Shaomin Li

"Carry On the Revolution to the End"? Shaomin Li

The book reviews the way in which art, in the form of posters, was used by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party to serve their revolution. It centers on the era of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and discusses the way in which the revolutionary theory of art was formed and mobilized people to use posters to "carry on the revolution to the end," as Mao called them to do. From the propaganda posters used during the Cultural Revolution, the author identifies the features of persuasion and distortion that are most common in these posters: they persuade people to do what they do not want to do, and they distort reality by showing the opposite. Based on his experience as an propaganda artist in Mao's era, the author reviews the evolution of propaganda posters in China from the revolutionary era to today, and discusses what is at the "end" of Mao's revolution - in today's China.