Workers of the World Unite!

Last week I indulged my intellectual curiosity at the Chinese Propaganda Poster Art Museum. The small one room museum, located in the basement of an apartment complex, houses over 100 original posters from the 1950's-1970's. Ever the student of history, I was curious to see what form nationalistic propaganda took in our rival country. I remember seeing an exhibit at the Boston Public Library last summer of US propaganda posters during the times of the World Wars, so I was eager to compare.

Every poster was translated into English on a nearby place-card, and larger plaques explained in more detail the history of the country and its relationship to the poster's content and style. Simply by looking at the posters and their time periods the history of the country comes into better focus; when the Cultural Revolution was, when China began to see itself as an international entity, when the cult of Mao began. The museum certainly gives pause at times to consider what the values of the society are and have been.

There were two sections that fascinated me most: those immediately following the revolution, and those of the mid 60's with a more global perspective. The first posters of the museum belittle and criticize the US more so than any other time period. Calling the US 'paper-lions' and portraying the US as a small, long fingered greedy green man with bombs stuffed in his pockets, the Chinese appeared to be trying to humiliate the US more than I remember the German's ever were in American posters I've seen. Always the US was seen in a generals uniform with bombs standing next to England, a fat man with a suit on it. In one poster, titled 'China must surpass England within 15 years', a Chinese workman is hurdling over the year 1972 while a fat Englishman can barely get over the wall. I guess I was struck by the exactness of the timeline - We will pass the UK in 1972. The poster didn't say in what they would pass them, much less how, but just looking at the image I'd have to agree that at least it seemed like a good idea.

The poster's of the mid 60's championed the causes of Communists worldwide. They showed multitudes of races and ethnic groups banding together, waving guns in the air. This is also unique because most of the other posters always showed China as peaceful, with the Western countries being the aggressors. Yet, these posters of the 60's wanted to show that people everywhere were strong, but tied down by autocratic governments. This ideal even stretched to the rival Americans, with posters showing black men picketing under the slogan 'support the US black man in their fight to gain equal rights'. Another, somewhat humorous poster given the politics involved was one urging people to 'Support the US people who oppose the war in Vietnam'. I couldn't believe that these posters, suggesting that Americans was right about something, existed such a closed time period. And for a stronger contrast, I couldn't imagine a similar poster in America regarding the rights of Chinese workers.

It didn't take long to see the entire thing, maybe 40 minutes, then I was on my way with a short book and some postcards. It was the only thing I've seen in China which seemed eager to preserve any memory of that time period, and was most certainly aimed as a westerners attraction for now. Maybe someday the average Chinese person will be able to grapple with this dark period of their history, but not yet. Most of the students I mentioned it to said they knew what the posters would be about, and were eager to change the subject. Personally, it offers one of the best views of history of any museum I've ever been to.