Essays on Chairman Mao

Ai Weiwei and Zhang Xiaogang are Chinese contemporary artists. While both are leading conceptual artists in the country, they seek to evoke different messages using their art work. Ai Weiwei’s art is motivated by the need to inspire freedom and the expansion of individual space away from government and society. It is therefore the case that Ai Weiwei by virtue of eliciting such emotions practiced artistic activism. On the other hand, Zhang Xiaogang is respected in his own right. His art more or less seeks to evoke memories which he says serve as his greatest inspiration. He especially ...

Produced in 1984, Yellow Earth was the first film directed by Chen Kaige, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy. The film is a period piece, taking place against the backdrop of China when World War II broke out. The film focuses on a communist soldier who comes to a village to collect folk songs to serve as morale-raising communist propaganda for the Eighth Route Army. During his visit to the rural village, the young soldier stays with a family, motherless but with a father, a young boy, and two sisters. The elder sister has already been "married off" in an arranged marriage, and the 14-year-old ...

Although 11 years of the Cultural Revolution is usually defined as a holistic period, it is better to view it as consisting of two parts. The movement began with a sudden and strong explosion of radicalism of the Red Guards, angry workers and ambitious petty officials. This massive mobilization of the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, successfully helped Mao to unseat his rivals. The second period of the Cultural Revolution lasted from 1968 to 1976 and established a new order through the negotiations and the use of force, as well as controlling the rebel groups. The revolution was followed by repression, ...

Literature is normally presented through several mediums among them written work and film. Yu Hua’s novel To Live has been given an interpretation through film and this presents a couple of similarities and differences when examining the story though film and written work. These interpretative variances present phenomenal differences of the same storyline but then, the end result is that they communicate the same story that the author intended. The storyline evoke different interpretations because of a number of reasons. But then, both follow the story of Xu Fugui and his family over a time frame of four decades focusing on a ...

After reading Mao’s own words how ideally communistic were his political views? What role did Mao feel that the arts should play in Communistic China? Are his ideals still in effect in China at the dawn of the 21st Century?

Introduction:

Lin Biao has described Mao Tse-Tung as the greatest Marxist of his era apart from having developed that political philosophy much further due to his innate ‘genius’. Although these words may sound slightly over the top today there is no denying the fact that Mao was really a person of considerable historical importance and a Communist of the old school. ...

Introduction

China has the longest historical tradition in the world. The roots of human settlement go back to the early relics found from Homo Erectus that were dated back 1.36 million years ago. Their agricultural history dates back to ancient millet radiocarbon dated to around 7000 BCE. Cliff carvings in Damaidi in Ningxia date back to 6000 -5000 BCE and are similar to written Chinese. From the early Xia Dynasty to the final Qing Dynasty It has not always been easy and peaceful. Dynasties rose and fell affected by outside and inside influences and domination. The people of China have ...

Mayor Yin served as the secretary of chairman Mao which advocated more individual interests rather than those of the community. It was however time when the community decided to have maxims teachings, which were in supporting of community development. In his narration of the process and his service as the secretary, Mayor Yin confessed to the narrator that all this was for the sole purpose of gaining a better position for himself. He realized that if he supported chairman Mao, then he will definitely gain some reputation for himself. He in fact expressed regrets to the narrator that he had ...

Many of Chairman Mao’s doctrines and strategies deviated from Marxism-Leninism; they were also against liberal and democratic Western values that some intellectuals in China were advocating in the first decades of the 20th century. Explain why Mao and his followers were eventually successful in achieving power in 1949.

The Success of the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong

The success of the Chinese Communist Party over the Chiang Kai-shek Party and its dominion over the Chinese mainland which led to the eventual establishment of the People’ Republic were enormous changes in the modern history of China. Its effects were profoundly felt by its own people and by other ...