Illustration:
ill. 4.2 (set: 4.1)
Author:
Hu Zhenyu (1939-) 胡振宇
Date:
1966
Genre:
poster, propaganda poster
Material:
internet file, colour; original source: poster, paper, colour
Source:
DACHS 2008 Red Book Heidelberg, Heidelberg catalogue entry
Courtesy:
University of Westminster Chinese Poster Collection
Inscription:
毛主席是我们心中的红太阳
Keywords:
Mao’s works, worker hero, workers, peasants, soldiers, Mao portrait, red sun, Mao badge, Little Red Book, hero, model hero, heroism, red sun, Mao cap, minorities, sunrays

Mao is the Red Sun in our Heart (Mao zhuxi shi women xin zhong de hong taiyang 毛主席是我们心中的红太阳)

Propaganda posters from the Cultural Revolution such as this one of 1966, entitled "Mao is the Red Sun in our Heart" 毛是我们心中的红太阳 show a worker hero is in the centre, holding up a copy of Mao’s works, a brownish book, ornamented with Mao’s standard profile portrait, exuding (pink) rays like a sun. The worker is flanked by a female peasant and a male soldier, while a very heterogenous group from all walks of life (and nationalities) is seen in the background, each of them holding the identical book of Mao’s writings ornamented with Mao’s portrait close to their heart. Depictions such as these, in which Mao’s works are dramatically put into scene by means of elevation, repetition and accentuation, appeared both before (ill. 3.9) and after (ill. 4.2), but especially during the Cultural Revolution.