A Look at the Remarkable Propaganda Manuals of Mao-Era China
The Worker's 'Masthead Reference Materials' Editors, Maoism Propaganda Column Masthead Reference Material (3rd ed.) (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1971), 28
A look into a fascinating example of visual culture in Mao-era China: propaganda manuals containing pages of state-sanctioned visual imagery.
Throughout the Mao period, a large volume of mass-produced image reference manuals were issued by state-owned publishing houses. They were filled with pages of images, fonts, motifs, decorative borders, and other graphic elements. The aim was to instruct amateurs and professional artist–workers on how to create images—and, in most cases, how to create visual propaganda.
These reference booklets and manuals contained graphic elements to be used in posters, newspapers, and other visual outlets. Although not all of them were overtly propagandistic or political in nature—such as the below manual, filled with floral motifs and imageries that were based on more traditional artistic productions—many of them absolutely were.
He Zongxu and Hu Shide, A Collection of Flower Patterns (2nd ed.) (Heilongjiang Fine Arts Publishing House, 1964), 49
Take the below page, for example, showing images of people holding Mao’s little red book in front of large propaganda and handwritten posters, rallying the crowd around them with impassioned speeches.
The Worker's 'Masthead Reference Materials' Editors, Maoism Propaganda Column Masthead Reference Materials (3rd ed.) (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1971), 39
Some manuals were themed around topics that the state wanted to create certain narratives around, such as agriculture, military, science, and sports. The below image comes from a manual on agriculture-related imageries, showing standards of how to depict farmers and life in rural areas.
Village blackboard-news masthead reference materials, (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1974), 47
There were also manuals intended for very specific propaganda outlets. The one below, for example, was for ‘blackboard-news’ (heibanbao), publications that were written and drawn out by hand on publicly displayed blackboards.
Suggested blackboard-news layouts by the editorial team of the Department of Art and Craft, Tianjin Academy of Fine Art. From Art Propagandist Manual (Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, Department of Art and Craft, 1975), 2
Blackboard newspapers were one of the most popular ways in which government rhetoric was transmitted to rural areas in China. They were cheap to produce, and their public nature meant that they became the main point of information in villages, allowing for easy dissemination of propaganda messages. The blackboards would contain news, for example, on production output, political campaigns, and announcements about public health.
Through the manuals, the state encouraged amateurs to contribute to the production of political content. Author Anchee Min, in her essay ‘The Girl in the Poster’, describes how, as a schoolgirl, she was in charge of the blackboard newspaper at her school and copied images from one of these manuals—Samples of illustrations and decorative designs for newspapers and magazines—for the newspaper headers. She writes, ‘Week after week, month after month, and year after year, I tirelessly drew pictures’.[1]
In the booklet below, you can see the grid that has been drawn out by the original owner; a technique used for copying and magnifying the images.
The Worker's 'Masthead Reference Materials' Editors, Maoism Propaganda Column Masthead Reference Materials (3rd ed.) (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1971), 32
The overall effect of these manuals was standardisation: making all visual language conform to a standard set by state-approved organisations. Artists and designers who created propaganda were not celebrated as individuals; rather, they were celebrated as part of a collective effort.
The Worker's 'Masthead Reference Materials' Editors, ed., Maoism Propaganda Column Masthead Reference Materials (3rd edition) (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1971), 119
The image reference manuals are an excellent example of how design and artistic practices became subsumed within the political agenda of the Communist Party, and how deeply its visual language entered people’s everyday lives. These widely circulated manuals were, like the one Anchee Min owned, flipped through and used by thousands of ordinary people, and can give us an idea of what everyday visual culture and objects looked like in this period.
All titles in this selection of publications are translated from Chinese by M+. This article was originally published on M+ Stories for the launch of M+ Matters: Post-1949 Visual and Material Culture in China.
Jennifer Wong is Assistant Curator, Design & Architecture at M+.
- 1.
Anchee Min, ‘The Girl in the Poster’, from Chinese Propaganda Posters by Anchee Min, Duoduo, Stefan R. Landsberger, ed. Benedikt Taschen (Cologne: Taschen, 2003), 5–7.