Painting History: China’s Revolution in a Global Context By Jiawe ...

Propaganda work was an established practice in the PLA, and all division-level political departments had a propaganda team with at least one art worker. After working in the Corps for a year, I was appointed to the position of art worker. My responsibilities included making slide illustrations for the model-worker slideshows screened by the film brigade, producing propaganda posters, and administering the blackboard poster work. I was also placed on standby to join the Art Class at the Corps Headquarters located in Jiamusi.

The political department at Corps Headquarters had established an art class and put Hao Boyi⁹ in charge. He had been in the marines, then recruited as a cadre in 1958, and eventually joined the Great Northern Wilderness Printmaking Studio in 1960 as its youngest member. The principal members of the studio were subsequently assigned to the provincial capital of Harbin to establish the Heilongjiang Provincial Artists Association and to work as professional painters. Hao’s background and experience facilitated his setting up of a printmaking workshop housed in the Corps Recreation Club. Annual reviews were held from 1970 onwards to assess submissions of draft sketches, and it was through this process that young artists with talent were identified and sent to participate at the Corps Headquarters Art Class.

This meant that for about three to four months each year, twenty to thirty art students would eat, live, and work together. It was not until 1972 that artists were permitted to sign their artworks, so all artworks produced were unsigned; artists also received no remuneration. Everyone, however, continued to receive their usual monthly salary of thirty-two yuan. We discussed and corrected one another’s work, and worked collaboratively on paintings. It was like going to art school without paying tuition fees. There were restrictions on subject matter, but our source materials were derived from our everyday life experiences. Back then, all of us basically identified with the official ideology, but in the evenings whenever possible we would lock the door and surreptitiously copy all kinds of prints that had been outlawed as feudal, capitalist, or