Cultural Revolution Posters - A Way to Look Back into History

Cultural Revolution posters offer a great variety of pictures that have great value in Chinese history. For instance, Mao has called on every youth of China to build a new nation according to his own thought & classic Marxist and Communist thought. The posters, accordingly, depict young people and students as taking part in all sorts of political activities.

Another aspect of these propaganda posters is their delineation of women. Almost all posters have women doing some great things to change the society. These posters are rather bold in color but they show a vivid picture of the changing times of China. The posters show the Red Army in action, students as selfless and persevering soldiers etc.

China Propoganda Mao chinese cultural revolution Poster#1

China Propoganda Mao chinese cultural revolution Poster#2

Chinese Cultural Revolution Poster

Cultural Revolution Campaigns

Peintures et propagande chinoise

Art and China's Revolution' at Asia Society from New York Times

Red Guards were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in China, who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.

The Gang of Four was the name given to a leftist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The members consisted of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's last wife and the leading figure of the group, and her close associates Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen.

(Red Guards - A Text Book Cover courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, CC license)

The aim of these Cultural Revolution posters is to educate people on various aspects of life and government structure. Thus 'class struggle', 'bourgeoisie', 'tragedy', 'proletariat' had become a common word in everyone's speech.

These posters also give some valuable education on various subjects. You can see in the posters the message of how to break down the rigid social class structure of worker- peasant- bourgeoisie relationship, male-female working together to change the society.

(Lin on the right side of Mao Tse-tung in Yenan)

CNN---The power play that led to Lin's death in 1971 remains largely a mystery. Some historians suggest that Mao had become uncomfortable with the power Lin and the army had acquired and planned a purge. In this scenario, Lin and his high military commanders, sensing Mao's treachery, plotted a pre-emptive coup d'etat.

The official version was that Lin was afraid Mao had turned against him and plotted to have Mao assassinated. As if to lend credence to this account, Lin's own daughter was reported to have exposed her father's plot. If true, her betrayal was in the spirit of the times, when children were encouraged to rat on their reactionary parents. The political zeitgeist Lin helped create had apparently in turn provided the conditions for his own downfall.

Whether Lin died in a plane crash while trying to flee to the Soviet Union or was killed for his role in the plot may never be known for certain. Almost the entire high military command was purged within a few weeks of Lin's disappearance.