Friday, August 21, 2009

Resources: Images from the Cultural Revolution

For anyone interested in modern Chinese history, Prof. William Joseph of Wellesley College has established a website with photographs of everyday life in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) taken when he was a member of the second delegation of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS) to China in March-April 1972. The Introduction page gives a fascinating history of CCAS and an account of his experiences during that trip. The resources on the website include numerous links pertaining to the Cultural Revolution, a map of China which links to photographs taken by Prof. Joseph in different cities, and a search engine for the photographs.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a class struggle initiated by Mao Zedong in order to remove "bourgeois" elements that he saw as promoting capitalism and therefore threatening the socialist base of the Communist Party and the nation at large. During this turbulent period of modern Chinese history, the arts were called into service even as cultural artifacts and sites were being destroyed by the Red Guards. Propaganda posters produced during this time recast the Cultural Revolution and Mao in positive, glowing terms.

For Prof. Joseph's site, go here: http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/China1972/main.html
For images of Cultural Revolution propaganda posters, visit the following site established by Stefan Landsberger: http://www.iisg.nl/landsberger/crc.html
and an online exhibition of images hosted by Ohio State University from the 1999 exhibition "Picturing Power:"
http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/exhib/poster/PictPow1.html

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