What are people doing with our posters?
Over the years, our posters have been used in many different ways: for exhibitions, to illustrate publications, or to be shown on websites.
Here we would like to give you just a few examples of less obvious cases. If you know other examples, please let us know !
David Alan Grier, The Book of David
In 2003 the poster
'Advance victoriously while following Chairman Mao's revolutionary line in literature and the arts' (ca. 1968) was used to create a backdrop for the stand-up comedy performance 'The Book of David: The Cult Figure's Manifesto' by American actor and comedian David Alan Grier.
This is a design, not an actual picture of a performance. The poster on the far left is a variaton on a Che Guevara poster, the poster just visible on the right a 1930 Soviet poster. Both are from the IISH collection.
These are pictures from the performance. On the left the show is about to start. The central part of the curtain will rise to let Grier come on stage, the audience is wearing red Che-Grier T-shirts. The backdrop design has been altered: the left and right part of the original poster are switched, and Grier no longer wears a mustache. On the right, Grier is talking about the New York Knicks. You can see how much attention has been paid to the details of the design: all faces on the Red Books and in the crowd have been altered. Videos of Griers performance are available online at http://comedians.jokes.com/david-alan-grier/ 
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Chairman Miaow
Inspired by his cat, Andrew Davies made a series of montages based on posters from our collection. He replaced the heads of people in the posters with the heads of cats, and changed the slogan to something relating to the life of cats and their struggle against dogs ('woofs'). The pictures were published in a book entitled The Thoughts of Chairman Miaow (New York: Gramercy Press, 2005)
In the sample pages above, you may recognize the 1970 poster Greet the 1970s with the new victories of revolution and production and Forcefully beat back the bandits in space from 1958.
Shepard Fairey, Molotov Man
The artist Shepard Fairey is known for his re-use of existing propaganda images. In 2006 he used a 1963 poster design by Ha Qiongwen - probably found on the web exhibition 'The Chairman Smiles ' or on Stefan Landsberger's Propaganda Posters - as a source of inspiration for his print 'Molotov Man'. In 2008, Fairey would become world famous with his 'HOPE' poster for Barack Obama's election campaign.
Chinese restaurant, Toronto
In 2006, a Chinese restaurant in Toronto, Canada, used Chinese posters from our collection to decorate the exterior and interior. The name of the restaurant is Made in China, the address is 371 Yonge Street, Toronto. More pictures can be found on the restaurant's website, at http://www.madeinchinarestaurant.com/gallery.htm
The Economist
For a cover image illustrating an article on China's new economy, the magazine The Economist used a poster from our collection. The original is from 1969-1970, titled 'Support Argiculture Energetically', published by the Revolutionary Committee of the Cultural Section of the Revolutionary Committee of Shenyang City (call number BG E13/833). In the original, the red book is - of course - a Little Red Book. On the cover of The Economist, the book title has been changed to 'Property Deed'. The cover is of the American edition, vol 382, no. 8519 (March 10, 2007).
nickcalyx's Desktop
Flickr user 'nickcalyx' found one of our posters on the web, an liked it so much that he used it as desktop wallpaper. In July 2007, he took a photograph of his computer screen, and uploaded the picture to Flickr, where we accidentally found it (at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickcalyx/699178222/ ). To close the circle, we put the picture here!
Law & Order
'Take-Out', an episode of the American TV crime series 'Law & Order', first broadcasted in the USA on 18 March 2009, starts when a man is found murdered in a park. At his last known address, detectives find Chinese books and a napkin from the (fictional) Sino-American Institute. They head for this institute, where an where an exhibition called 'The Art of the Long March' is being held. Reprints of posters from our collection were used to create this exhibition.
In the picture above, Assistant District Attorneys Connie Rubirosa (played by Alana De La Garza) and Michael Cutter (played by Linus Roache) visit the Institute. In the background, a poster announcing the exhibition can be seen.
The storyline of the episode can be found at http://allthingslawandorder.blogspot.com/2009/03/law-order-take-out-full-menu-recap-and.html . The picture was taken from http://lawandorder.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cutter_Rubirosa_Take-Out.jpg 
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"A day in the life of Dang Ton'ku, student and Red Guard"
The French blogger "Zoppol" (http://textibule.artblog.fr ) created a video clip of posters from our collection to tell the story of a young Chinese boy on a very particular day in August 1966 on Tian'anmen Square, entitled "Une journée extraordinaire dans la vie de Dang Ton'ku, étudiant et Garde Rouge". He posted it on YouTube on 28 March, 2010.
