Gli slogan sullo sport nei manifesti di propaganda in Cina : il caso della mostra From Mao to now

The development of sport, and in particular the reform and development of football, has emerged as an important theme in the political discourse of China’s “fifth generation” of leaders. The current president of the People’s Republic of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, has presented himself as the main sponsor for this reform, in a country where sport, since Mao Zedong’s era, has been highly political. Xi is also the promoter of the recent revival of propaganda posters in China’s public discourse, a tool which, after having been widely used in the Mao era, had lost much of its relevance in the public discourse after the 1970s. This paper discusses recurring keywords and concepts in the discursive representation of sport in the Mao era and under the current leadership. It is based on analysis of the slogans used in 25 propaganda posters on sport from 1950-1980s that were displayed at an exhibition in Sydney during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.