Comments on: Cultural Revolution Propaganda Part 2

By: /b/

/b/ — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:15:10 +0000

the 2nd guy is Friedrich Engels, who was a close friend of Marx and worked with him

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:01:53 +0000

Does anyone know who the guy between Karl marx and VI Lenin is?
Also, does anyone else notice the facial hair getting sparser and sparser until Moozidung?

By: Esther

Esther — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:45:37 +0000

“A bit sad that these posters are now considered cute/ kitsch.”
我不同意。 Not everyone who professes interest in this kind of stuff necessarily views it as cute etc, although a lot of people really seem to consider these posters (and the waving Mao watches) as cool. Personally, I just love Communist propaganda material, but for professional reasons. A colleague of mine is crazy about German war tactics during World War II, but he certainly isn’t a Nazi, so I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with having a keen interest in some of the “darker” periods in history. If you want to see the other extreme – full endorsement of the slogans above – take a look at the comments on some “political” Chinese songs on YouTube. Some of them are so gutwrenchingly cheesy they have to be fake.

“that the average citizen can be easily braim washed”
True, although it’s not merely “the average citizen”.Actually,it’s just a matter of exposure. Some time ago, I would asserted that everything depended on one’s education level and ability to think critically. I prided myself in not being susceptible to propaganda, but job-related research proved me wrong. After spending quite some time on websites that propagated certain ideologies and reading similar material, I caught myself having thoughts that were in accordance with the arguments made by these groups – despite consciously believing in quite the opposite. When I realized the extend of the phenomenon, I was scared stiff.

Btw, Ben, your translations really captured the 语气 and essence of the posters’ captions.

By: Last Hermit

Last Hermit — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:24:01 +0000

‘Everything will come out.’ should be ‘Hunt everyone down’

By: Last Hermit

Last Hermit — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:30:06 +0000

‘进一步开展活学活用毛泽东思想的群众运动’ should be read as ‘进一步开展(活学活用毛泽东思想的)群众运动’

where ‘活’ means ‘灵活’

Deepen our masses movement for a flexible studies and use of the Mao Zedong Thought?

By: seine

seine — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:20:46 +0000

“Carry out in depth the Revolution’s Mass Criticism! Everything will come out.”

I think the latter part of that is more along the lines of “Expose everything”, no? I read the poster as more of a command, as opposed to the prediction implied by “everything will come out.”

GREAT translations, btw!

I’ve been lurking around your blog for a while now … i really really love it

By: xge

xge — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:03:35 +0000

Nice translation.
Those posters are so commonly seen that one would never realize their true menaings until actually trying to translate them into English.

By: harry_d

harry_d — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:59:59 +0000

Agree.

A bit sad that these posters are now considered cute/ kitsch. Even I am guilty of this.

How quickly these ugly pages of history can be forgotten/ ignored.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:38:19 +0000

“Soldiers and civilians unite as one, view the world and see who is the enemy.”

This one should be translated as “Soldiers and civilians unite as one. Who can stop us now?”

Those were the darkest days of China’s modern history. It is estimated that 33 million of Chinese died of hunger in the Great Leap Forward Movement (not to be confused with any gymnastic move named after Chinese gymnasts if any) prior to Cultural Revolution. Some believe Cultural Revolution was Mao’s way to diverge people’s attention from the real economic problem then and also to purge out political rivals. Mao was a typical Chinese emper0r. History has proved again and again that propaganda works and that the average citizen can be easily braim washed.