Jiang Qing

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Jiang Qing, 1976
Jiang Qing, around 1940

Jiang Qing ( Chinese  江青 , Pinyin Jiāng Qīng , W.-G. Chiang Ch'ing , born March 1914 in Zhucheng (诸城), Shandong Province ; †  May 14, 1991 in Beijing ) was the fourth and last wife of Mao Zedong and one driving force behind the Chinese Cultural Revolution . During her career as an actress she was known under the name Lan Ping (chin. 蓝 蓝), in the course of her life she took on various other names. She married Mao Zedong in 1939 and was often referred to as "Madame Mao" in Western literature because of her position as "First Lady" of China.

Life

Early years

Jiang Qing was born Li Shumeng ( 李淑 蒙 , Lǐ Shūméng ) in Zhucheng , Shandong Province . Her father, Li Dewen, who was already 60 years old, owned a small craft business according to one source, and an inn according to another. The name of the mother, who was 30 years old, is unknown. She was probably Li's concubine, a position that made her contemptible to contemporaries. The father was a drinker who often argued with the mother. The mother left her husband and took her daughter Shumeng with her, according to her autobiography. According to another source, when the daughter was five years old, he disowned both of them, forcing the mother to make ends meet as servants in households of the wealthy. When the daughter was six years old , the mother broke her foot bones, as was customary at the time, but then allowed her to stop wearing the bandages so that her feet developed normally.

Li Shumeng attended two elementary schools in Zhucheng intermittently. Her behavior did not always match what one expected of a girl. She was more of an outsider who, when challenged, would not avoid arguments. In the mid-1920s, her mother turned to her family of origin in Jinan for support for herself and her daughter. The parents were ready, so that Li Shumeng came into the care of the financially secure and socially recognized grandparents. It was from them that she received her new name, Li Yunhe ( 李云鹤 , Lǐ Yúnhè ). Her life was moving in a calmer path now. The grandfather made it possible for her to attend middle school. In 1926/27 her mother took her to Tianjin to live with a much older half-sister of the girl. Li Yunhe did not attend school during this time, but reluctantly helped with the half-sister's household. In 1928, Li Yunhe returned to live with her grandparents in Jinan. The mother probably remarried and from that point on no longer played a major role in the life of her 14-year-old daughter.

In 1928, the girl became a member of an unreliable suburban theater group for several months. But she returns home at the instigation of her grandfather, who had to buy her out. A little later, she applied to the newly founded Academy for Experimental Theater ( 山东 省立 实验 剧院 , Shāndōng shěnglì shíyàn jùyuàn ) and was accepted to her and the family's surprise. As one of only three girls in her class, she studied until the school closed at the end of 1930. In addition to teaching traditional forms of theater, the students were also given the opportunity to learn Western musical instruments and study new forms of acting such as modern spoken theater.

In 1931 she went to Qingdao, where she became a student and traveling actress. Li He also joined the "League of Left Dramatists" and the "League of Left Writers", and in 1932 she also joined the Anti-Imperialist League. In gaining such confidence, she worked towards the goal of communist party membership. She finally joined the Chinese Communist Party in Qingdao in 1933 .

Shanghai - acting and political ambitions

Jiang Qing moved to Shanghai that same year. There she performed as an actress with the Shanghai factory-study troupe, while at the same time teaching at an evening school for workers and trying to get in touch with the underground Communist Party in Shanghai. As a result of these efforts, he was arrested by the Guomindang . After her release, Jiang Qing resumed her acting career and appeared in political films for two years. Her stage name as a film actress was Lán Píng (蓝 苹 = blue apple). During these years she turned increasingly to politics and played in a theater association that performed "progressive" plays for the rural population. During her time as an actress, Jiang Qing had relationships or marriages with various men, including Tang Na , a leftist author and propagandist of proletarian literature. Allegedly when he found out about his wife's possible affair, he attempted suicide, which would later serve as one of the reasons for the party leadership to firmly reject the relationship between Jiang Qing and Mao.

Yan'an - the fourth wife of Mao Zedong

In 1937, the 23-year-old actress came to Yan'an to work at the Academy for Dramatic Art . After six months of basic military training, she studied at the Lu Xun Academy, where Mao occasionally spoke about philosophy and literature. In order to get rid of the names Li Yunhe and Lan Ping and the unhappy memories of Shanghai associated with them, she, like many others, took on a new name with her new communist life - Jiang Qing.

In 1939 she began her liaison with the leader of the Long March , Mao Zedong, who was nearly 20 years her senior . Since Jiang Qing already had several marriage-like connections behind him, was linked to a number of scandals in Shanghai, and also ousted Mao's previous wife He Zizhen , who was very popular, the party leadership was not pleased with Mao's election. It is believed that as a result, Jiang Qing was even obliged not to appear in public with Mao, not to get involved in the party or to seek political office himself. Perhaps that is why Jiang Qing worked primarily as Mao's secretary for the first eight years of their marriage.

First lady beginnings

Mao and Jiang Qing, 1946

In the early 1950s, Jiang Qing tried again and again to get involved politically, for example in 1950/51 in the land reform in eastern China and in the reform of marriage law in the Wuhan area. In 1954 she started an ideological discussion about the novel The Dream of the Red Chamber . However, these attempts were not crowned with great success: Jiang Qing was forced to keep her engagement a secret and at the end of 1951 had to resign from her post as head of the general bureau in the party's central committee. So she became Mao's secretary again and remained in that position throughout the 1950s. During this time, Jiang Qing suffered from various illnesses - it is assumed that these were mainly psychosomatic complaints - as a result of which she stayed several times for treatment in the Soviet Union. In Jiang Qing's own memories, the 1950s were marked by physical and political stress, with illness and recovery, retirement from political office and resumption of previous positions alternating.

Rise to power

It was not until the mid-1960s that Jiang Qing's efforts to gain political influence gradually became more successful. Culture remained her specialty in the political field. From 1964 Mao appeared with her on important occasions such as the national holiday, and in the same year she was elected to the National People's Congress. In 1966 it was finally Jiang Qing who was sent by Mao to Peking University in order to start a mass movement from there that would go down in history as the “ Cultural Revolution ”. Jiang Qing played a major role in the " Cultural Revolution Group ". She frequently spoke at mass gatherings during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, and even presided over the march in Beijing for the 25th anniversary of Mao's Yan'an speeches - an event that also marked the height of Jiang Qing's popularity. It successfully prevented the publication of traditional works in all areas of art. China's popular old opera in particular suffered from a performance ban in favor of new operas initiated by Jiang with communist content, the so-called eight “ model operas ”. In addition, it contributed to the destruction of large library collections from ancient China. During this time she used her growing power and had unpopular artists and former companions condemned to death by quick courts. Jiang Qing worked with Zhang Chunqiao , Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen , and the four were later to be attacked as a so-called " gang of four ". From then on she was - after Mao Zedong - one of the most powerful people in the People's Republic of China . In this role, she managed to turn the youthful Red Guards against party leaders such as Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi , who were unpopular with her .

In April 1969, Jiang Qing was elected to the Politburo . She was also instrumental in planning the national campaign against Lin Biao in 1970/71. In addition, until the mid-1970s she revised the revolutionary operas, ballets and musical compositions introduced in the 1960s, and had some of them made film versions. Jiang Qing's personal influence on art and culture was so great in this phase that there is even talk of a "Jiang Qing era" in relation to the historical development of Chinese art.

Decline and death

Jiang Qing lost its popularity during the Cultural Revolution and towards the end of Mao's reign became a welcome screen for all the atrocities of the Mao regime. Her aggressive, cold demeanor and a multitude of inhumane acts also made the Chinese public angry at her. She was stylized as the “bad woman” who used her position as Mao's wife to rise to the status of “empress”, who manipulated the increasingly sick and isolated Mao and could thus be held responsible for his mistakes.

In 1976, just a month after Mao's death, Jiang Qing was arrested with the other members of the so-called Gang of Four and sentenced in 1981 to a "conditional death penalty" with suspended sentence. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment two years later. Sick of throat cancer, she was released in 1991 for health reasons. She died ten days later, and according to official sources, she committed suicide by hanging.

Jiang Qing thus ended an extremely turbulent life that had been shaped primarily by her years of efforts to gain recognition and political influence. Often described as a woman with an extraordinary degree of intelligence, ambition and determination, but at the same time referred to as chronically insecure in private as well as in professional relationships, she always aroused extreme reactions from contemporaries, sparked enthusiastic praise or complete rejection.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1935: Dūshì fēngguāng (都市 風光, "big city scenes") by Yuan Muzhi
  • 1936: Láng shān dié xuè jì (狼山 喋血 记, "Bloodbath on Wolfsberg") by Fei Mu - soldier's wife
  • 1937: Liánhuá jiāoxiǎngqǔ (联华 交响曲, "Linhua Symphony")
  • 1937: Wánglǎowǔ (王老五, "The old bachelor Wang") - Wang's wife

literature

  • Ralph Croizier: Chinese Art in the Chiang Ch'ing Era . In: The Journal of Asian Studies 38, 1979, pp. 303-311
  • Lillian Craig Harris: Comrade Dowager Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 9, 1982, pp. 163-173
  • Chen-Ping Hsien: The Rise and Fall of Comrade Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 5, 1978, pp. 148-164
  • Fritz Meurer: The woman behind Mao , Bergisch Gladbach 1974
  • Ross Terrill: Madame Mao. The White-Boned Demon . Stanford, 1999, ISBN 0-8047-2922-0
  • Verity Wilson: Dressing for Leadership in China. Wives and Husbands in an Age of Revolutions (1911-1976) . In: Gender and History 14, 2002, pp. 608–628
  • Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life , Munich / Zurich 1977.

Fictional literature:

Web links

Commons : Jiang Qing  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Terrill, 1999, p. 15
  2. ↑ a b Terrill, 1999, p. 19
  3. ^ A b Jung Chang, Jon Halliday: Mao: The Unknown Story . Anchor Books, New York 2005, ISBN 0-679-74632-3 , p. 195
  4. ↑ Chang / Halliday report that she was described as a bully by former schoolmates and expelled from school in 1926 after she spat on a teacher (p. 195).
  5. ↑ Terrill, 1999, p. 22
  6. ↑ although it is unclear whether she did this voluntarily. Chang / Halliday write that they ran away from home (p. 195).
  7. ↑ Terrill: 1999, p. 25
  8. ↑ Terrill, 1999, p. 27
  9. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 519
  10. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 78
  11. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 519f
  12. ↑ Chen-Ping Hsien: The Rise and Fall of Comrade Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 5, 1978, pp. 148-164, here pp. 151f
  13. ↑ Chen-Ping Hsien: The Rise and Fall of Comrade Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 5, 1978, pp. 148-164, here pp. 152f
  14. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 169
  15. ↑ Chen-Ping Hsien: The Rise and Fall of Comrade Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 5, 1978, pp. 148-164, here p. 153; different with: Lillian Craig Harris: Comrade Dowager Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 9, 1982, pp. 163-173, here p. 165
  16. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 521
  17. ↑ Lillian Craig Harris: Comrade Dowager Chiang Ch'ing. In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 9, 1982, pp. 163-173, here p. 167
  18. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 241
  19. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 522
  20. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 523
  21. ^ Roxane Witke: Comrade Chiang Tsching. Mao's companion tells her life . Munich / Zurich 1977, p. 524
  22. ↑ Ralph Croizier: Chinese Art in the Chiang Ch'ing Era . In: The Journal of Asian Studies 38, 1979, pp. 303-311, here p. 311
  23. ↑ Lillian Craig Harris: Comrade Dowager Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 9, 1982, pp. 163-173, here p. 169
  24. ↑ Lillian Craig Harris: Comrade Dowager Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 9, 1982, pp. 163-173, here p. 171
  25. ↑ Lillian Craig Harris: Comrade Dowager Chiang Ch'ing . In: Asian Affairs . An American Review 9, 1982, pp. 163-173, here pp. 163 f.
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Jiang is the family name here, Qing is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Jiang Qing
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 江青; Lǐ Shúméng (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Zhucheng
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1991
Place of death Beijing