July 11, 2005

My serve the people canvas bag

Bought this bag in Chengdu last week.

The Chinese text 为人民服务 (wei renmin fuwu) translates to “serve the people” - one of Mao’s slogans.

Yesterday in Singapore, I was at an exhibition of Chinese posters and prints. There was an artist from China there. He spotted my bag and he was fascinated with it. Right there in front of all of us, he showed us how he and his comrades would march during the Cultural Revolution with a similar bag slung on their shoulders.

This slogan was very popular in 1970s China. Here is another poster from that time

The text says “quan xin quan yi wei renmin fuwu”. It means “serve the people with all my heart”.

China Nostalgia

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