The Cultural Revolution

However, the torrent of the Cultural Revolution soon swept into the labor reform farm surrounded by barbed wire fences. The first task was to create an atmosphere where the great Mao Zedong Thought reigned supreme throughout the farm. The leadership decided to write Mao Zedong Quotations on all the pillars and asked me to paint a monochromatic flat-coated portrait of Chairman Mao at the top of the quotations. However, I suggested that a monochromatic flat-coated painting was not as good as an oil painting in color, and I was willing to take on the entire task without complaint. Because since my labor reform, I haven’t had the opportunity to use an oil paintbrush for many years. Although painting this monotonous portrait was boring, it was still a thousand times better than not painting at all!