Rare 1973 Chinese Cultural Revolution poster LITTLE RED GUARD KIDS PERFORMANCE

Description

This auction is for a rare original 1973 Chinese propaganda poster depicting two young members of the Little Red Guards performing. The girl is singing or reciting and the boy is accompanying her on the erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.
The Little Red Guards were the younger counterparts of the Red Guards, the implementers of the Cultural Revolution. It was a mass youth organization for the Chinese Communist Party.
This is an original poster – it is
not
a reproduction. The item comes from a significant, wide-ranging collection of posters and other rare collectibles of the era acquired
30 years ago from sources in mainland China.
These posters were produced to be very much of the moment, printed by the government to convey information to a then widely-illiterate public. Many were intended to depict an idealized vision of the Communist state.
They were not intended to be durable art. Like advertising, they were colorful, pleasing, and meant to be replaced by new posters as they came along. Therefore, many did not survive. It’s possible this may be one of the few remaining copies.
NOTES: Objects in four corners of poster are magnets holding the poster for photography. There is no yellowing on white border - it's the limitations of our photography lighting. Also, if the photo appears slightly off-kilter, it's because of our photography limitations.
Shipping: Free USPS Priority Mail; poster ships rolled in a sturdy cardboard poster tube
Category: Political, Cultural Revolution, children
Subject: Little Red Guard girl singer and boy accompanist.
Size: 30 inches x 21 inches (76 cm x 50 cm)
Year: 1973
Condition: VG+
Issues: Horizontal crease about 4" from the top; two minor tears on the right border; typical minor age foxing on border.
From the 2015 book, Chinese Propaganda Posters by Stefan R. Landsberger:
(Through) its long history, the Chinese political system used the arts to propagate correct behavior and thought. Literature, poetry, painting, stage plays, songs, and other artistic expressions were produced to entertain, but they also were given an important (educational) function: they had to educate the people in what was considered right and wrong at any one time.
...Once the People's Republic was established in 1949, propaganda art continued to be one of the major means to provide examples of correct behavior. But it also gave a concrete expression to many different policies, and to the many different visions of the future the Chinese Communist Party had over the years. In a country with as many illiterates as China had in the 1940s and 1950s, this method of visualizing abstract ideas and...educating the people worked especially well. Propaganda posters, which were cheaply and easily produced, became one of the most favored vehicles for this type of communication.
...The most talented artists were employed to visualize the political trends of the moment in quite detailed fashion. Many of them had worked on the commercial calendars that had been so popular before the People's Republic was founded...Their aim was to portray the future in the present, not only showing "life as it really is," but also "life as it ought to be."
...The content of the posters was largely taken up with the topics of politics and economic reconstruction that dominated China after 1949. Hyper-realistic, ageless, larger-than-life peasants, soldiers, workers, and youngsters in dynamic poses peopled the images. They pledged allegiance to the Communist cause, or obedience to Chairman Mao Zedong, or were engaged in the glorious task of rebuilding the nation.
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