Women hold up Half of the Sky

[bcholmes]

the_siobhan suggested that we go to the art gallery where electrolyte works. They had two exhibits on: Lee Bul's piece was a set of three karaoke pods. Climb in, pick your song and sing your lungs out. (I selected "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics).

The pods, themselves, were fascinating. The were like a cross between a one-person car and the odd sensory deprivation tanks from Altered States.

The thing that I couldn't initially wrap my head around was the idea that these karaoke pods weren't especially artistic forms of a commercial endeavor. It was an art piece. Lee Bul apparently decided "I'm gonna make art: my medium is karaoke devices."

The other exhibit was "Art of the Cultural Revolution". Paintings, posters, satirical cartoons, more posters, propaganda pieces, statues, filmed theatre, and posters from the Cultural Revolution period in China. I commented to Siobhan that, at times, it was as if Norman Rockwell had gone to china -- there was something about the slice-of-life images and the painting style that just screamed out Rockwell. Other images seemed to evoke certain icons: there was a poster that seemed very "Rosie the Riveter", for example (Hmmm... I've just discovered that Rockwell painted a "Rosie the Riveter", too).

There was an immensely striking poster of a woman learning to use a huge tripod-mounted machine gun. Her face beamed with the knowledge that she was commanding so much power. A friendly Chinese soldier was keeping her score on nearby blackboard.

The exhibit pamphlet told me that one of Mao's favourite phrases was "Women hold up Half of the Sky". Mao was actively interested in abandoning China's traditional roles for women. Rosie the Riveter was never sent home from the factories, unlike in North America.

Being more than just a bit pinko-commie myself, it was a very motivational. The conscious attempts at redistribution of privilege such as Mao's "learn from the farmers and country folk" campaign. The interest in feminism and other human rights. (How many times have I heard my film prof say "the success of decolonization can be measured by the status of women"?) I've always been hugely suspicious of the Libertarian credo: "everyone has individual rights but, Jeez, we shouldn't actually put government processes in place to propagate knowledge and ensure that those rights are respected."

But I recognize the dangers that occur when ideals that are meant to be enabling feel it necessary to say 'no', instead of 'yes'. (Insert anecdote about John Lennon meeting Yoko Ono).

It's sobering to remember that I live in the time of Tiananmen Square. The China of my life time has a reputation for horrible human rights abuses. I was moved by Holm's Coming Home Crazy: the book bannings, the repressed existence, the poverty, but alive with the desire to know, to learn, to think.

Holm writes:

I came back to America after my year in China and tried teaching again. I sunk as close to clinical depression as I have ever come. In the middle of the silence or the diddling, I tried superimposing the faces of my Chinese students on the clean-cut blond heads. I tried teleporting myself back into the dust and spittle of a Xi'an classroom. I stood gawking in the parking lot at my students' cars. I surveyed the piles of unpurchased text books for my classes. I dutifully graded the almost illiterate hen-scratched essays. What insufferable arrogance, I thought to myself, to throw the chance for a real mental life away on people who don't want it. American life doesn't want them to want it, not, at any rate, to want more than the name, surely not the fact. Nor do the Chinese party hacks want Chinese students to want it, but they do.

How does a country of a billion people, with noble goals and dreams and the desire to embrace change become Holm's China? (I say, speaking from a position of a goose-egg's worth of direct experience with China) What causes that? It is the same thing that allows an American nation founded on ideals to become the land of Dubya Bush? Is Canada just one crisis away from all that?

Comments

[medhba.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a nice evening.
What does B.C. wear to a hoity toity evening? (I like the concept of a hoity toity evening)
Karaoke pods: a pod implies that it wasn't necessarily a performance for others. Sounds neat and I would have enjoyed hearing you.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a nice evening.

It was. I enjoyed it.

What does B.C. wear to a hoity toity evening? (I like the concept of a hoity toity evening)

Oh. Now that I think about it, I should'a dressed up for it. I keep thinking of having a "fussy tea party" where everyone who's invited has to wear either gloves and hats or cravats.

But I also had these wonderful cheeses the other day, so I'm thinking of having a stinky cheese party. That could be good fun.

[medhba.livejournal.com]

I love to dress up...I think it stems from being a sweatpants-wearing housewife for a long time.
If you have the party, I'd love to see pics (I could party vicariously).
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