What are the carvings on the railings of the Yangtze River Bridge?

.Which Yangtze River Bridge are you asking about?

Here is an article introducing the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge

A large-scale art decoration project on the bridge is The reliefs on the steel plates of the railings on both sides of the bridge are composed of countless five-pointed stars and sunflower patterns on the railing columns and thematic reliefs on 200 steel plates. Next to these exquisite works of art, there are not many people coming and going. If you don't pay special attention to the sidewalk and slow lane, these rich artistic creations may be ignored. Carving various mythical animal patterns on the railings on both sides of the bridge is the main decoration method of ancient bridges in China, such as the famous ancient bridges in China The "flying and moving" dragons and beasts on the stone railings of the Zhaozhou Bridge and the lifelike lions on the pillars of the railings on both sides of the Marco Polo Bridge are all works of stone carving with superb skills. The sunflower patterns on the railings of the bridge come in two sizes, both of which are repeated. There are countless small ones and 98 large ones. The sunflower has 31 petals and is surrounded by four leaves. The implication is that the 3.1 billion people in the world at that time were yearning for the red sun from all directions. Sunflowers It is the most widely used pattern in the mass art movement during the "Cultural Revolution" period, ranging from the decoration of building components to book illustrations and newspaper tail flowers. In short, wherever art patterns appear, this important symbol is inseparable. The sunflower pattern The wide application is the product of the "Three Loyalties" (i.e., unlimited loyalty to the great leader Chairman Mao, unlimited loyalty to Mao Zedong Thought, and unlimited loyalty to Chairman Mao's revolutionary line) activities during the "Cultural Revolution" period. This activity is of course not just about making various products. It is not the same kind of art work, but includes art, dance, singing and a set of physical behaviors such as "Morning and Evening Jing" (bowing and saluting in front of Chairman Mao's statue every morning and evening, singing revolutionary songs, learning the Supreme Directive, and finally shouting slogans) A series of activities including fixed rituals). The icon of Chairman Mao and the red sun, sunflower, sun pattern, wave pattern, etc. form a complete series of symbols that can be randomly combined like machine parts, no matter how the combination is applied (a common The combination is a bright red sun, Chairman Mao's portrait is superimposed on the red sun, and the lower half of the red sun and Chairman Mao are several wavy lines and surrounding sunflowers). The purpose is to use these images to intuitively , easy-to-interpret symbols to explain the themes expressed in the two revolutionary songs "The East is Red" and "The Sea Sails Depends on the Helmsman". In relatively remote rural areas, you can still see the words "Cultural Revolution" on the walls of some old houses. "Three Loyalty" series of art works during the period. For example, in this cultural relics survey, we found that there are still rich art relics of the "Cultural Revolution" on the walls of the Ming Dynasty old house in Weijiapo Village, Chaoyang Town, Mengjin County, Luoyang City, Henan Province. , the contents of the murals mainly include various portraits of Chairman Mao, sunflowers, suns, red lanterns, etc. In addition to the pictures, there are also slogans of that era, such as "Sailing the sea depends on the helmsman, and making revolution depends on Mao Zedong Thought." etc. These pictures and slogans are spray-painted on the wall using ready-made templates rather than drawn by hand. This method is the easiest to copy on a large scale and does not require the operator to have the ability to create art. In addition to sunflowers, bridge railings Each of the other reliefs has unique content, such as Daqing Oil Field, Chengdu-Kunming Railway, Dazhai Brigade, Beijing Railway Station, Anshan Iron and Steel Company, Fushun Coal Mine, Xin'anjiang Hydropower Station, Island Female Militia, Desert Camel, Shanghai Ten Thousand Ton Class ships, Inner Mongolia prairie, etc., although each has its own specific content, together they have a unified theme, which is the new look of the motherland and the achievements of the construction of New China. Although each relief has specific content, These reliefs are also full of typical symbolic elements of that era, such as the shining red sun, the train puffing out thick smoke as it travels through the mountains, and the tall factory chimneys that also puff out thick smoke. These have fixed interpretations The images are often rigidly set in an irrelevant environment. For example, in a relief sculpture, the main image is a desert and a camel in the desert, but above these main images is a towering sky with thick smoke floating around. Chimneys. Just like those clichés in literary works, these additional images often appear stiff or even funny, but it is these seemingly incongruous and stiff symbols that reflect the true intention of the creator, such as the sun in many reliefs. Light means *** the light of thought guides us in the direction of progress; such as the chimneys that often appear, reflecting the people's industrial worship mentality and understanding of modernization of that era. These reliefs have no text explanation, giving us today's interpretation It brought a little difficulty, but for the "readers" at that time it was

It’s not difficult. It is these fixed and rigid symbols that are applied everywhere that serve as commentary, telling people what the “meaning” of this work is. Of course, there are many political slogans of the era with a stronger propaganda flavor on the reliefs, such as Industry learns from Daqing, etc. It is easier to understand the spirit of the times of that specific era from these frequently appearing slogans.,2,