Graphic Arts

TO THE TEACHER

OBJECTIVES OF THE UNIT: To examine the impact of social and political change on China's visual culture during the twentieth century. To foster discussion of foreign influence during this period.

TEACHING STRATEGIES: Students will find the commercial ads closer to their own experience than the political posters. It should be easy for them to compare the ads with western ones and think about what might account for possible similarities and differences in strategy. They might also look for typically "Chinese" or "Western" elements in the ads as they consider the product being sold and the aims of the audience.

Students will get more out of the section on political posters if they have some familiarity with the major political events of the twentieth century and the types of messages authorities wanted to convey. The political posters can be treated as a set, with little effort to divide them by period, but a more sophisticated analysis is possible when students understand key stages in the political history of the People's Republic of China, at least in terms of before the Cultural Revolution, during the Cultural Revolution, and since the death of Mao.

Students will probably be struck by the contrast between the advertisements and posters in this unit and the paintings in other units. One way to make this material more challenging would be to ask students to identify not the changes but the continuities. Is there anything distinctively Chinese about contemporary graphic arts?
WHEN TO TEACH: All of the material in this unit is from the twentieth century. The commercial section focuses roughly on period 1910-40, the political posters on 1930-76, and the contemporary scene covers the period since the death of Mao in 1976.

The invention of printing in China during the Tang dynasty led to the development of a new art form, woodblock prints. These included both single sheet pictures intended to be pasted on a door or wall or given away to advertise a product, as well as illustrations in books. Many book illustrations have been shown here, especially in the units on Military Technology, Homes, and Gardens. Throughout the late imperial period, these traditional graphic arts flourished. There were even illustrated manuals on how to paint and illustrated catalogues on where to buy art materials.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the graphic arts underwent rapid changes in order to adapt to new political and commercial needs. Chinese artists, exposed to Western art and design, incorporated elements of foreign styles into their work. At the same time, with a growing awareness of China’s identity in the world, artists also sought to reinterpret traditional art forms and apply them to new themes. The gradual transformation of Chinese visual culture had an impact on almost everyone in the population, as periodicals reached larger and larger audiences and posters were distributed throughout the country.

While looking through this unit, keep the following questions in mind:

	*In what ways did graphic art combine foreign and Chinese art forms and styles?*
	*What are some changes you observe in women’s images over the course of the twentieth century? What forces might have triggered such changes?*
	*How do the form and content of political posters reflect ideology? How do they change with changes in official policy and political leadership?*
	How are issues of class reflected in both commercial and political imagery? How are the different classes in Chinese society portrayed and how does that change over the course of the century?
	*What similarities or differences do you see between the work of commercial artists and that of government artists assigned propaganda work?*

Commercial

Political

Contemporary