Leiden University Student Repository

Huang, Miner (Amy) (2020)

Making Mao: The Icon of Mao and Its Representation in Chinese Popular Culture

Master thesis | Media Studies (MA)

A study of Mao’s representation in various forms in Chinese history, focusing on a historical timeframe from the 1949 until the early 1990s. With a reflection on the historical, social and cultural context behind, this study investigates Mao’s iconicity by analyzing the tropes and the meanings of Mao’s representations in history, including the Mao posters, the Mao badges and Political Pop arworks. One the one hand, I dissect the different ideologies behind the Chinese contexts and explore the ways they interact with the depiction of Mao in Chinese history. On the other hand, I believe that the form of representation often has a noteworthy effect on what is being represented. Therefore, I delve into the discussion of each artistic medium, in order to see their roles in the development of Mao’s iconicity. With this thesis, I explore the historical evolvement of Mao's icon from a propagandist subject to a popular symbol in Chinese culture.

Mao Zedong

Iconicity

Representation

Cultural Revolution

China Study

propaganda poster

political pop

Author

Huang, Miner (Amy)

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Film and Photographic Studies

Supervisors

Pepita, Hesselberth

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en