"乘风破浪 各显神通" (Brave the wind and waves, each shows their powers), Great Leap Forward poster
A colour poster headed '乘風破浪 各顯神通' shows a worker on a gear-shaped surfboard, a soldier driving a red tractor, villagers with a sheaf of grain and a banner, and a monkey figure on a rocket, all crossing a rough sea in one direction. The tell is the borrowed myth: the slogan comes from the Daoist Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each by their own power, and the poster transfers that prestige to Great Leap Forward labour and machinery, while the crowd moving as one makes participation look general (bandwagon).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1958
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- People's Republic of China (Shanghai poster artists; issuing body not named)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- East Asia
- Country
- China
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- People's Republic of China
- Leader
- Mao Zedong
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Economy and finance, Labor
- Event
- Great Leap Forward
- Leader
- Mao Zedong
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 11, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (per Wikimedia Commons)
Wang Liuying and eight other credited artists (Commons credit), via chineseposters.net and Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
Original (Chinese) · read from the image, not independently checked
乘風破浪 各顯神通
Brave the wind and ride the waves, each shows their own magic powers.
Headline in red across the top; small print at the lower right edge is a publisher imprint and was not read.
