The Political Body: Posters from the People's Republic of China in the 1960s and 1970s
26th April – 14th August 2005

The Political Body: Posters from the People's Republic of China, opens at the Museum of East Asian on 26th April 2005. This poignant exhibition of propaganda images reveals the relationship between representations of the human body and the political body, during the period of extreme Maoist ideology in China during the 1960s and 1970s. The show includes a variety of poster styles and disciplines from socialist realist oil painting to traditional woodblock prints and classical Chinese ink painting. The exhibition is on loan from the University of Westminster.

After the Communist Party came to power in 1949, propaganda posters were produced in vast quantities and became one of the biggest forms of mass media in China. Some enormous art works were created for public display while other small format posters were sold cheaply for display in nearly every kind of building. Posters could be found in people's homes, schools, meeting rooms, factories and clinics.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the poster's influence as a political tool expanded. Due to the intense period of political activism most posters held political messages which were not only stated explicitly through text but also by a strong visual language.

Early Cultural Revolution posters from the late 1960's feature highly stylised, strident, graphic images which highlighted this political expression. Translated into visual representations of masculine and violent aggression, these images presented a politicised body. Symbolising Maoist campaigns such as the eradication of class enemies and Western imperialists, the image of the human body became a political tool.

By the mid to late 1970's the poster's transition from a purely political representation of masculinity had given way to a more everyday vision of revolutionary participation. Posters of everyday life were used to promote public health and social campaigns as well as to encourage people to behave like model citizens. The message to work hard, study hard and be thankful for the benefits of living in a new society brought a wider range of images which now incorporated women. Posters showing young women studying mathematics or symbolically looking to the future were popular images in the late 1970's.

The exhibition is on show until 14th August 2005. The exhibition will be complemented by a lecture by Dr Katie Hill the curator of the University of Westminster's Chinese Poster collection. The Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sundays from 12noon to 5pm.

The University of Westminster Chinese Poster Collection is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB).