Maoist Laughter
Ping Zhu, Zhuoyi Wang, and Jason McGrath
Abstract
This volume aims to restore laughter to its proper position in the Mao-era culture. The Mao era was actually a period when laughter was bonded with political culture to an unprecedented degree. Spurred by dynamic political exigencies, many cultural products sought to utilize laughter as a more pliable form of political expression. Laughter was used to highlight antagonisms or downplay differences, to expose and ridicule the class enemy, or to meliorate and conceal contradictions; it could be ritualistic or heartfelt, didactic or cathartic, communal or utopic. In Maoist culture, laughter became ... More
This volume aims to restore laughter to its proper position in the Mao-era culture. The Mao era was actually a period when laughter was bonded with political culture to an unprecedented degree. Spurred by dynamic political exigencies, many cultural products sought to utilize laughter as a more pliable form of political expression. Laughter was used to highlight antagonisms or downplay differences, to expose and ridicule the class enemy, or to meliorate and conceal contradictions; it could be ritualistic or heartfelt, didactic or cathartic, communal or utopic. In Maoist culture, laughter became a versatile discourse that brought together the political, the personal, the aesthetic, the ethical, the affective, the physical, the aural, and the visual. Therefore, the art of laughter was carefully moderated and regulated for political ends. Maoist laughter reveals the diversity, complexity, dynamics, and inner contradictions in the cultural production and reproduction in Mao’s China.
Keywords:
Laughter,
Socialism,
Mao-era culture,
comedy,
humor,
utopia,
ideology
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9789888528011 |
| Published to Hong Kong Scholarship Online: May 2020 |
DOI:10.5790/hongkong/9789888528011.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Ping Zhu, editor
University of Oklahoma
Zhuoyi Wang, editor
Hamilton College
Jason McGrath, editor
University of Minnesota
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