China · place unestablished / Undated · photographed 2014
Enamel mug with a political inscription
A slogan on an everyday surface
Contemporary photograph of a mug catalogued by its photographer as from the Cultural Revolution period. Exact maker, year and ownership are not established. The Commons filename says porcelain, but its description corrects this to enamel.
Converted to WebP, auto-oriented, maximum width 1200 pixels, quality 82; no content retouching.
The mug is the kind of object that outlives the political moment printed on it. Its enamel surface carries a slogan; the photograph’s file page catalogues it as a Cultural Revolution mug. We do not know who made it, when, or who drank from it. The record keeps that gap visible. A slogan can tell us what a political culture wanted to put into people’s hands; it cannot tell us what each person thought while holding it.
- Date
- Undated · photographed 2014
- Maker / designer
- Unknown
- Material
- Enamelled metal
- Context
- A mass-produced everyday vessel; the inscription links it to the Cultural Revolution, but maker, date and owner are not established.
Evidence: Date not established · Place not established
Historical record
- The photograph is dated 2014.
- Commons catalogues the mug as from the Cultural Revolution period.
- The Commons filename says porcelain, but its description corrects this to enamel; maker and manufacture date are not established.
