The movie about the early years of "The Great Helmsman" has a $4.9 million budget and will be screened as part of celebrations marking the 120th anniversary of the leader's birth in December.
Mao Zedong's face already adorns every bank note, and a portrait of "the Great Helmsman" continues to grace the gates of the Forbidden City in the heart of the country's capital, Beijing. Now China's founding father is set to feature in an animated film about his teenage years.
The cartoon is being made to help propaganda efforts to boost Mao's image. China has an ambiguous attitude towards Mao. While he is revered for leading the revolution that brought about China's foundation in 1949, he is also resented because of the disastrous agricultural program known as the Great Leap Forward, which caused a famine that killed tens of millions of rural Chinese, and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which is often referred to as “the 10-year catastrophe.” In today's China, the Great Helmsman is commonly described as 70 percent good, 30 percent bad.
Mao Zedong's face already adorns every bank note, and a portrait of "the Great Helmsman" continues to grace the gates of the Forbidden City in the heart of the country's capital, Beijing. Now China's founding father is set to feature in an animated film about his teenage years.
The cartoon is being made to help propaganda efforts to boost Mao's image. China has an ambiguous attitude towards Mao. While he is revered for leading the revolution that brought about China's foundation in 1949, he is also resented because of the disastrous agricultural program known as the Great Leap Forward, which caused a famine that killed tens of millions of rural Chinese, and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which is often referred to as “the 10-year catastrophe.” In today's China, the Great Helmsman is commonly described as 70 percent good, 30 percent bad.