Abstract
This thesis examines how peasant masculinity was portrayed in political propaganda posters made by Shanghai artists during the period of socialist building from 1953 to 1962. It traces the changing nature of masculine expression in posters to show how artists overcame a dependence on socialist realism and the Soviet model to create a new type of Soviet Man with Chinese characteristics. This thesis argues three main points: 1. Masculinity and, more generally gender expression, was a tool that the CCP manipulated to represent China's socialist transformation from the 'sick man of Asia' into a strong, modern nation; 2. The CCP's reliance on pre-1949 traditional and commercial art forms and their practitioners exposes the imperfections in their authoritarian takeover and administration of Shanghai; 3. Propaganda poster production provides an insight into the competing interests of artists and the state, as artists sought to reclaim some agency over their creative expression as the period progressed. The political and economic context of the first Five-Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward provide an excellent framework for this examination, as they demonstrate how an increasingly urgent political situation manifested in a rapid increase in the production of propaganda art works, which eventually led to a necessary compromise in aesthetics as well as stylistic subtlety.Due to the Soviet Union's heavy political and economic influence in China in the first half of the 1950s, the CCP initially relied on the principles of Soviet socialist realism to create art that showed a New Socialist Man who was physically strong, hardworking, ideologically educated, and patriotically dedicated. As artists began to assert their aesthetic principles and align them more closely with the goals of the state in the mid-1950s, this stereotyped and formulaic representation of peasant masculinity eventually gave way to one that incorporated more Chinese characteristics. These were, chiefly, the use of folk (minjian 民間), national (minzu 民族), and Chinese commercial styles and forms to create posters that were more varied and appealing, and thus better able to fulfil their role as persuasive and motivating propaganda art. As the period progressed, this masculinity transcended gender norms and was gradually applied to female peasants in posters, showing how the economic and political goals of the state superseded the private goals and realities of the people. Femininity and feminism were side-lined to promote a new Chinese citizen that was inherently masculine in its attitudes and behaviours, even if that citizen was female.
The creation of a new Chinese man resulted in a return to the past, to Chinese traditional aesthetic values, as well as new art forms that had been developed during the Republican period, predominantly in Shanghai. This demonstrates the extent to which the CCP was reliant on pre-existing systems, institutions, and personnel of a bourgeois-capitalist metropolis such as Shanghai in order to create their vision of a new socialist society, undermining the so-called 'Shanghai Miracle' that claims the CCP took total control of the city in just under a decade. This thesis seeks to complicate that vision by showing the reality of the situation from the perspective of artists working within the propaganda system.
Finally, this research reveals that far from being unimportant, rushed, cheaply produced works, in their contemporary setting posters formed a key component of the Chinese state's propaganda machine, while also serving as a battleground between the interests of Shanghai artists and those of the CCP. While the artists were obligated to represent specific or nonspecific political scenes and campaigns, they also strove to inject their own aesthetic sense and technical skill into their works as much as possible. At the same time, while the party wanted the posters to function as political tools to aid in their state-building project, they also recognised the need for posters to be at least somewhat artistically appealing and not merely functional. Thus, a symbiotic relationship developed between the two that was at once cooperative and antagonistic, an extension of the overarching nature of the relationship between art and politics during the 1950s and early 1960s.
| Date of Award | 30 Jul 2020 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | May Bo CHING (Supervisor) |