University of Heidelberg

Film with Barbara Mittler on Chinese Propaganda

Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler and her research work on Chinese propaganda art in the 20th century are introduced in this film portrait. Prof. Dr. Mittler is Speaker of the Cluster’s Research Area B "Public Spheres".

In the film, Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler traces some of the somewhat paradoxical flows from West to East to West and beyond of musical, textual and artistic elements that make up the peculiar forms that Chinese propaganda art takes. In particular, she focuses on the processes of appropriation of foreign techniques and motives in Chinese propaganda art and on their travels to China and back. Thereby, she addresses the question of why the items of propaganda especially of Mao’s time are now so popular in China, and why the figure of Mao himself, has become mythical in spite of all the bad things that could also be associated with his reign. Transcultural flows are one answer to this question, she argues.

Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler is Speaker of Research Area B "Public Spheres" at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" and Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Heidelberg University. She has published widely on Chinese avant-garde music and on the early Chinese press. Her innovative books have each become standard works in the field of Chinese music and Chinese press, respectively.

The film portrait was produced by Christoph Bertolo and Frank Pfeiffer. It is part of a series by the Chair of Visual and Media Anthropology under supervision of Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius. The idea is to present selected Cluster researchers and their projects. Among others, the ethnomusicologist Franck Bernède, the media practitioner Deepali Gaur Singh and the archaeologist Philipp W. Stockhammer have already been portrayed.  

Read more about Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler and her research (pdf).
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