Posted: January 24th, 2023

Chinese history

5) Primary source analysis, 15%. 800-word essay due in the week of lecture 9. Choose one from the following three sources:

a) Mao Zedong, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People (Speaking Notes), February 27, 1957,” The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao: From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward, 131-189, on Canvas. Students who prefer to read the original Chinese version can see https://www.marxists.org/chinese/maozedong/marxist.org-chinese-mao- 19570227AA.htm.

b) Any propaganda poster from 1949 to 1978: https://chineseposters.net/gallery/theme- 11.php. You can also choose more than one poster if you think they are correlating and can facilitate your analysis.

c) Students who can read Chinese can also choose this cartoon: A Portrait of the Clowns (群 丑图, available on Canvas).

Your essay should include:

– The author and audience of the source. Analyze how the author and audience’s identities affected its content.

– The context. When was this source produced? What was happening in China? How did the context shape the content of the source?

– Its content and goal. If you choose Mao’s text, identify its argument and analyze how this argument is made by citing examples from the source. If you choose poster or cartoon, identify what is (are) in the picture and how it is (they are) portrayed, then specify what the author wanted to imply.

– Beyond the source. Was the author successful in achieving his/her goal? Did the source have any immediate or long-term impact? Whom did it affect, if anybody?