Big-character poster

'big-character reports') are handwritten posters displaying large Chinese characters, usually mounted on walls in public spaces such as universities, factories, government departments, and sometimes directly on the streets.

[4] During the May Fourth Movement in 1919, Peking University students were enraged by the Treaty of Versailles, which handed German-occupied territory in China to Japan after World War I and decided to hold a rally in protest.

[8] For instance, a poster printed by the Political Department of the General Headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army led by KMT is dominated by big characters written in the center.

Inspired by the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also used wall newspapers and posters in their propaganda campaign, as they could be easily produced and reproduced and were written in accessible language conducive to mass mobilization.

"[16] In late 1956, Mao Zedong believed that internal contradictions within the socialist society and within the party leadership, such as issues of subjectivism, bureaucratism, and secretarianism, must be solved before they develop into serious antagonism that requires more violent and radical measures.

For instance, in 1956, Li Lesheng, a deputy chairman of a trade union, wrote a big-character poster against local party secretary Deng Song, whose policies were not welcomed by workers and other trade-union cadres.

[48] Indeed, though miscellaneous local problems were exposed, opinions expressed in these big-character posters tended to be homogeneous in their unanimous support for Mao and the Party, and is thus similar to other forms of political propaganda.

When the US navy moved into the Taiwan Strait in 1958, numerous big-character posters were produced in support of Zhou Enlai's declaration on September 4 that no foreign aircraft or military vessels may enter China's territorial sky and waters without permission.

[79] Allegedly, Lu Ping also engaged his supporters to write big-character posters that denounced Nie Yuanzi's action as an "opposition to the Party Central Committee.

Liu Shaoqi and other leaders tried to control the movement by issuing an eight-point directive restricting the posting of big-character posters, yet the guidelines were not strictly followed by the students.

[82] On May 25, Li Xuefeng, the newly appointed First Secretary of Beijing, visited Peking University at midnight and exhorted students and party members that they must "struggle in an orderly way instead of scrambling everything up.

[84] After meeting with the Central Committee, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping decided to send down work teams to various universities to further control the movement, and Mao Zedong initially approved their decision.

[81] To support Nie Yuanzi and other student activists against the work teams, Kang Sheng sent a copy of the poster to Mao Zedong, who was enjoying his vacation in Hangzhou.

"[87] Chen supported the main ideas proposed in the Peking poster and further criticized Lu Ping, Song Shuo, and Peng Peiyun as reactionary, anti-party, and anti-socialist.

[101] Yet Mao Zedong was dissatisfied, as he launched a more severe criticism against Liu Shaoqi and the work teams and alleged that all those who failed to support the student movement should be dealt with.

[106] Though the poster only vaguely targeted "some leading comrades" who had "enforced a bourgeois dictatorship and struck down the surging movement of the great Cultural Revolution of the proletariat", everyone at the time knew that the person under attack was Liu Shaoqi.

Millions of people wrote big-character posters, which could be found almost everywhere in the nation, from urban cities to rural villages, from university campuses to factories, from government offices to the streets.

After 1976, although the Cultural Revolution was criticized, Mao Zedong's reputation in general and the CCP's fundamental authority were deemed unquestionable by the new regime, which caused some discontent among those who suffered during the past ten years.

The Beijing Municipal Revolutionary Committee passed an ordinance on April 6, 1976, stating that the posting of big-character posters on streets, public forums, and buildings was prohibited "except in designed places.

"[143] On December 6, 1979, the Beijing Municipal Revolutionary Committee passed an ordinance, prohibiting the posting of big-character posters at Xidan Democracy Wall (and all places other than the designated site in Yuetan Park).

[178] Even when people had been struggled and had allegedly reformed themselves in the past, they may still be dragged out and forced to go through another round of humiliation and criticism, such as old Republican generals Du Yuming and Song Xilian.

According to Wang Zhongfang, "if you wanted to overthrow and really disgrace someone, the preferred way of going about it was to raise the subject of sexual relations....In the end that person might be too ashamed to face anyone, and might even attempt suicide.

"[186] While different targets may be accused of different mistakes, every questionable behavior would be connected to larger anti-party or anti-Mao crimes, such as being an "unrepentant capitalist roader" to a "hidden spy and traitor," a "counterrevolutionary," a "conspirator and plotter," a "revisionist", etc.

"[190] In 1967, Beijing factory workers promised that they would condense all their hatred into "the most concentrated bullets and the hottest flame, shoot them towards the anti-revolutionary revisionist clique led by Peng Zhen and supported by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and burn them into ashes.

[202] Compared to the closed-off and secretive party propaganda system, the free and largely spontaneous writing, posting, reading, and copying of big-character posters created a much more open network that worked independently from the official channels.

[176] Many people, including writer Yu Hua, wrote big-character posters as a way to perform repentance for incorrect past tendencies and demonstrate their renewed commitment to the revolutionary course.

In late 1967 and early 1968, after the February Countercurrent, Lin Biao and other members of the Cultural Revolution Small Group attempted to bring down Chen Yi, Foreign Minister of China.

Political scientist and sinologist Lucian Pye believes that their emphasis on confrontation, hatred, and rebelliousness had a significant impact on the socialization of a generation of Chinese children who have become adults.

[207] Lu Xing argues that as most big-character posters convey a belief in moral absoluteness and unconditional acceptance of the dominant ideology, they deprived the Chinese the ability to think critically.

[217] In the Cultural Revolution, inspired by the rhetoric of absolute egalitarianism, young women, vowing to do whatever a man can do, were eager to project an image of themselves as tough, fearless, and enduring by denying any form of gendered physical weakness.