ABSTRACT
Prior to 1957, Model Workers representing the social classes of the People’s Democratic Dictatorship worked in unison to promote values of nationalism, social reform and the development of socialism in a variety of campaigns. The Model Worker Zhao Yiman, a member of the National Bourgeoisie, would cease to have any resonance with the people and would exist merely as a historical anachronism after China’s transition to socialism and a more simplistic class structure. The Model Worker propaganda campaign would consequently serve to educate the mass of ‘poor and blank’ citizens and provide the country with the heroes needed to stand up against the nations that had oppressed them during the Century of Humiliation. The Model Worker had been presented to society as the template by which a person should live their life. The campaign could only have succeeded if the masses were able to take on the mantle of the Model Workers and perform truly heroic tasks.
