Propagandistic Art of Communist China
Uploaded by torrent478 on Dec 19, 2006
On October 1st 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party of China, declared the fall of Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary government, and announced the creation of the new People's Republic of China. However, the good chairman did not achieve this victory by military might alone; through the utilization of propagandistic artwork the communist party was able to win the support of the ailing masses. By examining the propaganda pieces used from the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War, through the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, and into modern times; along with analyzing the politics and events of the various time periods associated with their corresponding works of art; this paper will prove that communist propaganda has been, and is now, the disseminating force of national cultural identity in China.
First of all, it is important to clarify the meaning of the word propaganda in Chinese society. In the west, the idea of propaganda is almost always synonymous with a prevarication or falsehood; yet in China, the word propaganda literally means to broadcast or inform. (Evans, 64) Because of this difference in definition, westerners often mistake the Chinese use of the term propaganda as a self-admission of deception or otherwise oblique portrayal of content. For example, while the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China may sound like an insidious organization to most of the west; it is in actuality an establishment whose purpose is not only to educate the citizens of China about the news and history of the state, but to propagate vital knowledge such as how to handle livestock correctly to avoid contracting bird flu or SARS. (Hunter, p.94)
The use of propaganda by the Chinese proletarian class pre-dates the revolution and civil war. Production of simple political propaganda leaflets began as early as 1910 calling for the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. (Bartlett)(fig1) In figure one we see a group of nationalist and communist soldiers criticizing General Yuan Shikai, a top ranking official of the Qing military. After the overthrow of the last emperor, and the toppling of the Qing Empire as a whole, communist and nationalist forces were joined in a loose confederation to defeat the last warlords who were still loyal to imperial power. This period of time saw very little production of propagandist art.
1927 saw the split of the communist and nationalist alliance with...