Model Opera: The Only Truly Pioneering Achievement in Chinese Art Since the May Fourth Movement!

2006/4/4 16:46:41

Faced with a title like "Model Opera: The Only Truly Pioneering Achievement in Chinese Art Since the May Fourth Movement!" many people will surely object. Because this would mean that cultural symbols like Lu Xun, Thunderstorm, and Yellow River face the possibility of being encroached upon. Lu Xun, Thunderstorm, Yellow River, and so forth are undoubtedly valuable, but from the standpoint of being unprecedented and unrepeatable, their pioneering significance remains limited. In this regard, the claim that model opera is the only truly pioneering achievement in Chinese art since the May Fourth Movement is not entirely without merit.

In terms of contemporaneity, typicality, and originality, model opera is unparalleled. You may dislike the style of model opera, but you cannot deny its contemporaneity, typicality, and originality. Moreover, the most important point is that in the post-May Fourth era when Western winds blew furiously, model opera was the only creation by Chinese people that stood firm against the headwind and ultimately held its ground. It finally gave the Cultural Revolution a single glimmer of light in its original sense, and model opera will be immortal because of this.

Judging a work by its creator has always been proven laughable by history, and this is equally important for model opera. Do not use model opera's associations with politics or political figures as grounds for dismissing it -- this will only earn the ridicule of history. Even less should model opera's excessive popularity, or its forced popularity, become grounds for dismissal. Today's so-called popular culture is even more popular and forcibly popular than model opera ever was.

Don't think that waving the banner of the market gives you license to deceive. In all of world history, the most coercive and dictatorial force has only ever been one thing: capital. Everything else is child's play. All so-called humanity, democracy, and human rights associated with capital are the greatest lies in history. Standing on the platform of capital and using so-called humanity, democracy, and human rights to denigrate model opera? Not a chance!

Of course, that model opera became the only truly pioneering achievement in Chinese art since the May Fourth Movement only better proves the garbage nature of Chinese culture since the May Fourth Movement -- this point must also be made clear.