Y Ellow Earth4 Analysis

The claim to build a better world held by the communists might be the basis of the foundation of the populist regime, by itself it was certainly not efficient enough to settle firmly the regime in China. In order to completely establish the regime, Mao relied on ideological control and mass mobilization, which were at the core of the revolution led by the communists. The aim of this ideological control was to make the population believe strongly that the only relevant way to build a better world was through the appropriation and the setting of the Communist system and ideology.

Communism relies on the ideology of class struggle and that socialism would be able to erase all classes. Indeed strong classes dividing the society firmly organized China at the time. The Chinese Communists used different tools in order to make the

It implied an increase of the participation of the masses. Mass mobilization achieved a complete penetration in the daily life through the change of clothing or hairstyle, as we can assess while watching these visual differences in F arewell my Concubine between the pre­Mao era and the post­Mao era. Songs were also a medium of diffusion of the communist values and believes : communists songs were created and spread among the country, from countryside to larger cities. The main character of the movie Y ellow Earth4 goes to the countryside to gather peasants’ songs in order to “put new words” as he says, he wants to add the new communists concepts to these very ancient songs. There was a total politicization of the people in the sense that everyone was involved. Everyone had his political interpretation of any event : when replacing Dieyi, Xiaosi threatens Xiaolou, if Xiaolou doesn’t accept this change in the cast, it would be considered as a betrayal to the communist