478 { China’s Quest
Provinces established their own Patriotic Education Bases. Some provinces
set up Leading Groups to promote this work. Visits to Patriotic Education
Bases were organized by party branches in schools, work units, and mili-
tary units. Local governments were directed to use legal holidays to carry out
Patriotic Education activity such as visits to appropriate Patriotic Education
Bases. The mass media also mobilized patriotic sentiments. Newspapers initi-
ated special columns on historic patriotic themes. Increased number of tel-
evision shows and movies with approved patriotic themes were produced.
China’s wars—the Opium War, the war against Japan, Korea—were popular
themes. Attendance at these movies was organized by party branches as part
of their Patriotic Education duties. Several ministries jointly published a rec-
ommended list of 100 best patriotic songs, 100 best films, and 100 best patri-
otic education books.
Propaganda campaigns of this sort are a forte of Leninist systems. Party
branches in units organize appropriate activities that they then report to
higher levels of the party. Those reports become part of the personal dossier
of that party cadre. Effective accomplishment of centrally directed activi-
ties win kudos for a party member, increasing their chances of promotion
to higher levels of the party apparatus.^28 An ordinary citizen would thus
hear the same theme repeated from a variety of sources: in newspapers, on
television, in movies, in books, from teachers in school classes, in speeches,
statements, and slogans by party and government leaders, even in scholarlyCategory Subject
External Conflicts Anti–Japanese War, 1931–1945 (20 sites)
(4 0 sites) Opium Wars, 1839–1842 and 1856–1860 (7 sites)
Korean War, 1950–1953 (4 sites)
Russian invasion, 1898 (1 site)
China–India War, 1962 (1 site)
War with Dutch over Taiwan, 1662 (1 site)
Invasion by the Eight Nation Alliance, 1899–1901 (1 site)
other general anti–imperialist museums/sites (5 sites)
Civil Wars (24 sites) Civil wars between CCOP and KMT, 1927–1949
Myths (21 sites) Wonders of ancient civilization and architecture (15 sites)
Relics for prehistoric civilization (4 sites)
Great achievements afte 1949 (2 sites)
Heroes (15 sites) Chinese Communist Party Leaders (7 sites)
Model Workers (4 sites)
Patriots (4 sites)F IGU R E 17-2 The Hundred National-Level Patriotic Education Bases
Source: Zheng Wang, Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics
and Foreign Relations, (Columbia University Press: New York, 2012), p. 105.