Children of the Revolution1 min read

Rob Moore and Lee Moore on the enduring legacy of Hua Tong’s Yan’an Seeds

Pumpkin seeds are the reason Mao and the People’s Liberation Army won the civil war in 1949, and the generations that followed pretty much rocked. Or so says Hua Tong’s Cultural Revolution-era short story ‘Yan’an Seeds.’ It’s Commie propaganda, so why bother? As Lee argues, it’s some of the best dang propaganda you’ll ever read, providing an invaluable lens on how Mao and the CCP used art and literature to shape the way people thought:

∎

The Chinese Literature Podcast is recorded on the not so-sunny Eugene, Oregon, campus of the University of Oregon, with the generous support of the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.