While some Mao memorabilia is relatively easy to obtain, posters are easily destroyed and are now available only in small numbers and often in poor condition. This remarkable book is based on a collection of over 1,000 posters gathered over a period of approximately three years, mostly in Shanghai. Influenced by Soviet realism, some show the First Five Year Plan (1953–57). Others, colourful and harking back to Chinese legend, show an idealised view of the 1950s, the golden age of Mao’s China. Images of extraordinary wealth printed on poorly recycled paper are associated with the catastrophic Great Leap Forward that led millions of Chinese to their deaths. The terrifying Cultural Revolution is reflected in images of violence and destruction on posters published by rebel groups outside the official propaganda organisations. Posters dedicated to the glorification of Mao himself are the principal vehicle for the personality cult of the Great Helmsman during 1968–69. With notes on each poster and details of the background events associated with them, the book is an evocative portrait of China as it was depicted to its own people at a time of dramatic, often traumatic, change.

Text: Jean-Yves Bajon
Foreword: Lynn Pan
Rights available: World
(Available only in French)
ISBN: 2-87868-061-8