Music culture of China in the middle of the XX century in the context of socio-cultural and ideological transformations

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to explore the main aspects of musical culture development in China in the mid-twentieth century in the context of political reforms. The methodology is based on the usage of culturological approach, which determines the generalized socio-cultural orientation of the work, as well as the principle of historicism as the main when considering Chinese musical culture in relation to political processes that took place during this period. The main research methods were: historical and cultural – to study the process of forming the cultural policy of the CCP; comparative – in determining the political influence in different periods of musical culture; content analysis – to reveal the ideological essence of CCP documents. The scientific novelty of the article is the analysis of political documents that determine the direction and mechanisms of implementation of the CCP's cultural policy and their impact on the development of Chinese musical culture in the mid-twentieth century. Conclusions. The process of the formation of the CCP's cultural policy and the main directions of musical art development in the middle of the twentieth century is determined by the call for the creation of a «mass new culture» combined with reliance on millennial national traditions. The “reformist” movement of the Jiang Qing Group, aimed to transform traditional Beijing opera and create model revolutionary works, significantly limited the creative freedom of artists and was the main cause of «artificial stagnation» in the musical culture of the 60-the 70s of the twentieth century. The suspension of cultural and ideological experiments and overcoming its negative consequences, together with effective economic reforms, paved the way for the formation of a new progressive direction in the development of musical art in the country.

Key words: China, musical culture, cultural policy, music-educational system, ideological influence.