The Reproductive Future: “Space Babies” in Chinese Posters 1950s–1980s

Abstract

This paper focuses on the visual depiction of children venturing into space in China during the late 20th century. I investigate how children are portrayed in Chinese posters and their space exploration themes by comparing them with similar art forms in the Soviet Union and the United States during the 1950s–1980s. Moreover, the study examines how these posters both shaped and reflected the political, social, and gender discourses of the period and served as means of reinforcing the reproductive future while interacting with Chinese historical myths. The study also considers the motivations for including chubby babies in Chinese posters, noting that this primarily resulted from Chinese moral beliefs. By historicizing the meaning-making process behind the “space babies” in Chinese posters, I argue that the depiction of children venturing into space helped in two distinct ways. First, it helped shift traditional immortality ideology into new forms of living and delimit the Chinese’s vision of the reproductive future: a desire to create better futures for our children/humanity by participating in politics. Furthermore, these visualizations apply the form of children as citizens to represent the mother country’s wishes while reflecting the corresponding Chinese national policy and fear of anthropic population expansion.