Image Politics

As an important medium for disseminating information and constructing society,images affect people’s cognition.As a special image,stamps have become one of the windows through which we can spy on the use of political power.Previous studies on stamps mainly focused on the history of stamp issuance and the direction of art appreciation.Based on the theory of political symbols,this article selects stamps as research materials and selects stamp patterns as the analysis entry points.Through image stratification and case studies,the stamp symbols Discuss the expression,shaping and function of the future with a view to exploring the research methods and materials of political symbols.This paper consists of five chapters.The first chapter is about the research origin,status quo,theories and methods of stamps which can be seen as a reflection of political power.Thus,it is found that the theory of political symbols can be appropriately applied in analyzing the stamps,the emphasis of this research.From the diachronic perspective,chapter two discusses the change of stamp symbols from war period(1927-1949)to the contemporary period(1978 till now).It is noted that the presentation of stamp patterns serve the political needs and change dynamically in line with the change of regime policies in each period.Chapter three takes series of stamps of Lei Feng as a case to explore the power mechanism behind the change of stamp contents.Also,this part analyzes the operation of power in the process of symbol establishment,shaping,and promotion by virtue of point-to-area method.Chapter four investigates the political function of stamp symbols.The fourth part discusses the political function of stamp symbols,and believes that stamps play the role of legal construction by selectively presenting and disseminating images.Based on the analysis of the changes in the content of stamp symbols,the mechanism of symbol construction and the functioning of symbols,under the umbrella of political theories combined with symbol-power theory,it is found out that stamps,becoming the political symbols and functioning,is the result of the operation of rights in fact in the last chapter.Meanwhile,stamps can influence and shape people’s ideas imperceptibly by the stamp patterns’ interpretation of history and politics,which has a negative effect on the construction of the legitimacy of power.