The Construction And Representation Of Women In The State Discourse

The Chinese political propaganda posters can trace back to as early as during the Revolution of 1911 period and May 4th Movement period.After the founding of the People’s Republic of China,due to the need of national construction and frequent political movements,political poster gradually became a proper term and a historical phenomenon in the Chinese political visual system under the ruling of the communist party of China.As an early practice of political communication,propaganda poster was once one of the most effective ways to carry out mobilization,publicity and ideological education nationwide.Men and women as the two major characters in the posters,the newly-born nation-state liberated and reshaped Chinese women who got rid of the feudal ethical code and reborn as the master of the state with the discourse of modernity.Yet,during this top-to-bottom campaign aiming at liberating women and promoting gender equality,which was led by the party state,the traditional gender norms still hindered a further liberation of people’s mind,while the women’s liberation movement led by the state also faced the critique as patriarchal state repressing female subjectivity.In addition,since the reform and opening up,new forms of oppression against women have emerged along with the process of market economy and globalization,which further obj ectified and marginalized women.Even in the practice of official political communication concerning gender culture,there has been some retrogression.In this sense,political propaganda poster in the 20th century can be regarded as a window for observing social relations in a specific era and a space for power reproduction.The ideas(theories)and practices of women’s liberation and empowerment provide a historical and critical perspective.Through the changing views on women in forms of female images in the national political art,this paper examines how the state discourse constructs and maintains a control relationship through visual forms,and how the women’s images/bodies,which are imagined,represented,appropriated and suppressed,are compiled into these political images created by the official.Focusing on political propaganda posters and women’s liberation,this paper tries to connect them on two levels:the first one is a historical analysis of the CPC’s political practice where the party state chose the political posters as a political art-form to implement its political communicatin towards a construction of new gender norms;the other one is a critical analysis of the shaping,covering and appropriating of female subj ectivity in the state discourse.To carry out a panoramic study focusing on the Chinese political posters in the 200th century(mainly after 1949),using the female images as an enterpoint and combining multi-disciplinary perspectives to explore the power dynamics behind the changes,is not only for a in-depth interpretation of images as text bearing symbolic meanings,but also for better answering the following questions:entering the new period of constructing socialism with Chinese characteristics,how will the state discourse construct a socialist advanced gender culture with Chinese characteristics?What kind of new political communication related to women’s liberation will be implemented?Under the multiple oppression of traditional culture,nationalism,male chauvinism and capitalism,what kind of gender landscape are Chinese women facing?From socialist aesthetics to commodity fetishism under patriarchal capitalism,from women’s liberation oriented in the state power to feminism(s)in civil society,whereabout the Chinese women’s liberation and gender politics?...