A Study On Chinese Political Posters During 1949-1976

Poster is a kind of drawing for the purpose of propagandizing as well as creating public opinions and atmosphere, generally with eye-catching, inspiring and passionate titles. It is the earliest form of advertising. In the year of 1450, Gutenberg, a German, developed letterpress on the base of woodcut plates printing. The poster, as a medium of communication with the public, made a big step forward. The characteristics of posters are:eye-catching, full of appealing, with prominent styles and themes. Overseas, posters are considered as "instant street arts." Posters in part can be seen as reflections of the level of a country's economic and cultural development etc.Political posters, which are social in nature, are effective media to spread government policies and laws. Various political groups often adopt posters to reflect public concerns and political views as well as social problems on the occasions of government propaganda, political elections and political party activities etc. They are not only media to the public for government, but also with special meanings. They have unique styles that can reflect a country's social and cultural roots in depth. The heyday of political posters was in the 20thcentury, which can be regarded as a century of political advocacy. During that special period of the war, posters were the most direct and effective communicating media to the public due to the needs of boosting morale, raising funds, recruiting personnel, promoting productions and conserving resources. And all of the state powers became aware of the publicity functions of posters and used them for propagandizing purposes. Periods of two world wars, the Soviet revolution and construction and the Spanish Civil War were the peaks of political posters, especially the first five years of the twentieth century which were the golden ages of popular posters. Shortly after the victory of the October Revolution in Russia, post offices in central Moscow plastered with political posters in windows for the public to learn about there volutionary situation from these different forms of posters. At that time there had also been a large number of Chinese political posters which became powerful propaganda tools during the Sino-Japanese War during which appeared some artists with strong national senses of justice and patriotism, such as: Gu Yuan, Hua Junwu, Li Hua etc. Their actively created works played a significant role in inspiring and motivating people to fight against the enemy. Political posters created after the founding of new China especially those created during the period of "Cultural Revolution" largely influenced the Chinese art in the later. To sum up, these political posters have become an important part which can not be ignored in the history of posters. This thesis analyzes Chinese political propaganda posters during 1949 to 1976, describes the process of their origins, development and changes as well as studies works in each period from an artistic point of view to facilitate readers acquire special charms of those works in that particular period of time in a more rapid and comprehensive way.