government was most interested in promoting performances and artistic
expression that supported its ideological efforts and spent less effort in
suppressing any privately produced entertainment. There were two prac-
tical aspects in this: thefirst was the limited ability of entertainers to reach
most of rural China, and the second was the limited power of the govern-
ment itself. As its control over the country grew, however, the government
blocked performances of traditional entertainments. Publishing was
quickly controlled by restricting the resources, machinery, and distribution
system necessary for book, journal, or newspaper production. Movies
were similarly controlled, with private companies in both areas either
nationalized or closed down. Particularly with movies, many actors, direc-
tors, and companiesfled to Hong Kong or Taiwan, where they reestab-
lished themselves. The government also restricted or closed down the
venues for performances, shuttering tea-houses and restaurants, and reg-
ulating auditoriums.
These efforts culminated in the Cultural Revolution ( 1966 – 76 ), when
only certain prescribed plays were permitted. Art and literature were
reduced to almost nothing, and traditional martial arts stories were not
allowed. The few remaining old monks at Shaolin and other religious
institutions were dragged out, beaten, and paraded through the streets in
disgrace. Everything traditional or“old”was attacked, and anyone prac-
ticing anything declared“old”was marked as a counter-revolutionary and
punished. As in so many other aspects of Chinese culture, the Cultural
Revolution was the lowest point in Chinese history for the martial arts. If
the martial arts were in any way different, it was only as they were under-
stood to be a means of resisting government authority. Much of the
Cultural Revolution was carried out with direct physical violence at the
local level. In one village studied by Ralph Thaxton, Da Fo village, govern-
ment authorities were keenly aware of the local traditions of martial arts
and were gratified to see that the rigors of overwork and poverty effectively
suppressed those traditions. The authorities explicitly sought to keep the
villagers unable to rebel by preventing them from training or teaching the
martial arts.^12
The Olympic and modern sports agenda of the late Qing and
Republican period modernizers dominated what physical culture
remained. Chinese martial arts was not an Olympic sport and therefore
could not bring glory to the communist state. To a surprising extent,
Chinese physical culture was directed at being Western, with very little
effort and very few resources supporting distinctly Chinese culture. The
inherent nationalism of the modern Olympic movement, coupled with the
(^1949227)