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Figments of wild imaginations

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Chris Lau

Propaganda is information used to promote a point of view or political cause.

The word first took this meaning in the first world war. In those days, it was a neutral term. It referred to information that was generally helpful with no political objective. These days the word has negative connotations.

Propaganda is usually seen as information that presents only one side of an issue, thus promoting a biased view of a situation.

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Propaganda is especially popular for governments during war time. During the second world war, in particular, there were some very famous examples of propaganda posters. They encouraged citizens to sacrifice themselves for their countries and distrust people from other countries.

Lei Feng

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Lei Feng is a popular propaganda figure on the mainland. He was a soldier of the People's Liberation Army. He was born in 1940 in Hunan province. Soon after his birth, he was orphaned and adopted by the country's Communist Party.

Lei died when he was just 22 years old. He was hit by a telephone pole, which was pushed over by a reversing truck.

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