• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.4
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• pp.77-104
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• 2006

The propaganda paintings in oil colors or in forms of posters made from 1949 to 1966 have gone through some changes experiencing the influence of the Soviet Union Art and discussion of nationalization, while putting political messages of the time in the picture planes. The propaganda paintings which have been through this process became an effective means of encouraging the illiterate people in political ideologies, production, and learning. Alike other propaganda paintings in different mediums, the ones which were painted in oil colors and in the form of posters have been produced fundamentally based on Mao Zedong's intensification of the literary art on the talks on literature at Yenan. Yet, the oil paintings and posters were greatly influenced by the socialist realism and propaganda paintings of the Soviet Union, compared to other propaganda paintings in different mediums. Accordingly, they were preponderantly dealt in the discussions of nationalization of the late '50s. To devide in periods, the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949 as a diverging point, the propaganda paintings made before and after 1949 have differences in subject matters and styles. In the former period, propaganda paintings focused on the political lines of the Communists and enlightenment of the people, but in the latter period, the period of Cultural Revolution, the most important theme was worshiping Mao Zedong. This was caused by reflection of the social atmosphere, and it is shown that the propaganda painters had reacted sensitively to the alteration of politics and the society. On the side of formalities, the oil paintings and posters made before the Cultural Revolution were under a state of unfolding several discussions including nationalization while accepting the Soviet Union styles and contents, and the paintings made afterwards show more of unique characteristics of China. In 1956, the discussion about nationalization which had effected the whole world of art, had strongly influenced the propaganda paintings in oil colors more than anything. There were two major changes in the process of making propaganda paintings in oil colors. One was to portray lives of the Chinese people truthfully, and the other was to absorb the Chinese traditional styles of expression. After this period, the oil painters usually kept these rules in creating their works, and as a result, the subject matters, characters, and backgrounds have been greatly Sinicized. For techniques came the flat colored surface of the new year prints and the traditional Chinese technique of outlining were used for expressing human figures. While the propaganda paintings in oil colors achieved high quality and depth, the posters had a very direct representation of subject matters and the techniques were unskilled compared to the oil paintings. However, after the establishment of People's Republic of China, the posters were used more than any other mediums for propagation of national policy and participation of the political movements, because it was highly effective in delivering the policies and political lines clearly to the Chinese people who were mostly illiterate. The poster painters borrowed techniques and styles from the Soviet Union through books and exhibitions on Soviet Union posters, and this relation of influences constantly appears in the posters made at the time. In this way, like the oil paintings, the posters which have been made with a direct influence of the Soviet Union had developed a new, sinicised process during the course of nationalization. The propaganda paintings in oil colors or in forms of posters, which had undergone the discussion of nationalization, had put roots deep down in the lives of the Chinese people, and this had become another foundation for the amplification of influences of political propaganda paintings in the following period of Cultural Revolution.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.477-491
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• 2015

This study analyzes Chinese dresses featured in propaganda posters since the mid-$20^{th}$ century as well as explores the political characteristics of dress. This study used an in-depth interview method to investigate information from 10 Chinese familiar with public awareness and donning practices of the Chinese from 1949 to present. Interviews and analysis provided the following conclusions. First, Zhongshan-zhuang, Liening-Zhuang and Bulaji were widely worn in the Reconstruction because of the revolutionary spirit; in addition, Huayishang also became simultaneously popular as a means to reflect the new aspects of socialism. Second, Jufu/Junbianfu were the most common dresses during the period of Cultural Revolution because the government used various mechanisms to control public opinion. Third, Western fashion began to enter the Chinese market and suit wearing by the Chinese became a symbol of the Reformation and Open-door policy. Traditional dress is no longer a symbol of Feudalism and is a part of Chinese culture that has been reaccepted in the Reformation and Open-door times. Finally, during these 60 years, Chinese dress has obvious political characteristics, but began to change. The changes of political characteristics were, de-politicization expressed by the introduction of Western ready-made, permissions for traditional dress and diversification/ individualization.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.40
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• pp.83-107
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• 2015

Propaganda is often accepted as the political promotion that had used mostly by the socialist states during the First and the Second World Wars and the Cold War and by Hitler who governed Germany. Therefore, cases of the study on the image and picture propaganda were mostly posters or films of the socialism period when the propaganda was active. However, today it is not easy any more to find propaganda of the clear promotion characteristic as the past. In these modern times, it has changed into metaphorical propaganda based on 'persuasion', rather than publicity like past. Therefore, it has been changing from the direct promotion of the past into the indirect persuasion; and from the raw, direct and powerful publicity and claim into the soft and metaphorical persuasion and appeal. Thus, investigating again the contemporary propaganda will be an important element in analyzing contemporary images. The animation, selected as a target of the analysis of propaganda, exists in various ways in various images of the modern times, which is not too much to say that today's society is the television society. Besides, the animation is the image that can cover all ages as men and women of all ages can watch, so it is proper for analysis of the contemporary propaganda of metaphorical, indirect and various forms.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.6
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• pp.27-50
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• 2008

This thesis examines contemporary Chinese painting after the Cultural Revolution(1966~76), focusing upon so-called "Chinese Pop art", which I termed as "Socialist Pop art". I considered the art of this period within the broader context of social changes especially after the Tienanmen incident of 1989. After the Cultural Revolution during which idolization of Chairman Mao was at its peak, one of the major changes in communist China was that an anti-Mao wave was generated in almost every social class. For example, novels that revealed the hardships during the Cultural Revolution were published. Posters that openly criticized the Maoism were also produced and displayed on the walls, and demand for democracy spurred widespread activist movements among young generations. These broad social changes were also reflected in art. A variety of art movements were introduced from the West to China, and after a period of experimentation with the new imported styles, artists began to apply the new artistic idiom to their works in order to visualize their own social and political realities they lived in. It was a shift from earlier Socialist Realism to a new expression either directly or indirectly, "Socialist Pop", an amalgam of Socialist Realism and Pop art tradition. After the 1989 crackdown of Tienanmen Square protest, when communist government quelled with brutal measures the students, workers, and ordinary people who rose for democracy, greater urge to protest the Deng Xiaoping regime emerged. This time coincided with the gradual emergence of art using Pop art vocabulary to satirize the social reality, the Socialist Pop art, along with many other art forms all with avant-garde spirit. One of the most frequent subjects of Chinese Pop art was visual images of Chairman Mao and his Cultural Revolution, and new China that was saturated with capitalism, which tainted the Chinese way of life with a Western way of consumerism and commercialism. The reason for the popularity of Mao's image was spurred by the "Mao Craze" in the early 1990's. People suddenly began to fall in a kind of nostalgia for the past, and once again, Mao Zedong was idolized as an entity who can heal the problems of modern China who had been marching towards their ultimate destination, the economic development. But this time Chairman Mao was no more an idol but just a popular, commercial product. He is no more an object of worship of almost religious nature but he has become an iconography symbolizing the complex nature of present Chinese society. During this process of depicting the social reality, Chinese artists are making the authority and sanctity of Maoism ineffective. Dealing with this new trend of contemporary Chinese art in view of "Socialist Pop art" two manners of re-creating Pop art can be illustrated: one that incorporates the propaganda posters of the Cultural Revolution; the other borrows from Chinese traditional popular imagery or mass media, such as photos taken during Mao era. What is worth mentioning is that these posters and photos of the Cultural Revolution can be identified as 'popular' media, as they were directed to educate the popular mass, thus combination of this ingenuous pop media with Western Pop art can be fully justified as a genre unique to China. Through this genre, we can discover a new chapter of the Chinese contemporary painting and its society, as their Pop art can be considered as self-portraits true to their present appearances.