Tuesday, 7/31, afternoon session - Clay Dube, USC

[Stella Castro]

What I interpret from this poster is that the children are running for a cause, (what it is, is unknown, (to me), but they show determination in achieving their goal, by their facial expressions.  While they are children, I can see and speculate that once grown, one is going to become a worker, one is going to be a soldier, and one is going to be a peasant, but I’m not too sure which one. However, all I not most of are wearing the arm bands and/or scarf’s, indicating, to one, that they are in training or abiding to be trained by the/their military and/or country/nation. Also, the color red is prevalent indicating Communism.

[Ann Huynh]

In poster #2, there is a beautiful, glistening bridge in the background and in the front are six people holding the Red book, which would be Mao Zedong’s book of quotations.  There is only one female in the image and the rest of them are males.  The people here consist of workers, soldiers, and peasants, Mao’s power base during the Cultural Revolution.  They all have huge grins on their faces.  Behind them, there is a red wave-like looking thing that resembled China’s flag.  What is most surprising is the prominent place that the red book has in the image.  This image is conveying that the red books will help them overcome all and that they are really proud.  I would say that this poster is sometimes during the 1950s-1960s.

[Jane Shen]

Hi Daniel~~your guess for the women in the center is interesting. Since I read Chinese, the popoganda flyer she is holding says Birth Planning Flyer. And the whole poster is about the benefits of birth planning: better studying teh Marx Leninism and Mao's thoughts, better education for the next generation, better health for women and children, better liberal, production, and the prosperous of the nation. So according to the theme, I guess the pills in the bottle might be a birth contrl pill?

[Jacqueline Mercado]

This poster's focus on youth, specifically teenagers, caught my attention and I too think that it is significant.  It appears that the aim of this image is to involve the young people in the revolutionary cause and their commitment to the health of the state is unequivocal as they collectively train their bodies to be healthy for the good of all.  The emphasis on this very young youth, with their bright eyes, youthful radiance, freshness and innocence evokes an emotional response as well as give the revolutionary cause a freshness and unrivaled vitality.  I am reminded of how one of the efforts of the revolution was to annihilate the old and tired traditions that would hold China back.  The youth in this poster are not only really young and fresh but are running forward pointing to the fact that the future of China is ahead, and not in the past.  Their position and youth are symbols of the new and the future.  Nothing revitalizes and inspires more than the hopefulness and newness of a committed youth.   

[Jacqueline Mercado]

I was impressed with all of the posters and images presented in today's presentation.  I appreciated seeing how diverse the topics of the posters were and the didactic nature of these posters intended to teach specific values and principles, from good parenting to hygiene.  This gave me a new insight into the Chinese culture and the values important within the culture.  The didactic nature of these posters gave me ideas of how these posters can be used across curricular classes such as in health and science class.  Some of these posters could be used as examples and as a springboard for students to create their own posters designed to teach ideas, values, principles or processes in these classes such as to show the benefits of healthy habits and exercise, for example.  This idea might specially useful for younger children, students who are language learners and student who are visual learners.

[Helen Kang]

The booklet in her hand seemed at first to me like another Mao's little red book because its similarity in size and the fact that it seems to be presented as one of he main things but I see that it is not red in color, so I don't think it's Mao's red book, but something equally as important that they want to impress upon their people.  So I cheated a little bit because I was curious what it was that this peasant woman is holding so happily in the other hand opposite the book, and I see that is contraceptive.  Now I am able to make sense of the happy depiction of a single child rearing on the left side of the poster and the people with different skills being able to wor productively on the right side.

[Helen Kang]

Without understanding any Chinese writing, It looks like people are running in harmony towards a destination together. It seems to show people of one mind and one goal, healthy and well fed, happy, with determination and inspiration. What I notice is that I see a soldier and other young people who seem like students and I see no farmers, so I am left to think, "Are farmers encouraged to stay where they are to do their primary job, which is farming? I guess they were not invited.

[Helen Kang]

I observe a somewhat Westernized looking family with features that look non-Asian depicted to be  wealthy family with fair skin as if they never had to toil in the hot sun for work the land for farming or do hard labor. They are looking and saluting at something they seen to be in complete awe of. The faint depiction of people in the background, however seem to have more Asian features and their skin is also darker and look like laborers.

[Helen Kang]

This poster depicts unity of the different countries represented by the flags and China's flag is in the forefront along with Russia as the most prominent and the biggest, which may show the condition of their comeradery at the time.

[Helen Kang]

Depicted in the poster, I observe a boy and a girl who seem to be siblings, looking towards the same direction and concentrating to aim a slingshot at something higher up in the sky. It can be looked upon as a picture of a harmonious sibling relationship with an older brother spending good childhood activities with a baby sister. Later it is explained it is a poster encouraging youngsters to help with the growing of crops by eliminating birds that will often come and eat up the precious seeds that are meant to germinate to become seedlings to be plants that will yield grains.

[Helen Kang]

This poster’s message seems to be more straightforward and simpler in the message it conveying compared to some of the other ones. The resolute stance of 3 healthy, full grown men with variying ethnic facial structures depict a sense of unity in the Western, Asian and African lay people. With the red letters in the background and a book held close to each of these men’s breasts, it conveys people united in picking up weapons although they are not soldiers to become civilian fighters for communism.

[Helen Kang]

There is a muscular Chinese man with the Chairman Mao’s book held to his chest as if to holdon to its teachings and virtues and pummeling two little caricature characters that look to be Westerners. You can tell from the imbalance of the size and drawing details of how the Chinese man is drawn versus the little caricatures drawn small to make them look laughable and insignificant. Anyone that does not have the same high regards to Mao’s teaching about communism will be met with the brute force of this brave and fierce looking character.

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