Inciting mental terror as effective governmental control: Chinese propaganda posters during the cultural revolution (1966–76)

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how propaganda posters were used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the means of effective governmental control during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Most of the propaganda posters do not include images of terror but, on the contrary, overtly beautiful and happy moments of life. Despite this, however, the posters engendered traumatic experiences and fear among people. Therefore, I suggest that aside from the posters’ main task in serving as an obvious means of effective governmental control, they also provoked mental terror among people. As a result, they can be seen as a weapon of governmental terrorism employed against its own people.