Chinese Red Propaganda Poster

I have already written in one of my blog posts about the beautiful and meaningful Soviet Propaganda Posters. A few days ago a friend of mine offered me a book about the Chinese Propaganda poster, printed by Taschen Publishers. The book was a real revelation. Besides being totally Red – Red being the dominant color on just about every poster – it presented impressive images of Chinese communist propaganda. There are representations of  young smiling people working in the factories, thriving industry and agriculture, the easy-going life of women and children and dominating above it all – the portraits of Mao Tse-Dong, the leader of the nation.

Certainly for many Chinese, at the time when these posters were created, the images might not have seemed as gorgeous. Because of the Cultural Revolution and the policies of Mao, millions were sent to the forced labor camps, were accused of treason and executed or died of starvation. In this sense, the Chinese poster is very similar to the Soviet one. The posters in the book made me think about all these similarities between the historical evolution of both countries. Just as with the Soviet posters, the Chinese ones remind us today of many events of the past and their consequences. They have also become rare items of art and objects of collection.

However, coming from Russia and beeing accustomed to a rather ‘masculin’ Soviet poster, I found that the Chinese posters have a pretty  and ‘feminin’ touch of the Chinese culture, whether it be clothes, lotus flowers or captivating drawings of fish.

Here are some of the most fascinating examples of the Chinese posters from the book!

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