Activities
(NN+ sample page)
Suggested activities using the programme and the recommended websites:
Activity 1: Mao and the Long March
The following poem comes from a website of art and poetry produced in the Cultural Revolution:
The Long March
October 1935
The Red Army fears not the trials of the Long March,
Holding light ten thousand crags and torrents.
The Five Ridges wind like gentle ripples
And the majestic Wumeng roll by, globules of clay.
Warm the steep cliffs lapped by the waters of Golden Sand,
Cold the iron chains spanning the Tatu River.
Minshan's thousand li* of snow joyously crossed,
The three Armies march on, each face glowing.
(* one li = 0.5 kilometres)
"Mao Tsetung Poems" Peking, 1976
Read the poem and then study the website yourself (http://www.ezlink.com/~culturev/CulturArt.htm). Study the posters carefully, to get an idea of the style of the posters being produced at the time of the Cultural Revolution. Your task is to draw a poster celebrating the Long March to accompany the poem. Your poster will need:
- A bold title
- A caption explaining the point you are trying to make
- Some stirring and inspiring visual images in the foreground
- The right kind of background to creates the right impression
If you are hopeless at drawing, you could write or sketch out a design for the poster which an artist could turn into a proper poster.
Activity 2: Mao and China
As a boy Mao often had heated arguments with his father (for some really interesting detail on this, look at this website Autobiographical Notes on Mao Tse Tung, http://www.maoism.org/msw/bio_notes.htm). His father felt China's peasants could never change. What would Mao's father have thought if he had seen China in 1957?
Write up his thoughts in a 'simulated' interview. Remember to mention:
- Chinese farming when Mao was young
- The importance of the landlords
- How the importance of the landlords changed
- How farming methods changed
- Whether attitudes seem to have changed
- Whether the changes were successful.
Activity 3: Mao — Hero or Villain?
Imagine a 'hero/villain' scale from 10 (hero) to -10 (villain). Use the programme and the Net Notes to decide where Mao should be on the hero/villain scale at key dates like 1921, 1934, 1949, 1958, and so on. Plot these points on a graph, and try to connect them. Finally, think about Mao’s career as a whole. Do you see him as a hero or a villain?
© 2000 Channel Four Television Corporation
