This plaque was produced to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It features a popular image of a youthful Mao dressed as both a scholar and a soldier. To avoid being seen as counter-revolutionary, people producing Cultural Revolution materials often re-used standard images of Mao and combined them with other approved motifs. This can be seen in the two plaques featuring Mao in a Red Army uniform. In this one, he is presented as the symbol of communist China, standing before a sea of red flags. In the other (see 1997-04867), he is likened to the sun whose light shines upon the sunflowers, which symbolise the Chinese people.
