culture?

The first, crazy, exhaustive week of exams are finally over, and I bet half of you out there expect cries of "yay!!" or sighs of relief, but Nooo I still have history to study for and all this China history is really getting into my system.

Well, everything but the exam facts are getting into my system >.<

So I was reading about the effects of the Cultural Revolution and Michael Lynch reported in his book that the greatest loss the CR brought about was the destruction of human nature. He quoted a fellow PRC Chinese poet, and he said that, as of that point of time, "we had no culture". One thing that irks me (and amuses me, in a tragic sort of way) is how we as history students can just read history out of a page, speed-read over the casualty numbers of 30 million, and then close the book and move on to something else without really experiencing the impact of it all. It's actually quite inhuman sometimes; especially when one has to give a balanced argument when trying to make sense of why Mao launched the CR, and hence offer some sort of justification for his actions. I don't get it. Don't those historians (or exam-paper setters) understand that some arguments just cannot be balanced? Reducing the tragedy into a concise section of another book on the shelf is an inevitable loss (in some sense), but justifying mass-murder based on intentions (esp. political intentions, which are usually kinda crappy) is simply not doing justice. Can you imagine the 30 million people turning in their graves as we summarise their plight into one of the factors in our two-page essays? Sounds freaky, doesn't it.

Haha still don't get it? I'm hinting at the eternal abolishment of history exams!!

Okay the second thing that led me wandering away from my alleged studying for exams was about culture. This is the picture in my head: politics <--> culture <--> human nature. I'm not sure what the arrows mean exactly (except that they're closely related), but here's the equation that got stuck in my head when I read about the destruction of Chinese culture to create a new one. The Marxist-Leninist view on culture is this: that culture i.e. arts, literature is the direct expression of the social and political state of the country at that time. I was going "hmmm" over this for quite a bit, because besides it being labelled Marxist, this view is partially true, depending on the country. Well, I think culture in Singapore is very much political - by this I'm referring to bah-chor mee stall culture (haha) and our petty complaints about the government. At this point, another image appears in my head: human nature --> politics --> sentiments evoked --> emergence of culture. Maybe that's how politics is part of culture. But I'm sure there's more to it than this. Maybe culture comes about in two ways: by the embracing of beauty and diversity on this planet (through many ways, like dance, writing, drama, music), and by expressing grief and societal ugliness (if i might add) in various ways as well. It's all about expressing human ideals and imperfections, through the channelling of energies and passions (positive or negative) into the creative sector.

Orh...so maybe that's why the Chinese poet described the CR as a time when they lost their culture. I bet they had much to express inside them, but there were no avenues of expression. Hmm loss of culture = no avenues of expression? Probably. Oh yeah, and in some ways, political structures do limit expression; but some art forms get away with it better than others. Take for instance, music and art. The message commonly perceived by the masses when they look or listen to art and music always consist of ambiguity, which is always good cos then you can't pin anything against the artist. Whereas literature and drama tend to get into trouble with the authorities - I'm not saying that there's no ambiguity in literature, but somehow, the message conveyed through it is more, how do u say, obvious. (U may not agree with me though: I see potential flaws in that statement already) But then again, taking into consideration the politicizing of culture in our age, I guess we can't make do without political bodies too. What a peculiar situation. Haha.

Oh well, so much for history, culture and exams. Now this is the link I see in my head:

studying --> I NEED A BREAK.