mysex drive to be rejuvenated as well. Lust is just as forbidden in Americain the nineties as it is in China. The joy of lust is that it often is illicit.
If I ever go to Africa, I‘ll have to arrange for Einstein togive me a sex change. The most important thing I learned in China was thedifference between what is necessary and what is superfluous. New York‘s consumerculture grows like greedy cancer but I know I don‘t need a car, a house, jewelry,make-up, fancy clothes, travel expenses, children, gourmet food, poisons likealcohol, cigarettes, red meat, coffee, drugs, but I could use medical insuranceand a one bedroom apartment. Intellectuals and artists are banned internationally-- in China, Russia, the Middle East and America.
The only time I was completely approved of was when I was createdthe Peking Revolutionary Operas for my people and then I was only paid withpraise and power, never luxuries. If I had to believe in God, he would bethe God of Small Things. Einstein tried to wrestle with the Big Things andhe died. Even the Virtual God of Cyberspace will eventually crash into a blackhole. And Allah already Died by the Nile.