VLS 8: Stealthy Reading and Collective Reading in the Mao Era

In the Mao-era, multifaceted strategies of reading were existing next to one another. The eighth session explores two such poles on the spectrum of reading acts. On the one side are hidden readings of suppressed or even forbidden texts during the radical phase of the Cultural Revolution. On the other side are officially organized group reading sessions in the mid-1970s. The first speaker, Eddy U (University of California, Davis) investigates stealthy reading of books, letters, poems, and other material practiced by victims of abuse during the Cultural Revolution for purposes of self-preservation. The second speaker, Damian Mandzunowski (University of Freiburg), analyses depictions of collective reading activities in posters and photographs created during a mass-reading campaign in 1975 to explore their integrative aspects. Both forms of reading are crucial to take into account when researching the history of reading in the Mao era. Jennifer Altehenger (Oxford University) will act as discussant.

Reading Literature, Reading People, and Reading Risk during the Cultural Revolution

Eddy U

Abstract:

Reading was an essential activity during the Cultural Revolution. Individuals read “big-character posters,” newspapers, and official instructions to assess danger and development. They read Mao’s works to show political devotion. They read their own confessional statement to weigh whether the content could help them fend off abuse. This paper investigates a different but no less important kind of reading for purposes of self-preservation—stealthy reading of books, letters, poems, and other material practiced by victims of abuse. Stealthy reading, which occurred between physical abuses, was crucial for restoring among the victims a sense of hope, control, and autonomy. Because the reading activities occurred surreptitiously, they inevitably involved cautious reading of people nearby and reading of potential risk of punishment. I identify three analytical different types of stealthy reading: reading as healing, reading for safety purposes, and reading for love. Evidence comes from recollections of abused writers.