Illustration:
ill. I.2 (set: I.1)
Date:
1975 / 1976
Genre:
calendar, photograph
Material:
internet file, colour; original source: photograph, colour, print on paper, calendar
Source:
DACHS 2009 Propaganda Posters, Maopost.com (edited by Pierre-Loic Lavigne and Pierre Budestschu): C00265, Heidelberg catalogue entry
Courtesy:
Pierre Lavigne
Inscription:
小演员
Keywords:
calendar girl, violin, music, musical intrument, foreign music, bourgeois, children, restriction, Western instrumental traditions, Cultural Revolution

Little Performer (Xiao yanyuan 小演员)

“Get rid of what is stale and bring out the new” (推陈出新) is the title of a calendar produced in 1975. Before a pale blue background, a girl, dressed in a pink sweater, plays the guqin, an age-old seven-stringed Chinese zither (ill. I.1). Another calender from 1975 shows a much younger girl who holds, quite lovingly, a small violin, in itself a foreign instrument to China until the late 19th century: the title of this calendar is “Little Performer” 小演员 （ill. I.2). The images illustrate that by the second half of the Cultural Revolution (and actually throughout) there were restrictions of the repertoire one could be playing, but the playing of foreign and of traditional Chinese instruments actually never stopped completely. Remembers one contemporary: “Actually, at that time, there were no restrictions as to the playing of either particular instruments or pieces. All the etudes which we played came from the West. We just played everything.” (Artist 1959-).