Politics & Storytelling: Chinese Primary School Textbooks, 1950 to the Present

In my presentation, I will discuss the similarities between propaganda and religion. I argue that propaganda serves the purpose of establishing a trust system between the people and the authority, and the authority offers a belief to its followers. Through utilizing propaganda, the authority achieve the following: creation of heroes, creation of enemies, enhancement of history, building of leaders' reputation, and promotion of succession. I will use the textbook materials from Chinese primary school to serve as my evidences. I use textbook materials that come from nowadays and textbook materials that come from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I have summarized some textbook materials and turn them into a data. I will also fully translate some texts and present them in my presentation with the data. In addition to that, some mandatory rituals for Chinese primary schoolers will be introduced in the presentation too. Even though, the education system in the People's Republic of China is consider non religious, the textbook materials and the rituals that the authority given to the students echo with what religious groups offer to their followers.