During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Mao and his comrades locked up artists, intellectuals and anybody else tainted with the residue of western imperialism. But that didn't stop the Communists' insatiable thirst for clip art.
Flickr user Oldtasty has posted an entire book of Chinese clip art from 1971 as a Flickr set: link to set | link to slideshow.
He's also got some great covers of Cultural Revolution-Era 10" Records:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldtasty/sets/72057594071629322/
Posted by: Barrett Golding | March 17, 2007 at 06:06 PM
Sweet! Do you think they say things like "Use the Best -- Mao's Pie Filling!" or "Keep your brown shirts their brownest, with Xao's Laundry Soap"? I'd be interested to know if this stuff is hawking wares, or has a higher social meaning...Any chinese translators out there?
Posted by: Dale Hazelton | March 18, 2007 at 10:18 AM
Aha! Drag your cursor over the Chinese characters on the Flicker page to read the translations as pop-ups (I only discovered that by accident, maybe Mr. Oldtasty can adjust the page to direct us to do that).
Posted by: Dale Hazelton | March 18, 2007 at 10:23 AM
Guess who's a regular reader of Beware of the Blog? Nice little surprise to see my set of Cultural-Revolution-era stuff show up in my newsreader. I used to have a digital library of tracks from some of the records Barrett links to above, but sadly my department seems to have wiped the server, so I'll have to find a place elsewhere for them. The titles are classic:
* “The Radiance of Chairman Mao”
* “Chairman Mao is Dearer to Us Than Our Parents”
* “Youngsters Love Chairman Mao”
* “Education Should Be Revolutionized”
* “The Proletarian Revolution in Education Should Be Carried Out”
* “Always Study the ‘Three Constantly Read Articles’”
* “Red Youngsters Love Reading the ‘Three Constantly Read Articles’ Most”
Not to mention how hard the tracks rock...
Thanks to linking my stuff!
Posted by: OldTasty | March 18, 2007 at 09:24 PM
OldTasty! Cat's from my neck of the woods.
Posted by: Eric | March 24, 2007 at 12:12 AM
As a Chinese, i am certainly NOT impressed by this kind of art.
http://www.yj-art.com
Posted by: Jenny | November 18, 2008 at 02:09 AM