Starting around 2020, a great flood of new public propaganda art began to appear. This new red wave centered on the so-called “Socialist Core Values”, a list of twelve ideas that allegedly guide PRC China’s Marxist-communist society.
A propaganda poster in Wuhan’s subway system depicting the semi-mythical communist worker Lei Feng.A “baoan” security guard walks under a street display of the twelve “socialist core values” of New China (Wuhan, 2020).Two men sit under a propaganda poster in Wuhan, China in 2020.A poster instructing people not to eat exotic animals after the outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan. Two men installing propaganda slogans on a wall in Wuhan, China (2020).
All around China, dilapidated buildings and construction sites are blocked from view by rapidly erected green walls. These walls are then covered by various propaganda slogans which normally includes the twelve Socialist Core Values.
Two women pose in front of a large green wall of propaganda in Wuhan, China in 2020. The top three characters say: “China Dream”.The “China Dream” is another slogan which hopes to contrast China’s ambitions with those of the United States and its original American Dream. A prominent sign erected in a park to display the Socialist Core Values to all comrades enjoying the park (Wuhan, China, 2020).
The Socialist Core Values and the “China Dream” are almost like wallpaper in contemporary PRC society. These slogans are seen everywhere. School children are forced to memorize them, although they rarely understand them or think about them in their personal lives. They are paradoxically both ubiquitous and ignored.
An illuminated propaganda poster in a Wuhan subway station in 2020.
New China Archive 