Notes
1 I thank Rui Kunze for her valuable comments during the writing process. Research for this essay has been supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of our project Producing and Consuming Authenticity—Politics of the Past in the Cultural and Creative Industries in the Sinophone Sphere, project number 404534127.
2 See the entry in the Chronicle of Mao Zedong (Mao Zedong nianpu), dating from 20 May 1939, p.
126.3 All photos were taken by the author in summer 2018.
4 Peixiang (1956): Yan’an xing S⅛jff, Luxingjia, no. 1, 1956, pp. 9-13. Peixiang is a nom de plume, the identity of the author could not be verified. Similar reports are found in the journal Revolutionary Artifacts (Geming wenwu ≠⅛'⅜⅜, 1976-1980), a journal established in 1976 intended to assure the legitimacy of Hua Guofeng (1921-2008) as successor to Mao Zedong. For an exemplary report, see Zhu De zongsiling geming lao yingxiong—jieshao yizu Zhu De tongzhi de lishi zhaopian he wenwu
(The Commander-in-Chief and the Old Hero of the Revolution Zhu De—Introducing a Number of Historical Photos and Artefacts of Comrade Zhu De), Geming wenwu, no. 3, 1977, pp. 41-46.
5 A livelier portrayal was also expected by hiring tourist guides who were descendants of revolutionary martyrs; see Han (2017, p. 27).
6 This image (as implied by Li 2011) is refuted by Wu and Wen (1993). On Mao’s reading habits as a young man, see Li (1992).
7 In those years, the KMT watched closely over Yangge dance activities because it considered the dance to be a subversive form of art intended to destabilize the government (Holm, 1984; Hung, 2005).
8 During this movement in the Cultural Revolution, parts of the privileged urban youth were sent to the countryside to work and live with workers and peasants, thereby improving their revolutionary consciousness.
9 On Xi’s efforts to install himself as the new Mao Zedong, see Luqiu (2016).
10 Link identifies a printing of 970,000 copies in the early 1950s (Link, 2000, p. 130).
11 Du Pengcheng—together with other authors in Yan’an, such as Ding Ling (1904-1986) and Liu Baiyu (1916-2005)—had quickly accepted the new policy of writing literature as defined in the Yan’an Talks, thereby contributing to the emergence of a literature without much merit in the 1950s and 1960s.
For this assessment, see Kubin (2005) and McDougall and Louie (1997).12 For some impressions of the performance, see www.mafengwo.cn/group/info. php?iid=684429&static_url=true (Accessed 15 April 2020).
13 Understood differently than in the writings of Gustave Le Bon (1896) and Edward Bernays (1928), propaganda, or xuanchuan S#, in the Chinese context is not necessarily equated with political pressure, nor is its top-down dissemination seen as problematic.
14 On the importance of martyrs in red tourism, see Denton (2014, pp. 214-242).
15 It would also be hard to imagine a battle reenactment organized by hobby historians in today’s China. I am not aware that such reenactments exist.