Maoist Propaganda“The People's Liberation Army represents the

great school of Mao Zedong Thought”

Maoist Propaganda“Criticize the old world and build a new one with Mao Zedong Thought as our

guide”

Monsters and Demons

• 'Monsters and Demons' ( 牛鬼蛇神 niugui sheshen) was the term used to vilify specialists, scholars, authorities and 'people who entrenched themselves in ideological and cultural positions' during the Cultural Revolution.

Monsters and Demons

• Once people were 'dragged out' as 'evil spirits', they were forced to wear caps, collars or placards identifying them as such. Being 'cow monsters', they were imprisoned in what was generally called a 'cowshed' ( 牛棚， niupeng). This did not have to be a genuine stable; it could be a classroom, storehouse, dark room or temple. In the absence of legal procedures, the length of stay in the 'cowshed' could be ten days or ten years.

Propaganda: Controlling the Arts and Media

The Arts, Media, & Propaganda

• When speaking about the Cultural Revolution (1966-1970), Mao said, “Our purpose is to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component party, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, and that they help people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind”

• Students were to make “big-character posters” which would called for students to cut class and travel across the country to meet other young activists and propagate Mao Zedong’s ideas

Propaganda: Brainwashing and Controlling the Media

• The people would also put up propaganda posters.

• They played a major supporting role in the many campaigns that were designed to mobilize the people.

• Most of them showed people doing model behavior.

• The one below represents the concept of “ we must grasp revolution and increase production, work, and preparation and do an even better job”

The Arts, Media, & Propaganda

• During the Cultural Revolution:– Red Guards broke into people’s homes burned books,

cut up paintings, trampled records and broke musical instruments

– Films were censored by Mao’s wife– Writers wore large insulting wooden plaques hung from

thin wire around their necks– Many artists and other people were beaten and sent to

reeducation camps– There was a loss of cultural heritage

Madam Mao & Cultural Revolution

Jiang Qing Madam Mao• Her field was culture and her

background was an actress from Shanghai.

• Advisor of the Arts to the Army.• Attacks against artists who are

capitalists.• All western art is prohibited.

Revolutionary culture is good.• Madam Mao produces propaganda

for Chairman Mao through art & film, this acts as a pretext to the Cultural Revolution.

Madam Mao Propaganda Poster Art

Cultural Revolution• Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, dominated cultural

productions during this period. The ideas she espoused through eight "Model Operas" were applied to all areas of the arts. These operas were performed continuously, and attendance was mandatory.  Proletarian heroes and heroines were the main characters in each.

• To the right is an advertisement for the opera, "The Red Women's Army," a story about women from south China being organized to fight for a new and equal China. Note the use of ballet shoes and postures.

•  Jiang Qing emphasized "Three Stresses" as the guiding principle behind these operas. 

•  Based on the way that the figures are arranged, can you guess to what the "Three Stresses" refers?

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Controlling the media

• Power of art and literature• Art and literature political• Only character development was when all

traditional bases for friendship were abandoned and replaced by shared class consciousness

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Ideological Trainings

• Mass meetings held• In schools and colleges students discussed the

wisdom of Mao’s words and why he was always correct

• Mao’s role in the revolution became the subject of plays, films and novels

• Newspapers dedicated front pages to his sayings

Propaganda PostersThis poster says," The sunlight of Mao Zedong

Thought illuminates the road of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”

• Propaganda posters are the use of messages designed to influence public opinion.

• Discussion Question: Do you think this poster is

fact or opinion?

Art and PoliticsDuring the Cultural Revolution

• During the Cultural Revolution, under Madame Mao’s guidance, China re-defined art as a political tool.

• She reinvented the Beijing Opera and Ballet dance forms to include class struggle themes.

This ballet play poster depicts a scene from the Revolutionary Ballet, The Red Army Detachments. The headline of the poster says “Only by saving the entire human race can the proletarian class free itself.”

LiteratureDuring the Cultural Revolution,

almost all forms of creative literature were made illegal.

All western books were banned and destroyed, and no one was able to publish any literature unless it supported the Communist National Party.

Mao Tse-tung published many works himself, and almost everyone in China was forced to carry around a book of his quotations known as the “Little Red Book.”

MusicMusic, like all other forms of art, only existed in the form of propaganda.

Typical songs were titled “The East is Red,” “Long Live Chairman Mao,” and “I Love Beijing's Tiananmen.”

This song is entitled, “I am a Little Member of the Commune.”

I am a little member of the commune,with a little sickle in my hand,

and a bamboo basket on my shoulder.

I go to work after class, cutting weeds, collecting manure, and picking up the lost

wheat ears.

The more I work, the more I love it.

Ayh-hey-hey, Aye-hey-hey,Always keeping in mind the good character of

the poor-and-lower-middle peasants,Loving the collective and loving labor,I am a little member of the commune!

At one point in China calligraphy had been considered the greatest form of art above painting and dancing.

The Chinese language consists of 6000-7000 characters, each with an intricate design.

During the Cultural Revolution, all forms of art, calligraphy, painting, dancing, and singing, were reduced to those that supported the Communist National Party.

Art

“Let the new Socialist Performing Arts conquer every stage.”

The Three Main Rules of Discipline are as follows:

(1) Obey orders in all your actions.(2) Do not take a single needle piece of thread from the masses.(3) Turn in everything captured.

Etiquette

Mao lashed out at organized religion in China. He blamed religion for China’s problems and

under his rule many different types of temples and churches were burned to the ground or converted into government buildings.

However, some people began to worship Mao, and Mao worship evolved into a cult activity.

Religion

Emulation Campaign: Specific Focus of One Propaganda Campaign

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Emulation Campaigns

• 1962 Lei Feng appeared, orphaned by brutal landlords and Japanese aggression and saved by communist forces, had developed a profound love for his fellow proletarians

• Socialist heroes for the people to emulate

Cultural Revolution: Culture and Film

• Jiang Qing ( 江青 ) emerges through the cultural domain to assert herself politically

• Prescribed aesthetics promoted an extreme version of socialist realism dominated by the “two unities” (liang jiehe 两结合 ) and the “three prominences” (san tuchu 三突出 )

• Two unities: socialist realism and revolutionary romanticism

• Three prominences: give prominence to the positive characters, the heroes, and the principal hero

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