PUBLIC MARKS with tags illustration & propaganda

This site is dedicated to the Chinese propaganda poster as it has been produced from 1949 till the present day. So-called propaganda art has played a major supporting role in the many campaigns that were designed to mobilize the people, and throughout the People's Republic, the propaganda poster has been the favored vehicle through which art conveyed model behavior.

The following presentation of collection highlights was selected by Library staff who have worked closely with the WPA posters. The posters were selected with an eye toward their design, representation of a variety of states and artists, and as a way of featuring those that have not been widely published. These examples demonstrate the breadth and depth of the collection and the styles and content used by the WPA to advertise varied programs and campaigns. The presentation is divided into the following sections:

The OBEY sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. Heidegger describes Phenomenology as "the process of letting things manifest themselves." Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.