Visual images of Russia and the West in China (1950s - 1970s) Changes, continuities and contingencies
Prof. Dr. Nikolay Samoylov, St. Petersburg State University, Department of Theory of Social Development of Asian and African Countries
 Prof. Nikolay Samoylov
Visual images have a great impact on the forming of a nation’s perceptions about other peoples. This is particularly typical of the countries where literacy rate and levels of education are not very high. In the 1950s – 1970s in the People’s Republic of China, visual images (portraits, posters, cartoons) played a very important role in mass propaganda and were used to introduce official ideas into the public consciousness.
In that period the image of America and the West as a whole was negative in China, and it did not change much. The image of the Soviet Union, on the contrary, was entirely positive in the 1950s, but during the “Сultural revolution” it underwent significant changes, in many respects becoming similar to the image of the West. All these changes got their reflection in posters and cartoons.
The lecture will examine the causes and the nature of the changes and continuities in China’s perception of the USSR and the West in the 1950s – 1970s and will show the dynamics of these processes.
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