1. Find a copy of the Quotations from Chairman Mao and look at the contents. Are all the pieces useful sayings that can be chanted in groups? One popular saying was, "Women hold up half the sky." What other kinds of texts are in the book?

2. Chairman Mao was married to a woman called Jiang-Ching. In the first part of the 1970s she was very popular, then, after Mao's death in 1976, she was put in jail for her crimes against the Chinese people. Look for biographical information on her and make your own evaluation of whether she worked for her own ends or for his.

3. Research the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and what it was supposed to accomplish. Think about whether it served any useful purpose in China in the 1960s and early 1970s. Where do you think it went wrong...