After the PRC was founded, one of the themes that formed a major inspiration for poster designers puzzling about how to portray the newly
empowered women of China was that
of the woman parachuter. By this trope, it was possible not only to visualize how women had thrown off the shackles of oppression, but also
to devote attention to the People's Liberation Army that had played such a major part in their liberation by
supporting the revolutionary struggle.
These clear ideological prescriptions almost seemed to be beleid by the fact that many if not most of the posters showing paratrooper women were
designed by artists who had made their mark in the pre-Liberation era with yuefenpai--calendar and commercial-- designs.
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The fascination with women gracefully gliding down, hanging from colorful parachutes, that marked the pre-Cultural Revolution era
was traded in later for a slightly more heroic and bellingerent approach.
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Even when the high tide of Maoism ended in 1976 and Socialist Realism no longer was prescribed as mode of expression, parachuting women
continued to exert a great influence on designers.
Return to Iron Women and Foxy Ladies Return to
the People's Liberation Army
s.r.landsberger@let.leidenuniv.nl
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International Institute of Social History