Spread of Propaganda

Types of Propaganda

Music By: Chinese Music Archive 1996

With the help of a propaganda expert; Kang Sheng, Mao's use of propaganda was very effective. Kang Sheng was born as Zhang Zongke back in 1898. He later adopted the name, Kang Sheng for himself. Kang joined the Communist Party in 1925 and became its very active member. He was sent to Moscow in 1933 to study Soviet security and intelligence techniques with the use of propaganda. He was soon active in the Social Affairs Department under the Central Committee. By the 1950's and the 1960's, Kang was a great supporter for Mao and collaborated with him in organizing the propaganda techniques to impose the ideology of Maoism to everyone in China.

This was one of the propaganda posters made by Kang Sheng for Mao. This was to make people read "Mao's Quotations" from Mao's Little Red Book. The meaning of this poster is, "Don't wait, Read Chairman Mao's words of great wisdom." This was when people started to read Mao's Little Red Book everyday so that every word would be memorized.

These two posters are another set of propaganda posters. The poster on the left portrays Chairman Mao being the father of all China's children and also as a teacher. The poster shown on the right portrays Mao as the "Peasant's Father and God." This showed that Mao cared about his people and represented the peasants.

Kang had collaborated with Mao in making these posters to denounce legalists, capitalists, bourgeoisie, western-intellectual thinkers, and the well-educated. The propaganda poster on the far left meant, "Sweep and clean out all capitalists! Destroy Confucianism!" The poster in the middle was used to denounce a high-ranking Chinese government official, Lin Biao. It means, "Criticize Lin Biao! Down with Confucius!" The third poster on the far right was used to go against the people who were bourgeoisie, its meaning is, "Sweep Away All Monsters and Demons."

Another set of propaganda posters that shifted people's minds. The poster on the left has workers working together to accomplish their dream and this poster means, "Destroy Capitalism, we can do it all together and become Number One in the World!!" Another poster on the right shows a lady with chemicals and this poster says, "Be smarter than the intellectual next to you!"

The ideology of Maoism was spread by Kang and his propagandists through the media, like radio, news flyers, and propagandist plays. Kang Sheng also collaborated with Mao in creating the greatest source of propaganda during the Cultural Revolution. Mao's Little Red Book was required to be carried by citizens at all times or severe consequences would occur to people not abiding by this rule. The goal for the book was to have everyone understand how Mao's view on Communism was best for China. It was used by students in schools. Dong Wu, who was a student at the time, says, "I carried Mao's Little Red Book with me all the times, I read it over and over until I remembered everything in that book." With Kang and Mao's use of propaganda, it indoctrinated the Chinese people to thinking in one perspective. According to one interviewee, Qianwei Tan, "The ideology of Maoism and his philosophy that Mao had imposed on many people had a very powerful effect, it really changed people's perspective."

To view the Quotations in Mao's Little Red Book, Please Click the Link above

Mao's Little Red Book used propaganda in spreading ideas about destroying authority like teachers, scholarly elite, the bourgeoisie, and even their own parents. Propaganda had a very powerful effect on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Many people believed in what Mao had said was right for everybody. In addition, the people believed that Mao was their father and he was doing the right thing for China. In the long run, the Chinese propaganda led people to think in a very different perspective. They no longer believed that the educated people were good, so they tortured them and beat them to death. Also, this propaganda led the deaths of many innocent Chinese citizens for being "counterrevolutionary," people who had disagreed with Mao's ideas on Communism.