Women's Roles in China: Changes Over Time 

"Become a red seedling -- Strike root, flower and bear seeds in the places the motherland needs it most!", 1965

"Carry out birth planning for the revolution", 1974

Images courtesy of the IISH / Stefan R. Landsberger Collections.

Suggested for grades 9 to 12

1.  What messages did propaganda posters send to Chinese women? What messages did they send to Chinese people as a whole?

2.  How powerful or effective is propaganda in motivating people to change behavior or try something new?

3.  What can we learn about a culture from its artwork?

Try using this activity when teaching about...

• revolutions
• family values
• political art
• propaganda in the 20th century
• changing gender roles
• marketing/advertising techniques

Posters were an ideal means of communicating the message of the Chinese Communist Party to China's diverse population. Illiteracy, expense, and rugged geography made newspapers, magazines, film, radio, and live theater ineffective and impractical as a means for communicating such messages. Speaking through mass produced images rather than written text, inexpensive posters were an efficient means of addressing both illiterate peasants and busy city dwellers. They were often the propaganda tool of choice.

Designed to further the revolution, propaganda posters used compelling symbols to introduce new ideas, create allegiance, and inspire action. These new posters were a blend of commercial advertisements from the 1920s and political posters used to mobilize the population against the Japanese in the late 1930s. Mao Zedong brought together artists in Yan'an, the Chinese Communist Party base from 1935 until the late 1940s, and presented his ideas on the purpose and methods of artistic expression. Influenced by study in Soviet Russia, Chinese use of woodblock prints and paper cuts, and successful commercial campaigns, the Yan'an artists began to develop designs that depicted the revolutionary lifestyle. Chinese posters were generally sunny and bright, filled with smiling people carrying out Mao's principles. The posters were warm and vibrant, often saturated with shades of red, an auspicious color in Chinese culture and the color of international Communist revolution.  

Posters that featured women presented a dual message: fully liberated and active participants in the peasant revolution on one hand, and urban calendar girls from the 1920s on the other. With the fervor and fury of the Cultural Revolution, images of women became less feminine. Women worked, dressed and looked like men in clothing that was not supposed to reveal female curves. With their sturdy features, robust faces and shining eyes, they showed revolutionary commitment, youth, strength and determination. However, women were often presented as peasants, evoking traditional associations with fertility and good harvests.

The two posters in this lesson represent two different images of the role of women in China. The 1965 poster reads in English: "Become a red seedling -- Strike root, flower and bear seeds in the places the motherland needs it most!"  The 1974 poster reads: "Carry out birth planning for the revolution."

Materials

• Several examples of advertisements for common products and services and public service announcements (from newspapers, magazines, TV, and Internet sources) OR ask students to bring in examples from home
• Advertising techniques handout
• Blank paper (8.5"x11")

Procedure
1.  Display an advertisement on a large screen or display board so all students can see it. Ask students to identify the product or service being advertised. Ask students to identify what it is in the ad that makes the product or service desirable. Display a few more examples so students feel competent in identifying products and techniques.

2.  Distribute the advertising techniques handout and review the terms with students.

3.  Display several examples of ads and have students identify the product or service and which technique(s) is being utilized.

4.  Ask students which techniques seem to be the most effective. Are some techniques more effective for products, while others for services? What are effective techniques for public service announcements?

Optional Homework Assignment: Individually or as a whole class, ask students to brainstorm ideas to increase school spirit.  Distribute a piece of poster paper to each student and have them sketch a poster to "advertise" their idea. They should incorporate at least one advertising technique into their poster.

Materials

• 1965 and 1974 propaganda posters (either displayed on a large screen or color copies for every 3-4 students).

Procedure
1.  Group students into small groups of 3-4. 

2.  Display the 1965 propaganda poster and ask students to study the poster and try to determine how powerful or effective this piece of propaganda was in motivating people to change their behavior or try something new. Some guiding questions to help students analyze the poster include:
     a.  Who or what does this poster depict?
     b.  What message does it convey?
     c.  How does the poster communicate its message visually? 
     d.  How does the written text help deliver the message?
     e.  How does color and shading help deliver the message?
     f.  What action does the poster want to inspire?
     g.  Which advertising technique(s) is/are utilized?
     h.  What seems to be the goal of the 1965 poster?

3.  Display the 1974 propaganda poster and ask students to address the same guiding questions as seen above.

4.  Individually ask students to construct a Venn diagram or T chart to compare and contrast the two posters. They should include details about color, layout, techniques, and goals.

5.  Ask students to describe the values (i.e. determination or commitment) stressed in each poster. How are they similar; how are they different? Has there been change over time? What do they think caused this change? How do they think Chinese people, and especially women, felt about the change?

6.  The teacher may want to introduce the following terms which describe women's lives in Communist China (after the revolution of 1949):  "women hold up half the sky," comrade, Marriage Law of 1950. 

7.  Have students write a paragraph in which they address these two questions:
     a.  How do the images of the women portrayed in the posters confirm these elements of revolutionary culture? 
     b.  What do students think was considered the best compliment someone could say about a woman living during the first 30 years after the Chinese Communist Revolution?

Materials

• Access to Internet websites showing political propaganda posters from 1949-1976
  • http://chineseposters.net/themes/index.php
  • http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/graph/9prcmain.htm
  • http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/chnintro.php
• Blank poster paper (12"x18")

Procedure
1.  Ask students to access one of the above websites featuring Chinese political propaganda posters from 1949-1976. They should choose a person or group (i.e. Mao Zedong, peasants, or barefoot doctors), or a theme (i.e. industrialization, the Great Leap Forward, or education) on which to focus. 

2.  After students study several examples of propaganda posters and the text that accompanies them, have them design their own propaganda poster that addresses their research idea and builds upon it.

3.  Distribute a piece of poster paper to each student and have them create a finished poster to "advertise" their idea. Posters should be in full color and have a caption that urges action to change behavior to be in accordance with the government's directives. They should incorporate at least one advertising technique into their poster.

4.  Display finished posters around the classroom and have students view them and vote for the most powerful and effective posters.

Cara Abraham teaches world history, Asian Studies, and American government at Brookfield High School (CT). Her trip to China in 2001 with Yale University's PIER Outreach was the first of four. She has worked in collaboration with Primary Source since 2003 and has been a resource teacher on a China study tour, three summer institutes and several seminar series. With her husband, Michael, she has authored four chapters in The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China (2006) and China in the World (2009), sourcebooks published by Cheng and Tsui in collaboration with Primary Source.