Ha! Ha! Ha! Come here, silly swans!
There’s an exhibition of rare Chinese propaganda posters going on in Edinburgh at the moment. It’s 133 posters from 1913-1997 on loan from the Propaganda Poster Art Centre in Shanghai.
I wouldn’t mind seeing that. Not enough for a field trip to Scotland, but enough to look it up online. I lumme some propaganda. (No, I really do. I’ve always thought that should have been my calling). The Telegraph has a better slideshow (I know, I know…slideshows are de debil).
I especially love these ladies, from the model opera Red Women’s Detachment, 1971. No, they don’t look silly at all.
Right. We’ll assemble here under the flagpole tomorrow, 6 sharp.
Dead Pool Round 65!
Posted: June 26th, 2014 under artwork, britain, international, personal.
Comments: 13
Comments
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: June 26, 2014, 11:03 pm
You would make awesome propaganda posters. Hell, if I recall correctly (& I do, because I’m good like that), you already have.
Yeah, nobody, but nobody did propaganda quite like the Chinese. They really liked their German expressionism muddled up with high art.
Comment from BigBlueBug
Time: June 27, 2014, 12:44 am
Sure, but let’s see them toss grenades when arabesque en point.
Comment from mojo
Time: June 27, 2014, 1:48 am
Yeah, it’s hard to beat the “Cultural Revolution” for mind-bogglingly bad ballet. Leonard Pince-Garnell would be estatic.
Comment from Nina
Time: June 27, 2014, 2:39 am
Who could look at that and do anything but laugh at its ridiculousness? It’s like the worst satire the People’s Cube could come up with!
Comment from tomfrompv
Time: June 27, 2014, 3:05 am
The female form is gorgeous in all styles of dance. Can you imagine males posed like that?
Comment from Deborah
Time: June 27, 2014, 4:18 am
BigBlueBug is on to something. It could be a new Olympic sport: toe shoes and targets at 25 meters, 50 meters, et cetera. But the “ballet” poster does surprise me; wouldn’t ballet have been considered a decadent Western art form? (apparently not).
Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: June 27, 2014, 5:20 am
My in-laws are staunch Communists, as are most of the retirees in their compound. At 06:00, the national anthem plays, followed by calesthenics and reflection.
I got up to admire it all, went back to bed at 06:05, and slept til 10:00.
Somebody has to play the decadent western dog.
Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: June 27, 2014, 2:52 pm
The “China Fuxin” Tobacco Co.?
Doesn’t the 1960 poster guy remind you a little of Brendan Fraser?
And the riflewoman/ballerina in the front and center of the poster is hot.
Comment from Davem123
Time: June 27, 2014, 3:47 pm
My favorite is “Fight for the Overall Completion of the 5 Year Plan Ahead of Time and Exceeding Target Numbers”. It has that certain something.
Looking at Mao’s hands in that one I can see how he set that world-record pace swimming the Yangtze river in his 70’s.
Comment from thefritz
Time: June 27, 2014, 5:05 pm
dead pool……
Comment from J.S.Bridges
Time: June 27, 2014, 9:40 pm
Can you imagine males posed like that?
In Red (or even sorta-Red) China? Doesn’t seem too bloody likely – (although, one never knows, in these “enlightened, progressive” times…)
In certain other locales, though – such as, say, San Francisco…or Key West, maybe…or even on Broadway, in Noo Yawk…hey, no real problemo –
In Hollywood, f’rinstance, that could easily be part of one of the final scenes in a remake of “Blazing Saddles” – just before the final ride off into the sunset, y’know?
Just sayin’…
Comment from Bill the Butcher
Time: June 27, 2014, 11:54 pm
“The Red Detachment of Women” was actually performed for, or imposed upon, poor Richard Nixon during his trip to Mao-Land — presumably because this wretched show was considered an outstanding example of Commie Culture. (Shudder.) And of course Mao’s wife was connected with it. But apparently they really didn’t have much in the way of recent “art” to show him, and the Reds had spent years trying to destroy the glories of China’s past.
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: June 29, 2014, 7:44 pm
Comment from tomfrompv
Time: June 27, 2014, 3:05 am
The female form is gorgeous in all styles of dance. Can you imagine males posed like that?
Men don’t go en pointe, you monster! How could you even imagine that?!?
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