Anti-American Art: Armed Arm in Armed Arm

This Chinese poster, ca. early 1960s, calls for the "Eradication" of US imperialism from all the countries it has attacked, bullied or invaded. In an uncharacteristically expressionistic style this poster returns to the favorite theme of international unity. Growing out of the Bandung Conference of 1955, Chinese foreign policy tried to suggest that international non-alignment was akin to anti-imperialism, leading to some unsavory international alliances between Chinese communists and local nationalists. Anyway Chinese propaganda on the theme did a valiant job of portraying multi-national, pan-gender, multi-class crowds of righteous revolutionaries. The crowds are usually full or archetypically distinct subjects: not just guerrillas and armed workers but, on far left, a determined older black woman in a pink housedress and on right, a younger white woman in a blue dress.