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Published: January 30th 2013
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CHINA: PROPAGANDA & ART.
My 5th visit to China...and I'm pretty excited...18 December 2012...touch down in Shanghai...met at the Airport by friends of my Xiondi (Chinese younger brother)...yep pretty excited.
Was invited to join the Caravan of Artists for Peace from Mauritania through Mali to Burkina Faso...but March not suit...so where to go in December/January?
Our daughter Anna-Louise studying at East China University of Politics & Law in Shanghai. Arranged to meet her and flying our son Simon to join us from Canada...going to Yellow Mountain for Christmas...family reunion.
I've contacted Aspiring Nomad for a meet up in Shanghai.
Sort of next door...then meeting up with Cockle & Quynh in Vietnam.
Travel Camel is also going to join us on his way to Dubai...for "Mischief on the Mekong"...never met any of these guys...but should be fun.
Gotta see if we can meet up with Rat on the Road as well.
Also next door to Vietnam...gotta fit Angkor Wat in Cambodia into the schedule...always wanted to go there...to complete the enlightenment circle having been at Borobudur in Java last Christmas.
So arriving in Shanghai, China to kick off what should be an amazing
month.
And amazing it was...yep amazing...sure was!
But where to start?
Anna-Lou was buzzing about places in the French Concession to visit.
Think I'll kick off my blogs of our latest trip with a bit of culture...blew me away...
so join me for a bit of Propaganda...and be converted!
Propaganda Chinese Propaganda Posters were a major tool of Mao Tse Tung in conveying his message of change and social upheaval throughout China from 1949 to his death in 1976.
Messages by pictures...powerful...evocative...unmistakable in their messages...swaying public opinion...still powerful today.
The greatest collection of Propaganda posters are collected in one place...sort of out of the way in an apartment type complex in Shanghai...definitely worth the visit...a collection of the pictorial history of 20th Century China.
Happy faces also emanating hardship, hatred, disdain, disgust, joy, community, pleasure, allure, beauty, ugliness, human spirit, strength, industriousness, optimism, anxiety and prejudice.
The Big Leap Forward and the Cold War posters of the late 1950s and early 1960s show Folk Art styles.
These change to dramatic reds of the Cultural Revolution and violent and military themes including woodcut styles which were termed "revolution style".
The collection reflects the following periods: 1949 to 1953 Celebrating the birth of the New China, anti the Japanese War, posters conveying happy and glorious times ahead.
1954 to 1956 Mainly concerned with promoting industrial and agricultural production, education and family life. There were strong anti USA themes.
1957 to 1962 Chinese intellectuals were branded as "Rightists" and branded as enemies of the people.
The Great Leap Forward was promoted and severe famine in the early 1960s led to massive loss of life.
1963 to1965 The Cold war between East and West was at its height.
Themes such as anti the Vietnam war and US imperialism, "Never forget the past bitterness and class struggle" dominated propaganda.
1966 to 1971 The Cultural Revolution was born in 1966 and the Cult of Mao was at its height.
Many posters showed Mao with other leaders, that were destroyed if they fell out of favour.
Themes included advocating World opposition to US imperialism, rejection of earlier embracing of the USSR, and relocation and re-education of students to rural areas.
1972 to 1976 There was a big push to encourage people to read Marxist books.
UNTITLED 1
Any help with the slogans of the untitled ones will be rewarded Australia opened the door to communication with the West when the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam visited China.
Then USA President Nixon visited in 1972 which resulted in anti USA posters ceasing.
Mao died in 1976 ending the Cultural Revolution.
Many posters then related to issues such as the elevation of Hua Guofeng, the arrest of the Gang of Four, and political issues.
1977 to 1979 Mao's successor Hua Guofeng continued with posters glorifying himself and his leftist policies, but advocating modernisation.
In 1979 Deng Xiaoping in adopting rightist policies, abolished "the Big Character posters' and "Propaganda posters".
Most were destroyed and/or sent for paper recycling...thus few remain today.
Posters have continued until the present day, but their impact was minor in comparison to the heady Mao days.
1930s Shanghai Ladies Posters The Propoganda Museum also displays a collection of posters from the flamboyant 1930s, a time of lavish and risque opulence.
The influence of the 1930s style are also reflected in some of the 1950s posters including cartoon styles.
For those who do not look at my photos past the first page...dream on and miss out in ignorent
bliss on these Shanghai Calendar Girls.
Herein some of the amazing collection of Chinese Propaganda Posters.
The collection at the
Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre includes about 5,000 works.
It is my privilege to provide a scintillating small taste of what Shanghai has on offer.
Relax & Enjoy,
Dancing Dave (the original & authentic 3 dots...now forged in elven steel...stronger & better than ever)
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Ahh haa......you have been rumbled....
Now I know where that weird firing stance you adopted at Cu Chi shooting range came from ;)