1. D A V I D W I L L I A M M A G E E
D E P A U L U N I V E R S I T Y
THE CCP AND A VIOLENT
PROPAGANDA PROGRAM:
DEVELOPMENT, REFINEMENT, AND
IMPLEMENTATION,
1919-1939

2. INTRODUCTION
Unification of the two fronts in the struggle for national
liberation: cultural and military.
Power of militarized propaganda recognized during the
Anti-Japanese War of Resistance, 1937-39.
“Cultural Army” emerged in 1919 and developed in
conjunction with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to
produce a violent propaganda program.

3. TERMINOLOGY
Propaganda
•Dissemination
•Dialogue
•Influence
Violence
• “…intentional use of physical force or power…against a person or group”
resulting in some form of harm
•“World Report on Violence and Health,” ed. Etienne G. Krug, Linda L. Dahlberg, James
Mercy, Anthony B. Zwi, and Rafael Lozano (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002):5,
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2002/9241545615_eng.pdf, (Accessed August 11,
2011).
Violent Propaganda
•The incorporation of violence into dissemination
•Or violence as the vehicle for dissemination

4. TERMINOLOGY
Violent propaganda:
Violence in propaganda
Depiction of
violence within
propaganda
Mobilize population
and demonize
opposition
Pictorial
propaganda

5. TERMINOLOGY
Violent propaganda:
Violence as propaganda
Act of violence inflicted upon
CCP or population
Act of violence to enforce
discipline, mobilize
population, and/or
destabilize the opposition

6. TERMINOLOGY
Violent
Propaganda
Program
under the
auspices of an
asymmetrical
military
strategy
Strategic
placement of both
forms of violent
propaganda into a
mutually reinforcing
relationship
Tactical
dissemination of
mutually reinforcing
violent propaganda

7. THESIS
CCP militarized
propaganda during
Anti-Japanese War
of Resistance
CCP did not
define their
machinations as
a “violent
propaganda
program”
Examination of
propaganda
program’s
development
and refinement
transposed
against works of
Mao reveals its
existence

8. DEVELOPMENT
The May Fourth Movement –
1919
Student-led uprising
Anti-Imperialist/ Anti-Japanese
The “vernacular language
movement”
Purge of traditional, arcane Chinese
from school curriculum
•Long a barrier to mass education
New curriculum for those ignored
by the education system
•Chen Duxiu
•Mao Zedong
•Need to educate masses for mobilization

9. DEVELOPMENT
Cultural
Shift
• Lu Xun
Cartoon
Content
•Point out
societal ills
•Prescriptive
advice
Shen
Bochen
• “Shandong,
Qingdao”

10. DEVELOPMENT
• Bochen Shen,
"Shandong, Qingdao,"
• Cartoon, 1919, in Keguan Bi and
Yuanli Huang, Zhongguo manhua shi
[A History of Chinese Cartoons]
(Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing
House, 1986): 339,
http://read.chaoxing.com/ebook/d
etail_10975311.html, (Accessed June
15, 2011).

11. DEVELOPMENT
- 1919: “The Great Union of the
Popular Masses”
- Oppression connected with
organization of the masses
- 1922: Guangzhou-Hankou
Railroad massacre
- 1938: Exploitation of enemy
brutality key to gaining initiative

12. DEVELOPMENT
• Mao’s tenure as head of the Guomindang (GMD)’s
Propaganda Bureau (1925)
“Report on Propaganda”
(January 1926)
Importance of
illiteracy relative to
propaganda efforts
Military and
propaganda efforts

13. DEVELOPMENT
“Report on the Investigation of the
Hunan Peasant Movement”
(March 1927)
• Pictorial Propaganda = Political Education
• The necessity of force for emancipation
•Tactical dissemination of violence as
propaganda
•A violent propaganda program requires tactical
dissemination so as not to alienate the majority
of the population.

14. DEVELOPMENT
• "Nongminxiehui shi
nongmin ziji mou
jiefang de jiguan
[The Peasant
Association is the
Organization for
Peasants seeking to
Liberate
Themselves],"
• Cartoon, Jiangxi, Nongmin
huabao, 1927, in Keguan Bi
and Yuanli Huang.
Zhongguo manhua shi [A
History of Chinese Cartoons]
(Beijing: Culture and Art
Publishing House, 1986): 352,
http://read.chaoxing.com/
ebook/detail_10975311.html
, (Accessed June 15, 2011).

15. DEVELOPMENT
• Jiangxi
Nongminhui,
"Dadao yapo
nongmin de
edizhu! [Overthrow
the Evil Landlord
Oppression of the
Peasants!]",
• Cartoon, 1927, in Keguan Bi
and Yuanli Huang.
Zhongguo manhua shi [A
History of Chinese Cartoons]
(Beijing: Culture and Art
Publishing House, 1986): 354,
http://read.chaoxing.com/
ebook/detail_10975311.html
, (Accessed June 15, 2011).

16. DEVELOPMENT
“Nongminxiehui shi
nongmin ziji mou
jiefang de jiguan”
“Dadao yapo
nongmin de
edizhu”
Actual landlord
exectuions
Mutually
reinforcing violent
propaganda in
Jiangxi province,
1927

17. IMPLEMENTATION
• Guerrilla warfare against
Japan
• “Unusual undertakings”:
• Exterior lines of operations
"Exterior Lines," diagram, in Jack D.
Kern, Campaign Planning: The Tools of
the Trade, 3rd ed. (Fort Leavenworth:
U.S. Combined Arms Center, 2009): 49.

18. IMPLEMENTATION: A VIOLENT
PROPAGANDA PROGRAM’S EXTERIOR
LINES OF OPERATIONS
Japan’s
control
over the
population
CCP
propaganda
focusing on
reality of
Japanese
occupation
Propaganda
posters
“Atrocious
actions”

19. IMPLEMENTATION
• Exploitation of “brutal policies”
• The Japanese “policy” of rape – in the sense of
scale and official complicity
• “capture, conquer, and control [the] victim” to
compensate for some underlying vulnerability
• Nicholas A, Grath with H. Jean Birnbaum, Men who Rape: The Psychology of
the Offender (New York: Plenum Press, 1979): 28, 31.

20. IMPLEMENTATION
Communist infiltration of
police districts
Communist forces’ dismantling
population’s acceptance of
Japanese rule
Japanese need to control
population results in construction
of defense hamlets

21. IMPLEMENTATION
• E Zhang, "Dushu si
[The Reading
Dead],"
• Cartoon, 1934, in Keguan
Bi and Yuanli Huang.
Zhongguo manhua shi [A
History of Chinese
Cartoons] (Beijing:
Culture and Art
Publishing House, 1986):
103,
http://read.chaoxing.co
m/ebook/detail_1097531
1.html, (Accessed June
15, 2011).

22. IMPLEMENTATION
• Japanese acknowledgment that an unsupportive
population turns subjugation efforts into
propaganda victories for the Communists
• Deng Xiaoping reported that propaganda
highlighting Japanese brutality led to successful
conscription efforts

23. IMPLEMENTATION
Psychological
toll
Propaganda causing
Japanese occupation
leaders to feel “despair”
Propaganda creating a
“surging desire to fight”
in occupation leaders
Police forces physically
and mentally strained
by surprise attacks

24. CONCLUSION
Lack of definition does not negate
existence
Violent Propaganda Program solidified
during early years of Anti-Japanese War of
Resistance, 1937-39
Mao’s background essential to
development and implementation

25. CONCLUSION
The May Fourth Movement, 1919 – Hunan
and Jiangxi peasant uprisings, 1927
Violent Propaganda Program
implemented under guerrilla warfare
strategy against Japan
Mao’s revolutionary contribution to
propaganda and its dissemination