Hi. My name is Kurt Groetsch, Cultural Revolution-era ephemera fan and creator/curator of MaoEphemera.com. In my “real” life, I’m a student in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. However, long before I became a librarian, I was interested in modern Chinese history and particularly the ten years that encompass the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
I don’t pretend to be a serious collector of Chairman Mao badges or other Mao ephemera. I have a few Mao clocks, a few Cultural Revolution-era posters and a handful of badges that I was given in the early ’90s when I was teaching English in Wuhan, and a small-but-growing collection of Cultural Revolution-era phonograph records. I’ve been known to buy material via eBay, but as a poor student, this is only an occasional treat.
I built the first version of this site back in 1995 as a way of teaching myself HTML. It’s been through a couple of redesigns and relocations since then, but I keep sticking with it, updating links now and then and adding content when it comes across my path. I welcome comments and suggestions, and can be contacted by email at kurt.groetsch@gmail.com.
Thanks for stopping in and I hope you find something of interest.
Kurt Groetsch
July 5, 2006