Chinese Propaganda Posters: From Revolution to Modernization [Hardcover]

Stefan Landsberger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

Mao's starring role in Chinese propaganda art

With his smooth, warm, red face which radiated light in all directions, Chairman Mao Zedong was a fixture in Chinese propaganda posters produced between the birth of the People's Republic in 1949 and the early 1980s.

These infamous posters were, in turn, central fixtures in Chinese homes, railway stations, schools, journals, magazines, and just about anywhere else where people were likely to see them. Chairman Mao, portrayed as a stoic superhero (a.k.a. the Great Teacher, the Great Leader, the Great Helmsman, the Supreme Commander), appeared in all kinds of situations (inspecting factories, smoking a cigarette with peasant workers, standing by the Yangzi River in a bathrobe, presiding over the bow of a ship, or floating over a sea of red flags), flanked by strong, healthy, ageless men and "masculinized" women and children wearing baggy, sexless, drab clothing.

The goal of each poster was to show the Chinese people what sort of behavior was considered morally correct and how great the future of Communist China would be if everyone followed the same path toward utopia by uniting together. Combining fact and fiction in a way typical of propaganda art, these posters exuded positive vibes and seemed to suggest that Mao was an omnipresent force that would accompany China to happiness and greatness.

This book brings together a selection of colorful propaganda artworks and cultural artifacts from photographer Michael Wolf's vast collection of Chinese propaganda posters, many of which are now extremely rare. Michael Wolf has lived in Hong Kong for eight years and works as a photographer for Stern. He collects posters and photographs from the period of the Cultural Revolution till today. (http://www.photomichaelwolf.com)

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The authors:
Stefan R. Landsberger holds a PhD in Sinology from Leiden University, Netherlands. He is a Lecturer at the Documentation and Research Centre for Modern China, Sinological Institute, Leiden University, and one of the editors of the journal China Information. Landsberger has one of the largest private collections of Chinese propaganda posters in the world. He has published extensively on topics related to Chinese propaganda, and maintains an extensive website exclusively devoted to this genre of political communications.

Anchee Min was born and raised in Mao's China. A staunch party supporter, she was awarded the lead role in a film to be made by Mao's wife, Jiang Ching, but the death of Mao soon after caused the film to be cancelled. In 1984, Min emigrated to the United States and later wrote the bestselling biography Becoming Madame Mao.

Poet and fiction writer Duo Duo was born in Beijing, China in 1951 and emigrated in 1989, later settling in the Netherlands, where he became a writer in residence at the Sinological Institute of Leiden University. He is considered one of the most outstanding poets to emerge after the Cultural Revolution.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: M.E. Sharpe (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563246880
• ISBN-13: 978-1563246883
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,187,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative Propaganda, September 4, 2000

By 

Ronald Reagan "Sovereign" (Simi Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chinese Propaganda Posters: From Revolution to Modernization (Hardcover)

A superb collection of good quality color and "black and white" plates that give an insiders peek of the efforts of Red China's propaganda machine. The books many illustrations are a feast for the eyes and mind on their own right, but also offer a historic perspective for the inclined. Here you'll find many examples of East meets West in illustrations that mix academic painting with traditional Chinese landscape painting, a very interesting combination.I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and recommend it highly to anyone interested in masterful visual art and or political sublimation.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, June 22, 2009

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chinese Propaganda Posters: From Revolution to Modernization (Hardcover)

This review concerns the original hardback edition in English, published by M.E. Sharpe.

Hardback: cloth over boards with sewn binding. In dustjacket. 240 pp, large format on heavy paper. About 200 illustrations, over half of them in color, and many of them full-page. 10 pp of Bibliographies.

Landsberger is true authority, having spent over 20 years gathering a prodigious poster collection while undertaking a lot of research. Thus he is an ideal guide. His editorial eye and the extensive text allows the reader to experience these as both political artifacts AND works of art. Because, after all, they're both.

And the images! Stunning, moving, banal, twisted, subtle, obvious, colorful. There's a lot more here than what I expected -- the rock-jawed, firm-muscled worker hero of the Soviet type is only one way the Chinese chose to communicate.

If I won the lottery, I'd start collecting this stuff.

TABLE OF CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS
Traditional and Modern Propagation of Behaviour in China
- Precursors of Visual Propaganda
- Communist Visual Propaganda
- Communist Propaganda Poster Until the Four Modernizations Era

The Four Modernizations Era

The Future Symbolized
- Analysis of General Subjects
- Analysis of Specific Target Groups
- Analysis of Symbolism and Imagery

Epilogue

Notes
Publication Data of Posters
Bibliography (Chinese language sources)
Bibliography (English language sources)
Index