Episode 19: Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy

From the very beginning, the Chinese Communist party took entertainment seriously. By drawing crowds to see plays, dances, songs, and other shows, they were able to spread their political messages and create new followers to the cause.

Perhaps the culmination of this, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (智取威虎山) was one of the 8 Model Plays promoted by Mao's Wife Jiang Qing (江青), as an attempt to modernize Beijing Opera for a Revolutionary Audience. Telling the story of a PLA detachment fighting a Bandit warlord, it was played dozens of times a year in almost ever town and village across China during the cultural revolution.

In this episode we discuss its content, its legacy, and and the brutal irony that many of the people who made this ultimate propaganda piece, were they themselves victims of the Cultural Revolution.

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