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Jul 7, 2006

Chinese Propaganda Posters




Stefan Landsberger, Leiden University, The Netherlands

http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/

China’s Communist Party has been a dominant force in Chinese history over the last half century and this exhibit explores one of the primary ways it has sought to communicate with the Chinese people: propaganda posters.

This site showcases hundreds of Chinese propaganda posters in Landsberger's large collection. The posters span five decades--though the majority of them are from 1970 or later--and represent many facets of Chinese political, social, and economic movements. The posters are organized by subject, including party and state leaders, national minorities, Cultural Revolution campaigns, environment, political reform, the Mao cult, the Great Leap Forward, and the People’s Liberation Army. Some subjects have two posters; others more than 100. In each section, the posters are interspersed with accompanying text written by Landsberger. Since the site is organized as an exhibit, rather than a repository of primary sources, and there is no search engine. Posters can also be browsed by artist and designer. The posters, save those in the"Desktop Wallpaper" section, do not enlarge to full screen.

This website is of interest to anyone studying 20th-century Chinese history or the history of Communism.

Read a more in-depth review written by George Mason University professor Michael Chang at http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/r/33/whm.html. Or explore other world history websites at World History Sources.



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