Propaganda: Ideas, Discourses and Its Legitimization

363 Pages·2020·29.472 MB·English

by  Hailong Liu

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Propaganda

Propaganda is subjective information primarily used to influence an audience
and further a political agenda. In China, it has a long history but has been
most effective in modern society. What exactly is propaganda? Why does it
exist and why does the public tolerate it? This book answers these questions
by tracing back to the emergence and development of integrated propaganda
and scientific propaganda. On this basis it focuses on the emergence of the
propaganda concept in China, the establishment of the Kuomintang and the
Communist Party of China’s propaganda concept, intellectuals and propa-
ganda, the debate on the propaganda concept in China after 1949 as well
as the emergence of Propaganda 3.0 that coordinates integrated propaganda
and scientific propaganda.
Setting propaganda in the framework of modernity, the book explains how
various groups have legitimatized propaganda since the 20th century. From
a reasonable and neutral standpoint, the author describes the confrontation
among various propaganda concepts and discourses, displaying a pano-
rama of the mutual conflicts between nations and individuals, control and
freedom, ideas and bodies. Not only will scholars studying journalism and
communication find this book interesting, but professionals working in jour-
nalism, advertising, public relations and publicity will also find it engaging
and enlightening.
Hailong Liu, PhD, is a professor at the School of Journalism and
Communication of Renmin University of China, Beijing. His research
interests include political communication, the history of Chinese communi-
cation research and the intellectual history of communication.
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Chinese Perspectives on Journalism and Communication

With the increasing impact of China on global affairs, there is a growing
global demand for Chinese perspectives on journalism and communications.
This series focuses on theory and research- oriented scholarship on jour-
nalism and communications as broadly defined from Chinese perspectives,
aided by a variety of methods and informed by indigenous, interdisciplinary,
intercultural or global approaches.
Series Editor: Wenshan Jia is a professor of communications at Renmin
University, Beijing, and Chapman University, Orange, CA.
Titles in this series currently include:
Transformation of Chinese Newspaper Companies
Management, Production and Administration
Miao Huang
A History of Journalism and Communication in China
Yunze Zhao and Ping Sun
From Cyber- Nationalism to Fandom Nationalism
The Case of Diba Expedition in China
Edited by Hailong Liu
Propaganda
Ideas, Discourses and Its Legitimization
Hailong Liu
For more information, please visit www.routledge.com/ Chinese- Perspectives-
on- Journalism- and- Communication- Series/ book- series/ CPJC
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Propaganda

Ideas, Discourses and Its Legitimization
Hailong Liu
iv
First published in English 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Hailong Liu
Translated by Li Xintian and Shirley Young
The right of Hailong Liu to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
English version by permission of Renmin University Press, Beijing, China.
British Library Cataloguing-i n- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 37397- 9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 35353- 6 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
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Contents

List of figures vi

List of tables vii

Acknowledgement viii

Introduction 1

1 Propaganda: A concept ambiguous but important 30

2 Discovery of irrational man: Rise of the scientific
propaganda concept 50

3 Revolution and governance: Vicissitude of the
propaganda concept 85

4 Awaken the people: The emergence of China’s
propaganda concept 121

5 Intellectuals and propaganda: Differentiation of China’s
modern propaganda concept 148

6 Formation and development of the contemporary idea
of Chinese propaganda 181

7 Conflicts and institutionalization of the propaganda
concept of the Communist Party of China 214

8 From Propaganda 1.0 to Propaganda 3.0: Transformation
of China’s contemporary idea of propaganda 251

9 Conclusion: Shepherd’s predicament 307

References 324

Index 344
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Figures

1.1 Layers of propaganda 47
9.1 Illustration of changes in the propaganda concept and
propaganda discourse in the 20th century 312
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Tables

1.1 Types of interpersonal effects 38
7.1 Development of propaganda network at initial phase in size 217
8.1 Similarities between Western communications study and
propaganda experience of the CPC listed by Zheng Beiwei 261
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Acknowledgement

This book originated as a doctoral dissertation, and I am grateful to my
advisor Qingguang Guo for the care with which he oversaw my graduate edu-
cation and the valuable advice he gave regarding my dissertation.
I want to thank Monroe Price, the director of the Center for Global
Communication Studies (CGCS) at the Annenberg School for Communication
at the University of Pennsylvania, who gave me the opportunity to rethink
and rewrite my dissertation as a visiting scholar at CGCS from 2008–2009.
I also owe big thanks to my wife Xiaodong Lian and our two energetic
boys Dengdeng and Titi for their patience and companionship during the
writing of this book.
The research and revision of the English version of this book was funded
by the National Social Science Fund (No. 17AXW011). Funding for the
translation was provided by Renmin University of China. Xintian Li did a
great job to translate such a challenging book containing so many historical
and philosophical citations.
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Introduction

Don’t forget, the devil is an old man. To know it, you have to get old ... If you
want to get rid of this devil, you can’t escape from him as you often do today.
But you must start from scratch. Look through the tricks at the end to discover
its strengths and weaknesses.
(Max Weber: Sciences as a vocation)
Perhaps philosophy can also play the role of anti-p ower, on the condition that
in the face of power, it no longer preaches the laws of philosophy, provided that
philosophy no longer regards itself as prophecy, or as legislation. It gives its
duty to analyze, clean up, reveal, and therefore emphasize the struggle around
power, the contender’s strategy within the power relationship, the tactics used,
and the focus of resistance. In short, the condition is when there are power
issues in philosophy, the words used here are words of existence or not rather
than those of good or bad.
(Michel Foucault: The decelerators of power)
Changes in the idea of propaganda

On January 27, 1924, the auditorium of Guangdong Higher Normal School
was inundated with more than two thousand Kuomintang (KMT, Nationalist
Party) cadres and students who came to listen to Premier Sun Yat- sen’s speech
titled the “Three Principles of the People”. This series of speeches lasted from
January to the end of August, a total of 16 times. This was the last systematic
interpretation of this political program since Sun Yat- sen officially proposed
the “Three principles of the people” in 1905. The record of this speech also
became the standard text of the “Three principles of the people” authorized
by the KMT.1 Sun Yat-s en (1989) put forward in the beginning of the “First
Lecture on Nationalism” that this revolutionary party was reorganized to
adopt a different way of saving China, for it focused on propaganda, universal
propaganda targeting all the Chinese people.2
In 1929, Hu Shi, Luo Longji, Liang Shiqiu and other liberal intellectuals
formed “Ping She” to criticize the KMT’s political tutelage system and
demand the implementation of constitutionalism and human rights by using