- Ethan Persoff has gathered a collection of anti-US Chinese political cartoons c.1958-1960. Without translations or other context, many are baffling, but I find this one especially creepy. [Via]
- Drawing your own political messages in China is less welcome: James Powderly of the Graffiti Research Lab (see previous) was detained for six days for attempting to display Tibet-related protest messages during the Olympics. He tells the story in a series of interviews.
- History repeating as farce: Now you can get a hand-painted version of your face in a Chinese propaganda poster. [Via]
anti-US Chinese political cartoons c.1958-1960. – very funny stuff.
Quick question. Why is Adobe charging more for LR2 as a download then for shipping the box to you in the UK?
[Tom H. replies: “http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?7@@.59b5f71e/80 We do not have any flexibility in how VAT is applied. We operate an ESD(Electronic Software Delivery) store out of Ireland and have to charge the Irish VAT to EU members. This is why the effective price of the hard goods(the box) is lower for many.” –J.]
I’ve been studying that period of history recently. Very complicated! The Russians had helped Mao take over production facilities in North China after Japan folded in the Pacific Theatre, which meant Chiang Kai-Shek’s KMT never caught up and eventually retreated to Taiwan, planning to eventually return to the mainland in triumph. USA found the KMT objectionable, but was forced into alliance by the PRC’s invasion of Korea. Everyone feared two nuclear powers going head-to-head.
There’s weirder propaganda in cinema… Madame Mao introduced “Revolutionary Opera” a few years later, and if you can see some of this Yang Ban Xi in video today, it’s *really* strange….
[Yeah, I’ve got a print from one of those performances–ballerinas (?) pirouetting in army knee socks while aiming rifles.
Pop-culture ephemera: I believe a very early version of Photoshop was codenamed Tiger Mountain, referring to the Brian Eno album named after the revolutionary opera Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy. –J.]
Interesting how Communism, a murderous system responsible for the deaths of one hundred million people, remains popular and “cool” –while Fascism, a murderous system responsible for the deaths of sixty million people, remains (correctly, of course) vilified.
That getting a hand-painted version of one’s face in a Chinese propaganda poster doesn’t seem to give anyone the chills is enough to give me the chills.
[Interesting points. Maybe it’s that to Western eyes and ears, Chinese revolutionary rhetoric (with all the “running dog” references) sounds so bizarre that it’s hard to take seriously (unlike, say, Nazi propaganda, which is familiar enough to be repellent without seeming funny). –J.]
The historic ignorance of some will never seem to amaze me –like the spoiled European and American kids wearing those nefarious “Che” T-Shirts; if they only knew the murdering campaigns that the little psychopathic though unleashed throughout Cuba and the jungles of South America, perhaps they would change their minds… Alas, perhaps not…