How can the propaganda system in China mobilize public expression while also repressing it? 

The central theme of my dissertation-turned book project develops around a seeming contradiction between repression and mobilization. While many observers consider the heavy censorship as the defining feature of China’s propaganda system, a modern (and modernist) state such as China also relies on positive inputs from citizens to its ideological engineering project. The typical “dictator’s dilemma” used to be described by Chinese political leaders as “relaxation causes chaos, control causes deadly silence” (一放就乱，一管就死). 

So far, the retraction-relaxation cycle has been the mainstream theory that scholars use to explain the propaganda system's strategy. However, since the 2010s, the increasingly tightened control has been accompanied by an increasingly visible participation of popular culture in party-state propaganda. This contradiction demands a reexamination of the concepts of propaganda and ideology. Using insider interviews, ethnography, and critical discourse analysis, my dissertation argues that the key to understanding the contradiction lies in changing the conceptualization of propaganda: not propaganda as doctrine and dogma, but propaganda as culture and discourse. Propaganda is not simply a top-down imposition of doctrine and dogma, but instead is diffused in the society as discourse and culture, which creates an immersive experience for citizens, constantly reconstructing their subjectivities. 

Cover picture: Pepsi co-branded with People's Daily's New Media Department to issue a limited edition cola in 2020.