The Great Northern Wasteland

Zhang Zhen Qi, Glen (Heilongjiang Province, China, undated. Same info for all images.

These works come from the seemingly-rare book Prints of Heilongjiang: An Appreciation of Modern Chinese Prints (Wanchai, Hong Kong: Sunglow Design/Pub. & Culture Company, btw. 1988 and 1995). Read about Heilongjiang on wikipedia.

Frustratingly, no dates are given for these works. I know only that they were created between March 1958 and 1995.

From Julia F. Andrews' Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 49-79 (sounding somewhat like a patchwork of Dino Buzzati stories):

In March 1958, one hundred thousand demobilized soldiers were sent to the virgin forests of China's northeastern border, an area that came to be known as Beidahuang, the Great Northern Wasteland [in north Heilongjiang]. The primary purposes of this relocation were to solve the soldiers' employment problems and to promote agricultural development. In keeping with the mandate of the Great Leap Forward, it was claimed in a 1960 slogan that the Great Northern Wasteland had been converted into the Great Northern Granary in only three years. Beyond these economic goals, some settlements were envisioned as contributing to national defense and to social stability. Increasing tension with the Soviet Union was of course the primary military concern behind moving settlers into the border areas...

[soon] almost five hundred people had been assigned to various art, drama, film, and cultural work teams, an organizational structure modeled on that of military districts.

I recommend reading a couple more pages from this book. You'll find fun sentences like "Zheng Kangxing, a high-ranking propaganda official at the time, recalled in 1988 that the weather reduced the Great Northern Wasteland to true desolation." (I grew up in the Great White Void of Northeast Philadelphia and dream of vacationing at the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia.)

The book itself tells us: "Artists...interpreted and gave expression to the intense relationship of fellow countrymen and the environment. Their work absorbed various techniques and aesthetic values from schools of art overseas, blending them with Chinese culture and tradition."

An unexpected find. I hope to feature more Chinese art soon.

7/21/09 update: for more information see this site on Chinese woodblock prints from '45 - '98.