Chang-tai Hung is the author of two highly praised works on modern Chinese political culture, War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China 1937–1945 and Going to the People: Chinese Intellectuals and Folk Literature 1918–1937. Equally acute, this study of the newly established regime in China in the early 1950s will appeal to a wide range of readers.

The book's three main themes are the strong although not unchallenged influence of Soviet political culture in the early 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party's mostly successful use of nationalistic appeals, and, through both of these factors and more, its successful establishment of authoritarian rule that continues in modified form to the present day. Much of this is relevant to the present day, not least the CCP's flexibility in adapting the Soviet model to Chinese conditions; although the Soviet influence is now mostly erased from state propaganda, its legacy is still visually apparent as well as deeply embedded in cultural practice, and references to Stalin's cult of the personality are well taken. Other persistent themes include the global comparisons of economic outputs (starting around the time of the Great Leap Forward) and the ruthless destruction of neighbourhoods and the city walls for massive reconstruction, such as the buildings flanking Tiananmen Square and the square itself. The CCP's appeals to nationalism are also familiar, and Hung is particularly good at delineating the contested areas of modernity and tradition that were crucial in creating a new national identity. Above all, what emerges from the case studies that form the bulk of this book is the determination and skill exhibited by the CCP and its supporters in creating and maintaining a centralized cultural regime in a huge and diverse country.

The emphasis in this study is on visual culture: performance, painting and architecture, supported by a generous number of illustrations. (Literary culture, it is explained, is given extensive cover elsewhere. At a time when illiteracy was still widespread, visual culture would also have had a greater impact on a much larger number of people than the unappealing novels and poems of the 1950s.) The author introduces newly available archival material on how the projects that produced these works were conceived, debated and implemented at various levels throughout the country. These materials make it overwhelming clear that culture, for the CCP's urban bureaucrats, meant works primarily created for and by the educated elite such as themselves with relatively minor concessions to the prestige of the Yan'an experience and the recruitment to the ranks at provincial and local levels of people who did not share their Westernized (or Sovietized) prejudices. The blend of elite and mass cultures in these projects is explored at length in some of the most fascinating passages in the book: in particular, the failure of top levels to appreciate the vigour and resilience of local cultural traditions in their attempt to control the content and style of popular New Year prints.

Another valuable resource incorporated into the research is the large number of interviews with people who were involved in creating these works and even some commentary from their intended target audience. It is possible that some of the enthusiasm expressed by these people is affected by nostalgia, patriotism or self-interest. My recollection of the grand Tiananmen parades of 1959 still focuses on the inconvenience and boredom of standing around for hours before and after the main event, and for the participants themselves it must have been an even more punishing ordeal. The attention to detail by the army of administrators organizing these events is impressive, as Hung rightly points out, but the extravagant waste of time, effort and scarce resources must have been obvious to those involuntarily present. As a foreigner I was not a typical spectator, but many Chinese privately confessed dismay at these mass demonstrations of power. Hung is careful to warn against the problem of false memories, and it remains difficult to tell whose memories are false and which perceptions were most common and lasting.

Some readers like myself will find of most interest in this book the framework and background that fills out our understanding of familiar phenomena such as paintings of Mao Zedong, Babaoshan and the Monument to the People's Heroes. Other readers, political scientists and historians, will find the objects and performances described here significant evidence on how inner-Party conflicts were resolved. Both groups should be impressed by the author's interdisciplinary approach, above all his insistence that cultural phenomena are not autonomous. The author also delivers his own informed opinion in many cases, a practice that I found helpful. In this respect, his chilling account of the counterrevolutionary campaigns of the early 1950s is a valuable counter to the claim sometimes given of these being the “golden age” of the new republic.

Some of the chapters were first published separately as journal articles, perhaps the reason for some inconsistencies in terminology, and not everything can be covered (it would have been good to have a few paragraphs on ballet). Nevertheless, the book is an excellent comprehensive survey of the visual culture that emanated from Beijing and was most evident in the capital itself. Hung stresses the CCP's creative use of propaganda and its determination to teach the masses to become active supporters of the new regime. Still, as he reminds us, the CCP's grand narrative was not the only story of these years.