THESIS
2012
xiv, 245 p. : ill. ; 30 cm
Abstract
This thesis analyzes the imagery of labor models as an important tool of the Chinese
Communist regime in creating a new socialist political culture. In a country where at that time
the vast majority of the population were illiterate, the use of visual representations was an
essential propaganda medium of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A variety of visual
genres, such as New Year prints, woodblocks, photographs, comic strips, Chinese paintings
and oil paintings, were employed. Various methods of delivery were engaged. For example,
art journals, newspapers and pictorials were used to reach the audience as widely as possible.
The types of and the values embodied by the labor models changed over time. Though the
concept of labor models originated in the Soviet Union in the 1930s...[
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This thesis analyzes the imagery of labor models as an important tool of the Chinese
Communist regime in creating a new socialist political culture. In a country where at that time
the vast majority of the population were illiterate, the use of visual representations was an
essential propaganda medium of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A variety of visual
genres, such as New Year prints, woodblocks, photographs, comic strips, Chinese paintings
and oil paintings, were employed. Various methods of delivery were engaged. For example,
art journals, newspapers and pictorials were used to reach the audience as widely as possible.
The types of and the values embodied by the labor models changed over time. Though the
concept of labor models originated in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, with the launching of the
Stakhanovite Movement, labor models in China, both in content and in representation,
featured its Chinese characteristics with nationalistic considerations and sentiments. The
Chinese case is distinctive compared to its Soviet counterpart. The most important difference
was the Chinese emphasis on peasants. Though the CCP tried to fit into the orthodox
Marxist-Leninist ideology of proletariat dictatorship by making workers the leading class in
its official discourse, it did not ignore the fact that most of the Chinese population was
peasants, who were also its main base of support. Created for political purposes, the visual
representations of labor models transformed with political changes. As a product of
propaganda, the representations of labor models carried the positive messages by which that
the Party wanted to indoctrinate the people, often missing out or distorting reality.
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