From Confiscation to Collection

Abstract

This chapter examines two categories of material culture from the People’s Republic of China: the remnants of pre-1949 “old society,” designated the “four olds” and the focus of confiscations during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), and the products of “new society,” made for socialist New China. Using archival material and oral histories, this chapter demonstrates how objects were associated with class during the Cultural Revolution. Objects and class were related in two significant ways: an object’s class category came from the labor that begat it, and—as possessions were confiscated during the Red Guards’ house searches—the class status of the owner was reflected in the object. This chapter also considers the post-Mao afterlives of everyday objects as collectors’ items and the limits on their interpretation in private museums. Both socialist and postsocialist China have found it easier to confiscate/collect objects of the past rather than to grapple with their symbolism, which has become both more powerful and more diverse than ever prescribed by revolution.

Tourists of their own past: Aural palimpsests from the Mao era

“…In situations of political oppression and traumatic experience, ethnographic refusals are important means through which interlocutors and ethnographers navigate censorship and avoid re-traumatization. Historian Denise Ho adds that in socialist and post-socialist China, it is easier for individuals to collect objects from the Cultural Revolution than to confront and speak about the pasts that these objects symbolize (2020: 357). I highlight several instances of ethnographic refusals in this article because they are a significant aspect of fieldwork in Mainland China, 12 where song has a crucial role as an ethnographic mediator.…”

Faire de l’histoire du politique avec les objets

“…Faire de l'histoire du politique avec les objets Revue d'histoire culturelle, 4 | 2022 très peu de références à leurs significations symboliques originaires et sujets donc à une dépolitisation marquée28 .3 -Centralité des usages et performativité14 Les études récentes s'intéressent particulièrement au fait que les objets ne sont pas seulement un élément-clé de la communication symbolique, parfois crucial pour l'affirmation d'une identité ou d'une appartenance mais qu'ils "incarnent" aussi des messages de divers types et, dans leur matérialité, contribuent à développer des tâches et des rôles. Considérer leur dimension communicative est donc important, mais il est aussi possible d'aller plus loin pour comprendre qu'ils participent activement et de manière créative aux pratiques sociales.…”