MAO'S CHINA.

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Shanghai, 1949-1959. First edition, first printing, of this photobook issued by the Shanghai Municipal Government to celebrate ten years of Communist rule, as well as Chinese culture, history, and art.Shanghai's status as the country's economic powerhouse is stressed through numerous pictures of heavy and light industries, smiling workers, and modern housing developments, as well as of consumer goods such as fountain pens, sewing machines, and bicycles. Space is given to healthcare, culture and the arts, the historic architecture of the Bund, parades, and tourism. Unlike other propaganda from the period, the message is uniformly forward-looking, centring on developments achieved under socialism rather than recycling shop-worn condemnations of the Republican and imperial eras.Copies of this extravagant production were also issued housed in a paper box.

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