Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #540815 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-01
• Original language: French, German, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

chinese communist posters
This unusual book illustrates some of the thousands of posters issued in China between 1949 and 1983. Initially they were used as educational tools to reach the large illiterate population but later were used as an adjunct to the 33 principals as given in Chairman Maos little red book.the posters cover all aspects of life in China including social, political,recreational,educational,military and industrial with the main purpose of creating a better life Te posters cover the great leaps forward and the cultural revolution.The artwork covers the whole range from formulatic to outstanding.Anexcellent account of a very dramatic time in Chinas history

Mao's Great Big Red Book

Michael Wolf collected the hundreds of posters shown in this sumptuous book and it occurred to me while looking through the pages that the originals have probably been seen by more people than any others in the world. They were stuck up in every public place (including homes) and published in magazines. Predictably many of them show Chairman Mao, the Great Leader, Teacher, Helmsman, Commander urging the masses forward with the wise fertiliser of his thoughts. To reinforce greatness artists were not allowed to paint figures above his head.

The posters are organised according to the thirty-three chapters in Mao's Little Red Book. Chapter twenty-three, Investigation and Study, has some interesting images including an 1981 painting of various jet aircraft and one from 1978 showing two open hands encasing a stylised atomic graphic. Not all Chinese posters just show peasants looking to the future.

I was surprised to see some quite creative painting styles, for instance, Chao Deren has a brush stroke style similar to the best of the European movie poster artists, Deng Xiu and Zhang Ruiheng could easily have been doing fiction illustrations in the American consumer magazines of the fifties and sixties. Perhaps the strangest poster paintings are those of babies and children, the faces are all rather plump and adult looking, as if the artists imagined this was how a baby Mao looked

This large 320 page book is beautifully designed and printed and if you are interested in political posters or colorful graphics you'll enjoy it. BTW, Taschen have been rather naughty by replacing the head of a child, in one poster, with a head icon they use as a competition promotion. It doesn't spoil the book for me but I thought it rather unnecessary.