Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Visit to the Cultural Propaganda Poster Center


It is the first class I take in the New York University Shanghai Center,amazing and full of joy.It is also the first time I take a close look at the Chiese propaganda posters from 1949 to 1979.I have to say that period they illustrated really seems to be a little far away from my present life, even my parents I think. Fortunatly ,my parents were never sent to those remoted areas and had not suffered a lot.Before, I knew the phrase"Da Zi Bao" but I hadn't completely got the profound ideas. When I see the chinese characters with rad lines , circles, I am deeply impressed.The names ,the slogans and the quoted words seem to be much more aggressive than I had thought. It really provides us with a vivant lesson.


In my deep heart, I also had my own opinion on Chairman Mao.So I can easily understand why some artists regard him as a glory figure but others not. Yes, Mr Yang has made the point that what he did is not for politic but for art ,for history. Maybe one day, in our junior school , we can arrange the teenagers to take a look at it. All these posters have witnessed the happiness and bitterness of China.


Thanks to those anonymous artists ,who contributed a lot to these precious memories and thanks to Mr Yang, who leaves me with a special impression.In addition to the his favorite collections, those souvenirs are also worthy seeing .It must have taken Yang quite a long time to collect these posters.You can also find some ID cards of Red Guard there ,which have yellowed with age. And some statue of Chairman Mao made of plastic,distinctly enough to confuse it with jade material or stone.Maybe it is the start of our art journey, meaningful and interesting.


I like it because it arise my spirit. Maybe it's time for me to have a talk with my grand parents.:-)If you are interested,log on http://www.shanghaipropogandaart.com/ or visit it with your own eyes , Rm.BOC 868 Hua Shan Rd.Shanghai China.A pity I was not with my camera,what I can post here is the poster of the center

1 comment:

Matt said...

Ah yeah - you jogged my memory about the red guard id cards. I think those things are really cool, he even had the little books that they would have to learn with. Really neat!