North Korean painters add 1970s twist to Chinese propaganda posters

Under the rose-tinted skies in Beijing marches a festive group. The seemingly endless procession marches past skyscrapers, factories, the famous twisted loop of the China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters, waving to two foreign tourists standing to the side. Everything looks as it should be in this Communist Party propaganda poster, except for the 1970s-style style and the heavy polluting factories in the corner of the picture.

However this poster was not produced by the Chinese government, but rather made in North Korea – China’s closest ally in Asia – and there are seven more like it.

The Guardian reported last Thursday that a team of propaganda painters in Pyongyang had created an optimism-themed series called The Beautiful Future. The series is based on sketches by two long-term Beijing-based British ex-pats – independent designer Nick Bonner of Koryo Studio, and Dominic Johnson-Hill of Plastered 8, a famous boutique store selling 1970s-fashioned décor and clothing in Beijing.

In The Beautiful Future series, North Korean painters thrust China’s contemporary life into the aesthetic landscape of early Communist propaganda. They place icons of Beijing’s modern skyline in the middle of golden farmlands, paint Red Guards singing in gaudy karaoke parlours, put pollution-intensive factories under clear rosy skies, and incorporate red flags and banners. People in the paintings either dress in the green army uniform, Mao suits or plain 1970s-style clothes.

“Don’t you think this is sarcastic, seeing people from the ‘80s living in today’s Beijing?” a reader commented on Tencent News, which reposted the paintings over the weekend.