Propaganda Department Research Articles

Against the wind: the role of Belgian colonial tourism marketing in resisting pressure to decolonise from Africa

In 1945, the Belgian government sought to recover its tarnished reputation as a defeated European colonial power. It invested heavily in the Belgian Congo and its other colonial wards and in so doing set about conveying to international audiences its African accomplishments with a view to securing its status as a responsible nation of empire. The government propaganda machinery became sharper in focus and more integrated in the post-war years. International criticism of colonialism, notably American, became ever more acute while Belgian policy became out of step with the trend towards decolonisation in British and French colonial Africa. In 1956, as Britain was debating and passing legislation to allow Ghana's independence, Belgium resisted any open discussion about decolonisation. Instead it ramped up its pro-colonial tourist promotion activities, and integrated its tourism office within the colonial propaganda department. Despite its tourism marketing endeavour, visiting the Belgian Congo remained very difficult in line with a long-standing philosophy of isolating the African colony and its people. As such, until the eve of the Belgian Congo's hastily delivered independence in 1960, colonial tourism marketing should be viewed primarily as a propaganda exercise in justifying Belgian presence in Africa.

Marcel Dupré's “Dark Years”: Unveiling His Occupation-Period Concertizing

Examination of organist Marcel Dupré’s collected concert programs reveals that, of 137 he performed during the German occupation, 14 bear signs of funding by the German Embassy or the military government’s Propaganda Department. Dupré, though, would have participated in good conscience out of personal pride in France’s musical past. Post-Liberation punishments of French musicians who “collaborated with the enemy” were applied so inconsistently as to explain why he thereafter suppressed the extent and nature of his Occupation-period concertizing. This fuller picture of his activities potentially sheds light on his Second World War–period compositions, particularlyÉvocation,op. 37.

Propaganda by the Book: Contextualizing and Reading the Zhejiang GMD’s 1929 Textbook Essentials for Propaganda Workers

The Nationalist Party (GMD) had been writing and issuing documents of many types for some years before Nanjing was established as the capital of the Republic of China in 1927/1928. From its earliest days, doctrines were advanced via cause-oriented newspapers and journals. Even more important, the Soviet-sponsored reorganization of the GMD in the early 1920s had yielded a far-reaching party propaganda operation tied to Sun Yat-sen’s notion of political tutelage. But how was propaganda to work in practice? And at whom was it to be aimed? This article seeks to address aspects of these questions by assessing a textbook for propaganda workers that was issued in the name of the GMD’s Zhejiang Provincial Executive Committee’s Propaganda Department in October 1929, half a year after the GMD’s foundational right-wing Third Party Congress. Although Essentials for Propaganda Workers does not fully operationalize Sun’s version of political tutelage, it can nonetheless be seen to reflect the central party’s efforts to implement tutelage and supervision, not only of the Chinese masses suggested by Sun’s program, but also of party propaganda workers in Zhejiang. In that regard, it reveals the astonishingly rapid ideological realignment of the GMD into an anti-Communist party, not only at the national level, which is well known, but also on the provincial and lower levels. Drawing on material from the GMD Archives in Taipei, this article addresses issues of party organization, control, mobilization, inner party dynamics, and message content in the GMD’s propaganda activities in Zhejiang province in the late 1920s. “Propaganda by the Book” adds to our knowledge of the organizational practices of both the central GMD in Nanjing and the Zhejiang provincial GMD as well as to the social history of Republican China’s official print culture.

Acceptance Speech for World Marxian Economics Award (II)

May 24, 2014It is a great honor to receive the World Marxian Economics Award in 2014, which encourages me and warms me.In October 1935, I was born in Rugao County, Jiangsu Province. My father worked as a clerk. In such a family, I grew with books. When I was 16 years old, and a sophomore in high school, I leftmy hometown and transferred to Jiangsu Finance and Economics School, and have been devoting myself to the study of economics ever since. In 1953, I graduated with honors and started to work in Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Industry.In 1956, I was admitted by Fudan University as a cadre student through the enrollment program for advancing science and technology advocated by the CPC Central Committee and State Council. Political economy was my major. From 1961 to 1964, I worked as a graduate student under the supervision of Professor Jiang Xuemo, focusing on socialist economic theory. After that, I began to teach at Fudan University. My research covered Das Kapital, price theory, socialist economic theory, comparative economic theory, economic interest theory and practice, and coordinative economic theory and practice.I served in Fudan University as Dean in the Department of Economics and its chair of the degree committee. I also earlier served in a lot of academic positions, such as Director of Postdoctoral Program for Theoretical Economics at Fudan University, advisory member of National Social Science Foundation, Vice President of the Association of Das Kapital in China, Honorary President of Association of Das Kapital Studies in Chinese Universities, Director of Fanhai Books in Fudan University, editorial board Director in World Economic Papers, distinguished research fellow at the Academy of Marxism (CASS). My publications include over 50 books and textbooks and more than 300 papers, with awards at national and provincial levels.I am turning 80 years old this year and could soon be tagged as a member of the post-80s generation. In the past 60 years, I have worked for the advancement of Marxist Economics, being awarded many times in spite of my humble achievement, which mostly fall into two areas.The first one is the study of Das Kapital, which includes three volumes of Lecture Notes on Das Kapital, four volumes of New Textbook on Das Kapital, A Brief Textbook on Das Kapital, Exploration of Hard Problems in Das Kapital, and Popular Das Kapital. In a century beginning with global financial crisis, Marx and his Das Kapital attracted the public attention again, hence the reprint of my Popular Das Kapital, which was selected by the Propaganda Department of CPC Central Committee as the outstanding popularized theoretical work for the public, making it more visible to Chinese readers. Also, the articles I published in newspapers and journals were put together as a small book entitled On Das Kapital. In my opinion, there is still a long way to go in the studies and propagation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx.The second area is my systematic studies of economic interest in the socialist market economy, which contribute to the Marxist economic theory. Results of my studies and my team's research appeared in the form of the Economic Interest Series (consisting of 8 books), Contemporary Economic Interest Series (consisting of 12 books) and Sharing Interest, etc. There are also papers published in newspapers and magazines that are to be collected for a booklet entitled On Interest.I view our findings as systematic thought on interest relations in Chinese society, consisting of 6 aspects with 60 propositions.The first aspect is on theory and practice of social interest, consisting of 10 propositions: (1) Interest is the sum total of material wealth and spiritual wealth that meets people's needs; (2) Interest is eternal while social interest relations are always changing; (3) Interest is at the core of all social relations; (4) Social interest is a multi-dimensioned totality; (5) The value of interest is the measure that quantifies social interest; (6) Evolution of social interest relations is bound by certain Law; (7) Fundamental interest of the people is the beginning and ending point of all our work; (8) Social interest relation is the major problem in the internal contradiction among people; (9) Coordinating social interest relations is a key to building a socialist harmonious society; (10) Marxists always pay special attention to social interest relations. …

Examining Youth Performances on the Chinese Internet through the Lenses of Generational and Structural Frameworks

With the development of Internet technology, ordinary young people in China have increasingly participated in the kinds of performance that were previously dominated by professionalartists and even propaganda departments. After reviewing Western scholars’ research on youth subculture, the author attempts to combine generational and structural explanations into an analytical framework in explaining the Chinese youth performances on the Internet as a result of the generation gap and the polarisation of rich and poor in Chinese society. By examining the dubbing performance titled ‘Gao Le Ge Kao’ [高了个考, Having the National Examinations], which satirises the policy of China’s national college entrance examination, the author draws the conclusion that youth performances on the Chinese Internet mainly reflect a form of implicit resistance for individual interests rather than toward the political system in China.

Die Leipziger Journalistenausbildung in der Ära Ulbricht

Vorspann Die Universität Leipzig war das Zentrum der akademischen Journalistenausbildung in der DDR. Die Fakultät für Journalistik, umgangssprachlich auch „Rotes Kloster“ genannt, sollte die ostdeutschen Massenmedien mit ebenso gut ausgebildeten wie linientreuen Fachleuten versorgen, die geeignet waren, gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Konsens zu stiften oder zu stärken. Die Autoren können zeigen, wie groß der Konformitätsdruck war, der auf den - nicht selten idealistischen - Studenten lastete, wie wichtig SED und Staatssicherheit das Thema Journalistenausbildung nahmen und wie komplex sich die politisch-sozialen Beziehungen gestalteten, in deren Zentrum die Fakultät für Journalistik stand.

O Estado Novo e as críticas a Machado de Assis na primeira metade dos anos 1940

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar o tratamento conferido pelo Estado Novo brasileiro (1937-1945) a Machado de Assis, depois das celebrações oficiais do centenário do autor de Dom Casmurro em 1939. Se, no ano da efeméride, o governo se empenhou em alçar o romancista à condição de maior escritor brasileiro, no início dos anos 1940, no âmbito do Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda (DIP), o tom passa a ser outro: num contexto de prevalência de certo caráter social e documental da obra de arte, o próprio Getúlio Vargas, o ideólogo Cassiano Ricardo e os principais periódicos estadonovistas fazem menção ao suposto absenteísmo e à falta de "cor local" do fundador da Academia Brasileira de Letras.

Dr. Djura Djurovic a lifelong opponent of Yugoslav communist totalitarianism

The paper deals with the life story of Dr. Djura Djurovic (1900-1983), one of key targets of Yugoslav communist totalitarianism. He was a Belgrade lawyer who worked in the Administration of the City of Belgrade before WWII. In 1943 he joined the Yugoslav Home Army (YHA) of General Mihailovic, and held high positions in the YHA press and propaganda departments. His duties included running the Radio-telegraphic agency Democratic Yugoslavia. He accompanied General Mihailovic on his meetings with OSS Colonel McDowell, and with Captain Rakovic he established successful cooperation with Red Army units in October 1944. He was arrested by Tito?s partisans in 1945, given a show-trial and sentenced to twenty years in prison. In his writings he described horrible conditions, sufferings and various types of torture used against political prisoners in Yugoslav communist prisons. He himself spent more than two years in solitary confinement, and on several occasions nearly died in prison. He was released in 1962, and was able to establish a circle of former political convicts from the ranks of the YHA and other anticommunists in Belgrade and Serbia. He maintained this network, advocated pro-American policies and hoped that at some point the United States might intervene against communism in Yugoslavia. Gradually he came to the conclusion that Tito was an American ally, and was satisfied to maintain his network of likeminded anticommunists and prepare reports on the situation in Yugoslavia. As a pre-war freemason, he sent one such report to Luther Smith, Grand Commander of AAFM of Southern Jurisdiction of American masons, describing the ghastly conditions in Yugoslav communist prisons. He was rearrested in 1973 on account of his relations with a Serbian ?migr? in Paris, Andra Loncaric, and spent another four years in prison. Thus, the almost twenty-one years he spent in communist prisons qualify him for the top of the list of political prisoners in Yugoslav communism. In 1962-1973 he was spied on by a network of in?formers and operatives of the Yugoslav secret service. The paper is based on Djurovic?s personal files preserved in the penitentiaries in Sremska Mitrovica and Zabela, and his personal file from the archive of the Yugoslav secret service (UDBA/SDB). This is the first paper based on personal files of ?political enemies? compiled by the Yugoslav communist secret service, disclosing the latter?s activities and methods against anti?communist circles in Belgrade.

Germany's Foreign Relations and the Nazi Past

On 7 November 1968, the political activist Beate Klarsfeld entered the stage of a CDU party convention in Berlin, slapped the West German chancellor Kurt-Georg Kiesinger in the face and cried ‘Nazi, Nazi’. During the Third Reich, Kiesinger had worked in one of the propaganda departments of the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office). The history of the German foreign office received additional attention in 1968 due to the fact that the then vice-chancellor and foreign secretary of the Grand Coalition, Willy Brandt, was a former resistance fighter, who had been stripped of his citizenship by the Auswärtiges Amt in 1938. Despite numerous scandals about the post-war careers of former Nazi diplomats in the 1950s and 60s, the Auswärtiges Amt escaped closer scrutiny until 2005, when the then foreign secretary Joschka Fischer set up a historical inquiry commission. In his memoirs, Fischer has argued that his decision was influenced by the events of 1968.

Race to the Bottom: Media Marketization and Increasing Negativity Toward the United States in China

This article examines how Chinese newspapers respond to opposing demands by audiences and Propaganda Department authorities about news regarding the United States when competition poses pressure on marketized media to make a profit. To examine the tone of news reporting about the U.S., I rely on a computer-aided text analysis of news stories published in the People's Daily and the Beijing Evening News, comparing the years 1999 and 2003 before and after the rise of commercialized newspapers in the Beijing newspaper market. Results show that the emergence of news competitors may exert pressure on less marketized papers to change news content, resulting in an increase of negative news about the United States. Evidence is provided to show that the rise of negative news is unlikely to result from an intended strategy by Propaganda authorities, actions undertaken by the American government, or journalists' own attitudes. [An appendix to this article is featured as an online supplement at the publisher's Web site.]

Michurinist Biology in the People’s Republic of China, 1948–1956

Michurinist biology was introduced to China in 1948; granted a state supported monopoly in 1952; and reduced to parity with western genetics from 1956. The Soviets exported it through the propaganda agencies Sino Soviet Friendship Association (SSFA) and VOKS (Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries). China's Ministry of Agriculture achieved broad public awareness and acceptance of Michurinist biology through a translation, publication, and Soviet guest speakers campaign - all managed by a team of agriculturalists led by Luo Tianyu, a veteran CCP (Communist Party) cadre. The campaign grew exponentially, but did not affect university or Chinese Academy of Sciences biology. Luo Tianyu's failed attempt to force Michurinist biology on a Beijing university triggered its second stage: monopoly status and a ban on "Mendelist-Morganist" biology in teaching, research, and publication. The CCP Central Committee supported this policy believing that Michurinst biology would increase agricultural production for the forthcoming first Five Year Plan; whereas, western genetics had no practical value. Michurinist biology flourished at all levels of education, research, and science literature; Western genetics was completely shut down. This only began to change when the CCP Central Committee became wary of China's dependency on Soviet technical expertise and failure to fully utilize that of China. Change was further promoted by significant attacks on Michurinist biology by Soviet and East German biologists. Soon, these developments informed China's "genetics question," which became a test case for larger questions about the definition of science and the relationship between scientists and the state. Under the guidance of Lu Dingyi's Central Committee Propaganda Department, the CCP eventually decided that, henceforth, science controversies would only be resolved by the science community; and that monopolies or ideological orthodoxies would not be imposed on science. At the same time, the CCP rescinded Michurinist biology's monopoly and the ban on western genetics. By the mid-1960s western genetics had successfully restored itself, largely due to the leadership of C. C. Tan, a former student of Dobzhansky. Michurinist biology's presence shrank and it became marginalized.

"Conquistar a terra, dominar a água, sujeitar a floresta": Getúlio Vargas e a revista "Cultura Política" redescobrem a Amazônia (1940-1941)

O artigo analisa a Amazônia no pensamento social do Estado Novo (1937-1945), quando acontecimentos e projetos governamentais, como a "Marcha para o Oeste" e o "Discurso do rio Amazonas", representaram uma maior atenção do poder central à região. A partir de 1941, artigos sobre a Amazônia foram publicados no periódico "Cultura Política", produzido pelo Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda, sendo um dos principais meios de divulgação do pensamento social do Estado Novo. Conceitos de Euclides da Cunha, Alberto Rangel e Alfredo Ladislau sobre clima, raça e civilização foram apropriados para a produção destes textos com o objetivo de construir um ideário capitaneado pelo Estado. Desta forma, nossa análise aponta continuidades e descontinuidades entre a produção literária da Primeira República e o ideário oficial formulado pela ditadura de Getúlio Vargas.

Which Battle of the Somme? War and neutrality in Dutch cinemas, 1914–1918

While the Netherlands tried to maintain neutrality during World War I, the belligerent nations watched the country and its public opinion closely. At the same time, the French, English, and German authorities used propaganda to influence Dutch public opinion. The famous documentary film The Battle of the Somme (1916) is seen as a prime example. Its critical reception in the Netherlands has been studied before, but its challenge to the cause of neutrality has escaped close attention. Not only did Dutch ministers, mayors, film distributors, and cinema owners get involved in the marketing and regulation of war propaganda, but so did the intelligence services and propaganda departments of the warring countries. This article shows that at least three films about the battle of the Somme were shown in Dutch cinemas – French, English, and German – and that all of them were part of a struggle to secure the public's favour.

Welke Slag aan de Somme? - Oorlog en neutraliteit in Nederlandse bioscopen, 1914-1918

While the Dutch government tried to maintain neutrality during World War I, the belligerent nations closely watched the Netherlands and its public opinion. At the same time, the French, English, and German authorities used propaganda to influence Dutch public opinion. The famous documentary film The Battle of the Somme (1916) is a good example. Its critical reception in the Netherlands has been studied before, but its challenge to the cause of neutrality has escaped close attention. Not only did Dutch ministers, mayors, film distributors, and cinema owners get involved, but so did the intelligence services and propaganda departments of the warring countries. This article shows that at least three films about the battle of the Somme were shown in Dutch cinemas – French, English, and German – and that all of them were part of a struggle to secure the public’s favour.

Thinking about Pushing Forward the Publicity and Education of the Theory of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has repeatedly and definitely demanded that the Party Committees at all levels should actively organize and vigorously promote the theoretical research, publicity and educational work about Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Propaganda Departments and Education Departments are supposed to highly value the publicity and educational work about it, and propagandists and educators should grasp such two features of the theory as “novelty” and “greatness”. Some typical confused ideas on CPPCC in society should be cleared up accordingly in publicity and education. The whole society should enhance their awareness and consensus about it so as to make the work of CPPCC form a situation of one voice in China to promote the development of the cause of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

IBEN FONNESBERG-SCHMIDT. The Popes and the Baltic Crusades 1147-1254. (The Northern World, number 26.) Boston: Brill. 2007. Pp. xvi, 287. $134.00

The crusade is a powerful metaphor in our times, often applied by agents of high-profile causes to justify their use of violence by claiming that there are such things as “just” wars. The problem is that any propaganda department of any belligerent party could tell you the same thing. It may be precisely this moral ambiguity that has drawn much scholarly attention to the original medieval crusades in recent years, whereby light has been shed also on the lesser-known Northerncrusades, directed against pagan peoples on the Baltic Rim in the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. The latter began to be seriously studied in their broader European context only in the 1970s. The most recent contribution to the field is Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt's study of papal policy vis-à-vis the Baltic crusades from Eugene III to Innocent IV: in other words, from the mid-twelfth to the mid-thirteenth century. In its most general guise, the book addresses the widespread misunderstanding that the faculties of the Catholic Church were always the same wherever they appeared. Hence the Northern crusades have tended to be regarded as rather formal procedures that found their final form with Pope Eugene's proclamation of the Second Crusade in 1147. Fonnesberg-Schmidt demonstrates that this was not so.

Od agenta do kolaboranta? Współpraca żydowskiego publicysty Fritza Seiftera z Bielska z władzami niemieckimi w latach trzydziestych i czterdziestych

Fritz Seifter, a Jewish-German journalist and Polish citizen, collaborated with the German authorities on two occasions: first during 1933–1934 in Bielsko, where, supported by the Reich Ministry of National Education and Propaganda, he launched his newspaper Jüdische Wochenpost; second, in July 1940, when the General Governor's Department of National Education and Propaganda in Cracow appointed him editor-in-chief and managing director of Gazeta Żydowska. But in either case the circumstances and motives for collaboration differed significantly.
 In the case of Jüdische Wochenpost, Seifter completed a project he had been planning to carry out since the late 1920s. His newspaper was to consolidate the bonds of German-speaking Polish Jews with Germany. The Reich Ministry of National Education and Propaganda supported the establishment of this newspaper in order to tone down the opinions of Polish Jews regarding the Nazi regime in Berlin. During 1933–1934 Seifter saw himself as an agent of the German Ministry of Propaganda.
 In 1940, German occupation authorities in Krakow searched for and found Fritz Seifter, who was to be appointed editor-in-chief and managing director for the German-planned Gazeta Żydowska, completely controlled by the Germans. Its principal aims were to isolate the Jews even further from their Polish environment, herd them to work and give illusions of hope for emigration after the war.
 Thus there was no continuity in Seifter's co-operation with the German authorities, and collaboration was not the case. During 1933–1934, Seifter's main reason to launch his newspaper was German nationalism, which ostensibly linked him to the Germans. In 1940, however, Fritz Seifter no longer acted of his own accord, and any illusions as to the genocidal character of the Nazi regime was out of the question: Seifter alongside the rest of Polish Jews wanted only to survive.

Guiding Hand: The Role of the CCP Central Propaganda Department in the Current Era

The Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a central, guiding, role over the whole of Chinese society in the current era. The Central Propaganda Department oversees the Propaganda and Education System (xuanjiao xitong) which monitors, instructs and censors all of China’s newspapers and magazines, film, television and radio broadcasting, the Internet, the publishing industry, and all aspects of cultural and information production from the highest to the lowest levels of society. In this paper I outline the structure and role of the Central Propaganda Department and the system of thought control it oversees. I consider some recent innovations in the system in the last fifteen years; which combine with traditional methods for a more strengthened approach to control. I examine ongoing preoccupations in the thought work of China’s propaganda high priests. And finally, I argue that contrary to assumptions made by earlier researchers, the Central Propaganda Department and China’s propaganda system have experienced a rebirth, not a decline, in the period since 1989.

The Red Line: Creating a Museum of the Chinese Revolution

The establishment of the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, which opened its doors in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on 1 July 1961, the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, was a complicated political and cultural decision on the part of the Chinese government. The museum was never intended to be an artistic enterprise. Rather, it was conceived as a political institution to serve the interest of the Party. This article argues that the Party was ubiquitous in the building of the museum, exercising tight control through strict institutional means, especially through its Propaganda Department. Museum staff, under the close supervision of senior Party officials, sought to pursue an indigenous path different from the Soviet model. Staff members collected artifacts related to the Chinese Communist Revolution, commissioned historical paintings, arranged displays according to the historical framework stipulated by Mao Zedong, and, most important, struggled to instil in the museum the correct “Red Line,” that is, the policy of the CCP under Mao's leadership. The article concludes that the museum was an intricate amalgam of political supervision from the top, official historical interpretations, strategic displays and a reflection of the internal Party struggle. The construction of the museum reflects the attempt by the CCP to control the collective memory of the nation and to monopolize the writing of history.

Examination of Characteristics of News Media under Censorship: A Content Analysis of Selected Chinese Newspapers’ SARS Coverage

This study examines the characteristics of the Chinese print media under censorship on their coverage of the disease of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). With Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm's four theories of the press (Four theories of the press, Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1963) and Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy model of influences on media content (Mediating the message: Theories of influence on mass media content, New York: Longman, 1996), the authors conduct a content analysis of the coverage of SARS in front pages of the Guangzhou Daily and all pages of the Southern Weekend, respectively, from December 2002 to June 2003 and from February to June 2003. The rationale of choosing these two data sets is that they are both important Chinese newspapers in southern China's Guangdong province where SARS presumably originated. Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm (1963) summarized three ways in which the Soviet Communist Party and government controlled the content of media: (1) its departments of propaganda at various levels appointed editors; (2) the Party, through propaganda departments, issued directives for media content; and (3) the Party reviewed and criticized the press. Our content analysis of the selected newspapers from December of 2002 to June 2003 reveals that the political pressure during this period influenced the newspaper content via three factors, and that the three factors mainly match the three ways concluded by Siebert et al. (1963). Therefore, this study concludes that this three-way model can still be applied to the analysis of the Chinese media system under political influence. However, in addition to the content analysis, the authors believe the information from Chinese editors and journalists about their views of the newspaper coverage of SARS would enhance the strengths of this study.