Expose the paper tiger

戳穿纸老虎
Chuochuan zhilaohu
Expose the paper tiger
1958, December
Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe (上海人民美术出版社)
78.5x55 cm.
PC-195b-016

A sword cuts a hole in a paper tiger, revealing a lattice with small pictures of problems in the USA , such as crime and unemployment. The expression 'paper tiger' - something that looks terrifying at first, but is in fact powerless - was used by Mao since 1946 to describe the USA and American imperialism.

Three corners of this poster were torn, and partly reconstructed. The impressum, below right, was lost. Designer, data and publisher are derived from a 2016 auction catalog (Alexander Historical Auctions, Elkton, USA).