Propanda under mao zedong
Overview:
Under Mao, Chinese Propaganda was used in many ways. One way was that it was used to stop the temptations of capitalism. It showed positive and negative connotations to the ideas being showed. For example, it showed how capitalism was bad and how communism was the answer for everyone’s problems. Propaganda was also used to convince people that the Great Leap Forward would be a success for China. It was used to trick the Chinese people into believing that Chairman Mao was the right choice for leader and that he would help everyone.
Chinese scholars participated in creating censorship and propaganda allowing the picture or idea to be shown more clearly. They used children in propaganda to show empathy and youth pride. Children’s literature and television showed children and teens going against capitalists and foreigners. Children and teens were easily manipulated because, at a young age, they were all taught to carry the red book with them everywhere and to memorize it. Also, anyone who was caught talking about the west, caught without the red book or that could not recite specific lines of the red book were beaten by teenagers. This could happen to anyone at anytime and though the children and teenagers to not go against Mao. Some techniques used in the propaganda are as included: visually disfiguring opponents, making favored group look larger than their opponents, giving preferred physical traits to favored group and showing happiness and success to China. All positive forms of propaganda had the color red visibly in them. This represented communism and put the idea of advancing China and communism together in everyone’s minds.
Under Mao, Chinese Propaganda was used in many ways. One way was that it was used to stop the temptations of capitalism. It showed positive and negative connotations to the ideas being showed. For example, it showed how capitalism was bad and how communism was the answer for everyone’s problems. Propaganda was also used to convince people that the Great Leap Forward would be a success for China. It was used to trick the Chinese people into believing that Chairman Mao was the right choice for leader and that he would help everyone.
Chinese scholars participated in creating censorship and propaganda allowing the picture or idea to be shown more clearly. They used children in propaganda to show empathy and youth pride. Children’s literature and television showed children and teens going against capitalists and foreigners. Children and teens were easily manipulated because, at a young age, they were all taught to carry the red book with them everywhere and to memorize it. Also, anyone who was caught talking about the west, caught without the red book or that could not recite specific lines of the red book were beaten by teenagers. This could happen to anyone at anytime and though the children and teenagers to not go against Mao. Some techniques used in the propaganda are as included: visually disfiguring opponents, making favored group look larger than their opponents, giving preferred physical traits to favored group and showing happiness and success to China. All positive forms of propaganda had the color red visibly in them. This represented communism and put the idea of advancing China and communism together in everyone’s minds.
"Everybody get to work to destroy the four pests." "The people's commune is good, happiness will last for ten thousand years."
Importance & Effect:
The importance of this propaganda was the effect it had on China under Mao and the effect it still has today along with the future. In China under Mao, propaganda convinced the Chinese people that communism and Mao’s leadership was the best option. It convinced them to follow Mao and do as he said. The Great Leap propaganda convinced the Chinese people that Mao was going to make China the greatest country in the world. This allowed Mao to gain followers and control all of China. It also created public enemies out of revisionists such as Liu Shao Qi and Deng Xiaoping which allowed Mao to stay in power until his death. In conclusion, the importance of propaganda then, and its effects, were that it convinced all of China to follow Mao and do as he said, destroy anyone who opposed Mao and fight for communism.
The importance of this propaganda was the effect it had on China under Mao and the effect it still has today along with the future. In China under Mao, propaganda convinced the Chinese people that communism and Mao’s leadership was the best option. It convinced them to follow Mao and do as he said. The Great Leap propaganda convinced the Chinese people that Mao was going to make China the greatest country in the world. This allowed Mao to gain followers and control all of China. It also created public enemies out of revisionists such as Liu Shao Qi and Deng Xiaoping which allowed Mao to stay in power until his death. In conclusion, the importance of propaganda then, and its effects, were that it convinced all of China to follow Mao and do as he said, destroy anyone who opposed Mao and fight for communism.
Propaganda art to show the great "Brave the wind and the waves, everything has
modernization to come. remarkable abilities."
modernization to come. remarkable abilities."
Today: Mao Zedong is still worshiped throughout all of China today for one reason, propaganda. The propaganda created while he was ruler was so powerful that it convinced all of China, even to today, that Mao did great things for China and that he was a great ruler. This however is not true. Mao’s policies and ideas actually led to the deaths of millions and did not advance China even a little bit. With all of this though, Mao is still worshiped and praised in China today. That is the effect of his propaganda today. Without it, he would not be worshiped, praised or even thought of as a great leader today in China.
Future: The effect of the propaganda in China under Mao will have the same effect on the future that it does today. In the future people will still idolize and worship Mao for all the “good” he did. Nothing will change in this aspect. His propaganda was so strong that today, tomorrow and even in a few years, he will still be considered one of the greatest, if not the best, ruler of China by the Chinese people.
Future: The effect of the propaganda in China under Mao will have the same effect on the future that it does today. In the future people will still idolize and worship Mao for all the “good” he did. Nothing will change in this aspect. His propaganda was so strong that today, tomorrow and even in a few years, he will still be considered one of the greatest, if not the best, ruler of China by the Chinese people.
Bibliography:
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Dollaghan, Kelsey C. "Modern Day China Painted By North Korean
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上海人民美术出版社宣传画组. 以毛泽东思想为武器批判旧世界建设新世界.
1966. Web. Landsberger Collection, n.p.
Ahmad, Iftikhar, Herbet Brodsky, Marylee Susan Crofts, and Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis. World
Cultures: A Global Mosaic. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004. Print.
McCarty, Michael. "The Historical Roots of Chinese Communist
Propaganda." Undergraduate Journal of Baylor University. Baylor
University, n.d. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
Dikötter, Frank , Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62 (London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2010)
Dollaghan, Kelsey C. "Modern Day China Painted By North Korean
Propaganda Artists." Gizmodo. N.p., 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.
Ozensoy, Deniz C. "Psychology, Propaganda, and the Chinese Cultural
Revolution." Triple Helix Online RSS. The Triple Helix, 26 Apr. 2012.
Web. 09 Nov. 2014.
"The Mao Cult." The Mao Cult. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.
<http://chineseposters.net/themes/mao-cult.php>.
"Great Leap Forward (1958-1961)." Great Leap Forward (1958-1961). N.p.,
n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://chineseposters.net/themes/great-leap-
forward.php>.