Throughout time, propaganda has taken on many forms and been put to a wide variety of uses. There are few better examples of this than the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong. As the Grade 12 DP History students wrap up their study of 20th century authoritarian states we have been exploring the role of propaganda under Mao. Students chose to dive deeper into this topic by creating an original example of Maoist propaganda and connecting it to important concepts or developments such as cult of personality and the Cultural Revolution. The result was an absolute master class in artistic ability, creativity, and critical thinking! It was a real pleasure to see such wonderful effort and enthusiasm for this project! We had original animation set to a soundtrack of CCP patriotic music, a hand-etched ink printing of Mao being adored by the masses, a masterfully photoshopped version of a famous Da Vinci painting with Mao and his devotees replacing the original subjects, and a propaganda poster that reflected tremendous conceptual understanding and a rich grasp of historical details. Yesterday, students had the opportunity to exhibit their work to an audience of their teachers and classmates. They should all be very proud of the thought and dedication that went into this project!
