#well two of them because the propaganda posters were from the same period but another document | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

paulriedelposts · 4 years

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Third Reich artists: Leni Riefenstahl

The Third Reich artists, like Leni Riefenstahl, played an important role in spreading Nazi propaganda. All artistic branches were culturally valuable. Some of them flourished during Hitler's regime, and one of them was Leni Riefenstahl.

Who was Leni Riefenstahl?

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German dancer, actress, film director, photographer, and writer. In the early days of her career, during the Weimar period (from 1919 till 1933), she was one of the few female film directors. She directed in 1932 her own film The Blue Light (Das Blaue Licht). In the 1930s, she directed her first propaganda films: Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) and Olympia. These two films were technically innovative and some of the most effective propaganda films during the period. They brought her worldwide acclaim and attention. Even years later George Lucas used some of her monumental techniques. However, most of her works, especially the film Triumph of the Will, negatively affected her reputation after the war. Being involved with the Nazis greatly damaged her career; she was also a friend with Hitler as well. Hitler and Riefenstahl also collaborated on a few Nazi movies. Some people claimed that her visions played a key role in the Holocaust. The police arrested her after the war and released soon after because they classified her as a Nazi sympathizer. They hadn't had enough proof to accuse her of being associated with any war crimes. She strongly denied that she had known something about the Holocaust. Aside from directing, Riefenstahl also pursued a photography and writing career. Later in her life, she wrote a few books about the Nuba people, as well as her autobiography.

Childhood

Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was born in Berlin on August 22, 1902. Since her early childhood, she loved art and started to write poetry and paint. She was interested in swimming and gymnastics so she decided to join school clubs. Aside from her interests in arts and gymnastics, Riefenstahl's love for ballet and dancing seemed to be the greatest. It took her to the Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin, the place where she achieved brilliant results. Riefenstahl became one of the best students at the school.

Early years

After having attended some dancing academies, Riefenstahl became famous for her unique dancing skills. As a dancer, she got a chance to travel all around Europe. Her dancing career did not last long, unfortunately. After a few foot injuries, she had knee surgery which hugely affected her dancing career. In 1924, while on her way for a regular check-up, she saw a poster for a film. The film was The Mountain of Destiny (Der Berg des Schicksals), which inspired her to pursue a film-making career. She spent lots of time in cinemas, watching movies and attending film shows. After she met Arnold Fanck, the man who directed Der Berg des Schicksals, she started her acting career. He featured her in one of his films after witnessing her acting skills and learning that she admired his work.

Leni Riefenstahls acting career

Arnold Fanck gave her a role in his 1926 film, The Holy Mountain (Der Heilige Berg). Riefenstahl took roles in several other films and learned editing techniques and acting from Fanck. It was one of Fanck's films that brought her fame in many other countries. The movie was The White Hell of Piz Palü (Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü) in 1929. A few years later, in 1932, Riefenstahl produced and directed her own film, The Blue Light (Das Blaue Licht). Béla Balázs and Carl Mayer were her co-writers. Even though not well-received, the film won the Silver Medal at the Venice Film Festival. Riefenstahl blamed critics, mostly Jewish ones, for their criticism. The film saw its second release in 1938 when Sokal and Balázs, both Jewish, didn't get their credits. Many believe that this happened at Riefenstahl's behest. In the Blue Light, Riefenstahl plays the role of an innocent peasant girl. The villagers hate the girl, believing she's diabolic and they cast her out. She gets protection from a glowing mountain grotto. Leni Riefenstahl once stated that she had received many invitations to move to Hollywood and make films there, which she refused. In 1933 though, she appeared in other Arnold Fanck's films, which were German- USA co-productions. She filmed S.O.S Iceberg, the only English language role film she ever had. She wanted to live and work in Germany. Upon seeing the movie the Blue Light, Hitler became interested in her. He was convinced she portrayed the perfect German woman and wanted to meet her instantly.

Directing propaganda movies

Before she got a chance to meet Hitler in person, she heard him speak at a rally in 1932. His talent for giving public speeches fascinated her. Riefenstahl captivated Hitler as well as she fitted his ideal od Aryan woman. After they met, she got an offer to direct The Victory of Faith (Der Sieg des Glaubens). This was a propaganda film about the fifth Nuremberg Rally in 1933. Triumph of the Will The second propaganda film she got a chance to direct was Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). This was another film about the party rally in Nuremberg in 1934. Many believe this is one of the greatest propaganda films in history. The motion picture of the film was an innovative and epic work of propaganda film-making. Riefenstahl became internationally popular and recognized. According to Riefenstahl, she agreed to film Triumph as the last one for the party. Lowlands Riefenstahl then continued to direct a film based on Eugen d'Albert's opera, Lowlands (Tiefland). She received the production funding and shot the film between 1940 and 1944. It was a black and white film, considered to be the third most expensive films of the Third Reich. For this film, Riefenstahl employed Romani from internment camps for extras. Unfortunately, the way people treated them on set was inhumane. After shooting the film, those Romani ended up in Auschwitz. In one of her interviews, she denied any attempt to create Nazi propaganda. She told to be appalled that Nazis used Triumph of the Will for such purposes. Olympia in 1935, Hitler invited her again to film the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. She accepted, believing the International Olympic Committee commissioned the film funding. The truth was that The Third Reich secretly funded the film. This film was Olympia, an immensely successful film for its aesthetic and technical achievements. Riefenstahl was one of the first filmmakers who used tracking shots while filming a documentary. To follow the movements of athletes, she placed a camera on rails. She also took slow-motion shots, panoramic aerial shots, underwater diving shots, high and low shooting angles. These shots were pretty unheard of at the time. Her work on this film influenced modern sports photography.

Leni Riefenstahl visiting the USA

Riefenstahl visited the USA to secure the commercial release of the movie Olympia. At the time, Hitler was one of the greatest men and she defended him fiercely. Little did she know then about the brutality he had been preparing. While she was in New York City, Kristallnacht took place in Germany. Again she defended Hitler and his actions. She carried out her mission in the USA. Olympia played at the Chicago Engineers Club and it received great appraisals. She met with many great names in America: Walt Disney, Louis B. Mayer, Henry Ford, and others. She had a chance to live and work in Hollywood, but she preferred to stay in Germany.

World War II

The Nazi's violence during WWII shook her confidence in the party. Following German troops for film-making, she saw the execution of Polish civilians. The very same day she witnessed such violence, she left the set to meet Hitler. She made an appeal against such actions. However, she did not object to filming the triumph parade in Warsaw a few weeks later.

After the war

After the war, Riefenstahl tried to separate herself from the Third Reich regime. She stated how she only created work and it happened that the Nazis commissioned it. For her, it didn't mean she worked for them and their purposes. She was never a member of the party, but only their sympathizer during their early years. This association with the Nazis made it difficult for her to regain position in cinematic communities in Europe, especially Germany. Riefenstahl chose still photography. In the 1970s published an illustrated volume on the Nuba people, the primitive tribe of Sudan. Later in her life, she became interested in underwater cinematography. Years that followed after the end of the war were isolation years. She lived in Munich, where she died of cancer on September 8th, 2003, at the age of 101. Her burial site is in Munich at Munich Waldfriedhof. People will probably remember her more as Hitler’s favorite film director, and not a great artist. And she was one indeed, the first female film director with international acclaim. Not well known for her work, she does deserve more attention. Just like many other artists during the Third Reich, she was manipulated and used to advertise its propaganda. They weren’t all aware of how it would end. They did what they did best, create work that would live long after they’re all gone. The work that tells the story of their time.

More about Leni Riefenstahl?

If you are interested in booking my Third Reich tour, be sure you’ll get a chance to come near to the manipulation of folk and artists in those dark years. There are plenty of sites that exhibit the great works of art, the Third Reich art. There are places that witness the mistakes of our past. Visiting concentration camps, in my opinion, honors the Nazis and their propaganda. What we can do is to see works of art as they tell more about the whole society. These works tell about mistakes, good deeds, and they can help us learn. We don’t need more discrimination, more hatred. What we seek is love and peace for everyone, no matter their race, sexuality, or religion.

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permian-tropos · 8 years

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Essence

@averyimperialvalentines Day 1: “Your Empire needs you!” aka sexy propaganda i’m a day late but i frittered away so much time with Stress

I'm rather in love with the poster of Rae Sloane that was unveiled for the special edition of Aftermath: Empire’s End. I thought that it was pretty interesting to imagine that poster being canon for the time period of the book it’s representing, too, since with things are the way they are, it wouldn’t be Sloane plastering the galaxy with pictures of herself looking flawless and godlike. Surely someone else would be behind it, someone ever so obsessed with narrative… So, since the first prompt of this event was “sexy propaganda”, I produced this.

When the lights of the council chamber dim to near darkness, she shines brighter, a piercing and violently purifying light. Set against dull grays and reds, the white of her uniform is so blinding that it brings an ache to the inside of his skull. Gallius Rax closes his eyes, and the blurry afterimage floats against his eyelids, shifting colors as it dissipates. He half smiles.

Ferric Obdur, the sycophantic propagandist, unveiled the poster’s design to Rax in private. Ironic how it had been the Grand Admiral who once oversaw the approval process of such posters, but she would be absent for this final work. Because it is indeed final — there will be no need for any of this after the plan is executed.

Strange to admit it now, but there was a touch of apprehension skirting the edges of Rax’s mind when he handed this assignment to Obdur. The man is talented; his imagery striking, forceful, and effective. Artistically, compositionally, it has merit as well.

But what he knows is how to compose a piece that brings together familiar symbols of the Empire. The subject is not the Empire here; it is Rae.

There was always an indescribable quality about her that Rax saw in no other. Something rare, and therefore precious, that needed to be preserved. And then tuned, honed, ripened, intensified. A unique value of power, like the timbre of a newly invented instrument — he could admire that. Perhaps even covet it.

He knows that she saw the same in him. The galaxy is full of disputes over what should be done, what was right, what was true. But even a righteous soul like Rae Sloane, who staunchly believes in dichotomies, is drawn to power. Nothing is intrinsically true or right to the fickle hearts of the galaxy, but an idea imbued with authority becomes both.

Rax did not expect Obdur to create a masterpiece, but at the same time, that had been the implicit demand. Nothing less would suffice. And then this design was presented to him. At first it seemed to be another entry in Obdur’s personal canon, using the same styles and techniques he had relied on in the past. At first, it had seemed disappointing. Yet it demanded attention; Rax could not tear his eyes away. Still cannot.

He sensed her. Indescribably.

Perhaps that quality was finally isolated and realized before his eyes. Extracted like the essential oils of an herb. The calm fortitude of her expression, the level intensity of her gaze. The way her hair falls, the way her chin tilts up, the shape of her shoulders. It is not the same Rae Sloane he had known and worked alongside, but that woman and the woman in the poster could be classified together in an exclusive group, set apart from the rest of existence.

Obdur put something else into the design, something which the untrained eye could never hope to detect. Fear; his own. Fear of her? Intriguing.

A high pitched tone from behind informs Rax that someone is requesting entry — with the press of a button hidden beneath the table, he admits them. Rising halfway from his chair, he sees the white armor and single orange pauldron of a stormtrooper commander.

“The ground forces have been fully deployed on the planet, sir,” the man states crisply, passing him a datapad. “Reconnaissance of the area is complete.”

“Very good,” Rax murmurs, seating himself once more and turning his attention to the screen in his hands. The battle to come must be orchestrated to perfection. There will be a battle; it will begin with the sudden appearance of the New Republic fleet, seeking the advantage of a surprise attack. The Empire’s retaliation will be swift but desperate. And then, the landscape of Jakku will be reshaped.

Before him are maps: topographical, littered with symbols for towns and roving tribes. The native inhabitants have not been cleared out, despite the suggestions of General Borrum. The man could not imagine a strategic use for them, but of course he does not know the purpose of this battle yet. Rax flicks his eyes over the images, overlaying them with the map he has held in his mind for decades. He fits them together — that which is seen on Jakku, and that which is unseen.

For now, everything is in order. “Dismissed,” Rax tells the trooper, waving him away.

Cold, concentrated pressure meets the back of his neck.

“Don’t move… sir.”

Not the trooper’s voice. But a familiar one.

Rax does not move.

“You will remain seated. You will not turn or make any sudden motions. You may speak.” There is a hoarse edge to the voice, and it speaks lowly, not a whisper, but not a barking command. It sounds weary, but it is a dangerous and deceptive weariness. The faintest lilt communicates more threat than a clipped snarl might. Rax feels a wisp of breath skim the same short hairs that the chill of the blaster barrel set on end, and then a hand places the grimacing white helmet to his left on the table. “Understand?”

Slowly, Rax sets the datapad on the table beside the helmet and folds his hands in his lap. He wets his lips to speak — after all, he was given that option. “You are early.”

“You were expecting me?” The blaster adjusts slightly against the nape of his neck, aiming up towards his brain stem.

“Of course.” He shifts his gaze to the periphery of his vision, daring to minutely tilt his chin. The dim edges of a figure behind him, the trooper armor—

“Look. Ahead.” A hand moves in from behind and forcibly adjusts his chin. That, not the press of the blaster or the tone of the voice, sends a wave of crawling uncertainty through him, as he fixes his eyes on the static glowing holoposter.

A two-dimensional Rae Sloane gazes off to the left, arms crossed, proud and distant and professional, as the hand shifts to his shoulder. It is pushing down, pinning him to his seat, and it does not leave.

“That was your last warning.” And then the voice moves closer to his ear, dropping in volume, each word spoken with flat deliberateness. “You know I am not bluffing.”

That, he knows.

“You deserve… commendation,” he eventually says. “For infiltrating the ship without my knowledge. The stormtrooper’s voice — a recording, perhaps? Most ingenious.”

“Don’t be coy. This was not my success.” The words become thorny, stinging. “This was your failure.”

Rax presses his lips together and swallows. He should not be shaken here. Should not be goaded into anger. He stares at the woman on the wall, but she refuses to return his gaze; she only looks ahead.

“I will have my success soon enough.”

“Oh?”

“You might think I am here to bargain. But I assure you. I will defeat you.”

“But not like this,” Rax says. He inhales slowly, as if he can detect a person’s thoughts by the scent that lingers in the air. “You are very used to eliminating threats, and you have done so with a… shall we say… moral prerogative? And yet, if you killed me here, it would be… dissatisfying.”

“It would be supremely satisfying,” the voice growls, and once again there is uncertainty. Rax searches the Sloane of the picture, searches his memories of her. He always has known, from a logical perspective, that she despised him and considered killing him. She had every reason for this. But he cannot recall a time when she sounded so far removed from… what, exactly? He remembers that once called her an elevated mind. There is nothing left of that.

Once again, he has been staring so long at her profile that the afterimage follows him in the low light when his eyes move away. But this time it feels as if it could permanently brand itself in his retinas. “Then what part of keeping me alive could satisfy you more?”

“Did you order her to kill me?”

Puzzle pieces slot into place. He is surprised by how even her tone is. “I see,” he murmurs.

“… ’I see’ is not an answer,” the woman behind him snaps contemptuously. A flash of intuition tells Rax that her finger has tightened on the trigger.

“The answer is no.”  

“You are a liar,” Rae says.

“I am a liar. But that was not a lie.” He waits. There is no evidence he can provide to sway her, and he is sure that the longer he speaks, the more suspicious she will become.

Eventually, she shifts — he can hear the armor plates clacking together faintly. Her hand remains on his shoulder, and he feels heat from it, as if the blood within her is literally at a boil. But her voice? Once more, it is painstakingly level. “I would have preferred otherwise. I cannot fault her for following orders.”

“A—” He doesn’t make it beyond the first syllable of a name before the burning fingers holding him in place clench tighter. “She had faith in the cause.”

Rax expects an eruption of rage. The blaster digs deeper into the back of his neck. Yet there is only the pregnant silence. And then she says, and he can hear aching in her words, “A fool, then. And I could not afford to waste my time with foolishness.”

He doesn’t have to be told what happened. Adea Rite is dead. Perhaps the girl was a fool, as Sloane suggests. She wanted to attain greatness, and for those that fail, there is ignominy. But the same awaits those who attempt nothing. He knows, too, that Sloane was the one who killed her. For all the loathing Sloane must be feeling for him, there must be some portion allotted for herself.

“It was my plan,” he declares, as the corner of his upper lip lifts into a sneer. “Do not doubt that I convinced her of everything. She was indeed foolish—”

“No,” she snarls, horror tinting the rasp of her breath. The blaster slams into the back of his head, knocking him forward, and then she has a fistful of his hair in one hand and is grinding his cheek into the surface of the table. “You will not make this easy for me. You will never make such a mangled, misguided attempt at pity again.”

Rax’s breath stutters as he tries to follow her logic. Pity? He does not pity her. Just as she said, there was no time to waste on foolishness, and there was nothing more foolish than pity. His hands hover beside his head, signaling surrender.

And he waits. The blaster has shifted to his temple, and he can feel the tip shaking.

When it steadies, when the force pushing his face into the marbled durasteel has lessened, he carefully asks, “Are there any other questions you wanted answers for?”

She releases him entirely, and he peels his skin from the smooth tabletop. Cupping the side of his face, Rax rubs his thumb over the cheekbone. It might be starting to bruise. His hand shifts to cover his mouth, and he sits back in his chair, almost casual with how he lets his spine slouch. He braces his chin up with a fist, elbow resting on the arm of the chair. “Well?” he asks.

“No. I have what I came for.”

Rax sits up straight. That isn’t right; she wouldn’t go to such lengths to ask a single question. “Surely you have more to say.” His eyebrows knit together, the corners of his mouth turning down stormily. But he takes a second to recover, ironing away the stabs of displeasure intruding into his thoughts. “All those months, you held your tongue, burying your contempt, your rage. This could be your only chance to speak your… true feelings.” The challenge rolls off his tongue smoothly, as if an energy bolt was not warming itself up in the core of her blaster for a liaison with his brain matter.

“Ask that woman in the picture. I’m sure she will tell you whatever you want to hear, and only so much.”

Rax lifts his eyes to the holoposter once more. His teeth clamp together; as before, the image is unyielding. He thought it had contained a touch of that distilled essence, but now, with the voice behind him, with hands that took petty vengeance on his body for previous trespasses, he no longer knows what it is that makes her so special.

She is here, she is not here. There are two of her. Neither of them are Rae.

The threat of a burst-open skull seems trivial, all of a sudden. He curls his fists tight, fingernails digging through the fabric of his gloves into his palms. “… Let me see you.”

“No.” She almost sounds darkly amused. “You have her. You can keep her.”

He can hear her stepping back. “Leaving so soon?” She did not come here simply for conversation. If he’s wrong about that that, he knows nothing in all the galaxy.

“Don’t worry,” he hears her say, and her voice has that rough, grim edge that he’d heard at the very beginning. Scornful despair. “This isn’t over.”

But why not? Why wasn’t it over the moment she had a clear line of sight and a weapon? She’s discovered things down on the surface, surely. They would have brought her to questions only he could answer, and yet she steps away.

Rax makes a decision. He cannot meet her boldness with excessive caution. “Why prolong this, then?” he says sharply, and rises from his chair.

The blaster fires as he turns, the beam piercing the air next to his ear. The emitter on the holoposter bursts in a violent spray of sparks, and the room descends into darkness as the proud, still, silent Sloane from the poster vanishes from sight.

Rax isn’t sure what he intends to do in this darkness. Physically, Sloane could best him, whether armed or not. But he lunges into the space she had occupied, grasping where he knows she must now be, where he can feel her presence.

The space is empty; he stumbles, plants his feet. His eyes begin adjusting quickly, but he should not need his sight to sense her. He has miscalculated somehow, but she must still be in the room. The door hasn’t opened. She is here, and yet—

A spot on the back of his neck throbs, and he claps a hand to it. It is pain, and yet it is peculiarly numb, like an electric shock.

“Rae,” he hisses. “What have you…?”

That constant pressure from the blaster barrel. He cannot say for sure but it is a solid theory — if she had somehow slipped an injector needle in beside the barrel, the flesh might have been numb enough not to notice.

With a cautious step backwards, Rax places his free hand on the back of the chair, bracing himself. “I see,” he manages, drawing himself up and stiffening his shoulders. “Was there a reward for keeping me alive? Have you thrown in your lot with the New Republic? Or perhaps you have… some other purpose for me?” He’s still scouring the room for any hint of a figure, but there’s nothing, nobody.

The pulse of dizziness washes over him a second time, and he has to duck his head down for fear of losing consciousness. “Wait—” he croaks.

Rax opens his eyes. He is seated alone at the head of the table in the conference chambers of the Shadow Council, the lights only half-dimmed. Before him is the implacable, serene, indescribably perfect image of Grand Admiral Sloane. The flat hologram is softly glowing. The emitter is undamaged. The wall is pristine, and the table surface clear.

Stripping away his black leather gloves, the man opens his palms, eyeing the dark symbol adorning one, and then tracing his gaze with perverse fascination up his pale fingers, watching them minutely shake.

#averyimperialvalentines #gallius rax #rae sloane #aftermath: life debt #aftermath: empire's end #gallirae #my post #my fic

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amamblog · 8 years

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An Interview with Wang Guangyi (in English and Chinese)

In the current AMAM exhibition Conversations: Past and Present in Asia and America, a painting titled Chanel (below) by Chinese contemporary artist Wang Guangyi is on view. To demonstrate Wang’s “conversations” with art and artists from the past, Chanel is paired with an anonymous propaganda poster from the Cultural Revolution, Thoroughly Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius!, and a lithograph titled Crak! by Roy Lichtenstein, one of the leading figures in the Pop Art movement in the US.

Wang Guangyi first gained wide critical acclaim with his Great Criticism series, which included Chanel. The works juxtaposed propaganda imagery from the Cultural Revolution with brand names and motifs from Western advertising, which were flooding into China during the Reform Era of the 80s and 90s. Like Pop Art, Wang appropriated elements of mass-produced commercial advertising; however, by adding exaggerated, heroic figures from political posters he slyly suggests that advertising and propaganda are equally manipulative. Recently, Zimeng Xiang, the AMAM Student Curatorial Assistant in Asian Art, interviewed the artist.

* Below, you can find a transcription of the interview in Chinese.

Wáng Guǎngyì 王广义 (Chinese, b. 1956), Chanel, from the Great Criticism series, 1994, oil on canvas, 149.2 x 119.7 cm. Oberlin Friends of Art Fund, 2001.20. Allen Memorial Art Museum

Q: The shift from your early works in Northern Art Group to the Great Criticism series was extraordinary. What was the change in your opinions on art that caused such a huge shift? What triggered such a change in your mind?

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Post-Classical: Gospel of Matthew, 1986, Oil on canvas, 100cm x 100cm. (Fig. 1)

A: My works created before the shift of my focus had almost nothing to do with my life experience. They were just my imaginary issues: the Post-Classical series (1986) was my own correction to the classical culture and the Frozen North Pole series (1985) was about an imaginary “northern culture”. Not until I started painting Mao (1988,1989) did my artistic practice begin to mature; not until then did I realize what was really connected to my life experience and my educational background.

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Waving Mao Zedong, 1989, Oil on canvas, 150cm x 120cm. (Fig. 2)

Apart from that, the formation of the Great Criticism series was somehow accidental as well. Despite the poor artistic qualities of propaganda images made by amateur painters during the cultural revolution, I used to find in them a unique kind of power which I wished to exploit in my works. I enlarged and copied one of those images of workers, peasants and soldiers onto a canvas, setting it in the corner, and had no idea how to deal with it. Several days later, I happened to have a chance to drink a can of Coke. This was in those days when lots of Western consumer products (such as Coca-Cola and Marlboro cigarettes) had just entered China, but coke was still a “luxurious” drink. Incidentally, I set the Coke can on the ground, suddenly coming up with some interesting ideas.

Since the Great Criticism series, my attention shifted from the form to the imagery itself. The form is entangled with art historical contexts and elements of individualization, which I was trying to get rid of. I tried to free art from the hands of artists, to make it possess more power—the power that came from people as well as the leader. In the Post-Classical series, with the aid of old masters I told a myth about art history; in Mao’s portraits, with the aid of photography and printing presses I told a myth about the leader; in the Great Criticism, with the aid of people I told a myth about people.

Q: The Bold outlines and exaggerated figures of the Great Criticism series bring to mind a series of Cultural Revolution-era posters, such as “Thoroughly Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius!” (ca. 1970), that are themselves reminiscent of the work of the Modern Woodcut Movement of the 1920s-1940s. Were you referencing either of these in your series, or Cultural Revolution imagery more broadly?

A: Yes, I was referencing the Cultural Revolution-era posters. Basically the prototypes of the Great Criticism series are such imagery created by the “people”. I was juxtaposing these two kinds of imagery coming from different eras—figures of workers, peasants and soldiers, and images from imported advertisements that had permeated contemporary life.

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Great Criticism: Coca-Cola, 1990-93, Oil on canvas, 200cm x 200cm. (Fig. 3)

Q: How did you feel about the widespread propaganda posters during the 60s and the 70s when you were young? What was the impact that the swelling consumer culture brought to your life in the 90s? How did you come up with the combination of propaganda images and Western commercial advertisements?

A: The cultural revolution lasted only for ten years, during which Chinese people subverted politics, as well as history and art. We lived in a political metaphysics. Elimination was regarded as creation. Chaos was believed to be order. The Cultural Revolution is usually understood as a mythmaking movement, but I consider it more like a kind of Dadaism. This is Mao’s political metaphysics—a unity of mythmaking and Dada. Under the influence of such metaphysics, we embraced the negative, with an unprecedented audacity, as if they are actually the positive. A particular image system was built when the practice of “Great Criticism” was invented. As the Cultural Revolution ended and Mao’s utopia vanished, commodity fetishism became popular in China where true religious belief was submerged. Chinese speedily switched to another image system—a system about signs of consumerism. Everything but my cognitive system was changing dramatically. I was trying to look for a meaning behind the conflicts between my haunting memories and this burgeoning new imagery.

Q: The whole series of Great Criticism includes both prints and oil paintings. Is there any difference in ideas between works made in these two kinds of media?

A: They express the same idea, just different in the ways they could be spread.

Q: Could you tell us about how you created those strings of numbers on the painting Chanel and other special techniques you applied?

A: I stamped those numbers. I also used an altered traditional glazing technique.

Q: Besides the Great Criticism series, many of your other works, such as the sculpture series Materialist made in around 2002 and the painting series Methodology of People’s War made in 2004, also make reference to images from woodblock prints made in the Great Leap Forward or Cultural Revolution period. Why are you interested in employing images and visual effects originally generated for reproducible media in your works that were made in non-reproducible media?

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Materialists, 2001-2002, Sculpture (Fiberglass and Millet), Approximately 180cm x 120cm x 60cm. (Fig.4)

A: There was a transformation happening there when I modulated and recreated the existing prints. Through such a process of transformation, artists would amplify or even distort the original meanings of the material. My Great Criticism series tended to flatten and simplify (the source material) by removing those medium tones in colors and shadings. It might relate back to the original image style of “Great Criticism”, which was redolent of woodblock prints, but I indeed intentionally pursued that kind of effect in my later works. Plenty of Cultural Revolution imagery, including some of those propaganda images, retained more or less some sense of space; those were created by professional artists, in a Soviet art style. However, they simplified the forms to make images speak to people. I call that a thorough conceptualization. Interestingly, it is exactly those conceptualized images that possessed a unique power.

Q: Because of your Great Criticism series, many critics and art historians consider you as the founder of Chinese Political Pop art. What do you think of such an identity (or rather, label)? Did it have any unexpected effect on your later artistic practice? Do you think that it might restrict the ways viewers read your works?

A: Of course, my Great Criticism series should belong to the category of Pop art, whereas my Pop art has probably included some issues related to politics and ideologies. Pop art is defined as a popular art concerning mass culture, but to a country like China, the most “popular” would be politics.

It certainly had some impact (on my later artistic practice), both positive and negative, but this was not something that could be determined according to my individual will. My works and my words became productions of the world of pop as soon as they left me. Maybe that is the reason why contemporary art approaches everyone’s life so closely. Contemporary art seems to be a reconstruction of the synchronic experience of the public. It involves everyone and forces them to participate, like a huge “game”. At first glance, they are unsure about what exactly this game is, in the same way as they are about the evening news on television. But one thing is clear: contemporary art always reminds the public of a most basic matter—both news and games lead us to real life.

Q: In a previous interview, you mentioned that “the core of art is something spiritual”. Could you choose one word to describe the “spirit” of contemporary Chinese art? What do you think is the biggest difference between the “spirit” of contemporary Chinese art and that of ’85 New Wave?

A: The only way I could talk about ’85 New Wave is from my own experience of it. History is just a random product. When we were actively participating in ’85 New Wave, we had no idea that it would be eventually remembered this way after thirty years. What’s more valuable and substantial is the process of re-thinking the spirits and thoughts of those individuals involved in this piece of history. As far as I’m concerned, it was still a great period of time back in the 1980s, when my numerous dreams and imaginings about art were constructed during those salad days of mine. ’85 New Wave offered me a starting point—a point that related to my feelings about Shamanism in the northern area where I grew up—of my artist’s career. All those major themes of Shamanism—pantheism, mysteries, agnosticism and indeterminacy—still mean a lot to me. Today I still believe that we are agnostic about art, and what artists express are no doubt some kinds of thoughts—but such thoughts are indeterminate.

Q: Most Western audiences nowadays as well as Chinese students of my generation would probably not respond to your “Great Criticism” series as you expected since they did not have the same experience that people of your generation had during the Cultural Revolution, either as participants or foreign spectators. What kind of role would you like your work to play at AMAM, a Western academic art museum? What kind of impact would you like it to have on students of my generation?

A: Essentially, China is a somewhat utopian country. In its long history, the shifts in state power influenced people profoundly. Nowadays such influences are gradually fading away from the memories of younger generations, but something remains the same—something that has never changed except that the way it happens may be different now. Since the early years during which I was born, I’ve had strong feelings that the state was trying to brainwash people with its utopian ideas through propaganda imagery. Meanwhile, when I finally grew up and became an artist, I found that in some Western, developed countries, the state power was used to stimulate people’s ardor for commodity fetishism. As an artist having these two mechanisms superposed, I stood in the intermediate realm, presenting the result to audiences of different ages from different places. As for the role I would like my work to play at a Western academic art museum, I wish that it could guide audiences to learn about issues I’ve been interested in, issues that essentially transcend the concept of nation and time.

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, The Last Supper, 2011, Oil on canvas, 1600cm × 400cm. (Fig. 5)

Q: Images of Western political or religious leaders, as well as Christian icons, started to emerge in your works after 2010. What are your major ideas behind these recent works? Earlier you said that you are more interested in expressing collective notions rather than personal feelings in your works, and that your works are usually created by “the public’s hands”. What are the collective notions that you would like to convey in these recent works?

A: Those works are from the New Religion series. About this series, earlier I said, “The presence or absence of various rituals, icons, relics and commandments, etc., are not something we are able to control. We can only obtain a sense of history’s existence through the figurative reproduction of memories. We looked at everything, but from the backside. We observed the existing human civilization, but with a veil covering on it. Since our childhood, we’ve been exposed to all kinds of things by accident. Those things are like negative films that will re-emerge once they are activated, again, by accident, at some point. Today everyone’s life is affected by such “negative films” carrying a certain density of time and memories which would influence the way we see the world.” What I mean by “collective notion” is that my works rarely involve issues that only I, an individual, have been faced with; instead, they concern issues that most of us have been faced with.

Q: Could you tell us about what you are working on currently (or where you are among different stages of the art making process)?

A: Currently, I’m preparing for a show that will take place in Wuhan this November (2016), and the other one in Prague next year (2017). Both of them will present my works from different time periods as well as those made most recently.

Regarding my recent thoughts on art making, I’m trying to find the source of all my artistic practice. Last year (2015), I made a new installation The Origin of the Gods through which I connected other works of mine, including those made in the early period. This work could be related back to my childhood experience in the northern area. When northern kids are sick, they would probably be sent to a shaman instead of a doctor. I thought this was nothing more than superstition when I was young, but as I grew up, I found that behind such a phenomenon there is a particular significance of those original religions, which interested me a lot.

Such habits came from the legacy of Northern Shamanism which originated from Northern China, Northern Russia and some European areas, but mainly Northern China. To some extent, what we are faced with are so-called “religious” matters—Buddhism and Christianity undoubtedly came from foreign areas; only Shamanism is indigenous. Curious about it, I wanted to find its root, the most basic thing about our spiritual life.

What that is in my works, in which I tried to find that “root”, is exactly an attitude of Pantheism—an emphasis on accidental encounters rather than assigning everything their unique values. As I’ve mentioned before, if someone was tripped up by a rock when walking at night and the next morning he found that the rock had actually saved his life by keeping him from falling down the cliff, this rock would be his savior—from a Pantheist’s perspective. This sounds very interesting to me. Pantheism regards everything around you, such as rocks, ropes, crows and other things we could encounter in our daily life, as potential saviors; accompanying inadvertent circumstances, it determines whether this particular thing would show such a value and meaning. If we look at Western civilization from a Pantheist’s perspective, we would find that this rock, in absolute terms, is the same as what Nietzsche has said in Ecce Homo.

Interview transcription in Chinese:

王广义专访

向子濛 Zimeng Xiang

从您“北方艺术群体”时期的作品到“大批判”系列是一个非常大的转变，在这个过程中您对艺术的看法发生了怎样的转变？是怎样的契机促使了您的艺术观念发生如此大的转变？

在这之前我的东西应该说和我的生活经验都是没关系的，是我想象出的一个问题。“后古典”是我对古典文化的修正，“北方极地”是我想象出的一个北方文化，实际上和我的经验和我的生活，和我整个的教育背景都没有关系，实际上我真正成熟是从画毛泽东这件事开始的，我接下去就更明确了，和我经验相关，和我艺术整个教育背景相关，大概是这种产物。《大批判》的产生，除了这个之外，也具有偶然性，那个年代，大量的西方商品刚刚进入中国，像可口可乐、万宝路烟，而文革期间大量非专业的人画的一些很幼稚的报头来表达他们的态度，从绘画语言上非常拙，形也不准，但确实有一种力量，我也想找到怎么来使用它，我先是把其中一个工农兵的《大批判》报头打格放大成一米乘一米，画到画布上原样临摹下来，放到墙角儿，好几天也不知道怎么处理。很偶然，在那个喝可乐挺奢侈的年代，我偶然喝了一罐可乐，把可乐罐放到地上，突然觉得很有意思。

从大批判开始，我的注意力从图式转到了图像。图式有太多艺术史和个性化成分。我想努力地摆脱它，我想把艺术从艺术家的手中解放出来，让它更具有力量。力量来自人民，来自领袖。我创作了毛泽东和大批判。在后古典那里，我借古代大师说话，讲了一个艺术史的神话。在毛泽东那里，我借照相术和印刷机说话，讲了一个领袖的神话。在大批判那里，我借人民说话，我讲了一个人民的神话。

“大批判”系列中夸张的粗线条人物形象让我们不禁联想到文革时期的宣传海报，例如（AMAM收藏中的）“彻底批判林彪孔老二”。而这些宣传海报本身又令人回忆起20年代至40年代的新木刻运动。在“大批判”系列作品中，您是否有暗示这两者中的其一，或是广义上的文革图像？

和前者（宣传海报）是有关系的，或者说我的《大批判》作品的原始图像，就来源于前者这些“人民”创造的图像，我将这些工农兵的形象与今天我们生活中的那些引进的、渗透到大众生活中去的商品广告图像相结合，将这两种来源于不同时代的图像因素并置。

六、七十年代时随处可见的带有宣传性质的图像曾带给当时的您怎样一种感受？九十年代至今的消费主义文化对您的生活又产生了怎样的冲击？为什么会想到把这两者联系在一起呢？

文革只有短短的十年的时间。十年中，中国人颠覆了政治，颠覆��历史和艺术。中国人生活在玄学政治中，破坏就是创造，天下大乱达到天下大治。人们常说文革是一种造神运动，依我看来，文革更像是一种达达运动。造神和达达的统一，就是毛泽东的政治玄学。在这种玄学的影响下，中国人以一种空前的魄力，相信负面的东西更具有积极性，他们发明了大批判，建立了一套特殊的图像系统。随着文革的结束，随着毛泽东乌托邦的破灭，拜物教在信仰空缺的中国盛行。在图像上，中国人迅速地接受了另一套系统，一套关于消费的标识和数字系统。社会的一切都在剧烈地转换，我的认知系统却未能适应。残留的记忆和新兴的图像发生了冲突。我试图在我的艺术中却寻找这种冲突背后的意义。

整个“大批判”系列中既包含版画作品，也包含油画作品，使用这两类不同的媒介所创作的作品背后的意义有什么不同吗？

意义是一样的，只是这两种媒介的传播方式不一样。

请问Chanel这幅作品上一串串的数字是怎样弄上去的？您在创作这幅作品时还使用了其他什么特别的方法/技巧吗？

上面的数字是我用印章印上去的，同时我还使用了改变了的传统罩染方式。

“大批判”系列之后，您的许多其他作品似乎也借用了大跃进或文革时期版画中的人物形象，例如02年左右的雕塑作品“唯物主义者”系列，以及04年的作品“人民战争方法论”系列。为什么会对使用不可复制的媒介（油画/雕塑）来再现原本由可复制媒介（版画）所产生的图像这种创作方式产生兴趣？

我对已有的印刷品进行再加工、创作，是一个转换的关系。艺术家通过转换，把原来那个东西的意义放大了，甚至也可能是扭曲了。我的《大批判》倾向于平面化，逐渐去掉了中间调子，不论是素描关系还是色彩关系，越来越倾向简单。这虽然与那些大批判的原始风格有关，那些东西有木刻的感觉，但我在后来的画面上一直有意追求这种效果。文革中的不少画面还是有一种立体感和空间感，基本上是苏联艺术的风格样式，还是出于专业艺术家之手，即便是一些大批判的报头画，也是他们画的，但当他们在向人民述说的时候，他们在形式上就做了简化了的处理，我把这种简化称之为“彻底的概念化”。有趣是，恰恰是这种概念化的图像，有一种特别的力量。

您因为“大批判”系列而被许多评论家及艺术史学者公认为中国政治波普艺术的创始人，请问您怎么看待这样一种身份（或说是一种标签）？这种标签是否对您之后整体的艺术创作产生了影响？您是否认为这从某种意义上来说束缚了观众对您的作品的解读？

当然，我的“大批判”毫无疑问应当属于波普艺术的范畴，只是我的波普艺术可能包含了政治和意识形态的一些问题。波普的定义是一种流行的通俗艺术，但是对中国这样一个国家而言，最流行的应当是政治。

影响肯定是有的，有正面的也有负面的。但有些事情是不能以个人意志来决定的，我的作品和我所说的话一经离开我，就成为一个波普产物了，也许，正因为这样才使得当代艺术逼近了每一个人的生活。其实就当代艺术来讲，它似乎应当是一种公众共时性经验的一种重组的实现，它涉及到所有人，它是一场大型的“游戏”，它迫使公众参加进去。从表面上看，公众似乎弄不清楚这个游戏的真面目，这有点像公众在晚间观看电视新闻节目一样。有一点是清楚的，那就是当代艺术总是在提醒公众注意一个最基本的问题：新闻和游戏引导我们走向真实的生活。

您曾经在一次采访中说过，“艺术的核心是精神性的东西”，那么您认为当下的中国当代艺术的“精神”，与85新潮时期的“精神”相比，最大的不同是什么？如果请您用一个词来形容中国当代艺术的“精神”，那将会是什么？

我只能从自己经历的85去真实的谈论这段历史，任何一件事情成为历史其实是非常偶然的，就像我们当时参与到其中，不知道这会成为历史，如今三十年过去了，我知道这是历史了。在这个过程中，回到参与历史具体的个人精神思想的历程可能更具有价值、更真实。以我个人而言，我仍然觉得80年代是一个美好的年代，我的青春年华是在那个年代度过的，我的无数梦想、无数对艺术的想象是在那个年代建立的。 85为我的艺术道路提供了一个起点，那个起点和我小时候生活在北方对萨满教的感觉有关，萨满教的泛神论、神秘感、不可知、不确定这些词语对于今天的我来说依然有巨大影响，我今天仍然认为艺术是不可知的，艺术家所表达的毫无疑问是一种思想，但是这个思想是不确定的。

大多数西方观众以及正在海外留学的这一代中国学生由于并没有您那一代人年轻时的经历（不论是作为参与者还是西方旁观者），对您作品中的政治元素都无法产生感同身受的体验，很可能会对您的作品产生一些您预料之外的回应。您希望自己的作品在AMAM这样的西方学术性美术馆中扮演一个什么样的角色？您希望您的作品对我们这一代的学生产生什么样的影响？

本质上讲，中国是一个乌托邦国家，在它漫长的历史进程中，国家权力的变化对人构成了很深的影响。虽然在今天，这些影响也在慢慢改变、淡出了更为年轻的一代的记忆。但有些东西是恒定的，其实从未改变，只是方式不一样了而已。从我出生的年代开始，我深深感受到国家权力将“乌托邦”的想法通过宣传画的方式对人进行“洗脑”。当我漫长的成长为一个成年人，成为一个艺术家之后，我发现，在西方一些发达国家的国家权力在利用商品的商标设计去刺激人的“拜物”的热情。我作为艺术家，我把两种东西重合在一起，我站在中间地带，把它呈现给不同地域不同时代的观众。要说我希望我的作品在西方学术性美术馆扮演什么样的角色，那我希望通过我的艺术所呈现的问题，能够引导观众去了解我所感兴趣的问题，��些问题在本质上又应该超越于国家和时间的概念。

2010年之后，您的画面中开始出现许多现实中的西方政治、宗教领导人以及基督教圣像，可以谈谈这些作品背后的想法吗？早些时候您曾说过“我不太适合表达自己的很私密的感受，这不是我的强项，我更适合表达公共的概念……我的艺术常常是借人民之手来完成的”那么在这些作品中，您想传达的是怎样的公共概念呢？

你说的这些作品，是《新宗教》的系列，关于这些作品，我曾经说过：“各种仪式、偶像、遗物、戒律等是否在场，是我们所不能掌控的。我们只能靠‘记忆的表象复制’来获取一种历史的存在感。我们看到的所有东西，都是在背后。我们观看人类已有的文明，都是隔了一层的。从小时候开始，我们接触到的一切东西都是偶然的。这些东西像“底片”一样在我们心中存在，在某一时刻它们又被“偶然性”激活，就会浮现出来。我们今天人的生活，都受到“底片”的影响。而“底片”所承载的时间和记忆的厚度，又会影响我们观看世界的方式。”我所说的公共，是我的创作极少指涉我作为一个个体所面对的问题，而更关心更为普遍的“我们”所面对的问题。

愿意透露一下近期在准备什么样的作品，或是正处于一个什么样的创作阶段吗？

目前我正在准备我今年（2016）11月份在武汉的美术馆的展览，还有就是明年（2017）在布拉格的美术馆的展览，这些两个展览都将呈现我各个阶段包括最新的创作。

另外，我近期在创作上的思考，就是我试图要找到我所有的创作的一个根源。去年（2015），我创作了新的装置作品《众神的起源》，通过它将我其他的作品，包括早期的作品串起来。这件作品和我童年小时候生活在北方的经历有关。北方小孩生病了，不一定找医生，可能用一种巫术的方式弄好，小的时候知道这是迷信行为，不知道这里很复杂的含义。随着年龄的增长，我发觉这里面有一种比较朴素的原始宗教的意味，这个是我特别有兴趣的。

事实上这些行为来源于北方萨满教，萨满教主要的发源地是中国的北部和俄罗斯的北部，以及欧洲的某些地方，但是以中国北部为主。所以从某种意义上讲，我们所面临的和遭遇的是所谓“宗教”这些事情，像佛教、基督教毫无疑问都是外来的，惟有萨满教是非常本土的东西。我觉得这个事挺有意思的，我想找到它的根源，找到属于我们精神生活中最基本的一个东西。

我做这个作品找到那个东西，就是一种泛神论的态度，对所有的事物不赋予唯一性的价值，而是去强调这种偶然的遭遇。就像原来我谈过一个人在夜晚的时候走路，被石头绊倒了，早上起来发现如果不被石头绊倒就会掉下悬崖摔死。对他而言，这个石块就是他的拯救者，这是经典的泛神论说法，我发现这是非常有意思。泛神论把你周边所有的物都赋予了一种拯救者的身份，像石块、绳索，包括乌鸦等等这些我们日常常见的物体，伴随着偶然发生的境遇，决定这个物体是否会凸显这个价值和含义。如果我们也以泛神论的立场来看待西方文明，我们会发现，这个石块和尼采所说的“瞧！那个人”在绝对意义上是一样的。

Image Sources:

Fig. 1. Wáng Guǎngyì, Chanel, from the Great Criticism series, 1994, Oil on canvas, 149.2 x 119.7 cm. Oberlin Friends of Art Fund, 2001.20. Allen Memorial Art Museum, http://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/id/11046 (accessed February 7, 2017).

Fig. 2. Wang Guangyi, Post-Classical: Gospel of Matthew. 1986, Oil on canvas, 100 cm x 100 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/Details/29792 (accessed February 6, 2017).

Fig. 3. Wang Guangyi, Waving Mao Zedong. 1989, Oil on canvas, 150 cm x 120 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/SpecialCollectionItem/12153 (accessed February 6, 2017).

Fig. 4. Wang Guangyi, Great Criticism: Coca-Cola. 1990-93, Oil on canvas, 200 cm x 200 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/Details/29830 (accessed February 6, 2017).

Fig. 5. Wang Guangyi, Materialists. 2001-2002, Sculpture (Fiberglass and Millet), Approximately 180 cm x 120 cm x 60 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/Details/29864 (accessed February 6, 2017).

#WangGuangyi artistinterview AMAM Oberlin

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mirthful-sonnet · 8 years

Note

Could you please tell me about Margaret Beaufort, what was she really like in real life? I only know about her from The White Queen and The White Princess and i know that Phillipa Gregory books are not known for their historical accuracy. She always seemed like an interesting figure in history but she is awful in those books.

Hello there anon! Margaret Beaufort is a fascinating figure and the representation by Phillipa Gregory bears very little resemblance to who she actually was, or at least, it fails to single out the little details that made her such a formidable woman. I did not read The Red Queen (glimpsed it), only the Kingmaker’s Daughter and The White Princess and in this latter book her portrayal was just terrible. Gregory tends to play on scandals, rumors and negative propaganda to boost her fiction, (Cecily Neville having an affair with an archer, Elizabeth Woodville being a witch, Elizabeth of York having an affair with her uncle, Anne Boleyn sleeping with her brother etc. etc.). The subjects for this are always women since they are the focus of Gregory’s fiction, and Margaret Beaufort doesn’t come off easy. Seriously she was quite terrifying.

The Cousin Wars series follows the line of the later negative propaganda against Margaret Beaufort (Francis Bacon comes to mind) by putting her as a fanatical and overly scheming woman whose motive is nothing but power. The root of these claims are true to a degree, Margaret was deeply devoted to her Catholic faith but then again this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for the time and it definitely didn’t go to the extent Gregory presents in the books where she even receives “visions” and believes herself to be some kind of advocate for God. Margaret, as many others did especially during this time, found solace in her faith from an early age and I believe that with Margaret it was one of the few comforts she had. As for the ambition side, once again, I’m not going to claim Margaret was helpless or that she had no ambitions of her own, but then again the way Gregory presents it is in a way that derives from antagonism and no motivation other than that of her own self-gain and self- preservation, when I think her main driving force was her son Henry.

As you may know Margaret Beaufort was first married when she was just a baby and then again when she was a young girl, which was customary back then but her second husband (her senior by some years) decided to consummate the marriage earlier than expected, something that has been debated and agreed to an extent that it was basically rape, even if this was something that Margaret most likely saw as her duty. She quickly got pregnant, her husband died, and she finally gave birth to Henry when she was 13 years old and it was such an agonizing experience for her that both she and her son almost died at one point and her body was left incapable of bearing any more children. I have no idea how this part is portrayed in The Red Queen, I’ve seen comments however that the scene of the birth is rather upsetting which bears truth to what actually happened, just imagine yourself in her shoes? Her youth is something that is completely obliterated from TWQ show at least, because instead of a child she is portrayed by a mature woman bordering on her 30’s so her initial struggle is brushed over with Margaret briefly confronting her mother about it.

Margaret’s new state as a widow at just thirteen made her circumstances difficult and as was the custom she had to give up her son Henry to the guardianship of his uncle Jasper, whom Gregory portrays as some love interest to Margaret but there’s no evidence to suggest that. It’s evident that such a separation must have been expected but painful for Margaret as a new mother. It is also said that around this period she clung to her faith as never before and she referred to Henry as her only consolation in life.

From this point onward her life found itself on a roller coaster of changes and moves to survive by marrying into York to secure her position and that of her son (whose lands were stripped away) until the turn that happened in 1471 where Jasper and young Henry fled into exile and the separation from her son was imminent and they would not see each other for another 14 years. Her third husband Henry Stafford also died during this time throwing Margaret into an uncertain point again and these new set of circumstances consisted on securing herself a position where she could gain Edward IV’s trust and ensure her son’s return. The opportunity for Henry’s return to England arose at one point on the intervention of his mother but Henry escaped his escort by pretending to be sick, probably believing that Edward had other intentions with him for which I can’t speak because even if I think Henry’s flimsy claim to the throne was laughable and not a catalyst for any attempted murder I don’t live inside Edward’s or anyone’s head. But it’s not off to assume that this result of her efforts to bring her son back must have been quite upsetting for Margaret.

Gregory puts Margaret Beaufort as the culprit behind the prince’s deaths, which I personally don’t agree with for several reasons even if I wouldn’t discount her as a suspect if somebody presented a good argument which I’ve seen on some cases, but on this case what I see most of the time is the usual sexist patron of always blaming a woman for another’s doing or my personal favorite, “she had all the motives to kill them, not Richard!”. I love Margaret Beaufort and also Richard III but I don’t discount them as suspects simply because I like them, it’s just dishonest and puts them as something close to fictional characters instead of real people. The only thing that bothers me is what I mentioned before, most of the time instead of seeing arguments all I see is people making bizarre comments about her and saying how her sole and only reason in life since the very beginning was to take the crown (I even saw a comment saying how God told her that her son would get the crown, a fun cause to play ‘Spot the Gregory reader!” when scrolling through comments), and this is exactly what’s shown on Gregory’s portrayal of Margaret. Gregory only presents this as yet another device among many others to demonize her and nothing else.

In The White Princess she’s the mother in law from hell and it’s here where I was particularly disgusted with her representation. Her relationship with Elizabeth of York was just plain abusive and terrible in this book when in reality there is nothing suggesting they hated each other or even an allusion to abuse. I do think that at some points Elizabeth must have found Margaret overbearing, after all Margaret took precedence over Elizabeth which was probably insulting to her and there were reports by two ambassadors on how Elizabeth was powerless and seemed sad, though they shouldn’t be taken as blanket statements as people often do with comments of this nature but they shouldn’t be disregarded either. However on other occasions Margaret and Elizabeth got along well and they even teamed up together on matters of patronage and specially the issue of her granddaughter’s marriage to James IV. This is where my main disgust over this book comes through because as I told you, Margaret was basically raped when she was a child and this clearly affected her as when her son Henry was arranging the marriage of his very young daughter to James IV Margaret stepped forward along with Elizabeth in the case of delaying the marriage arrangements until her granddaughter was old enough, which indicates that Margaret probably feared that James wouldn’t wait until her granddaughter was old enough to consummate the marriage, just like her husband did with her when she was barely thirteen. So Margaret was a rape victim, was clearly affected by it and didn’t want the same to happen to her granddaughter, so why in the world does Gregory portray Margaret so horribly that she’s the one who orchestrates Henry’s rape of Lizzie in this book? Because it makes total sense to have a rape victim plot the rape of another person! Genius! Even when Gregory clearly makes the allusion that the early consummation of Margaret and her second husband was horrible (while at the same time barely dwelling on it) she still latches onto the plot line of Margaret putting the rape idea on Henry’s head. By this sole detail I can already tell you what I think of this book and what I think of Gregory as an author.

The real Margaret Beaufort was an enigmatic and complex woman with her flaws and her strengths as any other human being. I mentioned her early struggles because they’re an essential part of who she is, she was thrust into extreme circumstances out of her control starting by her traumatizing childbirth and instead of completely relying on others or backing down she made moves on her own and relied on her own judgement. The way she handled her circumstances from such an early age is mind blowing and it’s one of the many reasons I admire this woman. While she is certainly criticized for the ambitious moves she made it doesn’t make her any different to any of her contemporaries and without a doubt it doesn’t bear any resemblance to the fanatical child murdering nut-job that Gregory presents in her book. In reality she was praised for her virtue, her piety and her intellect, one example by her good friend bishop Fisher praises her in a similar fashion: “She chose me as her director, to hear her confessions and guide her life, yet I gladly confess that I learnt more from her great virtue than I ever taught her". And a particular description I liked by her biographer Charles Henry Cooper describes her very eloquently: ‘She presents the brightest example of the strong devotional feeling and active charity of the age in which she lived, and she is entitled to the warmest gratitude of posterity for her generous patronage of the learned and her munificent provision for the advancement of science and literature.’ There’s a constant habit of disregarding historical figures actual achievements and virtues in favor of whatever rumors, mischief and propaganda is laid against them and it’s quite tiring. Margaret was a patroness of the arts, a staunch advocate for education, headstrong in the face of adversity, charitable with the poor and most of all she was a devoted mother and she should be celebrated for these things.

I am sorry for this ridiculous long rant. Thanks for the ask anon. ^_^

#margaret beaufort #asks #badass ladies

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wikitopx · 5 years

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On the Drac and Isère Rivers, Grenoble is a high-tech city of science ringed by mountains in France’s Northern Alps.

To the north is the powerful Bastille at the start of Chartreuse mountain range, and threatening the city from the west are the monumental rocks of the Vercors Massif. If you want the great outdoors you’ve got them in Grenoble, with a catalog of walks leading you to the region’s lakes, forests and mountain pastures. In winter ski resorts are less than an hour away. Back in the city, there are countless amazing free museums inviting you to explore the rich history of Grenoble, dating back to Roman times. Discover the best things to do in Grenoble.

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1. Musée de Grenoble

There is no question that this splendid modern building is the place to start your journey to Grenoble. It is one of France’s premier art museums, with 57 rooms and a collection that totals 1,500 pieces.

It’s no exaggeration that you can get a good summary of the history of European culture, from the 1200s to the present day right here in these galleries. There are paintings in French, Spanish, Dutch, Flemish and Italian masters from the 17th century.

But the museum really became it's own in parts of the 20th century, where all the major movements from Fauvism to Pop Art were shown. Chagall, Picasso, Magritte, Paul Klee, George Grosz, Joan Miró are just a few of the names you may know.

2. Cable Car

Directly on the left bank of the River Isère is a cable car station that will take you 263 meters up to the Bastille, the name of both the fortress and the rocky hill that dominates the city from the north.

The cable car has been operating since 1935 and underwent a style update in the 70s when its current space-age bubble was introduced. Each bubble can fit six people, and if you’re not a big fan of enclosed spaces don’t worry, because they whisk you up the hill in a maximum of four minutes.

It’s only €8 for an adult round trip and the views as you glide up from the river are sensational.

3. Bastille

The cable car is a way up, but many people choose the path and stairs starting from the cliffs in Jardin des Dauphins. When you climb, you can go around the abandoned walls and stairs of the old fortress.

Once you make it to the top you’ll be in a system of soaring walls built in the 19th century by General Haxo on the site of two earlier fortresses dating back to the 1500s. Grenoble stretches like a map below, and it's really satisfying to follow the vast Cours Jean Jaurès as it stretches, inevitably into the distance.

The threat will never come from Grenoble, but the Chartreuse mountain range to the north and that's where the fortress is facing.

4. Archaeological Museum

The best archaeology museums are those that put you right on top of a dig, and Grenoble’s is one, with galleries overlooking the structure of a Gallo-Roman church built in the 6th century.

These remnants are partly beneath a later Romanesque church that is still on the site (with its floor removed), while the portion outside this newer church is protected from the elements by a glass and steel canopy.

The main event is the mausoleum that dates to the year 521, and what’s fascinating is the way the many artifacts discovered in digs (coins, pottery, stone epitaphs, glassware, everyday items) have been placed back where they were found to add context for visitors.

5. Dauphinois Museum

Not far from the Archeological Museum, on the right bank of Isère, is a small attraction that shows the history and culture of the Dauphiné region. The site is also interesting, on the slopes of the Bastille in the 17th-century monastery of Visitation de Sainte-Marie-d’en-Haut.

Churches, gardens and baroque interiors, exemplified by lovely ceilings in chapels, all capture the imagination.

In the exhibition areas, there is a room on skiing history in the French Alps, as well as representatives of 18th-century mountain houses decorated with furniture from the period. there.

There is a large space for temporary exhibitions, updated regularly, so you can get another pleasant surprise when you visit.

6. Musée de l’Ancien Évêché

In the former Grenoble Episcopal Palace, this free museum handles the history of the surrounding Isère Department.

Like many of Grenoble's attractions, the building is a large component, as the basement contains the remains of the Gall Gallo-Roman city wall and the remains of an early Christian baptism. spear.

Both are crossed by raised walkways, and there are drawings to show you how they would have looked in their day.

Up from these vestiges, each new floor represents a step through history, so on the first floor have galleries about the Stone Age, through the Bronze Age and into the Gallo-Roman era, all embellished with artifacts.

The Second Floor then deals with the middle ages, the early modern age, and the Enlightenment.

7. Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation

Massif Vercors bordering on Grenoble was a hotspot of resistance during the war.

Not far from the city, in Méaudre, was where various resistance networks had their important meetings in January 1944. With the help of propaganda posters, leaflets, fake IDs and protective maps This museum excelled in giving detailed accounts of local characters involved in sabotage and ambush under the Vichy government.

In addition, there is an overview of life in the area during the occupation, including the practice and deportation of Jews, minorities and other political opponents.

8. Winter Sport

In 1968 Grenoble hosted the Winter Olympics and drove in comfort from a range of ski resorts. You’re close enough to base yourself in the city and make day trips up to the slopes.

One of the best is 7 Laux, 45 kilometers northeast of the city, with 120 kilometers of slopes. The resort has just been revamped so if you’re a snowboarder or freestyle skier you’ll want to show off on the updated HO5 snow park, which has a boarder-cross ice racing track.

About the same distance west of Grenoble is Autrans in the Vercors Massif. Autrans is all about cross country skiing, with more than 160 kilometers of trails for Nordic-style adventure. And if you’ve ever wanted to try dog-sledding this one is for you.

9. Alpine Lakes

In the summer, ski resorts can help you access more beautiful natural wonders without snow.

At almost 2,000 meters, the glacial Lac Achard freezes and has a layer of snow in the winter, but in summer the glorious cirque surrounding it is reflected in its tree-edged waters. You can walk on GR-549, and it walks quite simply but beautifully from Chamrousse.

On the same trail, you can also walk to Les Lacs Robert, in a rugged, rugged setting of peaks and needle-like grasslands. If this walk is too taxing you can also let the ski lift take the strain, dropping you right by the southeast shore.

10. Vercors Massif

Grenoble can be your HQ for a hiking holiday you’ll remember fondly, setting off each day for the Vercors Massif which looks a little threatening on the skyline to the west of the city.

The terrain is a sequence of high plateaux interrupted by epic rocky barriers, and just as this creates prime cross-country skiing country in winter, it’s a dreamland for hikers in the warmer seasons.

The trails meander through easy-to-walk landscapes covered with oak and pine forests, while natural wonders abound, in the form of a 300-meter cliff and Coffin Cave near Choranche.

More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Arles

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newstfionline · 7 years

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This Is What A 21st-Century Police State Really Looks Like

Megha Rajagopalan, BuzzFeed News, October 17, 2017

KASHGAR, China--This is a city where growing a beard can get you reported to the police. So can inviting too many people to your wedding, or naming your child Muhammad or Medina.

Driving or taking a bus to a neighboring town, you’d hit checkpoints where armed police officers might search your phone for banned apps like Facebook or Twitter, and scroll through your text messages to see if you had used any religious language.

You would be particularly worried about making phone calls to friends and family abroad. Hours later, you might find police officers knocking at your door and asking questions that make you suspect they were listening in the whole time.

For millions of people in China’s remote far west, this dystopian future is already here. China, which has already deployed the world’s most sophisticated internet censorship system, is building a surveillance state in Xinjiang, a four-hour flight from Beijing, that uses both the newest technology and human policing to keep tabs on every aspect of citizens’ daily lives. The region is home to a Muslim ethnic minority called the Uighurs, who China has blamed for forming separatist groups and fueling terrorism. Since this spring, thousands of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities have disappeared into so-called political education centers, apparently for offenses from using Western social media apps to studying abroad in Muslim countries, according to relatives of those detained.

Over the past two months, I interviewed more than two dozen Uighurs, including recent exiles and those who are still in Xinjiang, about what it’s like to live there. The majority declined to be named because they were afraid that police would detain or arrest their families if their names appeared in the press.

Taken along with government and corporate records, their accounts paint a picture of a regime that at once recalls the paranoia of the Mao era and is also thoroughly modern, marrying heavy-handed human policing of any behavior outside the norm with high-tech tools like iris recognition and apps that eavesdrop on cell phones.

China’s government says the security measures are necessary in Xinjiang because of the threat of extremist violence by Uighur militants--the region has seen periodic bouts of unrest, from riots in 2009 that left almost 200 dead to a series of deadly knife and bomb attacks in 2013 and 2014. The government also says it’s made life for Uighurs better, pointing to the money it’s poured into economic development in the region, as well as programs making it easier for Uighurs to attend university and obtain government jobs. Public security and propaganda authorities in Xinjiang did not respond to requests for comment. China’s Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of surveillance measures put in place by the local government.

“I want to stress that people in Xinjiang enjoy a happy and peaceful working and living situation,” said Lu Kang, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, when asked why the surveillance measures are needed. “We have never heard about these measures taken by local authorities.”

But analysts and rights groups say the heavy-handed restrictions punish all of the region’s 9 million Uighurs--who make up a bit under half of the region’s total population--for the actions of a handful of people. The curbs themselves fuel resentment and breed extremism, they say.

The ubiquity of government surveillance in Xinjiang affects the most prosaic aspects of daily life, those interviewed for this story said. D., a stylish young Uighur woman in Turkey, said that even keeping in touch with her grandmother, who lives in a small Xinjiang village, had become impossible.

Whenever D. called her grandmother, police would barge in hours later, demanding the elderly woman phone D. back while they were in the room.

“For god’s sake, I’m not going to talk to my 85-year-old grandmother about how to destroy China!” D. said, exasperated, sitting across the table from me in a café around the corner from her office.

After she got engaged, D. invited her extended family, who live in Xinjiang, to her wedding. Because it is now nearly impossible for Uighurs to obtain passports, D. ended up postponing the ceremony for months in hopes the situation would improve.

Finally, in May, she and her mother had a video call with her family on WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging platform. When D. asked how they were, they said everything was fine. Then one of her relatives, afraid of police eavesdropping, held up a handwritten sign that said, “We could not get the passports.”

D. felt her heart sink, but she just nodded and kept talking. As soon as the call ended, she said, she burst into tears.

“Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t support suicide bombers or anyone who attacks innocent people,” she said. “But in that moment, I told my mother I could understand them. I was so pissed off that I could understand how those people could feel that way.”

China’s government has invested billions of renminbi into top-of-the-line surveillance technology for Xinjiang, from facial recognition cameras at petrol stations to surveillance drones that patrol the border.

China is not alone in this--governments from the United States to Britain have poured funds into security technology and know-how to combat threats from terrorists. But in China, where Communist Party–controlled courts convict 99.9% of the accused and arbitrary detention is a common practice, digital and physical spying on Xinjiang’s populace has resulted in disastrous consequences for Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. Many have been jailed after they advocated for more rights or extolled Uighur culture and history, including the prominent scholar Ilham Tohti.

China has gradually increased restrictions in Xinjiang for the past decade in response to unrest and violent attacks, but the surveillance has been drastically stepped up since the appointment of a new party boss to the region in August 2016. Chen Quanguo, the party secretary, brought “grid-style social management” to Xinjiang, placing police and paramilitary troops every few hundred feet and establishing thousands of “convenience police stations.” The use of political education centers--where thousands have been detained this year without charge--also radically increased after his tenure began. Spending on domestic security in Xinjiang rose 45% in the first half of this year, compared to the same period a year earlier, according to an analysis of Chinese budget figures by researcher Adrian Zenz of the European School of Culture and Theology in Germany. A portion of that money has been poured into dispatching tens of thousands of police officers to patrol the streets.

In an August speech, Meng Jianzhu, China’s top domestic security official, called for the use of a DNA database and “big data” in keeping Xinjiang secure.

It’s a corner of the country that has become a window into the possible dystopian future of surveillance technology, wielded by states like China that have both the capital and the political will to monitor--and repress--minority groups. The situation in Xinjiang could be a harbinger for draconian surveillance measures rolled out in the rest of the country, analysts say.

“It’s an open prison,” said Omer Kanat, director of the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, an advocacy group that conducts research on life for Uighurs in Xinjiang. “The Cultural Revolution has returned [to the region], and the government doesn’t try to hide anything. It’s all in the open.”

Once an oasis town on the ancient Silk Road, Kashgar is the cultural heart of the Uighur community. On a sleepy tree-lined street in the northern part of the city, among noodle shops and bakeries, stands an imposing compound surrounded by high concrete walls topped with loops of barbed wire. The walls are papered with colorful posters bearing slogans like “cherish ethnic unity as you cherish your own eyes” and “love the party, love the country.”

The compound is called the Kashgar Professional Skills Education and Training Center, according to a sign posted outside its gates. When I took a cell phone photo of the sign in September, a police officer ran out of the small station by the gate and demanded I delete it.

“What kind of things do they teach in there?” I asked.

“I’m not clear on that. Just delete your photo,” he replied.

Before this year, the compound was a school. But according to three people with friends and relatives held there, it is now a political education center--one of hundreds of new facilities where Uighurs are held, frequently for months at a time, to study the Chinese language, Chinese laws on Islam and political activity, and all the ways the Chinese government is good to its people.

“People disappear inside that place,” said the owner of a business in the area. “So many people--many of my friends.”

He hadn’t heard from them since, he said, and even their families cannot reach them. Since this spring, thousands of Uighurs and other minorities have been detained in compounds like this one. Though the centers aren’t new, their purpose has been significantly expanded in Xinjiang over the last few months.

Through the gaps in the gates, I could see a yard decorated with a white statue in the Soviet-era socialist realist style, a red banner bearing a slogan, and another small police station. The beige building inside had shades over each of its windows.

Chinese state media has acknowledged the existence of the centers, and often boasts of the benefits they confer on the Uighur populace. In an interview with the state-owned Xinjiang Daily, a 34-year-old Uighur farmer, described as an “impressive student,” says he never realized until receiving political education that his behavior and style of dress could be manifestations of “religious extremism.”

Detention for political education of this kind is not considered a form of criminal punishment in China, so no formal charges or sentences are given to people sent there, or to their families. So it’s hard to say exactly what transgressions prompt authorities to send people to the centers. Anecdotal reports suggest that having a relative who has been convicted of a crime, having the wrong content on your cell phone, and appearing too religious could all be causes.

It’s clear, though, that having traveled abroad to a Muslim country, or having a relative who has traveled abroad, puts people at risk of detention. And the ubiquity of digital surveillance makes it nearly impossible to contact relatives abroad, according to the Uighurs I interviewed.

One recent exile reported that his wife, who remained in Xinjiang with their young daughter, asked for a divorce so that police would stop questioning her about his activities.

“It’s too dangerous to call home,” said another Uighur exile in the Turkish capital, Ankara. “I used to call my classmates and relatives. But then the police visited them, and the next time, they said, ‘Please don’t call anymore.’”

R., a Uighur student just out of undergrad, discovered he had a knack for Russian language in college. He was dying to study abroad. Because of the new rules imposed last year that made it nearly impossible for Uighurs to obtain passports, the family scraped together about 10,000 RMB ($1500) to bribe an official and get one, R. said.

R. made it to a city in Turkey, where he started learning Turkish and immersed himself in the culture, which has many similarities to Uighur customs and traditions. But he missed his family and the cotton farm they run in southern Xinjiang. Still, he tried to avoid calling home too much so he wouldn’t cause them trouble.

“In the countryside, if you get even one call from abroad, they will know. It’s obvious,” said R., who agreed to meet me in the back of a trusted restaurant only after all the other patrons had gone home for the night. He was so nervous as he spoke that he couldn’t touch the lamb-stuffed pastries on his plate.

In March, R. told me, he found out that his mother had disappeared into a political education center. His father was running the farm alone, and no one in the family could reach her. R. felt desperate.

Two months later, he finally heard from his mother. In a clipped phone call, she told him how grateful she was to the Chinese Communist Party, and how good she felt about the government.

“I know she didn’t want to say it. She would never talk like that,” R. said. “It felt like a police officer was standing next to her.”

Since that call, his parents’ phones have been turned off. He hasn’t heard from them since May.

Security has become a big business opportunity for hundreds of companies, mostly Chinese, seeking to profit from the demand for surveillance equipment in Xinjiang.

Researchers have found that China is pouring money into its budget for surveillance. Zenz, who has closely watched Xinjiang’s government spending on security personnel and systems, said its investment in information technology transfer, computer services, and software will quintuple this year from 2013. The growth in the security industry there reflects the state-backed surveillance boom, he said.

He noted that a budget line item for creating a “shared information platform” appeared for the first time this year. The government has also hired tens of thousands more security personnel.

Armed police, paramilitary forces, and volunteer brigades stand on every street in Kashgar, stopping pedestrians at random to check their identifications, and sometimes their cell phones, for banned apps like WhatsApp as well as VPNs and messages with religious or political content.

Other equipment, like high-resolution cameras and facial recognition technology, is ubiquitous. In some parts of the region, Uighurs have been made to download an app to their phones that monitors their messages. Called Jingwang, or “web cleansing,” the app works to monitor “illegal religious” content and “harmful information,” according to news reports.

The internet is painfully slow in the region. Maya Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, has also documented the use of a DNA database targeting Uighurs as well as political dissidents and migrants, along with the use of voice pattern recognition.

When I walked into a checkpoint a few miles east of Kashgar, a police officer stood near the entrance to check commuters’ cell phones for banned apps and messages (as a foreigner I was sent to a separate line and not asked for my phone). Their faces were then scanned by a facial recognition camera and matched with their identification cards. Glossy white machines for full-body scans stood on the other side of the room.

Petrol stations have a similar setup. At a station I visited in Kashgar in September, visitors were stepping out of their cars to have their faces scanned and matched with identity cards before filling up. As a foreigner, I was only asked for my passport.

“Because Xinjiang is not stable, we have been able to sell a lot to the government authorities there,” said the owner of a small Beijing-based company that manufactures surveillance drones and other security equipment for Chinese law enforcement agencies. Xinjiang, he said, uses the drones near its western borders.

The government relies on contracting with companies like Beijing Wanlihong Technology Company, which produces an iris-recognition system that it says is more accurate than facial and fingerprint scanning techniques. Wanlihong is involved in a pilot project in Kashgar that includes providing equipment and training.

“The goal of the system is to build a powerful and extensive identity verification system to identify key suspects and initiate an emergency response mechanism in a timely way,” the company says on its website.

The data could be collected and used to monitor the physical movements of suspicious people on roads, it adds, or combined with their SMS and browsing data obtained from cellular carriers.

Urumqi-based Leon Technology--a company that integrates artificial intelligence into its security services and then provides those services to telecommunications companies and government agencies in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China--saw its earnings grow by 260% in the first quarter of 2017.

James Leibold, an associate professor at La Trobe University in Australia who is conducting research on security contractors in Xinjiang, said the broader security industry, including both physical policing and surveillance, is now the biggest employer of people in the region.

“Marketers in Shanghai are calling it the golden era of investment in security in Xinjiang,” he said.

Leibold noted that despite the high-tech equipment, it’s still unclear how effective the government is at actually analyzing the large volumes of video and audio recordings. But it’s clear the state is now pouring resources into doing just that--marrying information gleaned from phone tapping, security cameras, and other sources in an effort to create detailed profiles of people.

“In some ways it’s like a high-tech version of the Cultural Revolution, like the social intrusion aspect and the regulations on religious behavior,” Zenz said, referring to the Mao-era movement that’s remembered in part for pitting neighbors against each other in a violent campaign to punish those seen as enemies of the party. “But the comparison breaks down because it’s systematic and deliberate, and low-key--the Cultural Revolution caused a big mess.”

“This is entirely top-down control,” he added.

State-owned companies are using Xinjiang as a testing ground for big data, Zenz said, and Xinjiang has historically been used to test out surveillance technology that is later rolled out in other parts of the country. Many companies have set up R&D labs in the region for this purpose with government backing.

“It’s a kind of frontline laboratory for surveillance,” Zenz said. “Because it’s a bit outside of the public eye, there can be more experimentation there.”

Surveillance in Xinjiang may be particularly harsh, but it’s clear the government is expanding the use of the technology in the rest of the country, too. Outside Xinjiang, facial recognition is already being used increasingly by Chinese law enforcement to catch criminals, according to media reports. At a beer festival in the seaside city of Qingdao in August, 49 people found themselves arrested when cameras matched their faces with a national police database that showed they were suspected of crimes like theft and drug use.

“Those wanted criminals let their guard down when they went to the festival, which doesn’t check for ID,” a local police official told online news outlet Sixth Tone. “But they were not aware that a simple shot of their faces would lead to their arrest.”

In another big data foray, the government is also working on a “social credit system,” which would put together lots of variables, including patriotism and moral behavior, to assign numerical scores to its citizens.

But beyond digital surveillance, many said the government has simply flooded the region with personnel dedicated to tracking residents’ every move.

T., a writer, lived in an apartment complex in the regional capital of Urumqi with his wife and daughters until the middle of this summer. (He and his family are now in the US. He asked me not to disclose which city because he was afraid of being identified by the government.) For years, an official representing the neighborhood’s Communist Party committee would visit his home every week and ask a set of questions that soon became mundane: Who had come to visit? Was anyone pregnant? Had anyone changed jobs? She would then report the information to the local police department, he said.

Then in April, the questions changed. The official began to ask whether the family was Muslim, and how they practiced. T. had never been very religious. But he says he respected Islam because it’s a big part of Uighur culture. The family kept a small collection of religious texts on their bookshelves, as well as four prayer rugs. But the questions made him nervous. He told the official he was not a believer.

A month later, the disappearances started. Friends would vanish in the middle of the night, spirited away by police to political education centers. His neighbors began to disappear, he said, one after the other. T. was terrified.

Every evening he placed an overcoat and a pair of thick winter trousers near the door so he could pull them on quickly if the police came for him--the weather was warm but he was afraid he could be held into the winter months. He gave away the prayer rugs, and in the relative safety of the apartment, he burned every religious book.

“My wife was so upset, she told me, ‘You can’t do that,’” he said. “I told her, what choice do I have? If someone saw them in a public trash bin, it could bring us so much trouble.”

The first people in T.’s apartment building to disappear, he said, were those who had traveled abroad and returned, particularly to Muslim countries, from Malaysia to Egypt. Then, in June, he says the police began to conduct random checks of pedestrians’ mobile phones at street corners, bus stops, and petrol stations, sometimes downloading their contents to handheld devices.

The police would dispense warnings to anyone whose phone carried banned apps like WhatsApp and Facebook. Sometimes, he said, police would come to some people’s homes and businesses to check their computers for banned software and content.

“If they find anything in there, it’ll be trouble for you,” he said. “It was a new kind of police--the internet police.”

Checkpoints have made Abduweli Ayup nervous ever since he was released from prison. The ordeal had been devastating for the bookish 43-year-old, who was jailed in 2013 after he worked to set up kindergartens and other schools teaching children in the Uighur language. (He was formally charged with illegal fundraising.)

After 15 months in prison, Abduweli returned home to his wife and two young daughters, and he was hoping things could go back to normal. But one July day in 2015, trouble found him again as he was commuting to work at a checkpoint he must have been through a thousand times.

The officers who usually waved him through had been replaced by Special Weapons and Tactics police. When they saw his ID papers, they noticed his prison history.

That’s when they demanded his laptop.

“I said, ‘They know me here. I come here every day,’” Abduweli said. In response, one of the officers slapped him across the face, he said. When the police opened his laptop, they found essays he had written, years before, during an academic fellowship in Kansas. In his writing, he expressed his views on taboo subjects from Uighur culture to dictatorships as a system of government.

Abduweli was detained immediately, strip searched, and interrogated for hours about his writing by a group of six officers, he said.

One of the officers told him if he was caught with essays like that on his laptop again, he would be sent back to prison.

“That’s when I decided the law here does not exist,” Abduweli said, recounting the story in September at a friend’s apartment in Ankara, where he fled later that year. “I realized if they took my computer again, it would be dangerous. So I knew I had to leave.”

These days, Abduweli is trying to finish a children’s book explaining Uighur language and culture to elementary school kids. The pages are illustrated with clip art of generic cartoon children, culled from a Google image search. What the book really needs is a Uighur illustrator who understands the culture, Abduweli said, but because of his status as a former political prisoner, all the really good artists are too afraid to be publicly associated with him.

In December, the Chinese government abruptly canceled Abduweli’s passport, rendering him stateless. He’s applying for refugee status through the UN in Ankara.

Sometimes, he thinks back to his college years in Beijing in the early 1990s, which he remembers as his first real taste of freedom. Abduweli remembers vividly a Chinese-language book he picked up from a street vendor. He loved it so much he biked across the city to a foreign-language bookshop to find the original English version, which he scoured page by page. He felt sure there were parts that the Chinese censors had removed.

The book was George Orwell’s 1984, and it reminded him, he said, of home.

#China #Xinjiang #Kashgar #Uighurs #surveillance in China

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cubaverdad · 7 years

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Cuba: More Castroism but Without the Castros

Cuba: More Castroism but Without the Castros / Iván García Iván García, 17 May 2017 — In front of an old mansion on 17th Street in Vedado that now serves as the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists, there is a poster showing hundreds of men dressed in battle fatigues and lined up in military formation. A resounding verdict in two rows of black letters reads, "Cuba Post-Castro." The political propaganda machine is operating at full steam. On the exterior walls of schools, factories, public buildings and produce markets it is common to see "Fidel Castro's Concept of Revolution" and the oft-repeated slogan "I am Fidel." Nine months and three weeks before Raúl Castro will presumably cede power, no one has any idea what protocols to follow for effecting a transfer to a new leader. As part of her official duties Mariela Castro Espín, the dictator's daughter, has granted a couple of interviews to the international press, reiterating that her father intends to resign from office. She claims not to know who will succeed him and said he has no intention of being further involved in politics. Authoritarian governments control the flow of news so, to understand them, you have to read between the lines. A reader must be an empirical cryptographer, always on the lookout for a key piece data or a clue. Although the tedious national press corps writes in Spanish, its soporific articles are so saturated with official jargon and stale rhetoric from the Cold War era that reading them is like deciphering a Chinese riddle. In spite of being surrounded by a dense smoke screen of secrets and mysteries, it is still possible to surmise that — given the extent of his travels throughout the island and the extensive press coverage they have received — Miguel Díaz-Canel, one of the country's two vice-presidents, is the man Raúl Castro has chosen to control the fate of a Cuba facing a new, untested version of Castroism, one without a Castro at the helm. Tall and grey-haired, Díaz-Canel, has the look of a fading movie star. Women like him for his resemblance to Richard Gere. Those who know him say that he can be relaxed and witty. When he was the first secretary of the communist party in Villa Clara during the Special Period, he could be seen cycling through the streets of the city. Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez was born on April 20, 1960, at his family's farm in the village of Falcón, outside Placetas, in Villa Clara province. Aida, his mother, was a school teacher, and his father Miguel was a mechanical plant worker in Santa Clara. In 2012, the newspaper La Nueva España reported with pride that Díaz-Canel was the great-grandson of Ramón Díaz-Canel, a Spaniard from Asturias who emigrated to Cuba in the mid-nineteenth century. For many of his student years he was on scholarship, first at Campo Primero de Mayo high school and later at Campo Jesus Menéndez college preparatory school, both in Santa Clara. In 1982 he graduated with a degree in electronic engineering from Central University of Las Villas. He began his professional career as an officer in an air defense unit in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, a post he retained until April 1985. After leaving the military, he became a professor at his alma mater in Las Villas. After serving in an internationalist mission to Nicaragua in 1989, he worked as a "professional staffer" in the Union of Young Communists. In 1994 he was elected first party secretary in Villa Clara. Nine years later he was named party leader in Holguín, a more challenging province than Villa Clara. According to local residents, his work in Holguín cannot be described as significant. That did not prevent Raúl Castro from promoting him to membership in the party politburo. At the time, Raúl stated: "He has a strong collective work ethic and high expectations of the subordinates. He leads by example through his desire to better himself every day and has demonstrated a solid ideological commitment." Raúl Castro is something of mentor to Diaz-Canel. In May 2009 he summoned him to Havana and appointed him Minister of Higher Education. In March 2012, he quit that post and replaced José Ramón Fernández as vice-president of the Council of Ministers in charge of education, science, culture and sport. On February 24, 2013, he was elected first vice-president of both the Council of State and the Council of Ministers, replacing José Ramón Machado Ventura, a party stalwart who gave up his position "in order to promote the new generation." Perhaps because he comes from a small village – the population of Falcón is only six thousand — those who know him describe him as educated and unassuming, someone who knows how to listen, though some believe he does not have enough charisma to be president of the republic. But at least in photos and videos he looks different from that coterie of rancid officials who never smile at public appearances. Unlike former high-level officials of roughly the same age such as Carlos Lage, Roberto Robaina and Felipe Pérez Roque, Díaz-Canal always stayed out of the media spotlight, preferring more intricate and discreet pathways. "He is not one of the newly rich or a makeshift candidate," said Raul Castro in 2013. He has two children from his previous marriage. His current wife is Lis Cuesta, a college professor whom he met while living in Holguín. A cultural affairs source in Santa Clara recalls, "He was the one who gave permission to El Mejunje nightclub to present shows featuring homosexuals and transvestites and to sponsor rock concerts He also allowed the provincial radio station to broadcast programming that was quite critical of state institutions." In spite of such cultural support, he is a sports fan, one who is especially fond of basketball. Díaz-Canel does not appear to be an eloquent statesman or a great orator. His speaking style is flat, as though he were exhausted. He does not engage in soaring rhetoric but neither is he given to anti-imperialist diatribes. As one official journalist noted, "he does not just regurgitate the party line like Machado Ventura.*" The journalist describes a event sponsored by the Union of Journalists at which Díaz-Canel was present. His statements gave some attendees cause for hope because "he did not repeat the usual litany about the need to improve the press. But after the applause died down, things went back to normal. The impression I have is that he is content to remain in crouching position, awaiting his turn. He is a cross between Cantinflas and Forrest Gump." As an official at the municipal headquarters of the communist party observes, "three or four candidates will be chosen at the plenary session of the National Assembly in December. Of those, one will be elected president." According to this official, expectations are that the new president will govern the nation for the next five years. "It seems like a bad joke," notes a party member familiar with internal party dynamics. "Everyone knows the list of candidates is dictated from above and the ones who are chosen belong to Cuba's only political party." Some dissidents and exiles believe that at the last minute Raul Castro will find a pretext, either a matter of national security or the crisis in Venezuela, to remain in office for another five years. Tomás Regalado, the mayor of Miami, told the Spanish newspaper El País that he had bet money with a friend that Castro II would remain in power. A retired historian thinks otherwise: "That is not a conclusion the general shares. Raul is at the end of his rope. He is tired of power. And quite simply, if you want to undo the Gordian knot that is the embargo, you cannot have anyone with the name Castro in a governing role. I believe that Raúl will remain behind the scenes, calling the shots. On June 3 he will be eighty-six-years old and anyone that age could kick the bucket at any time." Among Afro-Cubans, the passing of the presidential baton does not arouse much interest. "The game plan will be the same. The communist party is the only game in town. I don't think there will be any major changes. In terms of the economy, perhaps they will do away with the double currency and maybe there will be more cooperatives in the state service sector. But the script will not change much," says the employee of a Havana nightclub. One political science graduate is optimistic and hopes the presidential handover provides some surprises. "It's a different generation so, of course, they are going to think differently. Don't forget what happened under Gorbachev in the former USSR. Or under Balaguer, Trujillo's vice-president, in the Dominican Republic. Both began the path towards democracy. Just as in Cuba today, people didn't necessarily say what they meant. The gap is less than one imagines and a reformer could emerge." Arousing Cubans' interest in national politics will require creativity. After almost sixty years of stasis, people move by force of inertia. Most Cubans respond to the government's summons like automatons. And although they do not express their true feelings publicly, in private they confess to pessimism and frustration. They do not believe that a new litter of leaders is capable of building an efficient and prosperous political, economic and social system. A large segment of the population is tired of everything and everyone. They have no faith in Castro, Díaz-Canel or anyone else who might happen to come along. Changing the current state of public opinion will require daring strategies as well as new and convincing promises. Yet all the government is offering is more Castroism. But without the Castros. *José Ramón Machado Ventura, First Vice-President and Second Secretary of the Culban Communist Party. Source: Cuba: More Castroism but Without the Castros / Iván García – Translating Cuba - http://ift.tt/2smTG9f via Blogger http://ift.tt/2rthPLd

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