Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ding Jiasheng was a professor in the Stage Design Department at Shanghai Theatre Academy. The background of this image is the town of Yan’an, identified by the pagoda on a rocky peak [also seen in EA2006.217 and EA2006.293], where on 2 May 1942 Mao Zedong declared that all art and literature should serve politics first and art second. The slogan reads 'Long live the triumph of Chairman Mao's revolutionary line of literature and art!’, and the ten figures in this image are characters from the ‘Eight Model Operas’. These revolutionary operas comprised six modern Beijing operas, and two ballets, and in addition one symphony. The definition and scope of the “eight revolutionary model operas”, was officially announced in the editorial of People’s Daily on 31 May 1967, with the opening sentence: ‘In order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Chairman Mao’s Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, eight revolutionary model operas are being played on the stages of our Capital City: Beijing operas Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, On the Docks, The Legend of the Red Lantern, Shajiabang, Sweeping the White Tiger Regiment, ballets Red Detachment of Women, The White Haired Girl, and symphony Shajiabang.’