RED FEVER AND FIERY SPIRIT
The Role of the Youth in China’s Cultural Revolution Lindsay Wong
This piece will show how the youth played a significant role in the Cultural Revolution in China from 1966 to 1976. China’s leader during this time, Mao Zedong, instilled a revolutionary spirit in the youth, largely based on Mao Zedong Thought and the ideology of socialist realism. A prominent feature of the Cultural Revolution was propaganda, which was a cultural means to promote communist party ideology to the masses. Firstly, forms of propaganda like posters, songs and artworks featured imagery of the youth and depicted them as a strong revolutionary force. Visual propaganda during this period had certain characteristics so that they could appeal to the masses. Secondly, the youth also had positive reactions to propaganda as they remember the Cultural Revolution as a time when they had a collective, shared identity. Thirdly, the youth were heavily involved in the Cultural Revolution at a grassroots level, leading the revolution in a bottom-up manner. They were faithful to Mao and carried out his objectives for the revolution by becoming Red Guards and participating in revolts against intellectuals both within and outside the party who threatened Mao’s position. The youth faithfully participated in political campaigns promoting Mao Zedong Thought. These activities supported Maoist ideology and demonstrated the important role that they played during the Cultural Revolution. Pioneered by Mao and the rest of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Cultural Revolution was a sociopolitical movement in China that lasted for a decade, between 1966 and 1976. It was a movement for Mao to promote his ideology to the masses. Mao Zedong Thought (his ideology) included aspects of Marxist-Leninism and focused on the peasants as a revolutionary force. During this period, Mao relied on the working class, soldiers, and peasants to achieve economic prosperity and to restore the revolutionary spirit from the Communist Revolution of 1949. 1 Another objective of the Cultural Revolution was to eradicate Mao’s opponents in the CCP, such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaopeng, because of their differing views on China’s economy. 2 Liu’s ideas of bourgeois capitalism directly contrasted with Mao’s ideas of socialist realism, thus positioning him as a threat to Mao’s power.3 Socialist realism formed the fundamental basis of revolutionary politics, and Mao called upon the youth to push forward with the revolution to form a united front.4 Likewise, socialist realism became the method for artistic production that artists had to comply to.5 Propaganda and student-led mass movements were effective tools to assist Mao in achieving his aims for the Cultural Revolution. Maoist ideology was present in all forms of propaganda, which became a means by which the CCP could instil a revolutionary mindset into the masses. For the Cultural Revolution to be effective, Mao used propaganda to stir up and inspire revolutionary sentiment especially among the youth, who he perceived to be the easiest to manipulate.6 Not only was the youth impressionable, but they were easily coerced by propaganda because they were eager to learn and serve their country and were the least conservative in their thinking. In May 1942 in Yanan, Mao had spoken about his aim to utilise revolutionary art to create a “cultural army” that was capable of defeating opponents. 7 He carried out the valuable task of producing propaganda for the Cultural Revolution. 8 Visual propaganda and songs were the easiest and most effective ways to do this because a large portion of the population at the time was illiterate.9 The consumption of posters and songs did not require advanced literacy or education to be understood, so these forms of propaganda could reach the masses. Propaganda also supported the various campaigns set up by Mao to mobilise the masses.10 The visual elements of propaganda like posters were capable of being direct and straightforward by conveying a simple yet ideological message that everyone could understand.11 To most effectively instil art and propaganda with ideological meaning, Mao instructed artists to completely disregard their own self-interest and familiarise themselves with the working-class lifestyle so they could more appropriately produce indoctrinated content suitable for the masses.12 Posters, as one of the most prominent forms of propaganda, were mass produced, sold at low prices and distributed widely.13 The main characteristics of posters were vivid and bold colours, an optimistic and positive atmosphere, depictions of model citizens, and politically fused slogans.14 The colour red was featured heavily in visual propaganda because red was believed to symbolise everything morally good and revolutionary.15 Posters usually portrayed idealistic scenes of what China should look like, such as peasants working on the farms, Mao being glorified or deified, and the enthusiastic youth emanating a revolutionary spirit. These portrayals had to support Maoist ideology and the political regime.16 As such, propaganda was highly publicised and circulated throughout the country, not only as publicity as a method of educating the population on Maoist ideals. Following Maoist ideology, the role of the youth as a theme has been emphasised in propaganda posters from the Cultural Revolution.17 The model citizens were usually the youth, workers or peasants and were often smiling and had courageous postures, conveying that partaking in the revolution should be a joyous affair through which they can exhibit their hard work for the sake of their country.18 Because high productivity was one of the objectives of
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