Extract from report titled ‘Eulogies of Mao Tse-Tung’, published 19 December 1967. This is a selection of quotations compiled over the previous six months by British officials, taken from various sources. Catalogue ref: FO 1110/2319
Transcript
Air hostesses
“Air hostess Tsao Chun-ling has overcome selfish ideas and now propagates Mao’s thoughts in an exemplary manner. During a flight from Lanchow to Peking, she greeted the passengers by landing them in cheering ‘A long, long life to Chairman Mao’ and then held a combat-self-interest-and-repudiate-revisionism session which lasted for most of the flight. When she was called upon to turn the aircraft into a position for the dissemination of Mao’s thought, she worried that her educational, theoretical and political level was not high enough. However, aided by a study of the relevant quotations from Chairman Mao, she learned to dance, recite poems and ballads and sing Peking and Yuchchu Opera and to use them as instruments for the propagation of Chairman Mao’s thought” (NCNA, November 17, 1967)
“One of our guides never fastened her seat belts; she told me that no safety precautions were necessary because the pilot could make no mistake, inspired as she was by Chairman Mao. The air hostesses even danced in the corridors of the aircraft, and on several occasions even led communal singing of their favourite Maoist tunes. ‘Mao, the helmsman’ was a great favourite and very infectious at that. (A recent visitor to China, London Observer, September 3, 1967)
Look at sources 1a-d. These sources are about propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution.
- Define the term ‘propaganda’.
- What visual techniques (including colour) are used in the propaganda posters (1a & 1b) to communicate their messages?
- Look at the poster transcripts. Explain how the characters add to the messages of each poster.
- Why do you think propaganda like this was used during the Cultural Revolution to promote a cult of personality around Mao Zedong?
- How was Mao portrayed in official propaganda during the Cultural Revolution? Use sources 1c & 1d to explain.
- Referring to all sources 1a-1d: why did the Chinese Communist Party put so much effort into creating propaganda?
- What questions should we ask when considering propaganda as historical source material?