Mao Buttons from Chinese Cultural Revolution

Description

Offered is a modest yet diverse collection of iconic badges from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.  The collection includes badges of Chairman Mao Zedong as well as an array of Red Guard buttons, performance commemoration buttons of the leading play of the day, The Red Lantern, and PLA badges.  Numbering 643, the badges reflect the scale and scope of the three phases of the rise, peak, and decline of the Mao cult which lay at the heart of the Cultural Revolution.
Often referred to as China's "ten lost years," the Cultural Revolution was an effort at mass rectification.  Still reeling from the effects of massive famine resulting from The Great Leap Forward (1957 - 1960) and breakdown of relations with the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist Party needed to address internal party instability and social dislocation.
The Four Olds
Six plays
The Loyalty Dance
Mao buttons from the 1940's
First stage, July 1966 - May 1967
Second stage, May 1967 - September 1968
Third stage, September 1968 - June 1969.  Ended with instructions from Mao on June 12, 1969 in the directive
Several Issues to Pay Attention to When Disseminating images of Chairman Mao
"unless approved by the Party Center, it is no longer permissible to manufacture Chairman Mao badges."
Shanghai was the hotbed of leftist activity during the CR.  Beginning in August 1966 Shanghai badge was one of the first factories to turn out mass quantities of Mao buttons, sported by the first Red Guard units for their trips to Beijing and some of the first mass loyalty demonstrations at Tianeman Square.
Provenance is the Shanghai and Jiangsu prefecture and were collected in the winter, spring and early summer of 1990.  Most came from students and their families, while others were purchased at markets and from neighborhood street vendors along Guang Yi Lu in the northeast of the city near Huang Pu Park.
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