Zhao Dan’s famous roles
In an article discussing the current predicament of Chinese-language horror movies, film critic Yang Jian quotes an opinion piece written in 1980 by Zhao Dan, one of the most famous Chinese screen actors of the mid-20th Century. Zhao’s piece, which was published in the People’s Daily under the title “When Control is Too Specific, There is No Hope for the Arts,” argues against a strict censorship regime in the arts.
Zhao Dan (赵丹) first found fame as an actor in the 1930s, appearing in classics like Street Angel and Crossroads. After the revolution, he played the lead in biopics of herbalist Li Shizhen, high-commissioner Lin Zexu, and composer Nie Er. In 1960, he was cast as Lu Xun in a biographical drama that was never completed, sidetracked first by an official push to make films about the post-revolutionary period, and then by the Cultural Revolution.
Frustrated by interference from officials who were ignorant of the arts yet held positions of power over artists, Zhao wrote an essay highly critical of arts censorship, emboldened by the knowledge that he did not have long to live: “There is nothing left to be afraid of,” he writes in the closing paragraph. He died on October 10, two days after the essay was published.
Although the situation that Zhao describes in his essay has changed slightly, many artists still feel that state guidance of the arts is too specific and that government attempts to create art by a show of hands have not ceased.
When Control is Too Specific, There is No Hope for the Arts
by Zhao Dan / PD
People’s Daily has launched a discussion on “Improving the Party’s Guidance of the Arts and Invigorating the Arts Professions.” When I saw “improving” and “invigorating” in the headline, I was overjoyed. When I read in the editor’s note, “The Party’s guidance over work in the arts must be improved, and through improvement strengthened. We are unshakable on this point,” I was worried. I do not know the scope of that “we” in the note. I only know that there are some artists – people devoted to the Party’s ambitions – some dauntless artists who feel a reflexive sense of unease whenever they hear the words “strengthen the party’s guidance,” for through the accumulated experience of successive campaigns, each instance of strengthening is another round of suffering, willful interference, to the point of “total dictatorship.” The memories are fresh and give a particular impression. Try to avoid that sort of “strengthening” from now on.
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