A Rare Large quintessential Cultural Revolution Poster

"Chairman Mao are with us forever."

If Cultural revolution was a popular tourist attraction, then this poster would have been a local specialty one should never miss in getting.

This quintessential Cultural Revolution poster depicted an image familiar to those who had gone through the Cultural Revolution either as a red guard, or someone who were the target of the red guards.

Observe the red guards waving the red books, wearing the red bands that have "Red Guard" written on them. These eager, enthusiastic young students-turned-into-red-guards were the main participants of the Cultural Revolution, and it was with them, Mao was able to secure and elevate his position from a Chairman to God like figure. These students idolized Mao and took over factories and turned these factories into production facilities for memorabilia items that themed around what Mao's theories. One popular item among all red guards was the button that featured Mao's headshots they wore, as evidenced on this poster.

To the left of the posters, there are three flying banners, carrying the following three messages, from left to right respectively - " Long live to heroic Red Guards!", "Long live to Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution!", "Long live to the Chinese Communist Party!"

To the right of the poster, there are also three flying banners, carrying the following three messages, from left to right respectively, "Long Live Chairman Mao!", "Long live to undefeated Mao's Theory!", "Long live to the victory of Mao's Revolutionary War!"

The poster was developed by Shanghai Mao's Theory Advocate Team and published by Shanghai Xinhua Publishing House in October 1968. As indicated by the lower right corner, there were only 200,000 copies ever printed. The price for the poster at the time was 12 fen, or 12 Chinese cents.

This poster, though at the time was developed to praise Mao, in retrospect, adequately captured the unseen craze that China as a country was experiencing and the naivety these red book waving Red Guards depicted.

If Cultural revolution was a popular tourist attraction, then this poster would have been a local specialty one should never miss in getting.

Size: 33" (L) by 22.5" (W)

Price: $40