NATIONAL BALLET OF CHINA
THE RED DETACHMENT OF WOMEN
State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne
February 15
The audience for the opening night of this performance by the National Ballet of China was met with a large crowd of protesters, mostly Chinese, brandishing placards comparing the Red Army with ISIS and Nazism. Was their outrage justified? I believe it was. At the very least the protesters should decry their country being continually represented on the world stage by such an outdated piece of propaganda. More seriously, the protesters are right to complain that the ballet glorifies communism without any sense of shame or history.
The Red Detachment of Women was choreographed in 1964. It is based on a film set in the 1930s on the islands of Hainan during the Chinese civil war against the Kuomintang. In six scenes it tells the story of a young woman who escapes the captivity of a warlord and is given sanctuary by the Red Detachment of Women, and eventually rises to prominence in the communist party. The Detachment of Women was a real organisation, and the Red Army eventually became the People's Liberation Army as we know it today.
This ballet one of only eight major performing arts productions that were sanctioned under the communist regime, and specifically by the infamous Gang of Four, led by Madam Mao during the so-called Cultural Revolution. All other artistic creations were banned, as was all independent intellectual thought. It is likely that the ballet's choreography was subject to close supervision when it was created, so closely does it follow the political edicts of the day. It is an irony that a ballet that celebrates freedom became the tool of those who went on to suppress freedom in the most brutal of ways.
According to the publicity material, the ballet is now more than a mere propaganda relic and stands on its own as a flagship work. We are meant to regard this as a museum piece, a curiosity, with artistic merit in its own right. Unfortunately, even on that score it is a hard work to praise.
The Red Detachment of Women follows all the usual communist cliches: blue sky utopian settings, pigtailed dancing peasants, evil warlords, precise lines of eager, obedient women waving guns. Communist poster art poses are struck. A communist flag is caressed by the heroine. The set is old-fashioned, with quaint theatrical effects. The rather unremarkable orchestral score (played by Orchestra Victoria with a chorus) finishes with a triumphant rendition of the Internationale (the communist anthem) just as the army triumphs.
The ballet does provide a glimpse of the utopian dream that underlay the Chinese revolution. We now know it was an illusion. Yet the National Ballet of China presents the ballet with absolute naivete and sincerity; the dancers appear to perform with genuine conviction. There is no hint of irony or sadness at the circumstances in which the ballet was born.
China has moved ahead in so many ways. Surely its artists have created more recent works that would be a better representation of the country's culture? Why bring this offensive piece of propaganda? All it tells us is that official Chinese art is stuck in its dubious past.
- KAREN VAN ULZEN