Lin Yufei and Liang Dawei: The Communication and Enlightenment of Red Documentary Images in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region
Influenced by the historical environment of the time, the illiteracy rate among the peasant masses in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was high, which obstructed the dissemination of purely textual information. Determining how to transform the Party’s policies and positions into conscious action by the masses became a practical task facing the Border Region’s propaganda workers. As a form of audio-visual communication, documentary imagery serves both as a medium for storing national culture and as a carrier for transmitting and inheriting collective memory. It can effectively bridge the gaps caused by differences in cultural education and awaken the collective consciousness of the people. Consequently, by utilizing the special communicative medium of documentary imagery, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region not only achieved the precise dissemination of land policy practices but also effectively carried out profound political mobilization. Through visual communication methods represented by photography and newsreels, it demonstrated astonishing communicative effectiveness under specific historical conditions.
Organization and Professionalization of the Communicative Subject
During the early period of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government, in order to increase the reach of land policy propaganda, there was a high level of reliance on the use of imagery for information expression to bridge the masses' insufficient understanding of land policies. Under this specific historical background, the dissemination of documentary imagery required a high degree of organization among the communicative subjects to ensure that image production remained highly consistent with the Party's policies and principles.
The Yan’an Film Group, established in 1938 as a core institution directly under the General Political Department of the Eighth Route Army, functioned both as revolutionary workers and photojournalists; in essence, it undertook the important function of visual political expression. For example, during the filming of the work Labor Heroes of the Border Region in 1942, the cinematography team’s content selection required preliminary research conducted alongside grassroots cadres. After identifying typical figures [1], they held forums with the masses to verify deeds before finally entering the filming stage. This organized production allowed the imagery works to accurately grasp the sentiments of the broad grassroots masses, achieving the precise dissemination of information regarding land policy reform. Simultaneously, the imagery works involving the Yan’an Film Group established strict content review mechanisms during the creative process. The selection of topics, scenes, and composition for images required multiple levels of demonstration and verification, effectively ensuring high consistency between the image products and policy requirements, thus forming a unique characteristic of "collective creation."
Audience Segmentation and Discourse Adaptation
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Border Region government formulated targeted dissemination strategies based on different audiences for land reform policy propaganda.
The poor and landless peasant groups were most concerned with whether "struggle" [2] could secure benefits for them. Therefore, imagery propaganda adopted the visual method of "account-calculation and comparison" [3], intuitively presenting photographs related to their immediate interests, allowing them to perceive the benefits of land reform for themselves. For instance, in mobile exhibitions themed "Peasants Standing Up" [4], the curatorial team displayed the "landlord’s rent-collection peck-measure" [5] alongside the "peasant’s new granary." By replacing obscure and difficult text with intuitive visual contrast, they enabled peasants with lower cultural levels to quickly understand the essence of the policy.
Regarding the middle peasant group, an "emotional reassurance" strategy was adopted. Through images demonstrating that land reform not only protected the interests of middle peasants but also helped them improve their existing quality of life, the government sought to change their attitude toward participating in land reform. For example, a series of propaganda posters showing middle peasants acquiring plow oxen and expanding production after the land reform emphasized that the "protection of middle peasant property" was a policy point protected by law, thereby alleviating the mistrust of the middle peasant group toward land reform policies.
For military officers and soldiers, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government mainly emphasized the narrative logic of "defending the fruits of land reform," vigorously promoting the changes the fruits of land reform had brought to the soldiers' hometowns. This method of linking dissemination to personal interests effectively stimulated the army’s will to fight.
For landlord families, the Border Region government, on the one hand, used the method of "establishing models" [6] to encourage progressive landlords to play a leading role in the "Reduce Rent and Interest" movement [7]. On the other hand, it also conducted critical reporting to expose negative landlord models, presenting their living conditions after undergoing transformation [8] through comparison and contrast to convey the possibility of educational transformation.
The dissemination of this visual language successfully transformed abstract policy clauses into a visualized language of imagery. By presenting policy concepts through specific figures and events, the advancement of land reform in the Border Region maintained both political correctness and emotional warmth.
Narrative and Symbolization of Communicative Content
In its imagery propaganda for land reform strategies, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government constructed a complete visual narrative system, building a distinct narrative logic and a symbolic system with clear signifiers within the content. In constructing the narrative logic, imagery works of this period formed a tripartite narrative framework of "Suffering—Struggle—New Life," completing the expression of revolutionary discourse through carefully selected visual elements.
Propaganda photographs from this period were also mostly composed around the themes of "Oppression—Liberation—New Life." "Oppression" was represented through visual symbols such as dilapidated farmhouses and broken production tools; "Liberation" was represented through scenes such as "settling-accounts meetings" and "burning land deeds"; and "New Life" was represented through happy images of peasants obtaining land and engaging in active production and daily life. Through sharp visual contrasts, these propaganda photos stimulated the class emotions of the broad masses.
For example, Gu Yuan’s Burning the Old Land Deeds utilizes a multi-layered composition: the foreground focuses on burning account books, the middle ground features cheering peasants, and the landlord’s manor is faintly visible in the background. This multi-layered spatial layout not only focuses on the symbolically significant scene of "burning land deeds" but also expresses the political connotation of destroying the old system, liberating the broad laboring masses, and transforming class relations.
During this period, a large volume of Red documentary imagery made land reform policies tangible and perceptible; the impact and influence generated by visual contrast far exceeded that of simple textual propaganda.
Three-Dimensional and Scenariographic Communication Channels
In promoting land reform policies, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region relied heavily on mobile exhibitions and mass rallies, while simultaneously utilizing official media such as newspapers and pictorial supplements to expand the influence of imagery communication to literate groups and even the broader masses.
As a core communication method at the time, the operational subjects of mobile exhibitions were primarily composed of photography clerks, literary and artistic backbones, and local cadres. They carried simple display boards to rural areas for mobile exhibitions, using the visual presentation of imagery to trigger psychological identification among the masses and awaken their enthusiasm for participating in land reform.
During this period, the communication channels for the Border Region’s land reform policies exhibited a scenariographic layout, where image displays were organically embedded into the procedures of mass rallies. For instance, images depicting exploitation and oppression by landlords were shown during "bitterness-telling" [9] segments, and real-scene photos of land distribution were shown during the "reading of distribution plans." Through a form of "dialogue across space," the content of the imagery resonated with the emotions of the masses at the rally, greatly enhancing the communicative effect.
Additionally, during the period of land reform policy propaganda in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, Liberation Daily published numerous special photography issues, pioneering a new form of mutual interpretation between images and text. Each photograph published was accompanied by an oral account from the person involved, providing richer interpretive channels for the imagery and achieving a multi-dimensional extension of the communicative function.
A perspective on history is the fundamental point for constructing cultural identity. Through the recollection and reconstruction of history via documentary imagery, one can trace shared cultural roots and awaken national collective memory. Today, as media forms undergo profound transformations, an overview of the imagery communication practices in the land reform of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region reveals that the audience-centered consciousness, spirit of content innovation, systematic operational thinking, and construction of communication channels all provide valuable historical references for the effective dissemination of current mainstream values.
The precise dissemination of Red documentary imagery in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region enlightens us that effective political communication must both follow the laws of the media and be rooted in the soil of reality. By "going deep among the masses and eschewing empty talk," and by adhering to the mass line, we can generate a lasting and far-reaching power of communication and appeal.