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Building a ‘Lofty, Beloved People's Amusement Centre’: The socialist transformation of Shanghai's Great World (Dashijie) (1950–58)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2020

WENMING XIAO  and
YAO LI Open the ORCID record for YAO LI [Opens in a new window]
WENMING XIAO
Affiliation:
Boya (Liberal Arts) College, Sun Yat-sen University Email: xiaowenm@mail.sysu.edu.cn
YAO LI
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida Email: yaoli1@ufl.edu
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Abstract

Based on a detailed case study of the socialist transformation of the Shanghai Great World Amusement Centre (Dashijie), this article documents state-building efforts during the early years of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Between 1950 and 1958, the Communist regime incrementally transformed the power configuration within Dashijie, promoting dramatic changes in its personnel, institutional structures, drama performances, and physical space. Over the course of this process, Dashijie seemed to become a ‘loftier’ cultural organization in accordance with the aims of its transformation. This transfigured Dashijie, however, fell out of favour with the people of Shanghai. This multifaceted transformation process reflects considerable state capacities on the one hand and illustrates the complexity of state capacities—their unevenness and the limitations of a strong state—on the other. The complexity of state capacities thus shaped and was embedded in the process and outcome of this socialist cultural transformation. Since the Chinese state is once again making strenuous efforts at culture-building, an overview of cultural transformation in the early PRC era has important contemporary implications.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 973 - 1014
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We are very grateful to two anonymous reviewers and editors (especially Dr Ruth Rogaski) for their valuable suggestions and thoughtful comments. This article is based upon work supported by the Chinese National Social Science Foundation under grant no. 19BSH009.

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