⧉Image Chairs And Stools: Furniture In Propaganda Posters

This propaganda poster was published in 1962, following the disastrous end of the Great Leap Forward. It shows an urban family of five children with their mother. The family lives in great comfort, with new wooden furniture, proper chairs, wearing nice coloured clothing and some accessories. To the left of the Mao portrait hangs a framed certificate that suggests that someone in the family was awarded the title of Great Leap Forward vanguard (yuejin xianfeng 跃进先锋).

Similar to image 1, this poster also shows a family's home. There are three generations: the father, a government cadre wearing a Sun Yatsen suit (also known as a Mao suit), is just coming home from work. The children, who both wear the red scarves of Young Pioneers, are sitting on wooden stools at the dining table doing their homework. The grandmother is mending clothes, signalling that the family is being frugal and takes care of things. It is a fashionable home, with a radio, porcelain, flowers, toys, many books, and even a cat (which do not appear often in propaganda posters). They have several furniture items, including chairs and stools, made of wood and bamboo or rattan.

This image shows a group of men playing a game in a workers' club. There is at least one cadre (dressed in the blue suit) as well as an urban worker (in a white shirt). The architecture and interior design of the surroundings suggest that this is a newly built club, with fashionable lighting and sturdy wooden furniture (for more details on this type of chair see the DIY furniture manuals further below in this bio).