Mao's Art of Propaganda

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2083
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• Author: Henry X. Hong Sun

COMMENTARY

Mao's Art of Propaganda

Henry X. Hong Sun

International Director of Business Research Institute, University of Chester, UK

Correspondence

Dr. Henry X. Hong Sun, Visiting Professor, International Director of Business Research Institute, University of Chester, UK

Email: H.Sun@Chester.ac.uk

The word propaganda has a long history from the 17th century's

Religious Propaganda to the 21st century's Computational Propa-

ganda (Bolsover & Howard, 2017). Among the most studied modern

time propagandists, Mao Zedong applied propaganda successfully in

three major wars: the Chinese Revolutionary War, Anti-Japanese

War, and the People's Liberation War. However, Mao is also criticized

for using “brainwash”style propaganda that caused the death of thou-

sands people during the Cultural Revolution. No doubt, Mao's Art of

Propaganda is a double-edged sword. Today, “Mao's Propaganda The-

ory”is still followed as the key benchmark and has been further devel-

oped utilizing state-of-the-art technology by the current Chinese

leaders.

In late December, CNN announced the top 9 media stories of

2019, which were led by #1 “War on Truth”with the media war on

Trump's impeachment and #2 “Misinformation Age”with Facebook's

controversies on political advertisement and fake news—both

involved the subject of propaganda. Is the word propaganda associ-

ates with all the evils like we were told in books such as Selling

Hitler—Propaganda and the Nazi Brand (O'Shaughnessy, 2016) and in

movies such as “1984”? Should we study propaganda as a neutral ter-

minology just like other political persuasion technologies?

According to The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies

(Auerbach & Castronovo, 2013), “Propaganda can more neutrally be

understood as a central means of organizing and shaping thought and

perception, a practice that has been a pervasive feature of the twenti-

eth century and that touches on many fields. It has been seen as both

a positive and negative force.”The authors “move propaganda beyond

political campaigns and warfare to examine a wide array of cultural

contexts and practices.”The SAGE Handbook of Propaganda (Baines,

O'Shaughnessy, Snow, 2019) points out that propaganda incites peo-

ple to take action consciously or unconsciously and its pervasive influ-

ence is particularly prevalent in world politics and international

relations today. It stresses the importance of propaganda in the digital

age with social media ranging from Islamist and Far Right, troll farms,

and fake news institutes to the more salient everyday manipulative

practices of corporations and brands as well as political parties.

Today's social media and digital communication technologies can

make everyone who has access to the internet a publisher or propa-

gandist for cultural, economic, and political persuasion.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines propaganda as follows:

(a) a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over mission-

ary territories and related institutions; (b) the spreading of ideas, infor-

mation, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution,

a cause, or a person; and (c) ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliber-

ately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause. The Chi-

nese characters for Propaganda 宣传(pronounced as Xuanchuan)

were first used for royal communication and war propaganda in the

Records of Three Kingdoms written in the year 290 AD by Chen Sou of

the Xijin Dynasty. In modern Chinese, Xuanchuan or propaganda is

defined as communication and promotion methods for information on

a specific agenda and has been always associated with a positive

meaning. It can be associated with a negative combination such as

“reactionary propaganda”—an act of which could lead to capital pun-

ishment during the Cultural Revolution.

Propaganda became a popular phrase used in China since the

Xinghai Revolution, also known as The Revolution of 1911, led by

Dr. Sun Yat-sen. With the influences of western religion, technology,

and democracy, Dr. Sun and his comrades promoted the New Culture

Movement using the relatively new medias of leaflets, newspaper,

news weekly papers and journals, and new literature with vernacular

Chinese, in comparison to those traditional books and eight-episode

essays, for which political agendas can be promoted massively at a

speed never seen before. It is with the help of these new mass medias

that Dr. Sun led the antifeudalism, anti-imperialism, and anti-warlords

wars and overthrew the last emperor of Qing Dynasty. Today, on both

sides of the Taiwan Strait, Dr. Sun is still celebrated as a revolutionist

with the admiration of “Chinese Washington”or “the Father of

Republic of China,”as well as a great propagandist with the nickname

of “Big Gun Sun.”His famous quote, “For revolution, we shall use 90%

of effort on propaganda, and 10% of effort on armed force,”has been

praised by Mao Zedong and by leaders of both Taiwan and Mainland

China today.

Born in 1893, Mao grew up in a mid-class farming family in the

village of Shaoshan in Hunan Province and graduated from Hunan

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2083

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