Communist Propaganda- Card #1-  Woman holding a wrench or “Struggle for accelerating to achieve agricultural mechanization”

The picture card depicts a woman wearing work clothes with her sleeves rolled up griping a wrench hand tool.  She is standing alone, she is strong, and she might seem proud- as depicted by the smile expression she is displaying.  In the background, I can see a tractor and an outdoor farming landscape, which denotes the possibility of the propaganda portraying the strong farming labor force and a glimpse modernization in the farming industry with the tractor in the picture.  This in part communicates strength, modernization, industrialization, labor worker conformity in the Chinese communist party.  These posters were Mao’s revolutionary class struggle ideology- his way of impacting and flooding working class consciousness to strengthen his regime.

Card #2- Yanggensi, The Forever Hero

The picture depicts a man holding what looks like bundle of something that he is protecting as he flies over a natural landscape- he is a hero.  By the looks of his peasant outfit he might seem as a Robin Hood character.  He might be guarding the “bundle” or Chinese domestic product against foreign invasion and expansion in China.

The card you are referencing is what occured in China in the late twentieth century.  The propaganda cards, originally posters as mentioned by Dr. Dube reflected a time in Chinese history that focused on advancing the agricultural sector.  This sector was motivated at both the local and country level.  Chairman Mao was interested and focused primarily on agriculture.  However, sadly his efforts and thrust did not pay off as history reflects that widespread famine occurred throughout China.  The tractor you mentioned highlights the goal of mechanization throughout China at the helm of Mao Zedong. 

 http://www.johndclare.net/China6.htm

This website had interesting information that expanded on changes under Mao III:  Agriculture 1950-62

My first card notes, " Develop the revolution, improve the production, labor, ready for war, and do every aspect of work well".  The educator and lifelong learner in me who enjoys digging deeper and geeking out had to read the captions before choosing which two cards to pick.  The card features six individuals, four males and two females.  One of the females is quite young and donning a ponytail.  She looks to be under 10 years old.  The other female has a sort of overall or work type garb and has her hair contained in a bandana away from her face.  She appears to be a worker and is smiling because she is enjoying what her job is, and like the caption reads, doing her work "well".  The remaining four males appear to be performing different roles.  One of them is in a uniform, complete with brandishing a weapon.  Another man appears to be a worker and again, quite happy.  A third and forth seem to be the same approximate age, around 25 -30 years old and perhaps, supervisors or lead personnel in their factory.  The background piqued my interest because a bridge is in front of a mountain range.  One of these supervisors or a sort of leadership role is carrying a book.  All six individuals are content, happy, and satisfied.  Truly they fit the propaganda that is advertising to work hard, improve the production to experience economic growth and economic development.  The final part of the card reads to be ready in all aspects so the image of different gender and ages ties in well with the content written.  

In the 1950s and 60s, Mao Zedong was on a mission to amalgamate farmland into communes that contained a number of family units who engaged in agriculture.  Unfortunately, all these plans to reform farming wound up creating widespread famine in China during the mid to late twentieth century.  Mao Zedong had an Agrarian Reform Law and this gave land to peasants and were able to bring charges against their landlords.  Chairman Mao wanted people to share the work along with tools and machinery for a common goal.  It was all about collectivisation which was a backlash to agrarian reforms.

I plan to use this card in my classroom when my World History students study the Cold War.  We normally talk about Cuba, but having these propaganda cards will enhance instruction.  Students will be able to compare/contrast WWII posters from the 1940s and with Chinese propaganda posters from the 1950s and 60s.  

An interesting time line http://www.johndclare.net is contained at this website.  The information is presented well and easy for a World History student, my 10th graders to understand.

In today's polarized political system in the U.S., it was so interesting to learn that in post-1911 China, the communists and nationalists agreed on so many things.  "The solution was different, but the methodology was the same," Dr. Dube stated, which really got me thinking--is there anything like that today? Where two sides are working towards a very different goal by using the same process? Chinese nationalists and communists were unique in that they agreed on many things: foreigners are the problem; Lennenist principles, particularly the centralized, disciplined, and hierarchial structure of government are paramount to the development of a new political system; and that a united China is better than fractured warlord-led states.  The one thing that the nationalists and communists differed on was marxism--and clearly that's a big thing to disagree on, as it completely changes the shape of inter- and intra- national relations.  What did the shaky alliance between nationalists and communists really look like in those early 1920s years, where the communist party essentially "waited it out" by working with the nationalists to conquer the warlord states?  Would such an alliance between two political parties be possible now? Or is the deciding factor in this unlikely cooperation that both the nationalists and communists had a common enemy: chaos?  

I prefer to experience a work of art with as little known as possible. Backstory, history, gender, political affiliation, and other signifiers all add context that in a way buffers the art from speaking without this support. For my taste, good  art should work without any of this help initially. After, particular context only elevates the artist’s work, and, if truly great, may take it to possible masterpiece status. 

I approached “Diary of a Madman” this way. All I knew is that it was first published in the early 20th Century and that according to Mr. Dube’s description it was a famous Chinese story.

Once into a few of the short sections I thought of Kafka. This paranoid voice convinced that everyone was in on his demise. Having a long history with short fiction and many translations I soon after wondered how much the  translation has added to the flow and style of the prose. It felt contemporary with an ease that brought me right into the story while staying in the setting’s early 20th Century. It also reminded me of Dostoevsky.

Once the theme of cannibalism surprisingly came in it felt right and not out of place. From Kafka and Dostoevsky I thought about Aesop and Swift using satire and parable as a means to their purpose. The powerful “them”—even his older brother and the town’s kids. How could they be as they are? Their parents must have taught them. How else could they not be human beings like myself? All of it worked and kept me reading on. 

This is when “East Asia after 1800” came in. I noticed the influence of Western culture: evolution, the feeling of primitive versus modern peoples, the old world up against a new changing world. The footnote that slicing a piece of your own flesh to be eaten in reverence to parents quickly brought Murakami to mind, taking me to the end of we must fight for change. The we can be better—should be better tone naturally politicized the ending. A genuine plea for change. The story seemed to ask, How can we not fight for change in China?

Not that I’ve read without any context, the other readings hopefully will take Lu Xun to masterpiece status.

This article in "Education about Asia" magazine gives some great examples and discussion questions for teachers to use in a "Constructing Communism: Teaching about Revolutionary Societies through Chinese Poster Art" lesson. I found this the other day and immediately thought about our project from a few weeks ago that brought the images from the Cultural Revolution into the discussion.

This article gives historical context to the images and also uses historiography to explain the use of propaganda in teaching other revolutionary societies. The author states: "The vast difference between the attractive images shown in the posters and the grim reality of China from 1949-1980s is an important lesson. Both textbooks and lectures are needed to remind students that the reality of Maoist China was much different from the images, and the posters hide horrors on a scale that Westerners cannot grasp.

The author also states that these images can be used across the curriculum on many levels. One historian stated that he uses the posters in an upper-level graduate course on Eastern Asian politics, whereas another uses them in a 9th grade world literature class. The author also says that the beauty of these images can be critiqued in an art history class that discusses the symbolism and style of dress. Questions like the following were used as examples for discussion:

1. Do the posters imply anything about generational issues, the relations of old and young?

2. Pay attention to the sense of change, both within single posters and between multiple posters from different time in Maoist and post-Maoist China.

I really liked this project and hope that this article might be helpful to others who want to use these types of images in the classroom.

http://aas2.asian-studies.org/EAA/EAA-Archives/23/1/1526.pdf?fbclid=IwAR11aAWrvBWYAfT3hPdRah9rmW_kUgZmMMw7MxR00g8LgzLF47DA3FgMGG4

In this card it is clear that it is three male Chinese soldiers. The soldiers are respectively holding a missile, binoculars, and the last one is holding Mao's Red Book. Interestestly enough, the soldier that is holding the Red Book is above the other two soldiers, and he is looking up and ahead, whereas the two lower soldiers are looking directly ahead.  Furthemore, the red flag of China is in the backdrop to remind the viewer that China is at the forefront of defense. The message of this propaganda poster is that the People's Army cannot be defeated because they are guided by technology and communist ideology.