Accession Number
2006/2.48.1-2

Title
Door Picture: Trader and Urban Worker

Artist(s)
Chinese

Artist Nationality
Chinese (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
circa 1948

Medium & Support
color woodblock print on paper

Dimensions
9 3/4 in x 13 3/8 in (24.8 cm x 34 cm);6 15/16 in x 5 1/4 in (17.6 cm x 13.4 cm);10 1/16 in x 10 13/16 in (25.5 cm x 27.5 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Ellen and Richard Laing

Label copy
In China there had long been a tradition of posting color prints of “door gods” (or guardian gods) at main gates to attract good luck and keep out evil. The figures often faced each other in order to observe anything that may attempt to pass from both directions. Under Communist Party rule, such content was deemed superstitious and the gods were replaced by images of peasants and workers, often represented with the abundant trappings provided by the party. The resulting “door pictures” were images of political propaganda that often included popular political phrases. The writings in the upper left and upper right hand corners of these prints read, “mutual aid between the cities and the countryside,” in reference to the inseparable link between industry and agriculture, and “commodities exchange,” which refers to the development and exchange of industrial, agricultural, and commercial products under the Communist Party.
(Chinese Gallery Rotation, Spring 2009)

Subject matter
This is a door picture, which stems from the tradition of posting two gods at the door to act as guardians. When the Community Party came to power, the gods were replaced with laborers and peasants, and the religious or folk aspect turned more propagandistic. In this image, the text reads "Mutual aid between the cities and the countryside."

Physical Description
In this image a trader and an urban worker face one another, each with his own horse carrying the fruits of his labor. The text reads "Mutual aid between the cities and the countryside."

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
color print

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
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Keywords
farmers (people in agriculture)
folk art (traditional art)
horses (equipment)
workers