Propaganda Poster Art Center

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Last week CL and I were thinking about going to the Propaganda Poster Art Center on 868 Huashan Lu. It was a little out of the way, so we skipped it, but I ventured out there today.

This place is very unique. It's a bit hard to find - amongst a bunch of apartment buildings. Anyway, it's the fourth building in the basement. As you walk through the gate the guard points you in the right direction.

The exhibit is very small, but the collector and owner of the posters is there to collect your Y20 entry ticket. The collector (Mr. Yang) has purchased thousands of these posters. He says a lot of them cost over Y10,000.

Most of the posters are from the Cultural Revo ution. These posters were the only type of "art" allowed. Additionally, the "art" had to have a political meaning to it (i.e. praising Mao or denouncing foreigners). What's so interesting is that all the drawings of the people/masses look happy. All smiles and wide eyed. Clearly was not the case at the time - but all the pictures portray people living out a happy time in their lives. How convenient.

I took some time to talk to Mr. Yang. He is passionate about his collection and wants to spread his exhibit to colleges around China, as well as display them in NY and LA. However, he said that the schools don't perceive it as "art". Interesting. This is the only "modern art" in China during this entire decade. Here's the site: http://www.shanghaipropagandaart.com/new_page_1.htm


If you visit, ask Mr. Yang to show you his special exhibit of Dazibao (translation: Big Character Paper). He has collected wall-fulls of brown craft paper with markered handwriting on it. These big papers were used during the Cult ral Revolution for people to write about their feelings, rants, complaints (except about Mao or the govt) and then posted all over the city walls of China to express themselves. Think big public journal. Wow. You have to see it for yourself. It's quite powerful and very, very sad. I can't imagine a life that your liberties and form of expression are reduced to writing on butcher paper and posting it on walls. What's interesting is that these papers are very much in tact. Mr. Yang said that it was against the law to tear them or rip them off the walls. However, some people wrote on top of each others'. Very interesting. I couldn't take a picture of it - google it.

I wanted to ask Mr. Yang more about living through those years, but didn't pry too much since he already seemed sad talking about it. He said he was in college during time. I can't believe this was just 30 years ago. Just 30 years ago a billion people were so repressed! When I think about that, I realize this place has come a really, really long way.

Anyway, I'm sorry we didn't end up going last week. However, check out the website and it'll save you a trip here.

Note: I've been lucky that travelblog.org has not been censored by the Great Firewall of China. Other blog sites such as My Space, Blo gspot, Blo gger, somes Wikipedia etc. are not accessible in China. Not sure how it works, but I'm there are key phrases/words that are triggered or monitored and picked up. Anyhoo.... that's why you see weird spaces in my blog. Don't want to draw attention.

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Comments

[christina]

oh! so interesting! i'm glad you ended up going and spent time talking with mr. yang!