Maia Stack's List: Mao Project

• The Mao Cul

  • The Mao Cult
• Mao already had appeared prominently on propaganda posters as far back as the 1940s, despite his ambiguous warnings against a personality cult.
• bolster the personality cult around Mao, and thus to produce art that would contribute to the construction of Mao's god-like image
• color red featured heavily; it symbolized everything revolutionary, everything good and moral; the color black, on the other hand, signified precisely the opposite. Color symbolism continued to be important in the following years, not only in visual propaganda, but in printed propaganda as well.

  • Color - Red good, black bad

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• Lei Feng in modern day, according to bloggers

   Extracts from the Lei Feng Diary. 

   

   March 9, 17:58:  

   

   Last night, under the instruction of higher authorities, I watched the imperial USA's Oscar ceremony. Later, in the (Communist) Party group study session, I proclaimed in summary that: Throughout the entire ceremony, there was no large-scale singing and dancing or close-up magic performances like the ones the masses love to be entertained by. There were no songs sung in praise of the motherland and no text messaging [official text messages are often sent out to all mobile phone owners during national celebrations]. It was divorced from the people. And especially divorced from the people were those who received awards. They took the stage and only thanked family and team members, without even mentioning their nation. You should know that it was your nation that cultivated you! This was not a meeting of unity, much less a meeting of victory!" 

  • Lei feng as viewed from Chinese people today

• I first heard about Lei Feng when I was in school. At the time, there was no official Lei Feng Day, but we always heard stories about him. We were told to be like him, act in his image, and try to learn things from his life. Once, one of my friends, an older girl, told me to clean a neighbour's house. She told me not to tell the neighbours we did it, but just to do it out of kindness, like Lei Feng. I was in kindergarten at the time.   

   

   I was told that ‘Leifeng shushu' [do-gooder] was a soldier. He was short, but he was always helping people without asking for anything in return. Somehow, as child, his story had a real impact on me. I think my school brought us to watch some documentary movie about him, although that was over 25 years ago, so I can't remember too clearly. 

   

   Nowadays in China, people mostly worship money; there are even old people in the street who will charge you money for giving you directions. No one cares about Lei Feng, it seems - I bet younger generations may not even know about him. I'm sure everyone wants someone like Lei Feng around, but nobody wants to be Lei Feng anymore. Some people think he is not smart, or simply too nice." 

   

   

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  BeiBei Wang

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  • Lei Feng's effect modern day

• Mao's Personality Cult

  • Mao's indoctrination
• Mao Suit and Little Red Book
• Little Red Book Sayings
• Other Famous Mao Sayings
• Lei Feng, the Model Soldier

  • Lei Feng
• onsiderably improved the position of Chinese women, by the ostensible abolition of prostitution, and by the public-health campaigns

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• Confucian concept of music, or art in general, was in certain respects quite similar to communist ideas: in both cases music is considered a tool for didactic or ideological purposes that has to be put under state control

  • How Chinese tradition, and Communism, both use music, think it has to be under state control
• song as a form was controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and served as a significant upholder of state ideology.

  • Song under CCP as tool to uphold state ideology
• The unhindered access to these media and the theretofore unheard-of freedom to attack authority (excluding Mao Zedong and his followers of course) led to a flood of publications, among them Red Guard songbooks and booklets

  • Reason Red Guard published a lot of songbooks, booklets
• • Mao had Red Guard make cult of him using old terms
• absence of several concepts which could have been expected in Red Guard songs seems remarkable: "friendship

  • Friendship, mother theme not in Red Guard songs
• technology, being popular in international communist rhetoric, were hardly employed by the young rebels

  • Technology not used by Red Guard
• favored rather archaic imagery and often drew on pre-communist cultural repertoires (e.g., demonology, magic, sun symbolism, etc.).

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