An almost continuous stream of mass movements that
addressed national, international, political, moral and social topics
marked the first decade of the PRC. This 'flow of campaigns', organized
both at the national and the local levels, and in the rural and urban
areas, was intended to strengthen the support for the CCP and eliminate
various types of enemies, to deepen the understanding of the new
ideology that guided China, and to promote economic production. The
goals for most of these initial mass movements were comparatively easy
to understand.
They included drives to spread Land Reform policies
and to publicize new rules and regulations, such as the Marriage Law;
rectification movements of intellectuals; campaigns to weed out
corruption, bureaucratism and petty crime; and movements to boost
popular support for the new regime, in particular in the cities. All
the people were mobilized to help reconstruct the country in whatever
manner possible, including (recently) demobilized soldiers.
The poster below was designed to accompany a drive
to persuade people to purchase bonds during the "Economic Construction
Period" which started in December 1953. Ostensibly well-to-do urbanites
and private businessmen were urged to subscribe from January to March
1954, and to hand over their ample savings to the government in order
to contribute to national reconstruction. The sign on the left
identifies the receiving party as the "National Economic Reconstruction
Bonds Subscription Office".
It is striking to see how many of these early to
mid-1950s posters use the same pictorial style that was employed in the
so-called "Shanghai" or yuefenpai
月份牌 style that had been so popular in advertisements for cigarettes,
medicines and beer in the pre-war and pre-Liberation periods.
Sources:
Charles P. Cell, Revolution at Work; Mobilization Campaigns in China (New York, etc.: Academic Press, 1977)
E. Stuart Kirby (ed.), Contemporary China 1955 (London: Oxford University Press, 1956)
Ellen Johnston Laing, Selling Happiness -- Calendar Posters and Visual Culture in Early-Twentieth-Century Shanghai (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004)
Peter J. Seybolt, Throwing the Emperor from His Horse -- Portrait of a Village Leader in China, 1923-1995 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996)
s.r.landsberger@let.leidenuniv.nl
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