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Maoist Laughter

Online ISBN:
9789882204508
Print ISBN:
9789888528011
Publisher:
Hong Kong University Press
Book

Maoist Laughter

Ping Zhu (ed.),
Ping Zhu
(ed.)

Edited by

University of Oklahoma
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Zhuoyi Wang (ed.),
Zhuoyi Wang
(ed.)
Hamilton College
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Jason McGrath (ed.)
Jason McGrath
(ed.)
University of Minnesota
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Published online:
21 May 2020
Published in print:
1 November 2019
Online ISBN:
9789882204508
Print ISBN:
9789888528011
Publisher:
Hong Kong University Press

Abstract

This volume aims to restore laughter to its proper position in the Mao-era culture. The Mao era was actually a period when laughter was bonded with political culture to an unprecedented degree. Spurred by dynamic political exigencies, many cultural products sought to utilize laughter as a more pliable form of political expression. Laughter was used to highlight antagonisms or downplay differences, to expose and ridicule the class enemy, or to meliorate and conceal contradictions; it could be ritualistic or heartfelt, didactic or cathartic, communal or utopic. In Maoist culture, laughter became a versatile discourse that brought together the political, the personal, the aesthetic, the ethical, the affective, the physical, the aural, and the visual. Therefore, the art of laughter was carefully moderated and regulated for political ends. Maoist laughter reveals the diversity, complexity, dynamics, and inner contradictions in the cultural production and reproduction in Mao’s China.

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