UR Documentary

Making Mao (2012x1)

: 28, 2012

The opening remarks of this documentary best summarize Mao Zedong’s (1893-1976) influence in China, both before and after his death: “He was a man of many faces: revolutionary hero, a godlike figure to the people, and a pop icon to the world. Mao’s image would control a nation for over half a century, and even in death, his presence lives on.” Focusing on propaganda art, Making Mao reveals how art served the only one purpose, namely, the promotion of the Communist Party and its goals, in Mao’s China, and how the image of Mao as the supreme leader was made in a half-century of revolution. The blind personality cult that resulted served to promote Mao as a god: in short, making Mao was the making of God in the Chinese context.