Chinese Cultural Revolution Poster: New Agricultural University Students, 1973

Description

Chinese Cultural Revolution Poster: New Agricultural University Students, 1973
Poster Title: New Agricultural University Students
This is a Cultural Revolution poster showing new students ready to attend an agricultural university in China. During the Cultural Revolution in 1966 the university exams and classes were closed and many of the professors were beaten and sent to work on rural farms or reeducation camps. Beginning in the early 1970’s universities and colleges started to take back students with backgrounds as workers, peasants and soldiers.  This poster may represent some of the first students returning to attend a university and study agriculture. 1977 was the first year that university exams were restarted and 5.7 million students took the exams with only 273,000 were accepted. Today 30.3 million students are enrolled in a college or university in China. The drawing is dated 1973, however, I believe that it was actually printed in 1974. It is an original poster and, for its age, is in surprisingly great condition. There is some crumpling and a couple of tiny tears on the left side; there is also some yellowing from age.  The size of the poster is approximately 30” x 21”.
I started traveling to China in 1982 and after many trips found a shop in Beijing that sold original Mao memorabilia.
A letter documenting the purchase will be included with the poster, a sample of the letter is attached.
purchase.