CULTURAL REVOLUTION SHIWAN FIGURINES
The Cultural Revolution period (1966 - 1976) is a troubled phase in recent Chinese history. It was a sociopolitical movement in China launched by Mao Zedong ,then Chairman of the Communist Party of China. Its stated goal was to preserve 'true' Communist ideology by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. It re-imposed Mao Zedong Thought as the dominant ideology within the Party. The Revolution marked Mao's return to a position of power after the disastrous Great Leap Forward campaign.
Art and literature became
tools to
educate the public on the ideological value as defined by the party state.
Shiwan potters were prohibited from producing
their traditional themes ancient craft which was considered to be one of the four olds, Old
Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas , which must be eradicated.
Inevitably Shiwan potters have to adapt and
channel their creative energy to
produce works of revolutionary and propagandistic character. The body of
artistic creations constituted an important part of the distinctive "Red
Culture" and important testament of the era. They were the creation of a
group of highly skilled sculptors, amongst them quite a few now recognised as master
craftsman such as Liu Ze Mian (刘泽棉),
Zhuang Jia （庄稼）, Mei Wen
Ding （梅文鼎）, Huang
Song Jian （黄松坚）and
Liao Hong Biao （
It is a distinctive category of pottery, mainly figurines work which reflected and recorded the social, political and cultural aspects of the Chinese history. In view of their symbolical, historical and artistic values , they have become a specialised category of collection eagerly sourced after by Chinese collectors. In fact, one of the Shiwan master has commented that those works reflected the spirit of the time and could not be replicated. He further explained that with the passage of time, his thoughts and feelings have changed. Even if he were to attempt a work of that nature again, the end product would lack certain degree of indefinable essence and spirit of that unique phase.
Workers, peasants and soldiers (工农兵, gong, nong, bing) are considered to be the pillars of the new Chinese society. During the Cultural Revolution they are portrayed as the rulers of the country. According to the re-collection of Huang Song Jian, a Shiwan master, majority of the Shiwan figurines are portrayal of these 3 classes of people. To ensure that the work realistically reflects the life of the gong, nong and bing, Shiwan sculptors personally went down to the various production units to gain first hand experience. A committee consisting of gong, nong and bing representatives were involved in judging the Shiwan potter's creation and only with their approval could the work enter production and being mass produced using slip-casting method.
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| Figurines featuring worker, peasant and soldiers. |
There are basically 3 categories: those with a more orangy paste which is glazed with low fired lead glaze , another with more grayish paste and high fired glaze and lastly those in biscuit form without glazing.
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| Example of figurine with more orangy paste and low fired lead glazing |
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| Exampe with more grayish paste and more high fired glaze |
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| Figurines in biscuit form by Zhuang Jia from the play, The White-Haired Girl (白毛女) |
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| Figural work by Liu Ze Mian based on the play "Shajiabang“ (沙家浜） |
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| Figural work jointly created by Liu Ze Mian and Zhuang Jia, based on the ballet Red Detachment of Women (红色娘子军) |
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| Figural work by Zhuang Jia based on characters in "The legend of the Red Lantern (红灯记）“ |
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| Figurine of Li Yu He by Liu Ze Mian. Main character in "The legend of the Red Lantern (红灯记）“ |
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| Group Figurines featuring children acting the role of characters in "The legend of the Red Lantern". Work by Liu Bing (刘炳） |
Another favourite subject is distinctive figurine depicting role model to propagate the selfless quality to be emulated by the common folks. The inspiration for such figurines were from the series of ‘Learn from’ campaigns. Chinese people were urged to study these examples and replicate these figures in their own work, their life and their attitude to the party.
The 3 most famous campaigns were:
1) ‘Learn from Lei Feng" which
focused on the life, conduct and attitude of Lei Feng, a
supposedly devoted PLA soldier killed in 1962.
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| Figurine of Lei Feng. |
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| Figural work featuring Luo Sheng Jiao (罗盛教), a soldier who participated in the Korean war (1950-1953) and sacrificed himself while saving a Korean child from a freezing river |
2). ‘Learn from Daqing’ celebrated the success of ‘Iron Man’ Wang and his fellow
oil drillers, who tapped a major oil field in remote Daqing, allowing China to
become self sufficient in oil.
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| Figurine of a Daqing worker by Liu Ze Mian |
3). ‘Learn from Dazhai’ hailed the achievements of a Shanxi commune during the Great Leap Forward. Its alleged successes became a model for agricultural innovation and progress.
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| Figural work featuring Zhao Xiao He (赵小和)，a peasant from Dazhai, who was praised for saving a horse from fall over a cliff. A team design work by Liao Hong Biao and Zhuang Jia. |
Many figurines of the minority races were also produced as a tool to spread the message of multi-racial unity.
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| Figural works featuring the minority races |
Figurines of children engaging in various recreational and sport activities is another favourite topic of the Shiwan potters.
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| Figurines of children enjoying musical and sport activities. |
There is also a body of work highlighting China's effort at building international relationship and friendship especially with the third world countries. In the 1970s, sports had played an important role in Chinese diplomacy, often incorporating the slogan "Friendship First, Competition Second". The Ping pong diplomacy set the stage for the final normalisation of diplomatic relationship between China and America.
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| Figurine artwork portraying Chinese interaction and friendship with the international communities |
Most of the the scuptural works were the creative effort of individual sculptors. But there were also some team projects when the assigned work involved a more complicated theme.
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| A rare team work entitled "Condemning Project 571", the numeric codename given to an alleged plot to execute a coup d'état against Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1971 by the supporters of Lin Biao, then Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party of China |
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| Another team work portraying Hong Xiu Quan, leader of the Taiping revolution smashing the wooden spirit tablet of Confucius. It is symbolic of repudiation of old feudalistic values. |
After the cultural revolution, Shiwan potters have reverted to producing art works inspired by the ancient traditional culture. However due to the high demand of cultural revolution figurines, many imitations of that period are still being reproduced. Generally the quality, especially the facial expression, pales in comparison to work of the past. There are also some discernible differences in term of the paste and glaze which can be distinguished by experienced collectors.
Written by: NK Koh (20 Dec 2018)