Construction

Construction workers were visually under-represented during the Cultural Revolution; on posters and in masthead books they are vastly outnumbered by steel workers, oil workers, mine workers, and factory workers. The image at the bottom of this page is therefore quite unusual; together with the three other pictures featuring cranes, it represents the totality of construction-related imagery in eight Cultural Revolution-era masthead books.

There are several possible reasons for this lack of visibility. Construction sites lack the permanence of steelworks, oilfields, mines, and factories; and construction crews are even more temporary than the sites, with labour being drafted in and out as required. Additionally most of the prestige construction projects, as opposed to civil engineering such as bridges, had been completed in time for National Day 1959. The construction of ordinary housing and office blocks could not compete with the drama and revolutionary romanticism of the blast furnace or an underground mine shaft.