Aphorisms and Propaganda in Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Chinese Communist Party

This article examines the use of aphorisms and propaganda in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Chinese Communist Party. It explores how these psychological stimuli shape opinions and control behavior, drawing parallels between the two. The article also discusses the impact of propaganda on society and its role in shaping public opinion.

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Aphorisms and Propaganda
Aphorisms and propaganda work in the form of psychological stimuli and promote
continuous and biased information to promote a political cause. People are inundated with
information because of continuous propaganda. A good example can be taken from the
Communist Party in China, and some parallels can be drawn between the aphorisms and
propaganda used by the Party in Nineteen Eighty–Four.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four reflects the extreme limits of propaganda and
surveillance and is a rich source to study the essential aspects of aphorisms and propaganda. The
novel shows how propaganda and surveillance work in tandem to control the thoughts and
behavior (Yeo 50). Orwell's fictional novel 1984 shows a Stalinist-communist totalitarian
government that brainwashes its citizens who become a puppet for the party and dedicate their
entire lives towards the government. The party retains control over its citizens by stimulating
them psychologically through propaganda and convince them that they are living a perfect
society and with no need for any further improvement.
On the other hand, for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), any matter related to
ethnicity must be strictly managed within the Chinese public at home and China’s relations with
foreign countries (Brady 160). The propaganda was a pivotal approach to governance, and CCP
propaganda was strict for domestic audiences and international audiences. During the Mao era,
China was a classic propaganda state where propaganda was considered necessary for political

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and social transformation. Contemporary propaganda themes were used for mass persuasion and
to gather public support for party policies (Brady 161). While one comes across extreme
propaganda in Nineteen Eighty-Four, CCP shows that it can go to extremeness to shape the
opinions and mindset of its masses.
CCP-led nationalist propaganda has incited prejudice among its countrymen against
foreign countries and particularly Japan. The nationalist propaganda has created a negative
sentiment towards Japan, especially among Chinese University Students as they rely on state-
sanctioned textbooks, television programs and movies carrying anti-Japanese sentiment and
information (Zhou and Wang 180). In Nineteen Eighty-Four, elementary school and textbooks
are sued to brainwash the children as they are more susceptible and can be trained to become an
idealistic party member.
Nineteen Eighty-Four shows all kinds and ways of propaganda and takes propaganda to
an extreme limit that tries to control not just what the people do or say, but also what they think
or believe (Yeo 52). The novel shows how the persuasive power of every medium and genre of
communication is put to work for maximum potential and propagate politically charged
messages. CCP strives to change China’s national image in the world with the use of external
propaganda. The founding of Confucius Institutes overseas is one example of external
propaganda used by China to improve its national image (Tsai 203). However, some sections of
the international community still carry a negative image of China, its government and people.
China has been embroiled in disputes with its neighbors like Tibet and Vietnam, and thus it has
become all the more critical for CCP to use external propaganda to improve its image as stated
by Tsai (203). The story of Nineteen Eighty-Four is internally focused and based on lies and

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inaccuracies of fluctuating degree and with a specific fault and intentionality. The Party supplies
its citizens every conceivable kind of information on history through architecture and books that
are unreliable (Caponi 45- 46). Winston’s surrender to the Party manipulation and propaganda is
extended to the passive reader who becomes a decoder of the message in the novel (Caponi
51).Some parallels can be drawn between the aphorisms and propaganda used by the Party in
Nineteen Eighty–Four and the Communist Party in China. Propaganda is used by both parties to
create and control an opinion with the help of, reports, stories pictures and social communication
with the intention of persuading a socially significant group for a political motive. Today, one
finds propaganda pervading different communication genres, and one comes across messages
used for propaganda in the daily news, social networking, and other media. Whether it is
Nineteen Eighty-Four novel or China as a country, a Big Brother is watching in both, as a god-
like figure. The public is kept under the highest authority in the state and kept in check by
brainwashing and manipulating. The persuasive techniques used in the propaganda are
eventually used to control and manipulate the masses. Today, it is not uncommon to see the use
of propaganda in different parts of the world to influence the public for different ends. What
varies is the medium and means of propaganda, its strengths, and compatibility with the target
population.

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Works Cited
Brady, Anne-Marie. “‘We Are All Part of the Same Family’: China’s Ethnic Propaganda.”
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, vol. 41, no. 4, Dec. 2012, pp. 159–181.
Caponi, Paolo1 “Orwell’s Intentional Fallacy in Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Altre Modernita, no. 19,
Jan. 2018, pp. 44–54. =eds-live.
Hunt, William. “Orwell’s Commedia: The Ironic Theology of Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Modern
Philology, vol. 110, no. 4, May 2013, pp. 536–563.
Min Zhou, and Hanning Wang. “Anti-Japanese Sentiment among Chinese University Students:
The Influence of Contemporary Nationalist Propaganda.” Journal of Current Chinese
Affairs, vol. 46, no. 1, May 2017, pp. 167–185.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan. “Enabling China’s Voice to Be Heard by the World: Ideas and Operations of
the Chinese Communist Party’s External Propaganda System.” Problems of Post-
Communism, vol. 64, no. 3/4, May 2017, pp. 203–213.
Yeo, Michael. “Propaganda and Surveillance in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: Two
Sides of the Same Coin.” Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition, vol. 3, no. 2, Sept.
2010, pp. 49–66.