New China "Seventeen Years" Model Worker Theme Of Art

The model worker phenomenon had been developing continuously in China. Asearly as the Soviet time, the CPC made considerable efforts in finding and cultivatingmodels to promote the development of Chinese revolution. During Yan’an period, soas to overcome the economic crisis back then and to develop the industry, CPClearned from the Soviet’s experience and also absorbed the favorable elements of atraditional Chinese institution named Jingbiao. Model workers movement weredeveloped, large-scale model worker meetings were convened. A considerable numberof labor heroes and model workers were successfully cultivated. Meanwhile, as theRectification Movement and the Literature and Art down-to-the countrysideMovement prevailed, artists went to the countryside and took part in the labor work.They made portraits for the labor workers to reflect the local actual life. Since then,model worker themed art started to thrive.After the foundation of the PRC, Chairman Mao Zedong established the guidelinefor the development of literature and art in New China in his speech at the Literatureand Art Symposium in Yan’an, which requested that literature and art should serve theworkers, farmers and soldiers, to reflect the good images of the labor people. Theconvene of model worker meeting rearoused artists’ unprecedented passion to makeportraits for model workers. A number of excellent model worker themed pieces ofwork emerged. This paper made a research on these pieces of artistic works within theSeventeen Years after the foundation of PRC. In the first part of this paper, thesepieces of works were classified into different periods and the characteristics of eachperiod were analyzed. After that, on the basis of their types of representation, thesepieces of works were further classified into model worker in agricultural andindustrial fields, model worker from PLA, and female model workers. In addition, theauthor made a discussion on the shaping effects of model worker themed art on thequalities of model workers. In the end, combined with specific pieces of work,detailed analysis and research were made on artistic works that emerged in this periodabout model workers and leaders.