| The Founding Ceremony of the Nation | |||||||||||||||||||
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 1967 revision | |||||||||||||||||||
| Artist | Dong Xiwen | ||||||||||||||||||
| Year | 1953; revised 1954, 1967 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Type | Oil on canvas | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dimensions | 229 cm × 400 cm (90 in × 160 in) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | National Museum of China, Beijing | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 开国大典 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 開國大典 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Kāiguó dàdiǎn | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Founding Ceremony of the Nation (or The Founding of the Nation) is a 1953 oil painting by Chinese artist Dong Xiwen. It depicts Mao Zedong and other Communist Party officials proclaiming the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949. A prominent example of socialist realism, it is one of the most celebrated works of official Chinese art. The painting was repeatedly revised, and a replica painting made to accommodate further changes, as some of the leaders it depicted fell from power and later were rehabilitated.
After the Chinese Communist Revolution, the Party sought to memorialize their achievements through artworks. Dong was commissioned to create a visual representation of the October 1 ceremony, which he had attended. He viewed it as essential that the painting show both the people and their leaders. After working for three months, he completed an oil painting in a folk art style, drawing upon Chinese art history for the contemporary subject. The success of the painting was assured when Mao viewed it and liked it, and it was reproduced in large numbers for display in the home.
The 1954 purge of Gao Gang from the government resulted in Dong being ordered to remove him from the painting. Gao's departure was not the last; Dong was forced to remove then-Chinese president Liu Shaoqi in 1967. The winds of political fortune continued to shift during the Cultural Revolution, and a reproduction was painted by other artists in 1972, to accommodate another deletion. The replica was modified in 1979 to include the purged individuals, who had been rehabilitated. Both canvases are in the National Museum of China in Beijing.