Why I Chose this Topic:

   Months ago, I researched on the History of China which eventually led me to learn about many events that occurred in China before, during, and after World War II.  I wanted to learn about the event in China that had the biggest impact on China itself as well as the rest of the world.  Since the theme is "Communication in History, A Key to Understanding," I have decided to research on the Chinese Cultural Revolution and how the Chinese propaganda affected many people's lives in China.

How I conducted my research:

   First, I went to the library at my school.  There I consulted a school librarian for books on the Chinese Cultural Revolution and got a few very useful informational books as well as a couple of books that showed many pictures of what happened during the Cultural revolution.  I researched about the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in China.  Then, I went online to search engines such as Google and AltaVista to find many pictures as well as more information so my knowledge would expand.  Then, I went to the University of California, Riverside library and acquired many periodicals.  These periodicals really helped me understand why the Chinese propaganda during the revolution had a great impact on the Chinese society. I also interviewed five people who had lived during the time of the revolution and asked many questions concerning about China's propaganda.  Finally, with much more information, I now started to plan and build my website.  

How I created and developed my Website:

    I selected the Website category because I have the knowledge of building websites and I can organize the information for each of the pages.  Also I created my project by using one of the Web page software called Microsoft FrontPage that is used to making web pages.  To create this website, I collected pictures from the internet, analyzed data from the research I had done from the books, internet, and the periodicals.  Then I took the most important facts to put on the website.  I started putting my website in order by laying out the pages to make sure that all of the events were put in order.  I put information about the origins of the Cultural Revolution, the Revolution itself, and its results.  I wanted to show how this topic related to the theme and meet the criteria for National History Day.  Finally, I made sure the website worked properly with Internet Explorer.

How my Project Relates to the Theme:

    My project relates to the Theme in several ways.  My topic; The Chinese Cultural Revolution relates to the theme, "Communication in History, A Key to Understanding," because Mao Zedong used Propaganda to eliminate the capitalists and the well-educated people.  This helped me understand how Mao utilized the means of propaganda to convey his ideology of Marxism, brainwash people into his ideas, and eliminate the people who were against his revolutionary ideas.

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