Research On Artistic Politicization Of The Emerging Woodblock-printing Movement

The emerging woodblock-printing movement(shorted as EWM hereafter)is a revolutionary art movement sprouted with the tide of social change in China in the early 20 th century.It became an important force of cultural innovation and social transformation in that particular historical period with the help of social & political power and mass culture strategy,and played an irreplaceable role in ideological enlightenment,democratic revolution,Anti-Japanese War and class struggle.The tendency of art politicization is the most obvious feature of EWM,which mainly reflects the general value orientation and cultural uniqueness of literary and artistic creation in the period of the New Democratic Revolution,and is the pioneer and representative example of Chinese revolutionary realism art creation system.Therefore,this paper studies the art politicization of EWM from a specific historical perspective,and at the same time,focuses on the research of the ideological &cultural characteristics and artistic features of WWM endowed by the political orientation of art in the New Democratic Revolution,as well as the resulting social political efficiency and social cultural value.The main body of this paper contains four parts: First,an investigation is made to EWM’ s historical background and cultural context from historical dimension.EWM is the product of social reform and cultural innovation in China’s special historical period.Its birth is not only due to the prevalence of the “ Eastward Transmission of Western Science ” in New Culture Movement period,but also inseparable from the support of Lu Xun and other intellectuals as well as the active participation of the young artists.The fundamental reason of its rapid growth lies in its positive artistic values and realistic artistic pursuit which conform to the special needs of social reform and democratic revolution for culture and art.As it has reached a close interactive relationship with social politics,the power of politics is the basic factor that promotes its birth and growth.The artistic politicization of EWM is not only the inevitable demand of culture for social and historical reform and revolutionary political struggle,but also the cultural strategy of left-wing intellectuals of the Republic of China,in which the most crucial and decisive factor is the will of the political party.It was due to the understanding and requirements of Chinese Communists to the proletarian revolutionary literature & art that the politicized character of the emerging wood-prints had been shaped with great efforts.Second,a comprehensive study is given on the characteristics of EWM under the influence of political factor.The emergence,development and evolution of EWM are all centered on the core content of "creation",which can best embody the political idea,cultural stand and aesthetic appeal of the emerging woodblock-printing.Therefore,this paper comprehensively investigates and analyzes the characteristics of the emerging woodblock-printing works from its creative thought,method,subject content and form style,discusses the social view of art,cultural value and aesthetic appeal contained in it.Third,the mass culture strategy was discussed,which helped to realize the political appeal of EWM.It was with the special influence and power of mass culture that EWM could exert its cultural effect in the great tide of social change in the period of Republic of China.Therefore,this paper adopts mass culture and communication theory to analyze the mass cultural characteristics and cultural communication function of EWM.The implementation of the mass culture strategy is,on one hand,manifested in its position of proletarian mass culture,where its launch,organization and promotion are following the route of mass culture;on the other hand,revealed in the prominent mass media characteristics and excellent mass culture transmitting functions of the emerging woodblock-printing itself.So that it played an incomparable cultural effect in the new democratic revolution.Fourth,the artistic politicization tendency of EWM in the special historical period of cultural value and cultural issues was considered.In the combination with politics,EWM creatively built a set of revolutionary realist art creation mode and operation mechanism,whose rationality and validity had been fully testified in social practice.It not only contributed remarkable cultural power to the social revolution at that time,but also laid a foundation for the later New China’s literary creation and literary system construction,whose value and significance were far-reaching.EWM has achieved its own social and cultural value,yet not without cultural problems implied.Though the politicization of art has its inevitability and rationality in the specific historical context,a proper balance should be kept between art and politics from the law of the development of art.For overemphasizing the politicization of art is not only detrimental to the sound development of art,but also has a negative impact on the construction of social culture and political civilization.Through studying and analyzing the EWM’s politicization of art,this paper believes that art and politics always maintain a relationship of either sparse or dense,and cannot be completely separated.As far as EWM ’ s artistic politicization is concerned,only when placing in the specific historical & cultural context can it be interpreted dialectically and rationally.