Chinese poster showing a child bringing his mother her Type 56 rifle

Big Bad

Big Bad

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Location
In Little Syria.
And then rifle went off, killing Mom instantly. But this is a much gentler poster than I'm used to seeing from the China of the period, and they credit the bourgeois aspirations of the artist, who doesn't appear to have been imprisoned or executed later. Clearly the Cultural Revolution was calming down at this time.



chinese woman getting army rifle.jpg

‘Preparing for military exercises’ — Chinese poster (1976) showing a child bringing his mother her Type 56 rifle as she prepares for training. The grandmother brings an ammunition belt, while the text on the hat to the right reads ‘Combine farmwork with military training’. I assume the woman is a member of the people’s militia, which provided military training to civilians. The poster was designed by Zhao Jingdong and issued by the Tianjin People’s Fine Art Publishing House.
 
I think there's something subtle about the poster in that it shows the rifle as a friendly household item and not the sort of deadly viper object that we here in the west have recently been schooled to believe. It's along the lines of how all soldiers are trained to regard their weapons as sources of comfort and safety. I also tried to find out a bit about the artist but that was not an era that tolerated any sort of individual fame or achievement (and they still don't, except for their leaders). Zhao Jingdong's military art often included depictions of beautiful plants or flowers, no doubt what he really wanted to paint, but which formed an association with the Red Army being a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Or something like that.

red army poster.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom