Chinese Propaganda Posters; From the Collection of Michael Wolf with Essays by Anchee Min, Duo Duo, and Stefan R. Landsberger

Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 2003. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Very good/Approximately 4.5 inch banner wrapper in very good condition. Format is approximately 9.75 inches by approximately 14.75 inches. Text is in English, French and German. 319, [1] pages. Illustrated front and back cover. Front and back cover have flaps. Front cover has an impressive illustration of Chairman Mao Zedong. Profusely illustrated with many full page multi-color poster representations. The Communist Superhero--Mao's starring role in Chinese propaganda art. Over 300 posters produced during the rule of Chairman Mao to promote Communist values and to portray the bright future of the People's Republic of China. With essays examining the history of Chinese propaganda and the experience of living in Mao's China. Among the items in the Table of Contents are: The Communist Party, Class Struggle, Imperialism, People's War, People's Army, Political Work, Democracy, Patriotism, Internationalism, Heroism, Self-Reliance, Unity, Discipline, Cadres, and Women. Stefan R. Landsberger was trained as a sinologist at Leiden University. He started to collect Chinese propaganda posters in the 1970s. His collection has grown into one of the largest private collections in the world. Having had access to these posters for such a long time, he has come to consider them as rich primary sources for research on contemporary Chinese developments. Landsberger used them as the basis for his Ph.D. research, which focussed on materials published in the 1980s. This has led to numerous publications. Landsberger is Emeritus Olfert Dapper Professor of Contemporary Chinese Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Duo Duo or Duoduo (born 1951) is the pen name of contemporary Chinese poet, Li Shizheng, a prominent exponent of the Chinese Misty Poets. Duo Duo was awarded the 2010 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Anchee Min (born January 14, 1957, in Shanghai, China) is a Chinese-American author who lives in San Francisco and Shanghai. Min has published two memoirs, Red Azalea and The Cooked Seed: A Memoir, and six historical novels. Her fiction emphasizes strong female characters, such as Jiang Qing, the wife of chairman Mao Zedong, and Empress Dowager Cixi, the last ruling empress of China. At a collective farm, Min was discovered by a team of talent scouts from the Shanghai Film Studio and was selected to become an actress for her ideal "proletarian good looks." She eventually won the lead role in a propaganda film inspired by Madame Mao. However, the film was never completed. After Mao Zedong's death and the subsequent downfall of Jiang Qing, Min was ostracized and treated badly. With his smooth, warm, red face which radiated light in all directions, Chairman Mao Zedong was a fixture in Chinese propaganda posters produced between the birth of the People's Republic in 1949 and the early 1980s. These infamous posters were, in turn, central fixtures in Chinese homes, railway stations, schools, journals, magazines, and just about anywhere else where people were likely to see them. Chairman Mao, portrayed as a stoic superhero (a.k.a. the Great Teacher, the Great Leader, the Great Helmsman, the Supreme Commander), appeared in all kinds of situations (inspecting factories, smoking a cigarette with peasant workers, standing by the Yangzi River in a bathrobe, presiding over the bow of a ship, or floating over a sea of red flags), flanked by strong, healthy, ageless men and ""masculinized"" women and children wearing baggy, sexless, drab clothing. The goal of each poster was to show the Chinese people what sort of behavior was considered morally correct and how great the future of Communist China would be if everyone followed the same path toward utopia by uniting together. Combining fact and fiction in a way typical of propaganda art, these posters exuded positive vibes and seemed to suggest that Mao was an omnipresent force that would accompany China to happiness and greatness. This book brings together a selection of colorful propaganda artworks and cultural artifacts from photographer Michael Wolf's vast collection of Chinese propaganda posters, many of which are now extremely rare.