Third Front as Method: Mao, Market and the Present in CCTV Documentaries
Kendall, P. 2024. Third Front as Method: Mao, Market and the Present in CCTV Documentaries. The China Quarterly.
Kendall, P. 2024. Third Front as Method: Mao, Market and the Present in CCTV Documentaries. The China Quarterly.
| Title | Third Front as Method: Mao, Market and the Present in CCTV Documentaries |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Kendall, P. |
| Abstract | This article examines two major recent CCTV documentaries on the Third Front and its afterlives. The two documentaries, The Big Third Front (2017 ) and Vicissitudes of the Third Front (2016) produce strong narratives about the Third Front during the Mao era, as a heroic struggle against nature forced upon China by foreign enemies. However, both encounter difficulties in adhering to the usual presentation of the Deng era as a resoundingly successful transformation. Vicissitudes ambivalently characterises the Deng era as one of relative decline in contrast to the glorious early years of the Third Front and the flourishing present. The Big Third Front, meanwhile, conflates historical footage of the 1950s-1990s in a way that undermines the usual official division of PRC history into Mao and Reform eras. This paper concludes by suggesting that academic focus on the Third Front can serve as a methodological tool for complicating the periodisation of PRC history. |
| Keywords | Third Front |
| documentary | |
| China studies | |
| footage | |
| simulation | |
| periodisation | |
| Journal | The China Quarterly |
| Year | 2024 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | Nov 2024 |