Catching sparrows

捉麻雀
Zhuo maque
Catching sparrows
1956, August
Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe (上海人民美术出版社)
53x77.5 cm.
BG E37/228

The boy holding the rope wears the red scarf of the Pioneers, the Communist youth organization.
There is a strange resemblance between this picture and an English Christmas card from 1870, designed by Kate Greenaway. The Greenaway card shows a young Robin Hood with friends, hiding behind a snowy tree, about to shoot a blackbird for Christmas dinner.