THE

HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CHINESE COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA

In countries, the government represents the group. The means the factors of producFon are
labor, entrepreneurship, capital goods, and natural resources.1 Although the government doesn't legally
own the labor force, the central planners tell the people where they should work. German philosopher Karl
Marx developed the theory of communism.
 German philosopher Karl Marx developed the theory of communism.
He said it was, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
In his view, capitalisFc owners would no longer siphon off all the profits. Instead, the proceeds
would go to the workers. To Marx, this meant that people would work at what they loved and
did well. They would happily contribute these skills for the good of all. The economy would
prosper because they would work harder than in capitalism.

Communism
Is an economic ideology that advocates for a classless society in which all property and wealth
are communally-owned, instead of by individuals. ... Prominent examples of communism were
the Soviet Union and China.

Socialism
Is an economic and poli@cal system. It is an economic theory of social organiza@on. It states that
the means of making, moving, and trading wealth should be owned or controlled by the
workers. This means the money made belongs to the workers who make the products, instead of
groups of private owners

Fascism
In simple terms, fascism is defined as a government structure where one dictator has complete
control of the en@re country, state, or territory. Anyone who opposes this dictator is suppressed
and individual rights are oEen oppressed.



10 CharacterisFcs of Communism in Theory

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and co-author Friedrich Engels outlined the
following 10 points.

•  AboliFon of property in land and applicaFon of all rents of land to public purposes
•  A heavy progressive or graduated income tax
•  AboliFon of all right of inheritance
•  ConfiscaFon of the property of all immigrants and rebels
•  Equal liability of all to labor and establishment of industrial armies (especially for
agriculture)
•  The gradual aboliFon of the disFncFon between town and country
•  Free educaFon for all children in public schools and aboliFon of children's factory
labor
•  CentralizaFon of credit in the hands of the state


Difference Between Communism, Socialism, Capitalism, and Fascism

Communism is most similar to in both, the people own the factors of producFon. The
most significant difference is that output is distributed according to need in
communism, and according to ability under socialism. Communism is most different
from capitalism. where private individuals are the owners, but it is similar to fascism. in
that both use central plans. Fascism allows individuals to retain factors of producFon,
and many countries turned to fascism to ward off communism

Communist Countries
The last five remaining Communist countries are China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam.
They aren't pure communism but are transiFoning from socialism, where the state owns the
components of supply. According to Marx, that is a necessary midway point between capitalism
and the ideal communist economy. Modern communist socieFes rely on a mix economy
China

In October 1949, Mao Zedong established the Chinese Communist party. In the late
1970s, China began moving toward a mixed economy. It phased-out collec@ve farms and
allowed private businesses, but it s@ll strictly follows a five-year economic plan. The
government's policies favor state-owned enterprises in sectors vital to its goals. In 2009, China
became the world's largest exporter. In 2014, it became the largest world economy.
Scholars of western democracies have had much to say about the use of propaganda in the
dictatorial regimes of the twenFeth century, o[en with a conscious understanding of the contrast
between these “thought-controlled” governments and their own. Of these dictatorships, the
Communist government of China is usually treated with astonishment; not only was China
considered an unlikely prospect for Communist revoluFon, but its longstanding legacy of
scholarship and eliFsm also makes its use of socialist propaganda and censorship seem farfetched
and forced. Many, no doubt, wonder how a society as obsessed with history, culture, and
scholarship as the Chinese could have largely accepted the propaganda of the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) without more resistance or skepFcism than it did. These thinkers, however, fail to
understand that official propaganda by China’s imperial government had a long tradiFon, that
Chinese scholars themselves parFcipated in censorship, and that literary and arFsFc
achievements were always seen in the context of providing cultural enlightenment to the people.
Looking at this historical legacy, it is easier to see that the success of Chinese Communist
propaganda was not an accident of the twenFeth century, but an expansion upon long-standing
Chinese tradiFons of imperial and scholarly propaganda.


The cult-like admiraFon of Mao Zedong shows one important aspect of tradiFonal Chinese
propaganda, since it built upon the historical noFon of the emperor’s role as mediator
between heaven and earth, and, thus, as a quasi-divine figure. In fact, one of the terms used to
refer to the Emperor was tradiFonally @anzi, or Son of Heaven. Mao Zedong, always a
charismaFc individual, expanded his image over Fme as an object of reverence; subsequently
he encouraged what some call a faith, Maoism, based on personal dedicaFon to Mao with
o[en religious overtones .Mao evoked tradiFonal ideas of the emperor as a
religious figure. Chinese emperors consistently implied this religious associaFon throughout
Chinese history and o[en stated it more overtly. For example, many Buddhists in China
believed that the emperor was a bodhisaQva, an enlightened individual who had chosen to
return to existence to help others reach nirvana. The government officially ignored this belief,
but unofficially propagated it specifically to establish legiFmacy with newly- included Buddhist
areas like Mongolia in the eighteenth century.2 SomeFmes the image of an emperor’s divinity
was propagated against his will.

The current status of Chinese intellectuals reflects tradiFons established in the imperial period.
For most of this period, government officials were selected from among the literaF on the basis

of the Confucian civil service examinaFon system. Intellectuals were both parFcipants in and
.
criFcs of the government. As Confucian scholars, they were torn between their loyalty to the
emperor and their obligaFon to "correct wrong thinking" when they perceived it.
Then, as now, most intellectual and government leaders subscribed to the premise that
ideological change was a prerequisite for poliFcal change. Historically, Chinese intellectuals
rarely formed groups to oppose the established government. Rather, individual intellectuals or
groups of intellectuals allied themselves with cliques within the government to lend support to
the policies of that clique.

Cultural RevoluFon
When the Cultural RevoluFon began in 1966, party funcFonaries assumed posiFons of leadership at
most research insFtutes and universiFes, and many schools were closed or converted to "soldiers',
workers', and peasants' universiFes." Intellectuals, denounced as the "sFnking ninth category,"
either were purged or had their work heavily edited for poliFcal "purity", which severely hampered
most serious research and scholarship.
Following the fall of Lin Biao, Minister of NaFonal Defense and Mao's heir apparent, in 1971, the
atmosphere for intellectuals began to improve. Under the aegis of Zhou Enlai and later Deng
Xiaoping, many intellectuals were restored to their former posiFons and warily resumed their pre-
Cultural RevoluFon duFes. In January 1975 Zhou Enlai set out his ambiFous Four ModernizaFons
program and solicited the support of China's intellectuals in turning China into a modern
industrialized naFon by the end of the century.
The Art Of Chinese Propaganda

Over the last two decades, China has had a strong interest in pursuing a smart power strategy
toward the world and has worked hard to engage with regional countries economically, poliFcally,
and socially. Along this line, the academic research on the Chinese Dream, so[ power aspiraFons,
and public and cultural diplomacy in the ideological and poliFcal educaFon of school students has
become a hot issue. The quesFon of how the Chinese Government has deployed its so[ power
(also known as the Chinese Dream in this study) in the past and the present through the use of
music in naFonal community educaFon in China will be invesFgated in this chapter. This chapter
will also demonstrate how select songs are used to examine so[ power, improve naFonal
communicaFon capabiliFes, and undertake domesFc purposes to achieve three goals, including the
culFvaFon of cultural diplomacy through tradiFonal Chinese culture, the development of cultural
diplomacy, and the fulfillment of the Chinese Dream, so[ power, and public and cultural diplomacy
in China’s educaFon.
 Poli0cal music in China

Music in China consists of PatrioFc Music and

RevoluFonary Music. It is an ideological music
with poliFcal or naFonalisFc content,
someFmes taking the form of a modernized
Chinese tradiFonal music wrilen or adapted for
some form of grand presentaFon with an
orchestra. It was created in the early to
mid-20th century, become the dominant genre
of music a[er the Communist victory in China,

A[er the fall of the Qing Dynasty , the New

Culture Movement was iniFated to promote a
new naFonal culture, including a new naFonal
music guoyue, and greater patrioFsm. IdenFty
and naFonal pride became important during the
Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil
War throughout the 1930s. A le[-wing music
movement to promote music with anF-
Imperialist and anF-feudal content called New
Music
The East is Red.
The sun is rising.
China has brought forth a Mao Zedong.
He works for the people's happiness,
He is the people's great saving star
Chairman Mao loves the people,
Chairman Mao, he is our guide.
To build a new China,
He leads us forever forward.
The Communist Party is like the sun,
Bringing light wherever is shines.
Where there's the Communist Party,
There the people will win libera0on.
 LiQle Ping Pong Ball We are Chairman Mao's March of the
Red Guards Revolu:onary Youth


The red represents the Chinese Communist RevoluFon and the five stars and their relaFonships to
each other represent the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of
China (CPC).
The oldest symbol of socialism (and by extension Red Guards(simplified Chinese; tradiFonal Chinese was a
communism) is the Red Flag, which dates back to the mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized
French RevoluFon in the 18th century and the and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through
revoluFons of 1848. The color red was chosen to 1967, during the first phase of the Chinese Cultural
represent the blood of the workers who died in the RevoluFon, which he had insFtuted.
struggle against capitalism.

 Most of the music that received air play
from the 1940s to the 1980s, was
revoluFonary music, characterized by
march-like music and pro-Communist
lyrics. The most well known song was The
East is Red, whose chorus went: "The east
is red! The sun is rising! China has
produced Mao Zedong!").
At public gatherings the Red Orchestra
usually played the same songs: The East Is
Red,

Among some other classic Communist songs are A New Look has Come to Our Mountain Village,
Without the Communist Party There Would Be No New China, To Rebel Is Jus@fied, The Gurgling
Stream Sings of Bumper Harvests, Spring Comes Early in the Commune and A Long, Long Life to
Chairman Mao. And we can't forget Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No China (sample
lyrics: "It pointed the people to the road to liberaFon/ It leads China toward brightness") and Follow
the Party ("You are the lighthouse/Shining on the ocean before dawn/ You are the helmsman").

RevoluFonary music and military marches sFll endure today. Factories play militarisFc versions of It's
a Small World. When they are cruising in their cars many Chinese in 40s and 50s enjoy listening to CDs
like The Red Sun: A Collec@on of Military Songs, Volume II. Old people like old Chinese songs such as
the Flower of Malaya, Red Sun,
East is Red

The East is Red was Chairman Mao's personal poliFcal anthem. Ir was
originally a romanFc ballad. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, it was
rendered as the popular song Riding White Horses . [Source: Xinhua News
Agency report “Four Anthems Sing of a China Bravely Advancing," Qian Gang,
China Media Project, October 1, 2009] Riding white horses, Armed with
Western guns, Three brothers with the Eighth Route Army Living on its grain.
They're thinking of girls back home again. But fight on against Japan.
In 1944, Shaanxi farmer Li Youyuan and a rural schoolteacher appropriated
this tune to compose Migra@on Song , which contained the following verse:
The East is red, The sun, it rises. And in China, a Mao Zedong is born.
 Visual History of Chinese
Propaganda

The collecFon of posters actualise Napoleon Bonaparte’s (alleged) quote: “China is a sleeping
giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will move the world.” And though it didn’t happen
in Napoleon’s lifeFme, China’s ascent to global fiscal prowess was swi[ and dramaFc. Just 40
years ago, China was a largely rural naFon, with 30 per cent of its populaFon living in poverty.
It’s now the world’s second-largest economy.

 The More I Fight, the
Stronger I Become—The
More the Enemy Fights,
the Weaker He Becomes c.
The Rat Cigareles c. 1938. Xie 1938 Xin Ke. Image:
Zhiguang. Image: courtesy courtesy Poster House,
Poster House, collecFon of Merrill C. Berman
Marc H. Choko CollecFon
The following collecFon
illustrates a rebellion against
Western influence and the
rise of the Chinese
Communist Party. “They
stopped selling products and
started selling ideology,”
says Durate. “Posters
became vehicles for teaching
people about communism,
because there’s no need for
commercial adverFsing in a
planned economy.”

Guarantee the Grain Harvest c. 1961. Military First–Victory First c. 1939

The posters designed between the ’30s and ’70s are colourful propaganda campaigns that directly
mimicked Soviet Realism. The beauty and sex appeal used to sell products in the 1920s shi[ed to
campaigns based on camaraderie and, later during the Cultural RevoluFon, fear. Mao Zedong,
understandably, is the lead act in this collecFon, with handsome and buff workers holding lille
Red books coming in second. “We see Communist propaganda as campier now, but millions of
people were dying of famine at this Fme,” says Duarte. “We didn’t want to glorify this period.”

 Mao Says the Hope is on Your Shoulders c. 1967

The final group of posters were collected between Mao’s death in 1976
and the year 2000. When Deng Xiaoping came into power and insFtuted
mass reforms, China once again opened itself, in part, to the outside
world. The financial boom bred a poster renaissance. “Li[ing the ban on
internaFonal and domesFc adverFsing really made way for the Hard Work and InnovaFon are
profession of graphic design,” says Duarte. “Previously, if you wanted to Rooted in the Countryside. 1977,
make posters, you had to make them for the government.”
Posters became more experimental and varied, and incorporated
themes from Scandinavian design, surrealism, and other arFsFc
movements that happened beyond China’s borders in the past century.
“A design hotbed emerged, blending cuyng edge internaFonal design
principles with the creaFvity of a newly emergent community of Chinese
designers and consumers,” adds Duarte.
It’s a period of great uncertainty for China, as it alempts to recover its economy, and in
doing so, alleviate the many other naFons which depend on its fiscal might. The
Coronavirus forced the once “sleeping” giant to take a catnap. While its impact on the
country has been devastaFng, if there’s anything China proved over the course of the 20th
century, it’s that the country is no stranger to persevering in the face of adversity.