★Kathy's+Reflection

Kathy's Reflection on Mao Zedong Commercial

The video opens with one of Mao Zedong’s quotes that encourage the viewers with the phrase, “Our hope is placed on you”. Then, we see a big red flag with Mao’s face and people marching behind. We demonstrated how people showed respect towards Mao by placing our hands on our chests and looking at him deferentially. The short clip that shows the inside of a factory that prints the ‘Little Red Book’ with Mao’s face on every last page shows his cult of personality. We depicted how the Little Red Book was read regardless of status and class (I am a peasant, Monica is a Red Guard, and Ashlee is a merchant). This surely depicts the fact that China, during the Cultural Revolution, was a ‘classless’ society—just the way Mao wanted it to be. The commercial then moves onto a clip with the Red Guards marching with Mao’s picture on their backs. Correspondingly, we marched in front of the Chinese flag with Mao’s picture in our hands to show respect towards the leader. We clapped and praised Mao by saying “We all love Mao Zedong” and showed an unending admiration towards him.

 The commercial illustrates the importance of Mao and his cult of personality. It demonstrates many ways of respecting him and promotes the Marxist Communist society that Mao desires. The purpose of the video was to teach the viewers the importance of China’s great leader. It also encourages the viewers to respect and follow Mao through his two quotes in which he explains the importance of the “energy of the masses”. The video ends with two images of ‘Mao Thought’ as well as a clip of his speech and one of his famous quotes. Mao’s cult of personality is, thus, clearly portrayed in our commercial video.