Stefan R. Landsberger: About Propaganda Posters

Stefan R. Landsberger

 

Stefan R. Landsberger (1955) was trained as a sinologist at Leiden University, The Netherlands. Fascinated by totalitarian propaganda, he started to collect Chinese propaganda posters in the 1970s. His collection has grown into one of the largest private collections in the world. Having had access to these posters for such a long time, he has come to consider them as rich primary sources for research on contemporary Chinese developments. For that reason, Landsberger used them as the basis for his Ph.D. research, which focussed on materials published in the 1980s. The results were published as Chinese Propaganda Posters - From Revolution to Modernization (Amsterdam / Armonk: Pepin Press / M.E. Sharpe, 1996, reprinted in 1998 and 2001). The book also appeared in German, under the title Chinesische Propaganda - Kunst und Kitsch zwischen Revolution und Alltag (Köln: DuMont, 1996).

Over the years, Landsberger has continued his collecting activities, as well as his research on Chinese propaganda. This has led to numerous publications, including "Learning by What Example? Educational Propaganda in Twenty-first-Century China", Critical Asian Studies, vol. 33, No. 4 (December 2001), pp. 541-571; Paint it red - Fifty years of Chinese Propaganda Posters (Groningen: Uitgeverij Intermed, 1998); and "The Deification of Mao: Religious Imagery and Practices during the Cultural Revolution and Beyond", Woei Lien Chong (ed.), China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: Master Narratives and Post-Mao Counternarratives (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives) (Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002), pp. 139-184. He has (co-)curated exhibitions in Hamburg (1995), Groningen (1998) and Rotterdam (2008). He maintained the website "Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages" (1997-2010), and now maintains chineseposters.net.

Landsberger is Olfert Dapper Professor of Contemporary Chinese Culture at the University of Amsterdam  and Associate Professor of contemporary Chinese History at Leiden University , The Netherlands, member of the editorial board of the journal China Information , published by Sage Publications , and secretary of the Chinese Posters Foundation.

The following friends, colleagues, fellow-collectors and assorted poster buffs have contributed to the Stefan R. Landsberger collection:

Karin Aalderink, Sigrun Abels, James Baughman, Jacco Bax, Bi Shuzheng, Richard Caton , Cheng Chen, Dong Zhongchao, Torsten Dorow, Leo Douw, Victoria Edison , Paul van Els , Niels van Erck, Pieter Fleury, Keith Forster, Guo Lulai, Françoise Hauser, Marien van der Heijden, Hans Hinrup, Nigel Howarth, Huang Hui, Huang Jinshan, Erik van Ingen Schenau , Tin Jansen, Jeroen de Kloet, Katherine Knight, Paul Koolenbrander, Oliver Lammerts, Claudia Landsberger, Hiu Ying Lau, Li Nan, Li Tieqiang, Irene van Lieshout, Tjyying Liu, Liu Xinwei, Liu Yong, Liu Zhanquan , Floris-Jan van Luyn, Jan van der Made, Burchard Mansvelt Beck, Shawn McElravy , Dave Nedde, Victor Pallemans, Peter Peverelli , Garrie van Pinxteren, Rupert Powell , Marlies Rexwinkel, Helen Rigby, Mickey Ross , Tony Saich, Arnaud Sarrade, Justin Schiller , Andreas Seifert, Michael Schoenhals, Melvin Soudijn, Chris To Kwok Ho , Robert Walsh, Rene Wanner , Yan Huizeng, Yang Peiming, Yu Zhenming, Yuan Peng, Zhang Xiaoshan.
 Mao's starring role in Chinese propaganda art

With his smooth, warm, red face which radiated light in all directions, Chairman Mao Zedong was a fixture in Chinese propaganda posters produced between the birth of the People's Republic in 1949 and the early 1980s.

These infamous posters were, in turn, central fixtures in Chinese homes, railway stations, schools, journals, magazines, and just about anywhere else where people were likely to see them. Chairman Mao, portrayed as a stoic superhero (a.k.a. the Great Teacher, the Great Leader, the Great Helmsman, the Supreme Commander), appeared in all kinds of situations (inspecting factories, smoking a cigarette with peasant workers, standing by the Yangzi River in a bathrobe, presiding over the bow of a ship, or floating over a sea of red flags), flanked by strong, healthy, ageless men and "masculinized" women and children wearing baggy, sexless, drab clothing.

The goal of each poster was to show the Chinese people what sort of behavior was considered morally correct and how great the future of Communist China would be if everyone followed the same path toward utopia by uniting together. Combining fact and fiction in a way typical of propaganda art, these posters exuded positive vibes and seemed to suggest that Mao was an omnipresent force that would accompany China to happiness and greatness.

This book brings together a selection of colorful propaganda artworks and cultural artifacts from photographer Michael Wolf's vast collection of Chinese propaganda posters, many of which are now extremely rare. Michael Wolf has lived in Hong Kong for eight years and works as a photographer for Stern. He collects posters and photographs from the period of the Cultural Revolution till today. (http://www.photomichaelwolf.com)