A Shanghai Story

Walking into the basement of a residential building, I would have never thought that it would house the only public collection of propaganda posters in China. It was a charming little space, with dominantly red and yellow hued posters held up with clear plastic film and thumbtacks.

Although the posters were imaginative creations, they held little truth during the Cultural Revolution. But what struck me the most were not the images but the large worn papers with violently painted Chinese character with red and black strokes colliding and clashing. Dazibao was created by Mao as a weapon to denounce rightist sympathizers. On university campuses, students would paste these large posters to denounce their professors as reactionaries, either because they truly believed in this idea or that they feared being otherwise being called a rightist.

The original red writing at the top represents Mao’s original message. The red strokes crossing out the author’s name usually meant opposition or disagreement with the original author’s ideas. 

Images found on Google