Fifteenth of August Zhanbi

Artist: N/A

Year: 1 October 1967

Publisher: Fifteenth of August Editorial Department

Size (mm): 536x392

Condition: very good, yellowed newsprint, cover, folded centre as issued, creasing to centre fold

Cover sheet of the tabloid newspaper bayiwu zhanbi. The date included in the publication's masthead refers to the Japanese surrender in World War Two on the fifteenth of August, 1945. Zhanbi is a kind of calligraphy and art characterised by a trembling line; the term was likely used here because the first character also means battle or war and would fit with the courageous image the publication was hoping to convey.

The centre headline in red on the right-hand front page reads: zai Mao Zhuxi zhiyin de wuchan jieji geming guidao shang qianjin (Forge ahead on the track of socialist revolution guided by Chairman Mao)

The top headline on the left-hand front page reads: Mao Zhuxi haozhao women: yao dousi, pixiu. (Chairman Mao appeals to us: fight self-interest and repudiate revisionism.)

The cartoon on the right-hand verso of the sheet is ridiculing Tao Zhu, who in 1966 ranked fourth in the central party leadership of China. Eventually falling out of favour with the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group, to which he acted as advisor, Tao was attacked in a speech by Jiang Qing in January 1967, with Mao following suit a few days later. Dismissed from his position, Tao was labelled as a 'counter-revolutionary two-face' and 'traitor', among other terms, and became the highest ranking party leader to be officially denounced at the time. Physically and mentally abused in various 'struggle sessions', he became ill and died in November 1969. His name was cleared in 1978.

The cartoon on the left-hand verso of the sheet is titled xinli zhi you Mao Zhuxi (in our hearts is only Chairman Mao).